I got home a week ago from the Seychelles. It has taken me this whole week to sort through e-mails etc, so I can finally do a report on our trip.
The first week there was spent on board the magnificent Neptune Warrior mothership.
We were fishing around Coetivey Island, about 250km's South East of Mahe.
We flew in to Coetivey with an IDC plane, the boat had come down a couple of days previously, accompanied by an armed guard to avoid any piracy issues.
The weather was quite overcast and there was a pretty strong wind blowing. The Captain told us that this was as a result of some cyclones in the Indian Ocean, around Madagascar. This was a new experience for me, as I have only known the Seychelles in hot, still weather. Anyhow, we decided to give it a full go, and despite the weather we were going to have a good time. This is a pristine fishery and should offer some great fish, no matter what the conditions.
The first morning saw us heading off to the part of the dropoff where we had done so well on the previous trip. The sea was fairly rough, but we were fired up! Within minutes of arriving we were casting stickbaits and had a double header on some yellowfin tuna in the 20kg range. A few casts later I landed a lovely GT, which looked quite old and battered from living amongst the coral. He had tatty fins and his scutes were blunt. He took a Williamson Typhoon Stick and pulled like he really meant it.
Maybe not the prettiest GT, but it had character and it was great to see a good sized Seyshelles GT again, and it made my morning. A few throws later we had some dogtooth tuna come charging in on our stickbaits, my mate Joe Brownlee got one on, and I had a hit, but the hooks didn't set. They came back on the next throw, but were more wary now, striking short of the lure, but following it all the way to the boat. Enough to get anyones heart pumping really fast! Joe landed his fish after a good fight, and we took a couple of pics before releasing it to go and join its mates.
This pretty much set the tone for the rest of the morning and we had some great fishing before heading back to Neptune Warrior for a much deserved lunch. The meals on the boat were absolutely outstanding, and we all agreed that they were better than many hotels that we have stayed in. The chef, Richard is a master in the kitchen and seems able to prepare the most delicious dishes in extra quick time!
Although the weather never really cleared up, we had some great fishing over the next few days. Between us we landed wahoo, great barracuda, yellowfin tuna, dogtooth tuna, Bohar snappers, groupers, Gts, bluefin kingfish etc etc all on surface lures. I had decided that I wasn't going to do any vertical jigging on this trip, as quite frankly I am a bit jigged out. I far prefer the thrill of seeing a fish smashing my lure on the surface. The rest of the group agreed with me on this and followed suite. We had plenty of action on poppers and stickbaits and never felt the need to go down deep, though I have no doubt that jigging would have produced more doggies.
Lures that were hitting paydirt for us were the Williamson Typhoon sticks, Williamson Rocket poppers, Williamson Jet poppers and Jigstar's Range of wahoo and Ulua stickbaits as well as their GT poppers and the sinking Starwalker stickbaits.
We also managed to spend an hour or two each day on the flats around the island with fly tackle catching bonefish, which was great fun and an opportunity to take a break from the big ones....
One of my more special fish of the trip was a big sailie, probably in excess of 50kg's that hit a Williamson Jet popper that I was spinning with. It hit the lure like a steamtrain and took off for the horizon, like it had the hounds of hell on its tail. It gave me an amazing fight with some spectacular jumps. It was a really superb fight and made my day!
So all in all, a great trip. A pity about the weather, but nobody can do anything about that. When the fishing is good though, you don't mind the weather being a bit off! I am blown away by the number of quality fish that inhabit the waters of the Seychelles every time I go there. This must be a result of low fishing pressure, as many of the islands are way out of reach of artisanal fishermen from Mahe'.
