Fishing the PigSty

Finding a new spot is always fun.

At this time of year the SE pumps daily, often hitting 18 or so knots. It humps straight across the majority of the flats on Mahe and Praslin. In fact, a strong SE will cause a great deal of frustration and anguish as casts are blown awry and vision is all but destroyed by waves and clouds.

It makes for tough fishing and generally sees one on the flats at day break (when the wind is only marginally lighter) or not at all!

This is why our new find is rather unique (and makes us happy). It’s a kind of man-made backwater. We’ve driven past it countless times when heading north in search of fish and waves! It’s the sort of spot written off without a consideration.

I’m not sure what made us stop. We had been chasing Goldens and Permit all morning and were ready for eggs and bacon. It may have just been the smooth silky water of a protected section of water. The enticing allure of not having to squint through chop glare and the idea of casting without having to make trigonometry calculations in order to land your fly in the zone.

Another day, another place, but somehow wildly appropriate (maybe you had to be there) as JD waits for Fabien , wanting nothing but eggs and 'bekin'!

But we did. And there lay two bonefish on the edge of the channel. And they were big. Surprisingly big.  What was left of the fishable tide was spent watching and casting. Although nothing came to hand, we saw several large fish, including a few Goldens, cruising the deep water of the channel.

The next morning found us chasing Goldens again on a vast grass flat further South. But as the wind knotted up we were back in the Blue Bomber and heading North to the new spot a little later.

JD walked the flat and Fab and I spotted from the man-made wall. It felt like spotting trout or yellows from a dam wall. It gave us an awesome view point but I soon realised we were spooking fish by being so high up. Our sandy and sky coloured shirts, which work such a treat on the wide open spaces of a flat suddenly stood out like a sore thumbs against the bright tropical green background!

Swim boetie, swim!

JD did get a beautiful Bonefish though. It headed first for the sea, then wrapped him round a rock and headed back into the lagoon. It swam right under Fab and I and it looked heavy. Pig heavy. JD had a swim, unravelled his line, thanked the fish for not changing direction again and proceeded to land a Bonefish with shoulders of a prize-fighter. “Heaviest Bonefish I’ve ever caught” were JD’s thoughts.

After discussing the spooking theory in some detail, it was decided that we would all walk the flats – no would stand on the high ground. It seemed to work. I connected with a heavy fish that popped my tippet and the take. A good lesson to self about triple checking tackle and using the previous days leader was learnt.

However I soon vindicated myself and brought to hand a stunning fish. Also fat and piggish in girth. It bent my #7 and gave a superb demonstration of how a Bonefish should fight. Two blistering runs; the first stripping a good 40m of backing off the reel.

It was then Fab’s turn and he had a fight on his hands with a fish that, although the same length, was a good 2lbs heavier than mine.

Three fish that were approaching trophy size is great going on Inner Islands – especially at a new spot one doesn’t know.

I may just grab the ferry across to Mahe this coming weekend to chase the farm animals swimming around the pig sty!

The #7 and and its tamed pig... 

Self Portraits: You've never quiet sure if you got it right... (Photoshop and buildings... no more!)

Fabien and his fatty!

Please that some of these photos have been edited to hide the location. My apologies but it is for purely selfish reasons. Come and visit and we'll take you there!

Another Fun Morning

This morning was great. An early start. Fish moving all over the place. Its a pleasure when your local spot is productive.

But forget the four landed Bonefish, permit lost at my feet and golden's in the distance. And forget the fact I landed my 75th Inner Island Bonefish, which I'm very chuffed about. However I'll remember this morning for the two definite Milkfish hookups.

Dad played it well. Perfect presentation. As ecstatic as I was, I put the first one down to fluke. The fish, not large, but a Milkfish none-the-less, did three cartwheels before throwing the hook. But Dad soon put my fluke to rest when, with still adrenalin pumping and our tails up, we soon spotted another cruising fish and with an identical cash and retrieve Dad hooked up again. Unfortunately it threw the hook on the first one.

The fly was not a typical Milkfish fly but rather an unweighted Gotcha variation (which has had happened to be catching everything lately). Put in front of the Milk, it was barely moved - just enough to keep contact. The light take of a Milkfish belies the crazy acceleration that soon follows a hookup.

Hopefully tomorrow we will find, hook and land one.

A good morning

Some days are just special. The type of morning that is used as a reference point in all future conversations that involve the discussion of good fishing. You really wish they happened whenever you walked out onto the flats...

And of course you love to tell everyone about it: "Dude! You should have been here last week!"

And after a weekend of fishing like this one past, I just can't but help think of those great days I've had. The wind has been up and, after a week of perfectly clear skies, the weekend was cloudy (thanks Murphy). And wind and cloud make for tough fishing. We blanked pretty hard this weekend. So sitting on a Sunday evening I really can't help but share one of those days that we didn't blank!

This particular morning was a while back at Anse la Blague on Praslin Island, Seychelles. Spent with JD Filmalter and Fabien Forget.

Dad's First Bonefish

Bonefish found in the inner islands of the Seychelles rarely swim in shoals and do not swim in shoals of hundreds (and definitely not in shoals of thousands). They are educated - they do not simply eat anything and have been known to refuse a perfectly good Charlie that worked just yesterday. And catching Bonefish in the inner islands takes patience, effort and hard work. They can be downright enigmatic.

Dad didn't get one on his trip here in 2004. He's been visiting for three weeks and has been practising his double haul and perfecting presenting a heavily weighted Charlie on a #9 as if it were a dry fly on #3.

Yesterday we had a early mission to the Grand Anse flats on Praslin. The goal was to find the bones or Golden Trevally that quietly inhabit these flats. The tide wasn't perfect, the breeze was a little strong and , although they were around, the Bonefish weren't exactly calling us over to join them for breakfast. 

It took awhile before we found three big fish feeding tacitly in the shallows. They were moving left to right between us and the beach. The cast that needed to be made was fairly long and straight into the wind. 

Dad - a trout fisherman by birth and life has only recently bothered to get to grips with double hauling a nine weight - swore before his first cast even landed. Luckily it was behind the last fish and made no difference to the body language of the three feeding fish. He went into trout stalk mode. I don't I could have moved around the flats like he did. Obviously the years of stalking brown trout on rock strewn streams and rivers made moving across the sand a pretty straight forward procedure. 

Suddenly there was a lot less distance to cover and the wind, although across his casting shoulder, was far less of an obstacle. The pink Charlie looped out and landed with a plop.

Strip, strip, INSIDE!

Textbook hookup and the rest was simple. A few burning runs and eventually he was tailed.

I'm not sure if Dad could choose between solemnity or biggest smile ever in which to mark the occasion.

At 60 he has at last come of salt water fly fishing age.