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Fishing Tackle
Seychelles - Part 3 : Big place, big fish – Saltwater fly fishing in the Seychelles
28 April 2009
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The ability to cast accurate, tight loops through sometimes strong winds and to be able to change direction at will is a great asset when flats fishing. Whilst my own fly casting is somewhat “ropey”, I am happy to photograph guys who really know what they are doing, and here Paul Boyers seems to effortlessly cast tight loop after tight loop as a tropical rainstorm builds in the background. If only my casting looked more like that !!
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I can not think of many fishing situations where one’s gear is going to get such a brutal hammering as on these remote Seychelles trips. Any tackle flaws are going to get found out, rest assured of that. The FlyCastaway guys (www.flycastaway.com) that I work with use, abuse and implicitly trust the Loomis fly rods (and especially the GLX CrossCurrent saltwater range) and South African made Shilton fly reels. Virtually all their clients I see are also fishing with Loomis rods, indeed I doubt that Loomis rods are used harder anywhere on this earth. If you know South African anglers like I do, then you will know just how hard they fight their fish and how punishing a regime they put their tackle through. The results speak for themselves.
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US fly fishing fanatic Joe Koziara gives a Giant Trevally the gears. It is hard to describe the intense myriad of colours that one can find on the flats, and the water is so clear that it can be like looking into an endless sky. As Joe gave this fish a thumping, I noticed a rather large lemon shark cruising around just into the deeper water in front of us. Nothing untoward happened, but once again it makes one realise just how wild and untamed this fishing is.
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Every single time I see a GT caught, their sheer aggression and turn of speed lodges in my brain to turn over at will in the future. Sometimes a GT’s whole back will surge out of the water in their eagerness to chase down and nail their prey (hopefully your fly). Sometimes you see a GT caught with a bit of sunburn on its back, and this is because they are so comfortable and sure of their pecking order that they will venture into ridiculously shallow water to hunt. You are looking at one of nature’s most perfect predators, a fish so insanely exciting to catch on the fly that I am considering asking the Seychelles government if I can camp on the ultra-remote Providence atoll for the rest of my life !! Me, my family, and lots of GTs……what more does one need ?
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Perhaps you need one of these then : a humphead parrotfish. Ever seen a stranger looking fish taken on the flats, on a fly ? A species of fish believed to feed predominantly on coral and algae, and certainly not a fish believed to come onto the flats to “graze”, at times tailing like bonefish and tending to move around in shoals of around ten to twenty individuals. You can spot them a mile off when the sun is up. But surely they are not a fishing quarry ? Don’t you believe it. Whilst Rob Lewis here might well be one of the first ever fishermen to catch a humphead parrotfish on the fly, the feeling is that this fishery on Providence is going to continue to throw up further surprises. Around 40lbs of true fighting machine, this beast took serious line and was a devil to land successfully. Me ? I was simply over the moon to be there to photograph it, perhaps for the first time ever… ?
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Whilst the brand new “humphead parrotfish on the fly” fishery was developing right before my eyes, a few miles further down the atoll Gerhard Laubscher guiding some of the clients on GTs. But Grant Dunbar here spotted a big Napoleon Wrasse creeping up onto the flats from a deep hole; one deft cast later and this leviathan fish is hooked up and careering all over the place. What an incredible fish to take on the fly, surely something incredibly unique again (photo courtesy of Gerhard Laubscher www.flycastaway.com). Just what is possible on this virtually unexplored Providence atoll ?
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Another FlyCastaway guide, Keith Rose-Innes, with a 50lb plus GT caught sight casting in seriously shallow water. Look at that size 8/0 Green Flashy Profile sticking out of the fish’s mouth to see just how a huge fly like this can be so easily charged down and nailed hard. Then you have to see just how these South Africans fight their fish to see what is possible on 12 weight outfits (the guys use only Loomis GLX CrossCurrent saltwater fly fishing rods for this stuff). I say it again : never have I seen people fight their fish harder than an accomplished South African fisherman, and remember that a relatively “green” fish goes back far stronger than one where an age has been spent pussy footing around on the fight.
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The second humphead parrotfish I saw caught on a fly that particular day. A size 2 White Velcro Crab seems to be the fly of the moment, but take a look at those “parrot” jaws and you will see just how easily these fish are going to bite you off, or indeed chomp through a hook shank as we saw earlier that morning. They guys are insistent that a high rod in the fight, plus continually trying to throw the fish off direction helps to stop the humphead parrotfish from gaining access on and biting through the light leader. It is incredible to be able to witness very good fly fishermen literally learning about a species for the first time, with the events literally unfolding before your eyes.
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See what I mean about those jaws ? Here Keith Rose-Innes has successfully hooked the fish in the right place and then worked hard to stop it turning the leader across and through those frankly frightening looking gnashers. The fish ate the crab fair and square and once again the guys tasked with the actual landing of the parrotfish got a thorough soaking as it went pretty wild. I have tried here to present a very different angle to the usual “trophy” shot, to play on emphasising this unique head and jaw of this strange fish.
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There are not that many fish I reckon that work well when photographed with a 15mm fisheye lens, but the moment I saw one of these outstanding looking humphead parrotfish I knew that their body shape and imposing head would work for a “throw to the lens”, slightly distorted, fisheye shot. It is nothing to do with some pathetic attempt at making an already large and weird fish look even bigger, rather it is me working on making fishing look that bit “different” to the norm. Such awesome light gives one a huge depth of field to be able to really show a fish like this off. All credit to the guys involved with the (fist time ?) capture of these magnificent fish.