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Fly Fishing Destinations
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Cosmoledo Atoll, Seychelles
by Nils Pearson
For the past few years, I’ve taken week-long fly fishing trips to many distant locations that have included Alaska, the Bahamas, Belize, Cuba, and Mexico. As a resident of central Texas, each and every one of these destinations has been an exotic fly fishing adventure. Fortunately, my fishing buddy Brandon Rabke is usually up for whatever fishing plans I come up with, or he may be the one who comes up with a destination idea. Either way, we have a shared enjoyment of fly fishing wherever our trips take us. One place that has been a blip on my fly fishing radar screen forever is the Seychelles. However, I have never made plans to go there. The reasons for my reluctance are the steep price for a week of fishing and the complicated travel arrangements necessary to get to a faraway atoll in the Indian Ocean.
It all changed when I got a phone message from Justin Spence at Big Sky Anglers.
Justin had heard from his friend Nick Streit that I was interested in fishing the Seychelles. Some guys had dropped out from a group and that left slots for two people to fish Cosmoledo Atoll in late February. Nick told Justin about my interest because during a fly fishing trip to Cuba I told Nick that if he ever put together a trip to the Seychelles to count me in. Nick mentioned this to Justin during one of their get togethers and Justin reached out to me. After I received the message, I contacted Brandon about the trip and sure enough he was up for it. As it turned out, Brandon not only joined me on the fishing adventure but he added a safari experience in Kenya before traveling to the Seychelles and a visit to Barcelona on his way home. The guy knows how to travel!
Where the Heck is the Cosmoledo Atoll?
Cosmoledo Atoll is located in the Indian Ocean about 200 miles north of Madagascar and 500 miles off the east coast of Africa. Because of its remote location, Cosmo’s white sand beaches and clear turquoise water are completely unspoiled. The small islands that form the lagoon are covered with small green shrubs and mangroves. Roosting red footed boobies, frigates, and sooty terns abound. Because the boobies have had little contact with people they have no fear of humans. Brandon and I watched as our guide held out his push pole parallel to the water and boobies landed on it. There are more species of turtles than I could possibly name traversing the clear blue waters. The islands’ sandy shorelines are imprinted with flipper tracks that lead to large depressions dug by nesting turtles during the night (see photo). Because of its remote location and lack of land-based predators, Cosmo is a natural preserve for marine life and birds.
As you might guess, getting to this unspoiled paradise is not easy. I started my journey in Austin and flew to the following airports or landing strips: Dallas, Doha, Mahe, Alphonse, Astove. The final leg was a boat ride from Astove to Cosmoledo. On my way to the fishing destination of Cosmoledo, I spent two days in Mahe. This provided an extra day cushion in case my flights or baggage was delayed. Most importantly,
I needed to make sure that I didn’t miss the weekly flight from Mahe to Alphonse and Astove.
The group of six fisherman in Justin’s group also included two fly fishers from Denmark and two divers. We left Mahe on Thursday morning and flew to Alphonse. After a short stop we reached the landing strip on Astove Atoll. We took the final leg of the journey by boat. After about 45 minutes cruising across the Indian Ocean we entered the lagoon at Cosmoledo Atoll. The guides and staff greeted us as we walked up the beach. Brad, the site manager, called out our names and assigned our cottages. He also told us that the guides would be available to help us set up our gear for some DIY fishing for the remainder of our first afternoon.
What are the accommodations like on Cosmo?
The Alphonse Fishing Company https://alphonsefishingco.com/ has set up outposts on Alphonse, Cosmoledo, Astove, Farquhar, and Providence Atolls. To appreciate the difficulty in setting up lodging on these atolls, keep in mind that these places are built on raised coral sitting on dormant volcanos. Most of the atolls have no permanent residents or infrastructure. Everything from generators to desalinization plants has to be brought in to each atoll and maintained over time. To their credit, the Alphonse folks have made a concerted effort to have as little impact on these pristine environments as possible.
The accommodations on Cosmo were first class. Two fishermen shared an air conditioned retrofitted cargo container that was transformed into a comfortable bedroom with a front deck and a canopy that provided shade to the entire structure (see photo). It had an outdoor toilet and shower with hot and cold running water. A housekeeper cleaned the room and laundered clothes daily. An ample morning breakfast was served buffet style and a packed lunch was stored on the Guide Boats. Fresh caught fish was available every evening and was prepared on a level that any premier restaurant can only hope to achieve.
It’s the Fishing
Fly fishermen don’t travel halfway around the world for the wonderful accommodations or great food, although they won’t turn them down. On these atolls, it’s all about giant trevally, triggerfish, bonefish, milkfish, and pacific permit. Cosmo, in particular, is the feeding station for Giant Trevally (GT) or “Geets” as the guides call them. This atoll is ranked as one of the best places in the world to hook one of these trophy fish.
To quote Yellow Dog Fly Fishing “If a perfect saltwater fly fishing species were to be created, a Giant Trevally, also called GT’s or Geets, could top the list. GT’s are aggressive, fast, powerful, and willing to eat a well-presented fly”
After unpacking our gear and setting up a couple of rods, Brandon and I approached the large green tent that will serve as our covered dining and relaxation area during our visit. Brad checked out my equipment; he put on a 9-foot 100 lb leader with a beige mullet fly. He also warned me that the tide was out but it would return very quickly in a couple of hours and to make sure to get to the shore when the tide starts to rise.
Bandon and I set out from the tent and decided to walk along a meandering sandbar that headed toward the middle of the lagoon for our afternoon fishing. About a quarter mile down the sandbar, we began to see big disturbances in the water covering dark turtle grass to the right of our path. Not knowing anything about this new environment, we began to cast in front of the wakes. Brandon immediately hooked up a GT and not long after I landed a GT also. Landing two GTs, while fishing on our own just after arriving at the camp was quite an accomplishment for us.
In our excitement, we kept casting toward the dark shapes and waded further into the lagoon. Before long, our sandbar had disappeared and the water was up to our thighs. At that point, we begin to wade to the nearest shore about 100 yards in the distance. Unfortunately, the rushing tide was pushing against us and flooding the lagoon very rapidly. When we got about 50 yards from the shore, the water was chest high. Fortunately, one of the guides, Gary, had been watching us this whole time. By the time he picked us up in his boat, I was treading water. While smiling at our misfortune and loading us into the boat, Gary said he had been watching us for a while and that if we had started leaving the flats about 20 minutes earlier we could have made it to shore. If not for his watchful eye, we might have been swept out into the Indian Ocean.
Tidal flow and locating fish
In this part of the Indian Ocean, tides oscillate between a high and low about every 5 ½ hours. High tides bring in a large surge of water from the ocean into the flats. After the tide has peaked (high tide), there is a period of slack tide with no flow, and then the water recedes from the flats until the bottom of the low tide is reached. The reference point for measuring high and low is the Mean Tide Level (MTL) or average height of the tide in a given area. A 2 foot high tide is 2 feet above the MTL and a low tide of -2 feet is 2 feet below the MLT (see chart).
When fishing the flats, tidal flow is very important to understand because during incoming tides fish enter the flats as they fill with water to forage for food. Fish exit the flats on out going tides as the receding water gets dangerously low imperiling their safety. This means that during incoming and outgoing tides, fish are concentrated in the channels leading to and from the flats.
The height of a high tide and the depth of a low tide are strongly influenced by the positons of the Sun and Moon in relation to the Earth. When these celestial bodies are in line (i.e., Sun, Moon, and Earth, or Sun, Earth, and Moon), the tidal flows are the greatest and called Spring Tides. When the Sun and Moon are perpendicular to each other, the tidal flows are the lowest and called Neap Tides.
During Spring Tides, fishermen can position themselves along the channels leading to the flats during tidal flows to catch fish traveling in and out on the water highways. The group that preceded us at Cosmo was there during a Spring tide. They had a high tide of +14 feet at 6:02 am, a low of -9 feet at 12:17 pm, and another high of +13 feet at 5:46 pm. That is a lot of water flowing in and out of the flats. In contrast, our group was fishing during a Neap tide. The highest tidal flow we experienced during our stay was on the first day and marked the end of the Spring Tide. From that day on, the tidal flow quickly diminish for the remainder of our stay to almost no tidal flow at all. On our last fishing day, we had a high tide of +4 feet at 10:07 am, a low of -0.2 feet in the afternoon.
The tidal flow staying very close to the MTL during our stay meant that there would be enough water on the flats to allow the fish to stay in the flats all day. With no need to enter or exit, the GTs can spread out all over the flats as they roamed in search of prey; as a result, we couldn’t target fish as they entered and exited the flats. The most common strategy our guides deployed when prospecting for GTs in these conditions was to search for stingrays as the guides polled the flats. When feeding, stingrays suck up sand from the bottom in search of crabs, clams, and shrimp. During this process of excavation, debris that arises often contains edible bottom dwelling crustaceans which can easily be snagged by GTs.
Catching GTs on the Flats
As mentioned previously, the small tides kept the flats deep enough to allow the GTs to remain on the flats. Some of the flats we fished were quite expansive, in some cases stretching almost as far as the eye could see, and the high water meant that the GTs could be very scattered and hence more difficult to find. If the sky was clear, the sun penetrated the water and the guides could scan the sandy bottom in all directions looking for stingrays or cruising GTs. Unfortunately, the angler on the bow might stand there for hours before a GT was located. Because sightings of and encounters with GTs were few and far between, once a GT was located, you did not want to make a mistake because this might be your only shot at a GT that day.
The techniques for successfully casting to and hooking a GT are like nothing I had ever experienced before. When the GT was within casting range, the fisherman is instructed to cast the fly two rod lengths in front of the fish and strip line back in as fast as possible. Any slow down or hesitation while stripping will cause the GT to turn away. If you were lucky enough to hook one, the next step was to set the hook. Doing so entailed gripping the line tightly with your gloved stripping hand to create as much drag as possible until the loose line on the deck was all gone and transferred onto the reel as the GT runs. Even though your fingers start to burn, you have to hold the line. Then, once the line is on the reel, check to see that your drag was just short of locking and wrestle the GT to the boat.
When fishing near structures it was imperative that the drag be almost locked, otherwise the GT could quickly swim into the reef and break off. All of our GT fly lines had 75 lb cores tied to 100 lb leaders just so that we could apply maximum pressure on the fish.
Dredging the Channels
When the fishing on the flats became particularly slow, many of the guides would head over to the channels that lead into the atoll. Sinking lines were dropped to coral and rock structures on the bottom and a wide variety of colorful (and sometimes large!) fish were caught. Wayne gets credit for the most spectacular catch. He hooked a bright red lyretail grouper. While he was bringing it up to the boat, a giant potato bass came up and swallowed it (see photo). In the process of swallowing the smaller fish, the potato bass dislodged the hook from the lyretail and hooked itself. With assistance from both the guide and Justin, Wayne was able to land the largest fish of the entire trip and get a photo of Justin holding it.
Milkfish, Bonefish, and Triggerfish: Neighbors of the GTs on the Flats and in the Channels.
Milkfish
In my opinion, the milkfish were practically impossible to catch. They are regarded as the most challenging fish to catch in the Seychelles. They are algae eating fish with two sets of gills. Our striped mullet found on the Texas Coast are also algea eaters, but milkfish grow many times larger and, reportedly, put up a terrific fight.
They are typically caught when they are traveling in schools along the surface in deep water with their mouths open scooping up algae. As far as I can tell, they are caught by pulling the leader across the milkfish’s mouth and snagging it with a tiny green fly while it is feeding and gently setting the hook. Once they are hooked, the fisherman cannot exert much pressure because the tiny algae fly will likely bend. In addition, the two sets of gills allow the fish to acquire plenty of oxygen when struggling at the end of the line and take forever to tire.
Given all of the difficulties in catching a milkfish, our Danish companion Rasmus Ovesen gets credit for landing the impossible (see photo). He, his fishing buddy Martin Ejler Olsen, and their guide all worked together to catch a trophy milkfish. Here’s Rasmus’ account
These milkfish are spooky. Precise and delicate casting is need- ed. You leave the fly out there and just keep tension on it hoping that the milkfish will scoop it up. This was the 12th milkfish I hooked in a total of three trips (Alphonse Island and Cosmoledo). Many people spend anywhere from 1-2.5 hours fighting these fish. It took about half an hour to land the fish. It would have taken less time if we’d had the big net on board our guide boat. The hook almost straightened out because I applied a lot of pressure during the final stages of the fight.
Rasmus and Martin have had numerous opportunities to pursue milkfish and almost every other fish that you can catch with a fly rod because they publish In the Loop fly fishing magazine. As part of gathering material for their publication, they travel all over the world and write about their adventures. The proceeds they receive from advertisers pay for their adventures. If you are interested, check out their free online publication https://issuu. com/intheloopmagazine.
Bonefish
Bonefish are often referred to as the grey ghosts of the flats for their stealth and speed. Brandon and I had a fair amount of experience with bones in other locations. However, these guys were a lot bigger than anything I had ever seen. In fact, Brandon landed a bone that was estimated to be 9 lbs (see photo). I also landed a couple of bones of good size but lost a big boy when it broke my hook.
Triggerfish
Both yellow margin (picture right) and moustache triggers (cover photo) are common on Cosmo. We always had a rod rigged and ready to go for whenever we came upon one. The The yellow margin triggerfish’s rainbow-like markings and toothy grin make it look like a Disney cartoon character. These creatures scour the bottom and even bite into coral in search of crustaceans. We often found triggers in shallow areas within the lagoon. If we didn’t immediately spook one, we usually got to throw a small crab or bonefish fly to them. We were both fortunate to catch one.
Final observations
The Seychelles are no longer a blip on my fly fishing radar screen. Looking back on my trip, I am grateful to be healthy and well off enough to have been able to take advantage of this unique opportunity. While on Cosmoledo Atoll Brandon and I caught agressive, fast, and powerful GTs off the coast of Africa on a pristine atoll in the Indian Ocean. The guides and accommodations were first class. For evening entertainment, I often sat by Justin and Rasmus and listened as they played a friendly game of one-upmanship as they described their experiences in the many far-off fly fishing destinations they have fished. I hope to be able to visit some of the exotic fly fishing destinations they discussed.