Species Bashing Day

I always fish cool places with an old-style waterproof camera around my neck.  I use it to grab a quick photo here and there to help tell the stories to go with the blog.  I use it to document new species and photograph oddball stuff like flies or a close up of the fins of a fish.  Its precious in rainy conditions or dangerous wading when I don’t dare take out my phone.  I have four days’ worth of fun and unique photos on my camera, but the problem is, yesterday I left it on the beach to close to the edge.  So close to water’s edge that the high tide took it away.  So if you’ve noticed there’s been mostly just fish pictures in the blogs so far, this is why.  I had about a 100 photos on the camera that are now gone forever.

 

You can’t look back.  The phone will have to take some risks from here on out.  The bottom line is I’m fishing Farquhar Atoll in the Seychelles and tomorrow I head to Providence for another week.  I’ll redo those pics.  Today I fished with buddy Dave Boyd and the only guide that was here when I was last in Farquhar back in 2016, Gerry Nourrice.

 

Ironically, my day with Gerry back in 2016 was a mirror image of today.  It was windless and hot.  This seems to be a common occurrence these days.  Gerry announced GT fishing would be slow and suggested casting over coral heads to start and switch to triggers late morning.  There was no argument from Dave and I.  Both of us love catching species and we started out with a double.  I have the blue spangled emperor and Dave nailed a spotcheek emperor.

 

It was a full on species bash.  I went to work on stocking up on photos so I literally kicked back and took pics while Dave went to work.  For the first ten minutes he hooked into fish almost every cast!

 

Bluespotted grouper, better known as the peacock grouper.

 

Dave with a bohar snapper also known as the two-spot red snapper.

 

This is the humpback red snapper.

 

Oh how time flies when you’re having a good time.  When the GT fishing isn’t right, you need to back off and enjoy what’s available.  Dave, Gerry and I had an absolute blast for several hours.  We landed at least eight species.  At least.  But at 11 AM, Gerry called it.  Now it was time to hunt the triggers.  The triggers were on; however Dave and I were about to be disasters.

 

I personally have been on an incredible roll with triggers.  I ended at Providence in 2022 absolutely on fire catching four and five a day.  This week I started well with a trigger super slam on day 1.  But during our midday session today – not so much.  A wake up call for sure.

 

First some strange luck happened to Dave.  Not really bad luck, but he laid out a perfect cast to a tailing yellowmargin from the bow of the boat.  The trigger came right for his fly and tipped on it.  Dave was patient and waited for the trigger to chew it and get the hook in its mouth.  The problem however, he was intercepted by this little guy.  This is the gorgeous floral wrasse.  A new species for Dave but that yellowmargin was huge!

 

I’ll give you the list of my failures during our trigger session.  I made some bad casts that spooked triggers.  I strip set too soon several times.  And worst of all, when I finally did get hooked up, my leader butt loop broke.  The sad thing is, I had noticed earlier that it was worn and needed to be changed.  Let’s just say, I got what I deserved!

 

Dave flat out had some bad luck.  After the wrasse stole his fly from glory, he made numerous excellent casts.  He had several trigger follows only to get stuck in the turtle grass once (yes he had weed guards).  Then he hooked up and lost one.  Then he got coraled.  And last, on the fish we were certain we had, the trigger mangled his hook.

 

By around 2 PM the tides finally got too low and the triggers left the flat.  It was triggers seven, Dave and Jeff zero.  A tough nut to swallow.  I’m most certain Gerry is still wondering what the heck he had witnessed.

 

We enjoyed a nice lunch and a beer and before we knew it we had only a couple hours left for the day.  We took a walk to double check that my camera was truly washed away yesterday.  It was.  Then we fished hard but even the coral heads slowed down.  We spent the last hour drifting in deep water just outside the atoll.  Its not really Dave’s thing so he watched as I sent my Scientific Anglers Sonar Titan Pelagic line down in the depths with a huge Clouser.  For years I’ve been dreaming of a huge dogtooth tuna on the fly.  Once again it didn’t happen but if it’s the fish of 10,000 casts, I got in another 100 behind me.

 

Today was most of ours last day at Farquhar and tomorrow we head for Providence Atoll.  When you consider our unfavorable fishing conditions of high heat and low wind most of the week, the group has been quite successful.  There were several fish worth mentioning today.  First of all, not everyone had the trigger stink.  Here’s Steve Goble with an amazing yellowmargin.

 

Caio from Brazil dredged with Michael and managed to land a Napoleon wrasse to brag about.  This is a monster for an 11-weight!

 

Mike Lodge, TJ, Steve R. and Fred hammered a few more GTs despite difficult conditions.  Nothing huge but nice ones nonetheless.

 

Tonight we enjoyed another beautiful evening at the lodge telling tales of the day and sharing plans for the upcoming.  I had a few more Yeti pieces to do for employees and guides.  It’s a pretty cool collection when they are all together.  Then we wrapped it all up with another great dinner.  Our first stop in Seychelles 2025 has been a great one!

 

Stay tuned for our next stop at Providence Atoll and be sure to keep tabs on my IG at @jeffcurrier65

 

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing