Today marked the start of the second half of my Yellow Dog hosted trip here on St. Brandon’s Atoll. Therefore the fishing rotation started over again and I was back with friend Mike Brennan from Jackson Hole. Our guide was Jarryd and we went to Pauly’s Island where yesterday we saw a ton of Indo-Pacific permit. But there would be a problem today. As our 45 minute boat ride neared the end and we approached the sea bird filled island, there were four small boats with pairs of illegal fisherman. It didn’t seem worth mentioning in yesterdays blog, but they were here yesterday also. The difference, yesterday they took off, today the fishermen stood their ground.
St. Brandon’s Atoll is closed to any sort of commercial fishing and the only authorized fishers allowed are a handful of Creole native fisherman who seasonally live on Rafael Island. But even these local fisherman are prohibited from fishing on the flats. Bonefish, permit and all the trevally species are protected out here because catch and release fishing for them brings the communities dollars from tourist anglers. However no matter how protected St. Brandon’s Atoll is, enforcing such a vast area that’s more than 200 miles from the nearest landmass is a difficult and almost impossible task.
FlyCastaway staff and guides occasionally report sightings of poachers on the flats of St. Brandon’s. The Mauritian Coast Guard is constantly at work preventing fishing vessels from illegally harvesting fish, lobster, octopus and more. Apparently, they do a great job because based on what I’ve experienced this trip, the fishing is just as good as it was on my last trip back in 2018. But at the end of the day, this is Africa and it will be a continuous battle to protect this amazing fishery.
As we puttered up to Pauly’s Island we had to pass very close to one of the boats. There was one man and he was rolling up what appeared to be a bait collecting net. Jarryd pointed a finger at him and shook his head – basically saying “What you’re doing is a no no”. The fisherman, not your average looking human, tossed his net in his boat, fired up his motor and came at us as if to ram us. He didn’t ram us but came close and then scolded Jarryd wildly in some gibberish language and tried to poke Jarryd with his push-pole. Jarryd, who’s twice the size of the guy, laughed while dodging the stick and the fisherman took off angry.
We parked and watched the fishermen go to his friends. There were six guys in total in three boats. A fourth boat was far away with two more people. Just as we prepared to hop out and walk the island flats, they started heading our way.
Seeing what a loose cannon the single fisherman was, and how bold he was to come after Jarryd with a stick, we weren’t waiting for all six to arrive. We pushed our boat off and started to flee. But its very shallow and we couldn’t put the motor down and take off. We motored very slowly in order not to bust a prop. They couldn’t move too fast either but their boats are smaller and lighter. They were making headway and the freak with the stick was standing in the bow of the lead boat clanging it as if to be declaring war.
Let’s just say they got too close for comfort. Much closer than you see in my photo. That’s because I didn’t want to be seen taking their photo for fear that even if they were just threatening us, they might demand my phone. We got our duel 15 hp motors going in a nick of time. I’ve seen a lot. Honestly this was scary.
As these fisherman made their move on us, Jarryd had radioed for support to our nearest FlyCastaway boat. Juan and two of my guys, Jeff S. and Morgan, arrived to see the confrontation. Once we were sure the fisherman turned off, Jarryd used a satphone to call FlyCastaway headquarters in Johannesburg to report not only the illegal fishing but also the threatening incident. Headquarters asked us to return to the waters near to our camp on Rafael Island and fish there the rest of the day.
I hate for situations like today to happen. But I’ve experienced poaching firsthand in other parts of the world (the most serious in Cameroon in 2018). It does occur and when you continue to push the limit with fly fishing and travel as often as I do, you see it more than you wish.
Fishing for our boat was excellent if you like seeing permit. The flats near Rafael Island where we stay are loaded with Indo’s. We saw numerous tailing fish and got a handful of casts to them. But we couldn’t seal the deal. I did however hook a parrotfish while casting to a permit. In fact, the parrot was tailing right next to the permit and honestly, I casted to the parrot. But parrots are tough and I wasn’t expecting him to eat my crab. I’ll be watching for more opportunities as this final week unfolds.
I also accidentally added this fellow to my species list. I’m certain I caught these on previous trips but he never made the list. This is the onespot snapper (Lutjanus monostigma).
While Mike and I didn’t catch anything other than the odd species, the other guys all managed at least a couple of bonefish each. All the bonefish here are big so they were happy. This is fun picture of Heath with a dandy along with our lodge staff crew that came out for a visit. But all in all, today was a slow day at St. Brandon’s Atoll. We have another six days ahead.