With 14 days of fishing here on St. Brandon’s Atoll I’ll get to fish with everyone on my hosted trip twice. Today was my first time out with Heath Marston. Heath, like Bob Ylagan from day two, was a late addition to this trip and a rare angler to get on my trip completely unknow. But he’s been fun as heck and I suspect you’ll see more of Heath and I fishing together in trips to come.
I also fished for the first time with FlyCastaway guide, Juan Rossouw, from South Africa. Juan is the head guide here at St. Brandon’s and he has several years under his belt. Juan took us to “Big Trash” right across from the lodge. It may be close but it’s a good flat for bonefish and permit.
The guides still find it weird that I stay back at the boat until they head off with my guests. Juan asked me several times if I was ready. He really wanted to wait for me. Wading around an island is especially different because in this case, I’m truly playing clean up. But I’m good with that. I have my camera and if the guys can nail a great fish, I’ll be there to photograph.
Today was our first overcast day of the trip. The wind was a bit strong as well and if you can trust any sort of forecasts, the weather may change on us in the next few days. We haven’t had any rain which is unusual but by the end of the week we have numerous thunderstorms predicted.
For me, spotting fish with clouds overhead isn’t the end of the world. As long as the clouds aren’t super white, there’s good contrast when looking down a flat. Juan and Heath were hunting close to the island so I veered out to mid-thigh deep water. I got a cast to a couple permit with no luck. But then came a dozen of these hefty bones. This fish took me so deep in my backing I had to run towards him. It took several minutes to get him in and Juan kindly retreated back to take this photo. The bonefish keep on biting!
The bonefishing never let up all morning and when we made it around the lee side of the island there were more permit. I sat up on the beach and watched Heath and Juan go on a hot pursuit. Heath landed some excellent casts with his Alphlexo Crab but the permit snubbed it each time.
Once the permit had enough of our nonsense, it was back to bonefish biz. All the time while Heath chased permit, a school of about 30 bones meandered around. We ended our morning by putting a hurt on them before lunch.
I made a back cast a few days ago that has put a hurting on my right shoulder. The right isn’t my normal bad shoulder so this is a bummer. It was so bad today I won’t be carting my 12-weight on the flat for at least a few days. And this afternoon I took it easy even with my 9-weight. Our afternoon was much slower than this morning and further slow because I passed up bonefish and went full focus on permit. I only had one shot.
At the very end of our day the flats were at low tide and there wasn’t much left of any fish. But there’s always one species that hangs around in super shallow water. This is one that’s been on my Seychelles blogs many times, the yellowlip emperor. A cooperative hard fighting flats fish that should never be overlooked.
Today was the same old same old, everyone caught a bunch of bonefish with a few special fish mixed in. In particular were some very nice bluefin trevally. Here’s Bob with a dandy.
Speaking of Bob, Bob will begin fishing in a bright red chili suit tomorrow as punishment for the biggest goof up of the day amongst the group. Bob fell off the bow while fishing. He created quite a scare for his guide and boat partner but other than a bruise or two, fortunately he’s ok. And best of all, Heath found a hard hat washed up on a beach just in case he falls overboard again!
We’re having super fun times here on St. Brandon’s Atoll. Remember, this is a trip available to anyone that wants the fly fishing adventure of a lifetime. Feel free to contact me for info and book it through my friends at Yellow Dog Flyfishing Adventures.