We are very proud to announce the opening of our 4th season at Tsimane!
The rivers. received us in great conditions after a quite stable rainy season. and there are now massive schools of small baitfish and sabalos arriving, which means many dorado following them! These give us an idea of how great the fishing season will be.

This is the most extraordinary season opening since our beginnings in all aspects. The very first groups enjoyed a lifetime fishing experience and Tsimane operation is running better than ever.

Despite the amazing fishing conditions, many improvements were made to the whole Tsimane Lodge operation as new 4×4 vehicles at Plume Lodge – Toyota Hilux and Suzuki Samurai’s and new Cabins for the host and extra single angler at both Lodges. The staff of guides and chefs are playing.

And one of the most important news this season are the new Headwaters Tsimane Camps at Upper Plumaltirizama, and Agua Negra in June. These are confortable camps and we decided improve even more the Agua Negra camp to create a lodge environment, with electric power supply. double based cabins with beds. private bathrooms with hot water. a spacious Living room and extraordinary location in front of river with a magical view to the Secure River. But the most important feature is new small road and a new 4×4 vehicle, which runs from main camp into up mountains making possible to reach new areas in upper Agua Negra River The road runs close to the river adding important extra miles to fish. Its much less physical demanding than Plumailtirizama camps and makes the Ague Negra operation a superb new option with untouched virgin waters.

We hope you enjoy this news and we would like to invite all to join us to another season at Tsimane waters. There are some few special available rods for this season. Ask us for more details. Read the rest of this entry »

The crystal clear waters of “Cosmic Lagoon” is a marine playground of juvenile fish, rays, turtles, sharks and this time of year, full off big Bonefish. This weeks extremely high equinox spring tides added a new dimension to the week. The cool water, which pushed up into areas that would normally be exposed, allowed fish to feed in new unfamiliar areas. It simply doesn’t get any better than walking the palm lined shores of St Francois island while fishing to tailing bones, as they forage in the shallows. Read the rest of this entry »

What a species week it has been! Dogtooth Tuna, Yellow Margin Triggerfish, Moustache Triggerfish, Bonefish, Emperor, Giant Trevally, Permit, Yellowdot Trevally, Brassies, Bluefin Trevally, Bohar Snapper and Grouper, they have all been around. Week 26 has just come to an end and the guide team can’t stop commenting on how good the Bonefish stocks have become, as the season progressed. It’s hard to believe that the quantities could get any better than brilliant, but they have. Every season we get an array of anglers, some of them experienced and some first timers. A true testament of just how good the bonefishing gets is when our first timers to the flats experience landing 30 to 40 fish in a day, while casting to singles and small groups of tailing fish.

The Big Dogtooth Tuna are around and some fantastic specimens were landed by the team while dredging offshore. Stuart Du Toit, landed a fish of a lifetime after a brutal 45 minute fight on his 12 weight, which was estimated to be 60 – 70 lbs. The fish almost spooled them at one stage in the fight, while fighting hard and deep. Andrews Roos managed to entice a 50 lbs Doggie to eat his fly, which he too landed after a back breaking fight. On landing the fish, Andrew admitted that for a while he was uncertain whether he would be able to stop the turbo charged gas bottle. There were other Dogtooth also landed during the week one of them by Mark Cottrell. Read the rest of this entry »

The big GT’s are around and they are hungry as the team found out last week! Journ Heiner and Maria Mazura joined us for their 4th week this season and were duly rewarded with 2 monster fish. Journ landed a magnificent female GT of over 80lbs, after an hours fight, which dragged them further than a km off shore. Maria while fishing with guide Wayne Hasleau spotted an almighty shape slowly sliding down the flat with a school of milks. “I jumped out of the skiff and turned the skiff to an angle that would enable Maria to make a good cast. The cast went out perfectly to entice the fish, which rushed the fly, exploded out the water right next to the skiff and engulf the tan brush fly. As the fly was set the fish headed off on a 300 meter run, with us chasing behind. We almost got spooled by the almighty first run and no amount of drag could slow its pace. We followed the fish while dodging coral heads and gaining line slowly. Maria is no stranger to big GT’s as she already held the record for the biggest GT caught by a lady angler on Alphonse. True to form and in an amazing 20 minute fight she had the 118 cm, 80lbs trophy fish beat” enthused guide Wayne Hasleau. Read the rest of this entry »

Alphonse’s magnificent fly fishing both on the flats and offshore speaks for itself. It’s the magical ambiance and unforgettable experiences, which the Alphonse team creates to attract both new and old fishing friends to repeat their annual migration and join us each year. Amazing memories like when David Grahams went out on his Birthday and caught 2 Permit in one day. Jan Hradecka arrived for his 5th weeks fishing on Alphonse this season and had an experience that he is sure to not forget. Serge was photographing Jans second GT of the day and unbeknown to them they had left his black brush fly dangling over the edge of the skiff. Before they had time to realise they had made a fatal mistake a big Bohar Snapper come up, ate the fly, pull the rod off the skiff and then disappeared into the depths. The amazing part of the story is that the following day Serge dove the outfit out. Jans luck continued as he went on to add another Dogtooth Tuna and 25lbs Milkfish to his already growing tally.

The species count continues to impress as anglers had shots at Triggers, Milks, Barracuda and a variety of Trevally. The GT’s were around during the week and Peter Robinson and Steve Priestly each got a nice fish while on the “lollypop wreck surf walk”. John Mc Millan ended his week on an incredible note by landed 2 big fish on the last day. The constant exceptional bonefishing on Alphonse is what makes the hotel so special. Read the rest of this entry »

The weather was truly magnificent this week as sunny sunny still days and flat calm seas prevailed. Sebastian Hope set the tone for the week by catching a Sailfish and Bonefish on his first day to achieve a “Bills and Bones Slam”. To add to his achievement he caught 3 impressive GT’s and also hooked a nice Milkfish to end a remarkable day. Alphonse veteran Tim Aldis also added to the days excitement by having his first cast of the trip at 2 large cruising GT’s. This wasn’t Tim’s first rodeo and true to form his cast was superb as he lead the pair by a long way. As the fly hit the water the dominant GT charged the fly, engulfed it and headed for the horizon, before shaking the hook. As the week progressed some even more remarkable catches were made by the team. Bruce landed 2 beautiful Indo Pacific Permit in a week, the first being a smaller fish and later on in the week a 12 pound trophy on one of his own tied “Gold Flashy Gotcha’s”. Ian Reilly and Julien Pavier partnered up to go offshore and were rewarded with a fly caught Wahoo each, whilst fishing with nylon leader.

Generally neap tides really do suite bonefishing as the long periods of the perfect water height allow these grey ghosts to forage up on the flats for much longer periods. The fish tend to spread out rather than funnel into depressions and as a result our anglers get plenty of shots at single and paired fish. Read the rest of this entry »

After a magnificent start to the season the fishing has continued to impress with some really smashing catches for the months of January and February. The team has just released their 10,000th fly caught game fish for the season, comprising of Bonefish, GT’s, Giant Triggerfish, Yellow Margin Triggerfish, Milkfish, Bluefin Trevally, Bohar Snapper, Green Jobfish, Permit, Sailfish, Barracuda, Yellowfin and Dog Tooth Tuna. The variety on offer astounds any angler who visits our shores.

This seasons milkfishing has been even better than any previous seasons with records of over 12 fish landed in a week and specimens in excess of 40lbs. Last week saw a start to the return of the large Milkfish schools after they disappeared on their mid season spawning migration. Read the rest of this entry »

Completing the 17th week of the season, to start another with a bunch of fresh and eager anglers is a boosting experience for any guide team. It’s even better when the guests have a combination of over 50 trips to Alphonse over past years. Some guest arriving to complete their 8th trip, with expectations of repeating the wonderful experiences they have had on all their previous visits. What a real treat full of familiar faces, past memories and a wealth of St François flats fishing knowledge. The guides were energised as they reminisced their past great catches in preparation for week 18’s first trip to St François.

Day one started with a session of traditional “Bonefish bashing” as the teams straitened out the casts in preparation for the amazing diversity that both Alphonse and St François have to offer. As the days progressed one of our Scottish anglers, Brian Mclean had a fantastic session outside the reef while guided by Scott Keller. Bryan landed a truly magnificent 50lbs Giant Trevally after a long tussle, some trophy Bluefin Trevally, a Honey Comb Grouper, a large Jobfish and numerous Bohar Snapper, all in one session. His fishing partner Tom Abraham also got into the thick of things landing some equally big Bluefin Trevally and a really large Jobfish. Read the rest of this entry »

The cloud and rain didn’t dampen the spirits of our angling team as they went about their normal fishing routine with vigor and ended up with some amazing catches this week. Although our Milkfish have been scarce in our recent catch returns they are still around in good numbers, both whilst feeding on the flats and out at sea. The tricky weather however did play a role in our ability to target these magnificent creatures while they create “Milkshake”, feeding lines out at sea. The anglers that persevered through the tricky offshore conditions were rewarded with some rare and memorable species such as Tropical Amberjack, Black Trevally and a number of fabulous Grouper, which including two Coral Trout, one of which was approximately 90lbs. There were some really nice Doggies around as Alex Siems tucked into a supercharged 85lbs trophy which he landed after an exciting fight.

The saying goes without fail, “bad weather brings big bones”, as the overcast conditions keeps the water on the flats cooler, which allows the Bonefish population to feed for much longer periods. Even with the elements aginst them the team managed to land 631 Bonefish as well as a number of other great flats species such as Triggerfish, Emperors and Snappers. Read the rest of this entry »

What a start to the week as our Canadian guest Ivo Mitek caught 2 Permit on his first day out. To add to his amazing experience he went on to hook and land a 40lbs plus Milkfish after an exhausting 2 hour fight. Early in the week the weather was stable and true to form the Milkfish turned up in good numbers along the Eastern side of St Francious giving our rods numerous shots at adding this species to their list. Bill Forsythe, Matti Majorin, Errki Majorin and Sergey Aleksandrova all landed Milkfish during the week after some aerobatical fights. Sergey’s fish tried every dirty trick in the book to get free, which included 6 jumps, a run over a shallow coral flat, 5 more jumps and lengthy run back out to the deep. Not to be outdone, Sergey finally landed the fish some 2 kilometres away from where it was hooked after an hour and ten minutes fight.

The surf walks on a the change of the tide proved to be extremely productive for both GT’s and big Bonefish. The beauty about targeting GT’s in the surf is that you can be confident that they are fresh off the tide and often eat anything that is put in front of them. Bill, Ivo, Sergey and Igor experienced the ferocity of a GT take as they all landed a nice fish during the week. Once again Sergey led the charge by landing a 50lb GT on a NYAP Popper. Read the rest of this entry »