Introduction: Unbelievable that even nowadays fly fishing destinations exist, that hardly even partly have been discovered. The Seychelles, about 1500 km east of Kenya, perform a group of around 150 coral islands, some inhabited, that have great fly fishing to offer. Our guests were enormously pleased by their visits of Desroches, Alphonse, Byoutier and St François.These places however are meanwhile pretty well known and frequently fished. Our last October's discovery trip by catamaran plus dinghies to some hardly known and remote islands brought us unequalled spectacular results. Big Bonefish in great numbers, strong pompanos( permit of Indian Ocean), various kinds of wonderful trevallies such as Giant Trevally and Bluefin Trevally were caught while wading and fishing the flats and lagoons. With the dinghies into open water the catches were bonitos, yellow fin tunas, wahoos. From the catamaran finally we hooked and landed some nice sailfish. All fish were caught according to the IFGA Fly fishing rules and carefully released. Some tunas were kept as food. All this in fantastic tropical surroundings with egg-laying turtles and mighty fregat birds showing the spots of sails. Sorry, we will not mention any names!
Season: All year round with best periods between September and May. Because of winds, temperatures and precipitation we clearly prefer April and especially October.
Accomodation: Our luxury catamaran has 6 big double room sleeping cabins with bathroom, shower and toilet each. Two cabins are used by the crew: captain ( diving instructor), cook, deckhand and fishing guide. So 8 places can be taken by guests ( some of them bring their wives along). In the middle part is a large sitting and dining room with tv, video and stereo music. Most of the meals however are used in the outside sitting edge of the catamaran or on the beaches. 100 liters of fresh water( shower etc.) can be produced in an hour. Food and drinks can be stored for about 2 weeks whereas fresh bread is baked almost daily. Speed is 5-8 knots/hr and can be raised by using the sails. Technically everything is of the very best quality including emergency system and gps. Two big dinghies are used for the daily transfers to the lagoons or/and for little big game fishing if this is preferred individually. These transfers hardly take more than 5-10 minutes. The Creole/Continental food is of outstanding quality. Meat, fresh fish( including shushimi from self caught dogtooth tuna) vegetables and and fruit are part of the daily menu.
Catamaran
Fish and Fishing: Main target of course is the big bonefish. Every average fisherman will easily catch a 20 pieces a day. The persistant one will catch over 50 fish but will have so much pain in his shoulders that he might consider not to fish next day... Average weight is about 6 lb with lots of specimen reaching 12-13 lb. At the end of the flood the nervous pompanos, av eraging 8-10 lb will show up and in the surf or inlets wonderful trevallies can be approached. Most of these samples do not go over 8 lb but there is always a chance of hooking ( landing is another story) a very big one of far over 100 lb. Low tide is often used for tuna fly fishing from a dinghy. Biggest flycaught samples were around 60 lb, the crew however mostly spinfishing caught quite bigger samples including wahoo, dolphin etc.
The catamaran was necessary for fly fishing for sails. The excellent fishing guide prepared the hookless strip baits and other teasers, checked and improved all the necessary tackle and gave a clear instruction to all particpants about the total procedure. Within 2-3 hours we( without any experience of this type of fishing) raised 3, hooked 2 and landed one 82 lb sailfish on 20 lb IGFA fly fishing tackle.
Sailfish
Two rodtypes are sufficient: a 9 ft Bonefish rod with aftma 8/9 floating line of the saltwater type and a few sinktips plus a 9 ft Gamerod with aftma 12 or 14 floating line and for the sailfish a piece of 500-700 grains sink line. For wonderful surffishing a stripbasket avoiding contact with the coral reef is necessary.
Health Care: A Tetanus-injection because of the presence of stingrays is the only necessary precaution. Tanning oil with at least factor 20 is used to prevent sunburn. Those with problems
of sea sickness should take one tablet of the kind we use on the first and maybe the last sailing day and will be free from problems. Nobody got seasick!
Surfcasting....
Program: Your international flight will probably reach Mahe on Friday evening or Saturday morning. The Beechcraft 1900 D Commuter Aircraft is chartered for Saturday morning and will bring you in 30-90 minutes to the airstrip of the island we've chosen. There the catamaran is waiting and about one hour later you will be on your way to some inhabited island. During the trip trolling will be practised in order to have the first fresh seafood. When the first bonito is caught strip baits may be produced and we may go for a sailfish according to IGFA Fly fishing rules. Big Game outfit will be on board and diving equipment may be ordered in advance. Very often it is possible to get the first bonefish already the same afternoon. You will be hosted for 8 days and 7 nights. On the next Saturday afternoon the catamaran may be at the airstrip for your returnflight to Mahe where you will stay at the Casuarina Beach Hotel with beautiful evening party. Depending upon your destination you might fly back home on Sunday morning. If requested we can arrange a longer stay on various islands.
Bluefin
Dates and Prices: program upon request.
Bonefish
Included: Airport-hotel transfers in Mahe, Charterflight Mahe-Island-Mahe, 8 days/7 nights full board at the catamaran, Guiding, Boattransfers to fishing spots, 1 Hotelnight B&B Mahe, fishing licence. All softdrinks on board (no corking fee for own alcoholic drinks).
Dogtooth Tuna with fly
Not Included: Flights Home-Mahe-Home, Departure and Island Taxes, Insurances, Evening meal in Mahe and alcoholic
drinks.
Yellow Snapper