Four of us here this week on my Yellow Dog Hosted trip to Providence Atoll were on the heartbreaking 2019 cyclone trip. I brought a group all the way over here to the Seychelles only to get caught in a 100 year storm. We were trapped in Mahe seven days. We never made it to Providence or delivered a single cast. I fished with two friends today that were on that distressful trip, Steve Fitzsimon and Therese Rappazini. Our guide was my longtime pal and legendary Seychelles fishing guide, Tim Babich.
Tim truly is one of the best guides in the Seychelles. In my opinion, the best. He’s led me and my guests into memorable catches for years going all the way back to my first trip to Farquhar in 2014. We’ve chased yellowfish in South Africa together and I showed him the treats of Idaho from the Henry’s Fork to the Knotty Pine on the 4th of July. I knew good things were in store for today.
I won’t beat around the bush with how calm it was and how hot it was – again. Or how tough the triggerfish were thanks to these conditions. I’m going to go right to the highlight of where Tim positioned both Steve and Therese on the edge of the ocean surf but facing into the lagoon. They each had a clear view of incoming GTs over strips of sand. This technique takes patience because you must wait. But Steve didn’t wait long for a customer and he executed a fish enticing cast. “Fish on!”, Steve shouted.
Steve set into a freight train of giant trevally. Any GT over a meter is considered a trophy and judging by the bend in his 12-weight and how far into the backing he was in seconds suggested this fish was every bit a beast. At first Steve was lucky, the fish ran into the lagoon where leader and line severing corals are scarce. But soon the GT changed course and flew back for the surf. Surf and waves that break unevenly entirely due to a rich coral reef.
Steve fished with me on Farquhar in 2016 and also here on Providence in 2022. While this may have been his biggest GT, he isn’t new to their tricks. Being fully aware of the dangers of the coral, Steve tightened his drag all the way and leaned back. His drag was so tight the trevally literally physically pulled Steve towards the coral. But the GT was unsuccessful and when you put a stop on these magnificent fish, you basically set them straight as to who is boss. Minutes later Tim tailed the great fish and they were posing for pics. The GT measured an impressive 114 cm!
We hung around another 30 minutes hoping more GTs would funnel through Tim’s spot but there were none. The tide got to where we had to move so we did so by walking. Steve and I plucked cool fish off the coral heads on foot while Tim pulled the boat with Therese on point doing the same.
Fishing was good. There was a lot of action. The peacock groupers were hungry as were the bohar snappers, bluefin trevally and more. Therese even landed her first Napoleon wrasse. But it was her next fish that started a new theme.
I was much closer to Therese and Tim than Steve. Steve didn’t hear the sonic snap-crackle-pop his 12-weight let out as Therese brought a chunky African marble grouper to the boat. But I sure did. Just as Tim grabbed ahold of yet another amazing catch, Steve’s 12-weight detonated down by the butt. It was a bummer and I could tell Therese was a little shocked. She didn’t know whether to hold the fish or the broken rod. But Tim has seen it a million times and knew we had more. After a few photos of the dandy of a grouper, Tim pulled out Steve’s extra 12-weight and strung Therese back up like nothing ever happened.
I too have seen so many rods break in my day. I’d forgotten about it quickly also, especially because I had my hands full wrangling my own marbled grouper. This one was splashing my glasses and trying to break my rod. But my ears were working and about as I grabbed this fish I heard that awful sound of breaking graphite coming from the boat again. Therese didn’t even have a fish on this time and the backup rod was shattered. It exploded in mid cast right in the same spot. Two 12-weights down in a matter of minutes.
Now all three of us felt bad – me, Tim and Therese. The only one that didn’t was Steve and that’s because he was stalking a Napoleon wrasse on foot and had no idea what was going on. I believe he hooked up but lost Napoleon only to notice from the corner of his eye, we weren’t fishing but rather staring at him. “What’s up guys? Did you see that Napoleon!”, he shouted over with excitement.
“Yea we saw the Napoleon tailing and everything. Nice try. But you now have not one, but two broken 12-weights”, Tim said with a nervous smile.
But Steve is cool. After he initially thought the news was an early April Fools’ joke and truly realized he was down two rods, he said at least you caught some nice fish honey and laughed. All was good. And the truth is, when you have a group of 12 anglers at Providence Atoll, there’s about 20 plus 12-weight rods on the Maya’s Dugong. Plus, it was time to celebrate Steve’s GT of a lifetime rather then cry about some broken objects.
We kept the thrill of catching cool fish going all afternoon. Therese had casts at a “giganticus” barracuda. Steve and I each caught the ever so beautiful saddleback groupers (This is the fish in this picture). I had a scare while wading deep with a ray the size of a living room carpet. It was just all-round fun afternoon. Furthermore, Steve, Tim and I enjoyed teasing Therese that because of the broken rods that she’d have to wear a banana suit on the flats tomorrow. Yeah, I’m not kidding. It’s a tradition on the Mayas Dugong that if you do something really stupid you need to pay the fish gods by wearing the suit. But truthfully, both Steve’s rods broke in the same spot. We wrote it off that they were damaged by something previously. Therese was excused.
Excused for the broken rods that is. However, when she hooked this bluefin trevally from the bow of the boat at around 4 PM today, she put her name right back in the ring for the banana suit. When she hooked this stud bluefin, the reel spun rapidly because her drag was kind of loose. She got burned by the line and instead of sucking up the burning slicing sensation, she let the rod fly right out of her hands. Overboard! Tim dove for it just in time and they were able to not only save the rod but also land the fish. You tell me – did Therese earn the banana suit?
It was an amazing day on the flats with my team today. But, despite amazing fishing and a whole lot of fun, the verdict and vote at dinner was unanimous. The only lady on the trip was designated to wear the banana suit tomorrow until she catches her first fish. Therese is not thrilled. She even gave me a mouthful because she saw my hand up in the voting. But I’m an honest man. What can I say? She’ll be fine and I’m sure someone else will do something even sillier before the week is over.
I’m happy to say it was a fantastic day for everyone. The fish have finally quit sulking because of the lack of wind and high heat. There were plenty of GTs caught, bohar, grouper and you name it. TJ caught his usual GT for the day but also managed his first yellowmargin triggerfish. That’s all folks. Got to get up early and do it again!
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What a great day despite the losses! I am sure i would spend a day in the banana suit. The saddleback is one of the most gorgeous fish i have seen.
The suit has your name on it!