The Remote Seychelles

Henry Gilbey takes a look at fly fishing in the Seychelles.

What do you do when you have seen what might well be the best saltwater fly fishing on this earth? Do you come home all depressed, does your local fishing suddenly become meaningless? Or do you get home and straight away start planning a return adventure? To be honest, my head is still awash with so many mental images from this trip that it is hard coming back down to reality, but rest assured that “the return” is already in the works... it really was that good.

The Indian Ocean atolls of the Seychelles have for a long time been renowned for serious numbers of bonefish, but I do remember reading ill-informed reports of mainly “small” fish. From the experiences of our trip these people were simply fishing the wrong spots with the wrong guides, for we saw monster bones, monster numbers, and simply frightening potential for seriously class fly fishing. Cosmoledo is the most visited of the remote atolls, but even this place is nearly 600 miles from Mahe, the main island of the Seychelles.

There are serious tidal fluctuations out here, and as we waited for the water to rush over the hard sand flats on this uninhabited atoll, so we looked for a bit of shade from the relentless sun. But as the water began to flood the flat, so almost immediately we saw the big milkfish tails waving in the gentle breeze. Creep very quietly along and you can get so close to these huge fish, but just as I called one of the fly guys over to see them, so this shoal of submarine sized bones came into view. James casts, gently strips, and immediately sets the hook smack into a screamer of a fish; straight away he says this is his best ever bonefish, he knows full well how big this thing is, and its running fast. I am doing my job (its tough, believe me !!) and working my cameras on James, but as he begins to win, suddenly there is a huge commotion around the bonefish : sharks !! I instantly see red, I want the photo of such a big fish, and without thinking I rush down his line and try to kick the two medium sized sharks out of the way, but even with this rapid reaction (and a size 11 Simms wading boot to the back of a shark’s head) this poor bonefish has suddenly lost its tail and a big chunk out of its back. James meanwhile stands there in complete shock; the biggest bonefish of his fishing life so far and it’s a complete mess, but what can you do ? Go catch a bunch more and shed your tears later on over a cold beer or four.

Mike drops his fly down and we watch this fish trundle forward and snaffle the imitation, just like that!

I then move off further down the flat to photograph one of the FlyCastaway guides, Arno Matthee (he of milkfish fame, indeed THE milkfish fly is named after him, Arno’s Milky Dream) work with a client on the bonefish. Another shoal of big fish is working around the two of them, and as a seriously tidy bone creeps out in front of the shoal not five metres from us, so Mike drops his fly down and we watch this fish trundle forward and snaffle the imitation, just like that!! The beaming smiles on the guys’ faces when a 10lb plus bonefish is eventually landed kind of tells it all.

But the problem with bonefishing around here tends to come from an inability to pull yourself away from the giant trevally (GT) fishing. In truth this is most likely what most well-informed fly fishermen are hearing about when these remote atolls are discussed. And I will say it straight : if there is anywhere better on this earth for sight fishing to massive numbers of GTs, then I do not know of it. I will not bore you with trying to quantify just how good it really is, for in truth it far exceeded my expectations. I knew a few stories from previous trips, but until you can experience casting flies at these brutes then quite simply your 12 weight has never lived (and might quite possibly not even live through the trip, plenty of rods were smashed on fish). Find your nearest fly fishing handbook and rip it up, for these “things” like to confound everything you might ever have learnt about fly fishing. Seeing big black shapes charge your flies down so hard that at times you have to jump out of the way to avoid rampaging GTs is just plain insane. I have never seen anything like it anywhere, but every single place we fished and we saw them.

Just watching those bad boys launch into the teaser is enough to reduce me to pulp

A 12 weight rod and 6/0 fly is never the easiest combination to cast at the best of times, especially with trembling fingers and shredded nerves, but often the fish come so close in that you will nail them virtually beneath your rod tip. Picture standing there, scanning the acres of gin-clear water. Either you spot marauding fish or else the guides might tease a couple in that are lying out of range; just watching those bad boys launch into the teaser (a hookless chisel plug) is enough to reduce me to pulp, but you need to keep your wits about you and cast right at the fish as it comes in. Instantly they tend to react to the fly hitting the water and come in hunting for it, so strip as fast as you can, and then some more. However fast you can strip that fly, in truth you will never be able to keep up with a GT smashing around at full speed, so sometimes they will run right past you with sheer aggression. This is then when your mate behind you belts that fish hard!!

But if you get hit, and chances are that you will, strip strike that big barbless hook as hard as you possibly can into that bottomless mouth. I have seen bigger men than myself literally freeze when a snorting GT crashes around and then opens its mouth to engulf your offering, and indeed it is just so damned freaky that it can take a bit of getting used to. You’re going to need to nail that fly so hard into the fish that when it turns you think your arms are going to depart this life, but set the fly again for good luck, and then get the hell out of the way of any loose line as the GT shrieks off. Keep the rod low, fight the fish on the reel, use massive side strain and work short strokes on your adversary to tire it out. Make the fish change direction by using your rod to take it off course, do anything at all to put the ball in your court, for these GTs fight about as hard, dirty and downright mean as is possible. If I lived on the flats, there is only one thing I would want to be : forget the sharks, the turtles can keep their shells, I want to be a GT. These fish rule these remote flats, reefs and gullies. We had one day on Astove (another lonely atoll perched in the middle of the ocean) where I watched as GTs over the 100lb mark swam just out of fly casting range, out beyond the breakers where the water was that bit deeper. The teaser would sometimes bring these monsters crashing in almost onto the rocks and sand at our feet, but for that one session we were simply torn to pieces by these fish. Sure, some decent GTs were landed, together with insane numbers of bonefish, but in reality we left Astove behind that night with broken fly lines, shattered egos and a healthy does of reality. I still wake up now in the middle of the night seeing that huge mouth opening and engulfing my fly in a seemingly endless loop of terror. Did I ever stand a chance of landing it ?

Loads of photos and reports of some of the most awesome fishing on this planet : www.henry-gilbey.co.uk

Remote Seychelles travel information

To fish these remote places, you really want to be guided by the best, and I was lucky enough to be working around such people. The South Africa based FlyCastaway guys (www.flycastaway.com) specialise in organising far out trips to access some of the world’s best fly fishing (Seychelles, Zambia tiger fish, South Africa yellowfish etc.), and having worked with many guides around the world, I simply can not recommend them any more highly. Fishing so far away from civilisation is not a time to cut any corners. Go with the best; they tend to run trips to these remote atolls from mid-October until very early April.

There is now a UK agent for this extreme Seychelles fishing : Peter McLeod of the bespoke fly fishing travel company Aardvark McLeod is himself a fly fishing fanatic, and as well as this Seychelles mayhem, he offers much of the world’s prime fly fishing to clients. Get in touch with him and see just how good fishing can be when you go with the right people.

Aardvark McLeod (International Fly Fishing Specialists)
Tel : +44 (0)1980 840590
Email : mail@aardvarkmcleod.com
Web : www.aardvarkmcleod.com