Mike Lodge and I met in Mexico several year ago fishing out of Casa Blanca.  I’m always up in the wee hours to work on my blog and turns out he doesn’t sleep either.  We chatted over early morning coffee that week and every time I mentioned the Seychelles he lit up like a Christmas tree.  Mike ended up on my hosted Yellow Dog trips to Astove and Cosmoledo Atoll in the Seychelles last year.  Today we fished with Wesley here on Providence Atoll.

When Mike and I shared a day in Cosmoledo the weather was frightful.  Today it looked as though we were going to repeat as we bobbed in huge rolling waves 250 feet off the Mayas Dugong.  In fact, as Wesley gave us the rundown for the day, head guide Tim radioed to us that no one was to travel far due to the dangerous conditions and to be prepared to come home early.

But we’d squeak out a great day.  Indeed the early morning on the flats was terrible.  The wind honked up to nearly 30 mph.  The clouds were thick and the visibility for spotting flats fish was beyond challenging.  But we did our best and Mike got a few good beautiful long casts at speeding GT’s, but they would not cooperate.

I was battling stomach issues again.  Running down GT’s wasn’t for me.  Instead I kept finetuning my triggerfish skills.  Yesterday I mentioned they are hard to spot unless the tail is protruding.  I’m serious.  These fish waddle along slowly and don’t catch your attention.  Furthermore, when tipped down feeding on bottom they are so camouflaged they look like turtle grass and coral.  But I’m keying in on some things.  The moustache triggers love sneaking across sand patches.  They’re easy to spot there and that’s how I caught this one for my first fish of the day.

Photo by Wesley De Klerk

The yellowmargin triggers, also known as the “peach face”, are in my opinion, harder to spot.  Luckily, I’ve learned that their peach face actually stands out as you scan the flats.  That’s exactly how I picked off two yesterday.  Regardless, once you spot them it requires a perfect cast to get any trigger to eat.

First, realize triggers are every bit as spooky as a permit.  I like to land an orange Flexo Crab gently about three feet past them and a foot in front.  Then I slide it into their view.  When they tip on it to eat it, let it sit.  Let them chew on it.  Feeling the hook doesn’t deter them at all.  They seem to eat it harder thinking it’s the hard body or claw of the crab.  Then I gently draw my line tight and once I feel the tension I strip set.  I promise you, that was easier said then done but its working for me.  Shortly after my mustache trigger I landed this yellowmargin.  How about the amazing photo Wesley took!

Around the time I landed the peach face our weather was improving fast.  Now we had good sun for fish spotting. Wesley said it was time to go find mudding rays on one of his favorite flats.  Mudding rays attract GT’s and other fish because as they disturb the ocean bottom they displace crabs, shrimp and baitfish.  We headed there while we ate lunch and sure enough, we had action right away.

I spectated while Mike put on a clinic.  Wesley found mudding rays and each mud had at least one GT feeding with.  Mike waded over to the first mud and nailed one.  Only minutes after he landed the first he launched his black Brush Fly to the next mud and nailed another.  We were having one heck of a great day!

During the last couple hours of fishing the weather became downright gorgeous.  The sun was out and only a few clouds lingered.  The wind dropped down to about 10 mph which after two days of much stronger, made casting easy.  And there were fish around.  Mike got a shot at a monster GT.  While he was stalking him I stood on the boat armed for another and I found one and hooked up.

It ended up being a good fish.  I had an edge being on the boat, however, I was anchored.  But my 12-weight Winston, SA Big Water Taper, 80lb Flouro and my Bauer cranked tight, I had the fish in fast.

Mike and I had a slow difficult fishing day back in December on Cosmoledo.  Today was no less than incredible.  Not only did we hammer down on three nice GT’s but I’m feeling very confident when it comes to the triggers.  Today was the first time I ever landed both the mustache and the yellowmargin in the same day.  Good stuff!

And yes, it was another great day of fishing across the board.  I mean this trip has been pure redemption for our disastrous cyclone cancellation in 2019.  The fish gods are rewarding us for our patience.  While there were many fish of note, here’s Therese with a huge Brown African Marbled Grouper.

To see more photos from this incredible Yellow Dog Trip be sure to visit my Instagram page – @jeffcurrier65

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing