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Fishing Tackle
Seychelles - Part 5 : Saltwater fly fishing for the baddest fish in the sea - the giant trevally
30 April 2009
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There is some truly outstanding fishing in the Seychelles, but you can’t get away from the fact that fly fishing the flats for Giant Trevally (GT) is what most people make the (long) journey out there for. Outsize bonefish, milkfish, bluewater stuff, you name it, this remote part of the Indian Ocean has got the lot. But put a rampaging GT in less than a metre of water together with a excited fly guy and you have a recipe for arguably the most heart-stopping fishing on earth. They’re bad boy fish, plain and simple. Fish hard, pull hard and then pull even harder. GTs don’t understand the word respect.
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Look at this thing, all calm and docile before it is released. You don’t fool me fish !! I have just seen you cruising the flats, trying to ignore the fly that was dropped in your path. You nearly fooled me for a second, but another cast and I had a feeling you might not be able to help yourself trying to kill it. Bringing your back out of the water as you charged my humble offering was a nice touch by the way, and that bow wave was mightily impressive. OK, so the fisherman won this one, but I am guessing that in no time you’ll be right back to menacing any poor little fish you can find in these tropical waters. Remember me, I put you back.
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You want to see more fish ? Get up a little bit higher. Granted, this is hardly the easiest thing to do when you are wading the flats (no skiffs out here), but there is the odd lump of scary-sharp rock lying about the place. Keep nice and still and you can spot the predators moving over the flats and through the channels. The problem comes when you need to get off these rocks and move position, for I kid you not, they are just about the trickiest, sharpest, nastiest kind of rocks I have ever come across. And this is coming from a guy who is a confirmed rock angler. The best way to get down ? Jump, and jump big.
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GTs in deep water and GTs on the flats is two completely different things. After all my time on the ultra-remote Seychelles atolls, I still have to pinch myself from time to time that sight fishing for fish like this is really possible. One thing you want to make sure of is to travel with the best saltwater fly fishing gear you can lay your hands on, Big fish and high excitement is the perfect recipe for tackle damage, for there is only one way to fight a giant trevally – give him the gears properly. Top tip ? Watch the South African guys when they get on a fish and you’ll understand all about giving fish the gears. They don’t play their fish; they fight them. Big difference.
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I could fish for, be around, and photograph these mighty fish for the rest of my days and die a happy man. Understanding how aggressively a fish can charge a fly comes about from seeing these brutes go about their business. Everything about them says “kill lesser fish”, from that huge, predator eye through to the oversize jaws and head. Ain’t never seen a vegetarian GT yet !! Mean, bad, delightful, addictive, stroppy, no words really do justice to sight fishing for them in properly skinny water. I still delight in watching these fish collect themselves after the fight and swim back off over the flats. An experience like that holds a lifelong appeal.