A quick update for those who haven’t been following along the last few days. I’m on Farquhar Atoll in the Seychelles hosting a group of friends and guests of Yellow Dog Flyfishing Adventures. This is the first of two weeks. Next week most of my group will head with me on to Providence Atoll. This is truly a dream trip. This week’s group consists of Mike Lodge, Jeff Smith, Dave Boyd, TJ Rung, Steve Goble, Fred Stucky, Steve Rose, Michael Williams and Caio from Brazil.
Its day two and Steve Rose and I fished with Alphonse fishing guide Cullan Ashby. Cullan is the head guide here at Farquhar and I was quick to see why. He knows these fish inside and out. Cullan is only in his 20’s but started guiding at a young age and has already overseen anglers at most of the Seychelles atolls. Steve Rose is a regular Yellow Dog customer but this trip is the first time we’ve met. I always enjoy fishing with new people and on the way to our first fishing spot we connected.
Just like yesterday, the tides are right first thing in the morning to hunt for Indo-Pacific permit. Cullan took us right near to where we started with Bailey yesterday to try the finicky fish again. Steve took the bow but in a half hour we did not have a permit sighting.
Cullan took us on a long run to the far end of the Farquhar Atoll. It’s a stunning boat ride that took us at least 30 minutes. We dodged a few leaping squid and a flying fish or two. This atoll is rich with life. There are plenty of sea turtles mulling around during our drive. So much so the boat needs to be careful to avoid them much like dodging whitetails while driving at home.
When we arrived at our new spot Cullan said we were looking mostly for triggers but to keep an eye out for GTs sneaking around. After my trigger day from heaven yesterday I insisted Steve take the bow again and get to work. The triggers were out and Steve had several good opportunities in the first half hour. But keep in mind, triggers are hard to catch!
Cullan poled hard and Steve made some excellent casts. The triggers showed interest but wouldn’t seal the deal. I wrote about the tricks and skills needed to hook up with triggers yesterday. Steve had triggers that ate and pinned his fly in the sand but he just never went tight.
I’ve been down “trigger misery road” in my day but I ended my 2022 Seychelles trip strong with triggerfish. Yesterday I proved to myself I still have the knack. Being confident is important and I’m feeling more confident with the triggers than ever before. It was my turn back on the bow and the first trigger Cullan put me on followed my fly and tipped on it. I gave him about five seconds to chew away and then a slow six inch strip. I felt him and gave a strip set jab. Fish on. Its good to be lucky!
This is a tank of a moustache triggerfish. Moustache triggers are the biggest of all trigger species and on a rare occasion reach 60 plus centimeters. But that’s a unicorn. This guy here is a monster that measured 54 cm. He also took me to the coral but Cullan was able to dig him out. An awesome specimen. Our first “Bang, bang, bang” of the day.
Steve hit the bow again while I watched. He was making beautiful casts to every trigger but just couldn’t get the hook up. Meanwhile on the turtle grass flats a hundred yards away there were tails everywhere. They weren’t tails flats anglers dream of. These were a variety of algae eating surgeon fish species.
I’ve seen two surgeonfish eat flies. A friend caught a whitespotted with me in Anaa Atoll and I caught a Sohal (Red Sea) surgeon fish in Sudan about ten years back in 2014. Both catches were lucky and I’ve not caught another since even though I’ve presented a variety of flies to numerous tailing surgeonfish over the years.
The surgeons that caught my eye today are big. They have dark dangly forked tails. I have no idea what the rest of the body looks like nor what species they were which tests my curiosity. They were digging something from the turtle grass and no one really knows what. Its likely plankton which is why despite years of casting to them I’ve had very little success.
Cullan saw me quivering as I watched the distant tailing surgeons. Cullan asked me if I wanted to slip overboard to wade and give them a try while Steve and he kept after the triggers. I was over the side in seconds. 30 minutes later I’d done no more that spook them several times and got no looks at a variety of crab and shrimp patterns I threw. But there was a huge blue spangled emperor feeding with the surgeons. At least I managed to catch him.
Cullan had us switch gears to start the afternoon. We searched for GTs where some of the channels from the lagoon met the open ocean. These are rugged areas with massive coral heads and big waves. It was a struggle to balance on the bow. Steve gave it a try for about ten minutes then I took over. I got one cast to a cruising GT but no luck. I moved around some smaller fish that included this very pretty peacock grouper.
The GT fishing has been slow of late according to Cullan and the other guides here at Farquhar. In fact reports from GT mecca over on Cosmoledo have been slow as well. The lack of much big wind and extreme heat has been a part of the cause. After no luck with the GTs for us we headed back near the lodge to fish for more triggers.
Getting back in triggerfish mode was a smart choice. There were lots around and this time Steve was able to connect. There was one problem however, he hooked a fiery moustache and was quickly buried in to a coral head. Cullan dropped anchor and broke out the mask and snorkel.
The process of untangling Steve’s trigger and digging him out of his hole took some time. While it was going on I saw a hefty yellowmargin trigger cruising around just outside of casting range. I picked up my 9-weight and stripped out a heap of line – just in case. Sure enough the big personality of a fish was in range. It was another miracle. I landed a good cast; the fish came over and ate and I hooked up. A two trigger rodeo began!
With Cullan in the water untangling Steves fish, it was up to me to handle my fish. And it was a big one. I leaned on him hard trusting my 35lb tippet to hold with a big bend in my Winston. At first Cullan had no idea what was going on but when he did he cheered hoping we could get a double hero shot – something that doesn’t occur often with triggers. In the end I prevailed and just as Cullan got his hands on Steves moustache, my yellowmargin was ready for the net. Bang, bang bang!
Steve has caught some yellowmargin triggers at Christmas Island but this was his first moustache. We admired and checked out the differences between the two species while they were right before our eyes. Then we released them back.
The chaos messed up that trigger flat for more fishing. We spent our last two hours where we began today, on the permit flats. There were a few fish around cruising on the sand next to the beach but conditions were glassy calm. We couldn’t get a cast even close to them. We even tried sinking our fly 30 feet in front of them and waiting till they arrived. Regardless, one strip and they took off. I’m guessing they saw the leader and line attached. Permit are always a bugger to fool!
We called it a day around 5:30. Everyone returned around the same time. Fishing was by no means red hot but there were some amazing fish caught. Some of the guys took time to catch some huge bonefish. Others stuck to hunting GTs and managed to nail a few.
As always, the day ended with a gorgeous sunset during cocktail hour. I broke out the sharpies and celebrated our “bang, bang, bang” accomplishments on Cullan’s Yeti Tumbler. Then it was some amazing food. The food here is over the top. It was barbeque night so the chef fired up the grill with chicken, steak and pork. Not bad for being at one of the most remote locations in the world.
Be sure to keep tabs on my IG at @jeffcurrier65
I hope there will be a deep sea dredging session!
Awesome.
Great work on the yeti tumbler! That place sounds incredible!