A Triggerfish Super Grand Slam on Fly

There’s a ton of excitement anytime you get on the saltwater flats but the first day of a long trip in the Seychelles – its unbelievable.  I’ll just tell you right now, in my humble opinion, the Seychelles is the best of the best as far as saltwater fly fishing goes.  The fishing for my Yellow Dog Flyfishing hosted trip kicked off today here on Farquhar Atoll with Alphonse fishing guide Bailey Musgrave and fellow angler and my roommate this week, Fred Stucky.

 

Conditions weren’t ideal.  Anglers like a little wind to keep fish from being too spooky and to move cool water from the open ocean on to the flats, but today was hot as heck and there was barely a breeze.  In our favor however is we are two days from the full moon meaning the tidal changes are large.  Big tide (spring tide) moves the water around.  Young Bailey kicked us off poling for Indo-Pacific permit.

 

Permit are the toughest so it was a bold way to start a trip.  Nonetheless Bailey found a couple right off the bat but it was the usual, even though Fred launched some decent casts, they spooked.  It was simply too calm.  There were a few bonefish around however and Fred found one that was eager.

 

Fred landed a nice bonefish.  Ideally we would have stuck around and caught a few more of the speedsters.  There were a few big ones in the area.  But along with them there were a heap of young blacktip and lemon sharks.  The predacious fish were doing their best to steal Freds bonefish.  We managed to save his from the furry but it was one bonefish and done.  We didn’t want to chance losing one to the sharks so we moved on.

 

After our move it was my turn on the bow.  It felt good.  There were a few more bones around but as I prepared to cast to a large one I picked up a shape moving rapidly along the sand.  Perhaps a permit?

 

I laid out a backhand cast and my fly plopped two feet in front.  The erratically moving fish charged my crab fly and ate.  I strip set and the fish sped off and took me deep in backing but we saw enough of the fish to know it was the beautiful yellow dot trevally.  There was no sharp coral danger around to sever my leader so I let him run.  Then I reefed back and within three or four minutes I had my first fish of the trip.  And like a dummy, I let him slip from my hands while Bailey was fetching my camera.  This is a yellow dot from last trip, also known as the island trevally.

 

Bailey’s next spot was a big flat along the reef.  The tide was right and we were able to walk for three hours.  I always tell people to get in shape for trips – days like these are the reason.  The more you can handle the more fish you catch.  We started out casting to tailing bumpies (bumphead parrotfish) and Fred hooked up only to be absolutely schooled just after his backing started to leave the reel.  Bumpies are the most difficult fish of the Seychelles flats due to their size and liking to living in the coral.

 

I’m fortunate to have a lot of years on the flats including right here at Farquhar.  With Baileys permission I wandered for all three hours on my own.  For me the adventure of tuning my eyes to find fish, getting my wading legs working and practicing my line management on my own is important.  I landed a few little blue spangled emperors, a baby grouper and best of all, one moustache triggerfish.

 

Catching the moustache reminded me how much I love chasing triggerfish on the flats.  I’ll tell you now, triggers of any species aren’t easy.  The moustache and his close cousin the yellowmargin are the toughest.  I was mighty happy to click one off on the first morning.

 

That long walking session called for lunch.  After lunch Fred was in the mood to chill out so I returned to the bow.  We fished a sandy pothole between the flats.  The depth was about four feet deep and I sight casted to more triggerfish.

 

There’s a specific technique for catching triggers.  Use either a crab or shrimp fly and cast it as close to the trigger as you dare to.  They are spooky critters and each one is different.  You must decide.  If you get lucky and the fly lands in his sight without spooking them they generally peal over for a look.  When he tails on it you may feel him eating it.  It’s the trigger actually chewing parts of your fly.  They’re used to crabs fighting back so let the trigger peck at it for about five seconds to get the hook in his mouth.  Then make a long slow strip.  If you feel his weight do a swift six inch strip set.  If you have him great.  If not, stop stripping and let your fly set again.  Usually you get another chance.

 

Triggers have amazing teeth and bite power.  They’re hard to hook and most of the time they spook and leave you empty handed.  And often times they leave you with a ruined fly.  Bent hooks.  Missing legs and a tore up fly body are common.  It’s annoying if it’s your $9 crab!  If you hook up, good on you.  Get ready for a rodeo.  Often times they smoke you to the coral so fast they break you off.  I use 35lb fluoro and my 9-weight and heave back on them as hard as I can.  Sometimes I stop them sometimes they win.

 

When it all goes well you have yourself a true trophy of the Seychelles.  Triggerfish are far too often overlooked by hardcore giant trevally (GT) fly fisherman.  Lo and behold, not long after lunch I landed my second triggerfish of the day.  This one is the handsome looking yellowmargin and was 53 centimeters long.  Bailey picked up his radio and let out, “Bang, bang, bang”.  This is the code to let fellow guides and the lodge know one of their clients just caught a triggerfish over 50 cm.  TRIGGERfish.  Bang, bang, bang.  Get it?  Kind of a cute way to celebrate!

 

By 3 PM it was hot and dead calm.  The tides were rising fast and most of the flats were done for the day.  This is a time to full on hunt for GT’s or pick up your 12-weight and cast to coral heads to pry out some bohar snappers and oversized grouper.  We poked around and nailed a few gorgeous ones.  Fred put the screws to one of my all-time favorite grouper species on fly – this is the no less than stunning yellow-edged lyretail.

 

There are many species of triggerfish in the oceans of the world.  I’ve got at least ten on my list.  Last trip to the Seychelles I learned about the redtoothed triggerfish (Odonus niger), known best as the “Vampire Trigger”. Catching one is my goal for this trip.  I dropped the name out there to Bailey and sure enough he was aware of the species and took us to a spot.

 

Fred and I sent our flies down about 15 feet deep and started to catch all kinds of fun fish.  Most of which I’ve caught before but I managed this interesting type of emperor fish.  I’m not 100% sure but I think this is a new species for me.  If anyone wants to look him up for me I would greatly appreciate some thoughts in order to give me a head start when I get home.

Identified by Ping Shen as the Black-eye Emperor (Lethrinus enigmaticus)

 

Fred and I landed a few different species and down near bottom I could see some small black fishes.  I know from last trip that most are unique species of triggerfish.  Most were the common black triggers.  All have tiny mouths and I was having no luck hooking them.  I took off the small Clouser I was using and tied on a size 8 Crazy Charlie.

 

Getting my Charlie down 15 feet was the chore.  I ended up putting my Clouser back on and tying my Charlie off the back.  I quickly landed one of the triggers however he wasn’t what I was after.  I believe this is the masked triggerfish and I’ve caught them before in Oman.  He skipped the smaller Charlie and indulged my Clouser.

 

If you read this blog then you know my determination when seeking new species.  It took a good two hours of trying but at last I hooked up with the vampire trigger and landed my one and only.  Not only was I ecstatic but so was Bailey and Fred thought it was pretty cool too.  The vampires aren’t big but how can you not admire the stunning colors and the fantastic dangling tail to go along with the orange fang-like teeth?

 

After I released the amazing new species for my list Bailey picked up his radio and let out a, “Bang, bang, bang, bang”.  I guess not only did I catch an unusual triggerfish species on the fly, but I had just completed the first Super Grand Slam of triggerfish that Bailey could think of.  Fun stuff!

 

We ended the day at 5:30 with a huge effort of saving Fred’s sinking line from entanglement in the deep corals.  We were dredging bulky Clouser’s with heavy sinkers down 50 feet deep with our 12-weights.  Fred hooked up to something so big he had virtually no control.  The fish smoked him deep into the reef.  It was a chore but we were able to break his leader with a two handed pull on the line.  We got everything back except his monster fish and his fly.

 

Day one at Farquhar Atoll here in the Seychelles was a successful one.  No doubt Fred and I had an exciting fishing day but so did most of the others in my group.  A few worth mentioning would be Michael and Caio’s first bonefish on the fly.  Today was their first time ever fishing in saltwater.

 

TJ managed to land his largest GT yet to date.  TJ was part of my GT hunting group at Cosmoledo Atoll here in the Seychelles back in 2022.  That’s all for today.  Exhausted in the best of ways!

 

Be sure to keep tabs on my IG at @jeffcurrier65

 

That’s all for now.  Time to board!

 

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing