ALPHONSE FISHING REPORT
The final week of October bought us a variety of weather conditions and mixed fortunes on the fishing front. In the beginning of the week we had swelteringly hot days with next to no wind, which made the fish quite spooky in the glassy conditions, but as the week progressed, a breeze returned with the odd spot of showers. Spring tides meant plenty of options around the atoll, and some of the guests had great experiences fishing the surf zones.
One man’s week highlighted the highs and lows that saltwater fly fishing in the Seychelles can provide. Fortunately he got his lowest points out of the way early in the week. On his first day he was on the bow whilst being polled down the Eastern grass line when his guide Matt saw a nurse shark cruising in the distance. Knowing that there was a good chance of a big GT cruising with it they approached, and before they even got close David’s guide saw a titanic Geet on the back of the fish. David made an excellent cast and the behemoth followed the fly slowly before engulfing it with its massive mouth. Immediately line was flying around and David and his guide attempted to clear the line safely to the reel. It unfortunately went pear-shaped when the line wrapped around the reel, snapping the fly line and the beast getting away. Gut-wrenching stuff, but an unbelievable taste of the power of a big Giant Trevally.
A day later David managed to bag his first geet followed by another, he was stoked to tick the species off the list but knew with some more time more fish would come. A couple of days later David had permit on the brain and went after our golden nuggets. The South-Eastern corner of the atoll often serves up permit which feed on the back of stingrays, and this is exactly what David stumbled upon. With expert guide Cullan providing instructions, David fished to the beaut and managed to fool the fish into taking his crab. In typical permit fashion it ran multiple times and performed a number of sharp rolling turns before Cullan was able to net it. David was over the moon and grabbed some awesome photos with his beautiful 55 cm Indo-pacific permit, a phenomenal specimen and our biggest of the week.
On his final day of his first week David took advantage of some calmer conditions to go on a surf walk. His guide on this day, Sean, took them to a cut on the south-Western corner of the atoll to look for GTs and triggerfish. They were on the edge of the cut when Sean noticed a dorsal fin and a small bow-wake in the cut. Not knowing how big the fish was David made a cast and the fish followed briefly before going back into the cut, this happened again on the next cast. On the third cast the fish committed and hammered the fly, peeling line as it went back into the surf zone. David couldn’t believe how brave Sean was as he charged into the surf to scare off a 3-meter Lemon Shark which was eyeing out the GT. With the shark still lurking around David pumped the fish back and they landed it, now getting a much better idea of the size of the fish. Both guide and angler embraced, cheering loudly shortly before the beast was measured to ascertain the length of 101 cm! A cracker of a GT. Congratulations on your incredible fishing week David!
Angler Paul S had a memorable week on our flats fishing for GTs and triggerfish. In a week where the triggers were extremely spooky he was able to put his skills to work and had some great success. He managed to catch three yellowmargins for the week, being the only angler to successfully land one, and also caught a XXL model which measured in at 49 cm! Paul had had some difficulty getting the GT’s to bite and after his success on the triggers he spent a lot of time going for the gangsters of the flats. On his second last afternoon his guide took them into the cosmics to look for a geet in some skinny water. Within minutes of arriving in the spot a fish was seen cruising with its back out of the water. This fish didn’t hesitate to eat the fly, with a spectacular boat side eat which saw its whole body come out of the water. Paul landed the beaut of 81cm and was chuffed. Congratulations on your awesome catches Paul.
Angler and great friend of the island Vladimir R paid a visit to have yet another crack at the residents of St Francois. His first move of the day was based around finding permit. When he arrived at the a sandy high spot, they were welcomed by a nice GT that was seen hanging around. They moved towards it and the fish, conveniently, came closer to Vlad. As it approached he made his shot and the geet wasted no time in smashing the fly. Vlad enjoyed the fight in shallow water with no coral around, landing the 82 cm beaut. A few hours later they were again in a permit spot but this time the permit showed up. Two fish were swimming more or less in their direction when Vlad cast. Much like his geet earlier in the day it charged towards the crab and smashed it very aggressively by permit standards. Vlad fought the fish perfectly and manoeuvred it into the net of his guide. The gorgeous specimen measured 51 cm, a very good size permit. A few bonefish later meant Vlad completed our only Flats-Slam of the week. The next day Vlad showed it was no fluke and bagged himself another 82 cm GT. Congratulations Vlad!
A very unique and fairly rare catch was recorded on the Wednesday by angler Greg S. Whilst wading the lagoon edge he and his guide spotted a massive Barracuda patrolling the edge. Normally very crafty and painfully fussy, Greg casted regardless. The fish charged and annihilated the fly, and immediately began long runs and multiple acrobatic jumps. Landing a fish like this without wire leader requires a ton of luck, and fortunately Greg had plenty on his side. They landed the massive animal in some shallow water and got some great photos - the behemoth measuring an incredible 152 cm! Well done Greg on your very cool catch!
Well done to Andrew W who also caught two GTs during his week, both on the same day, and the biggest of which was a really solid fish of 89 cm. Angler Alexander G caught our biggest bonefish of the season so far - a monster of 71 cm and also caught a moustache triggerfish. Congratulations Alex! Tom B also got on the scoresheet with his first moustache triggerfish, congrats Tom.
The Bluewater fishing continues to provide plenty of entertainment with hard-fighting pelagic species. Targeted on both conventional and fly-fishing gear, catching sailfish and wahoo is a real thrill which a number of our guests found out. Congratulations to Malcolm, Tom and John B who all caught sailies on fly and to angler Ashley P who was able to get a wahoo on fly. Well done to Kelsey and Catherine who also caught wahoo on conventional gear and young angler Max who caught his first ever Sailfish.
