Today was our final day. Before anyone headed out after breakfast, we got our group photo. This is a hearty crew of good anglers. Not one person took a day off from 14 straight days of fishing the flats here at St. Brandon’s Atoll on my Yellow Dog Flyfishing hosted trip.
My last day fishing partner was Jeff Smith and our guide was Jarryd. Jarryd said based on it being a very low tide to start, we’d have to wait for at least some water to come in. Therefore our first hour would be drifting for GTs. Jeff got an excellent shot and an eat from a beast in the first ten minutes. He didn’t connect.
I’ve been avoiding 12-weights for over a week due to right shoulder pain. After Jeff missed his shot, I was plenty fine to watch him have another. But when someone misses a big GT, what often happens is they get weak knees and need to sit down a few minutes. It’s exactly what happened and Jeff insisted I patrol the bow for a few. What the heck, it’s the last day. I plan to rest my entire body when I get home. I saw the Mike Lodge GT fly on Jeff’s rod.
So I took the bow and in about 15 minutes I got two shots. The first, I spotted the GT. I launched and he chased my fly right to the boat and didn’t eat. Jarryd thought he may have seen the boat. Before Jeff S. could get back up to take over again, another came. This one looked like he would eat for sure as he ran to my fly. But just as he got close our motor whacked a coral head and the clang sent the fish running. Bad luck. Jeff got back up and sadly, we went 45 minutes and did not see another fish.
It was time for Julies flat. With the water beginning to rise with the start of the incoming tide, Jarryd told us we had a nice long session ahead. We’d be able to fish till about 1 pm. On normal days, every day this trip in fact, I walk on my own and my guests walk with the guide. Today was different however, Jeff S. likes to fish on his own and he particularly wanted to spend his last day doing so. I surprised Jarryd when I said, “It’s you and me bud”.
We had four really good eyes looking for fish this morning. If Jarryd didn’t see a fish coming I did. I’d guess hardly a fish got by us and most of what we saw were Indo-Pacific permit. For one of the few times in my life, the permit outnumbered the bonefish!
I have very few pictures to share. Jarryd nor I do much other than hunt fish when permit are active. So I’ll make this short. We estimated over a three hour period that I had 20 casts at permit. 15 of those were primo shots. Of those primo shots I probably landed ten competitive casts. I had a small fish eat my crab in such a weird way I missed him. Weird being as he was going away, I lifted to cast again and as I did, he spun around and at the speed light, the permit came and nipped my fly as it was leaving the water. With my rod high through my casting stroke, there was no way to drive the hook.
Then there was the fish I should have caught. This was the second of two good sized permit cruising. I got a mediocre cast at the lead fish. He ignored my fly but I was able to strip my fly fast in front of the second fish without another cast. The second fish ate it and took off. I got my rod high and just as I hit backing Jarryd arrived to my side and reached for a high-five. I laughed and gave it to him, but in my book, early celebrations can be a curse. Sure enough within a minute I got broke off in the coral.
There was no time to fuss. Our heads hung low only for a few minutes before we spotted more permit. And for about a solid hour I never went more than ten minutes without a legitimate tailing permit shot. I got good casts to what Jarryd labeled the largest Indo-Pacific permit he’s ever seen in his life. Despite some of my better casts with the Alphlexo, this fish acted blind to my presentations.
Long story short, and a sad one at that, I had no luck at all. I was absolutely brutalized during the hour of solid permit action. It’s a tough nut to swallow when you figure earlier in our morning, I could have/should have landed two Indo-Pacific permit and labeled this an epic permit day. Instead, I blanked. All those shots and I ended the session with an excruciating blank. Permit fishing is often rough, but today stings worse than others.
I don’t dwell on permit pain like so many do. If I lost some rare jungle fish in Asia or dropped a fish at the net in a World’s Competition, then yes, but I’ll see more Indo’s in the years to come and when I catch my next it will be that much more satisfying. After lunch and a Phoenix the tides weren’t right for wading any more flats. Jeff and I opted to hit the bommies for our last hour. It wasn’t nearly as productive as two days ago with Heath but we landed several yellowstripe emperors and a few African marbled groupers. And Jeff also brought in the first camouflage grouper. A beautiful fish we catch a lot of in the Seychelles.
Its time to call it a wrap from here at St. Brandon’s. Atoll. I’m so freaking exhausted I can barely write my notes from this final day. But it’s been an unbelievable fishing trip with a fine group of people. All of which I can say are good friends for life if they weren’t already. I’ll report once more while I’m on my flight home to let you know how the next 30 hour boat ride goes. Damn I’m not looking forward to it or the flying. But you got to pay to play!
If a trip to St. Brandon’s is on your radar, feel free to contact me or my friends at Yellow Dog Flyfishing and get the ball rolling!