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Fishing Tackle
Seychelles : Part 1 – Extreme saltwater fly fishing - my first time on the ultra-remote Seychelles atolls
28 April 2009
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This saltwater fly fishing is based around seriously remote locations, far from civilisation, crowds, over-fishing and any permanent accommodation. We flew into the Seychelles (Mahe) and then connected down to Assumption on a charter plane, nearly three hours flight time and many hours sailing from mobile phones and other such interruptions. Home for the next two weeks was to be this boat you see here, the Indian Ocean Explorer. Some good friends of mine (FlyCastaway) organise these trips from their base in South Africa, and as we headed further and further south I began to get a sense of organisation it takes to fish so far from what we would call our “comfort zone”. But if you want the best fishing on this planet, you have to make that extra effort.
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I think here the beaming smile tells it all…James Warbrick-Smith with a good sized Giant Trevally (GT) caught from the remote Cosmoledo atoll in the Indian Ocean. He saw this particular fish lying in a tide flow, and expertly cast to it; all hell then breaks loose. This “thing” quite literally charged down his big 6/0 Flashy Profile in its eagerness to nail it, but James did everything right and hit the fish hard. Look closely though and you will see a broken 12 weight fly rod cradled in his arms; never have I seen fish put such harsh and brutal pressure on fly fishing tackle, and there were numerous rod breakages throughout the trip. It is just plain frightening stuff !! But James landed this fish with a snapped rod; good fishing.
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Fish these waters and you are going to get a harsh reality lesson in fighting big powerful fish very hard. If you get the chance to fish these remote atolls out in the Indian Ocean you will see mind-blowing numbers of fish, and these GTs fight like they look : mean, aggressive, powerful, and downright contemptuous of you, the angler. And you need to fight them back just like that. 12 weight rods will bend like you never knew possible, your gear will be pushed to the limit, but in no time at all you will find out just how hard you can fight a fish. Here the fisherman leans into a big GT on a deserted flat.
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South African’s would call this a “bus” fish, and considering most fishermen on this trip were from that awesome country, I think that describes it all. James Warbrick-Smith though is from the UK, and I think that this roughly 50 lb GT came close to reducing him to a gibbering wreck. You should have heard the language as he piled the pressure on this fish, but he did it, and did it seriously well. Spot the fish, put the fly somewhere near it, stand in terror as it does not spook, rather it immediately charges in so fast that your fastest stripping can not keep up with it. Whack the fly in by strip-striking, keep those fingers away from a smoking reel, marvel at one of the world’s great fly fishing quarries, cradle a pure predator gently and slip it back into the warm waters to kill again.
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Hard though it is to believe with such endless blue skies, sometimes it is going to cloud over and rain a little in this earthly paradise; but it never stops the fish feeding hard. We jumped out of the tender on another virgin flat and Gerhard Laubscher put out a hookless teasing plug across some likely looking ground. A bull-dog like shape suddenly breaks cover and charges the plug down, and as Gerhard pulls the plug away, “Sarge” Lewis casts his fly at it and nails the fish. But this fish was so aggressive it kept looking for more “food” as Sarge kept strip-striking. Gerhard had to literally chase the brute away so that it runs, fights, and ultimately tires enough for successful landing, photographing, unhooking and releasing.
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The GT fishing is just so good that you could find yourself doing nothing else out here, but that would be a real shame, for there are plenty of other species to cast flies at. Indeed, one of our party had nineteen species on fly during the trip, and this incredibly colourful moustache trigger fish was one of them. You spot these fish by seeing their tails as they feed nose-down on the flats, and whilst they are inquisitive things, trigger fish are not always that easy to hook up. This fish though nailed a crab pattern fly and ran hard.
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Tender boats are used to take you from the mothership to the chosen fishing spots for the day, and one early afternoon as we raced back for a quick lunch we saw hundreds of birds working bait shoals close to the boat. James grabbed a 15-weight fly rod, a bigger reel loaded with fast-sinking lines, and then cast a Flashy Profile right amongst the diving birds and boiling yellowfin tuna. First cast, let the fly sink down deep, strip it back, and then suddenly James seems to hit a brick wall that runs off so fast it is surely not possible. How can a fish fight this hard ? Perhaps the most shocking thing about the whole experience was watching Gerhard trying to land this thing, for as he grabbed the fish it went mad and all I could see were his shoulders being shaken so violently that I feared for his internal organs !!
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Another atoll and a whole different feel to the fishing. Here on Astove we walked rocky bays and looked for the GTs working close to shore over seriously broken ground. I watched several times as GTs well over 100 lbs careered into big flies and smashed the guys up on the reefs, all in the blink of an eye. Plenty of “smaller” fish were landed, including this magnificent one for Sarge Lewis, but in truth we sat around that night on the boat in a complete state of shock. It had been one of those days when fishing decides to show the fisherman just who is the boss of the show.
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No, this is not desert fishing, this is in fact the middle of Astove atoll when the tide has gone out. Hot, humid, sweaty, we walked a long way this day and caught far too many fish, but I will never forget just how extreme the landscape looked. Gerhard is carrying a “teasing stick” : it is simply a powerful spinning rod and reel that can cast a hookless chisel plug a long way. Sometimes the GTs are out of range of the longest fly cast, and the guides will often “tease” the fish in closer; the angler must then keep his nerve and cast the big flies at what are now extremely angry and aggressive fish. Here Gerhard takes a brief breather.
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As long as I live I will never forget the sorry tale of this unfortunate bonefish. All around us where massive bones feeding hard, and James flicked a fly out in front of the nearest shoal; a massive, 12 lb plus bonefish just engulfed the fly and screamed off in typical fashion. James is now seriously excited at hooking by far and away his biggest ever bonefish, and soon enough he is making headway against the fish. But then a couple of sharks suddenly charge the fish and start trying to eat it !! That is enough for me, I rush in and kick the sharks out of the way to try and save the fish and of course my photo of such a monster, but as you can see, just too late. As James holds the poor bonefish, blood from the mortal wounds drips into the water……
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Right place right time again. I stood next to FlyCastaway guide Arno Matthee as he worked with Mike Riley to catch this 10 lb plus bonefish. You had to be there to believe just how insane it really was : a big shoal of fish began to move across the flat towards us, Arno told Mike to get ready, and then a huge bone seemed to venture slightly ahead of the rest of them, not five metres away from us. Mike makes a perfect cast to the fish and it trundles forward to eat the fly, seemingly oblivious to the three of us stood there in total awe. Perfect fishing and the perfect result : guide and client are rather happy with such a magnificent fish !!
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Another atoll, another perfect day for fishing and photography. A sky so big and blue and such a calm sea that the ocean and horizon seem to melt into one heat-shimmering mass; the water is just so clear that the masses of fish we saw seemed to be moving through fresh air. We were sight fishing for GTs again, but in truth I just could not stop taking photos, for things are not this completely perfect very often. You can get an idea of how powerful the sun is out here by the protective clothing Gerhard is wearing. Do things right though and you will fish without problems for days on end.