After my 2017 trip to Cosmoledo I decided to go to the trouble of organising a Seychelles trip once again, and decided to finally complete my Seychelles trifecta and fish Providence atoll - a number of friends of mine raved about it so I got in touch with Gerhard Laubscher of FlyCastaway and secured a prime spring tide week in November. Then the cat herding started - filling the 12 spots proved a challenge but I managed to do so once again with a combination of friends I had fished Cosmo and Farquhar with as well as a couple of friends of friends who were keen to join.
Providence atoll is the largest of the the Seychelles atolls, measuring approx 46km north to south. Different from the other atolls, it's actually a long bank with two exposed islands, one in the north (Providence) and one in the South (Cerf) and does not possess a lagoon. The tides are therefore not influenced by the movement in and out of the main lagoon but more by the smaller movements inside the smaller lagoons, and in the main part from the big tidal influx from the ocean. Another aspect that affect the tides is the primarily north south direction of the banks which means that the prevailing South Easter wind will tend to push water from the south east onto the banks and reduce the effect on the downwind side. Depending on the time of the year and the direction of the prevailing winds the side of the atoll that can be fished will always tend to be the leeward side which in November was the Western side of the atoll.
As per other Seychelles trips we all flew into Mahe where we ended up overnighting before the early morning flight the next day to Farquhar with the usual IDC Aviation Beechcraft that I flown in numerous times before to other Seychelles destinations. Once on Farquhar we were transferred to the awaiting vessel the Maya's Dugong; this was my third time on this boat as previous trips to Cosmoledo were done on this vessel and nothing much has changed which is a good thing. The skipper is the unflappable Kevin, he has been to so many different places in the Seychelles that he knows his way around better than many. We met the four guides for the trip: head guide Tim Babich, and the other three guides Wesley de Klerk, Brendan Becker and Nic Isabelle. After the detailed safety briefing and outline of the week ahead we confirmed the groupings for the week and started rigging up rods and reels and leaders as well as tying on the flies that would do the damage. Kevin upped anchor and the 5-hour transit to Providence commenced.
The Maya's Dugong comes with four skiffs so the groupings are one guide per three anglers and everyd the guide changes so that as a minimum you fish with every guide at least once. The transit was fairly uneventful albeit a little bit bumpy as the weather was not looking great at that point in time with wind and the occasional rain squall. Forecast for the week wasn't much better but there's not much one can do about the weather apart from deal with it and make the most of the opportunities provided. We sailed all the way up the western side of Providence Banks, and stopped at the northern anchorage not far from Providence Island that was going to be our base for the first two nights and would allow us to fish the northern part of the atoll. After dinner and drinks we all went to bed filled with expectations for the next day.
Day 1 dawned and it was breezy but the sun was out so that was positive. Pete, Mark and I were paired together for the week and our guide on day one was Wesley De Klerk and we started the day off fishing for oversized bonefish on a mixed bottom. We had a number of double ups and the fish were not shy at all racing to eat whatever fly we threw at them. The average size was impressive with most fish in the 6 to 8 lb range and the biggest getting close to 10 lbs. Mark was first off the mark on GTs, catching a nice 75cm model that was tailing. Pete also managed to catch a GT and we had plenty of shots at bumpies but they proved recalcitrant and spooky especially on the incoming tide, and a big tiger shark chasing turtles on the flats made them even spookier. Clouds and rain in the afternoon made the going tough and we tried out luck offshore and managed to raise a sailfish but didn't connect.
Day 2 was again breezy with intermittent rain, the weather conspiring to make life difficult for us. We fished with Nic Isabelle and went looking for GTs and bumpies. I managed to catch my first GT of the trip in slightly chaotic style - I spotted the fish whilst standing on the boat and made the cast - The fish smashed the fly and whilst running away the flyline somehow managed to find a small piece of rope that held the boat cushions down and promptly wrapped tightly around it. It didn't stay that way for long as the line went snap and Nic and I lept out of the boat in pursuit. The GT briefly stopped and that was enough for Nic to dive onto the line and grab it before it disappeared. What followed was a coordinated effort of Nic holding on and diving after the fish whilst I threaded the line through the guides, tied the flyline together and finally managed to land the fish!
We once again had plenty of shots at bumpies and Mark managed to land his first, a manageable sized one. The triggers were around but difficult to catch, Pete managed to hook 2 and land one, and that allowed him to remove the dreaded banana suit that he got given the night before. The banana suit is a Providence tradition, it gets awarded the night before to the daftest act of the day and can only be removed when a fish is caught. If a guide is wearing it then it can only be removed when one of the anglers catches a "meritorious fish" and given Pete's many trips the same rule applied to him.
Day 3 and no respite from the wind or the clouds, I was beginning to think Pete was the cause - on his last trip to Prov there was an out of season cyclone... Guide for the day was Brendan Becker and the GTs proved once again very scare. The bumpies were everywhere as were the bohar and yellow lipped emperors, and whilst drifting over a sandy patch we saw some bumpies swimming slowly in about 2m of water. Mark made a cast not expecting much, the fly sat on the bottom and the bumpies swam over and the line went tight. After an intense battle Brendan got it in the net - it measured out at 111cm and as Mark had his scales with him we weighed it. To everyone's surprise it came in at 103lbs! Whilst wading after a GT we saw I got bumped on the calf by a small silvertip shark - for a second I thought I had tripped up on something but then saw the shark dart away - scary moment and a first for me - apparently we were in the sharkiest spot on the atoll so staying on the boat was a good option as we saw lemons and silvertips around. Overnight we upped anchor and moved to the middle of the atoll anchorage.
Day 4 and you guessed it - wind and more wind and to add to that I was wearing the banana suit, after having double hauled Brendan right in the mouth... We woke up to see milkfish feeding in the current line near the Dugong, and all boats headed off to try and catch one of them. The wind and waves made it tough, we got a few good shots and I hooked up only for the hooks to pull. We then headed off into the dirty south with Tim Babich, hunting GTs in the badlands at the south-eastern end of the atoll. We got there and tried out luck, getting tossed around by the waves and having a few shots, but yet again the GTs proved very scarce - by then we were all beginning to suspect the dreaded offshore crab hatch was on. This is a phenomenon that normally occurs on the October full moon, crabs gather offshore to spawn and everything is attracted to these great big floating smorgasbords. Every now and then this phenomenon gets delayed and can happen in early November, and that seemed to be the cause of the lack of GTs on the flats. We headed towards the island and found loads of bonefish and had a great session where we were often all hooked up at the same time - these were all large strong bones, nothing smaller than 6 lbs and hungry. We went to the bottom of the island to stake out for GTs, and Pete spotted one in the distance and ran off and caught it - well done Pete. We then headed offshore to try our luck on sailfish and after a short while a fish came up, I made the cast and hooked it. After a good fight we got it boatside for the quick customary photo and released it in good condition.
Day 5 and we were with Wes again and even though it was still breezy there were no clouds, a promising sign. After another fruitless quick session on the milkfish we headed off to the flats where we quickly saw some bumpies tailing. We all split up chasing them and by then after so many refusals and spooked fish I had lost interest a bit. But a school swam in the right direction, I cast the small orange merkin crab, and one of the fish lifted up to mid water and snapped it's beak. I instinctively strip struck and I was on, and after a brief tussle finally landed my first bumpie for the trip, the fly firmly wedged in the corner of it's mouth!. After the customary photos I tied on a fresh orange merkin, and Wes called me over as there was a trigger tailing near the boat. I waded over and cast - exactly the same way as I had done to many triggers, but this time it followed the fly and ate. 2 fish in 2 casts, on the same fly, and this one was also destroyed by the gnarly trigger teeth.
We then headed off towards Mark and Pete who had waded off into the distance, and then hopped on the boat to cross a channel to get on another flat - as we approached the flat in the distance we saw large bow waves moving fast up the flat - Wes shouted "Monster Geets" as it was a school of about 4-6 giants, motoring with their backs half out the water!. We got to the edge of the flat and we all jumped off in hot pursuit, but the fish turned around in the distance and headed back down the flat. We spread out and started slowly walking down the flat, and about 10 minutes later I saw a single fish cruising towards me - it looked a decent size so I got ready and made the cast - one slow long strip, one faster one and it smashed the fly, turned, and screamed off into the distance! I still didn't have a good idea of the size, but the way it was pulling line off the locked up Mako I knew it was a good one. I shouted fish on and waved to Wes who was further up the flat - he fired up the motor and headed towards me asking if it was a big fish - it's big, it's big, just hurry is what I might have said! After 100m of backing had gone and still no sign of slowing down and Wes still a few metres away it did a sharp left turn and headed out into the bommie infested lagoon. Wes finally arrived, I jumped on and locked down and saw parts of the reel spool I had only seen once before when I caught a 180lb tarpon. We gave chase through the lagoon, dodging bommies and me winding like crazy, and miraculously made it to the other side where I finally got flyline on the reel. I pulled as hard as I could and still had no idea of the size, even though I was well certain this could have been my new PB. Wes dropped the anchor, jumped in and waded over to the fish and then grabbed it in a giant bear hug. Now Wes is a big guy, so nothing prepared me from when he turned around with the huge GT in his arms, shouting and grinning! It finally sunk in - my biggest GT to date!. We loaded it into the net, pulled anchor and motored back to the other side of the lagoon whilst I kept staring at the giant in the net. Once on the other side we finally got the tape measure out - 121cm and incredibly thick - my largest GT to date and one that will be hard to top - after hooking quite a few fish this size and getting humiliated, I had finally landed one, and if it hadn't been for Wes who knows. After many pictures we let it swim off happily.
We then headed offshore to try our luck on sailies, and Mark managed to catch a lovely yellowfin tuna that we kept, and then Pete hooked and landed a large sailfish after a long fight. I also managed to catch my first Wahoo on fly, and Mark caught one too, so with the skiff loaded with fresh sashimi we headed back to the Dugong where we celebrated my 30 minute slam with lots of El Dorado rum that night
Day 6 dawned and we were fishing with Nic again. The milkies were once again feeding hard and we started drifting and fishing for them. I hooked one pretty much straight away, Pete and I saw it eat the fly under the surface near the boat. After a strong run the hooks pulled unexpectedly, but shortly afterwards I was on again, and this time I fought it as hard as I could on the 9 weight. After a solid 20 minute tussle Nic did a masterful job with the net and my first Prov milkie was in the boat. Next it was Pete's turn to hook one and he also managed to land it, after which they stopped feeding so we headed back onto the flats. We had a fun day fishing flats and edges, and I managed 2 GTs plus some huge bohar snapper on the flats, a great end to an intense week of fishing. The fishing was not easy by any means, but those 30 minutes on day 5 will forever be etched in my memory
Final tally for the week for the group was:
Dave Hirsh also managed to land a 105cm GT, as well as a milkie, and Rocky caught a number of world record Indian ocean bonefish on light tippet, and Mark's giant bumpie also got accepted as the new all-tackle world record!
Day 2 was again breezy with intermittent rain, the weather conspiring to make life difficult for us. We fished with Nic Isabelle and went looking for GTs and bumpies. I managed to catch my first GT of the trip in slightly chaotic style - I spotted the fish whilst standing on the boat and made the cast - The fish smashed the fly and whilst running away the flyline somehow managed to find a small piece of rope that held the boat cushions down and promptly wrapped tightly around it. It didn't stay that way for long as the line went snap and Nic and I lept out of the boat in pursuit. The GT briefly stopped and that was enough for Nic to dive onto the line and grab it before it disappeared. What followed was a coordinated effort of Nic holding on and diving after the fish whilst I threaded the line through the guides, tied the flyline together and finally managed to land the fish!
We once again had plenty of shots at bumpies and Mark managed to land his first, a manageable sized one. The triggers were around but difficult to catch, Pete managed to hook 2 and land one, and that allowed him to remove the dreaded banana suit that he got given the night before. The banana suit is a Providence tradition, it gets awarded the night before to the daftest act of the day and can only be removed when a fish is caught. If a guide is wearing it then it can only be removed when one of the anglers catches a "meritorious fish" and given Pete's many trips the same rule applied to him.
Day 3 and no respite from the wind or the clouds, I was beginning to think Pete was the cause - on his last trip to Prov there was an out of season cyclone... Guide for the day was Brendan Becker and the GTs proved once again very scare. The bumpies were everywhere as were the bohar and yellow lipped emperors, and whilst drifting over a sandy patch we saw some bumpies swimming slowly in about 2m of water. Mark made a cast not expecting much, the fly sat on the bottom and the bumpies swam over and the line went tight. After an intense battle Brendan got it in the net - it measured out at 111cm and as Mark had his scales with him we weighed it. To everyone's surprise it came in at 103lbs! Whilst wading after a GT we saw I got bumped on the calf by a small silvertip shark - for a second I thought I had tripped up on something but then saw the shark dart away - scary moment and a first for me - apparently we were in the sharkiest spot on the atoll so staying on the boat was a good option as we saw lemons and silvertips around. Overnight we upped anchor and moved to the middle of the atoll anchorage.
Day 4 and you guessed it - wind and more wind and to add to that I was wearing the banana suit, after having double hauled Brendan right in the mouth... We woke up to see milkfish feeding in the current line near the Dugong, and all boats headed off to try and catch one of them. The wind and waves made it tough, we got a few good shots and I hooked up only for the hooks to pull. We then headed off into the dirty south with Tim Babich, hunting GTs in the badlands at the south-eastern end of the atoll. We got there and tried out luck, getting tossed around by the waves and having a few shots, but yet again the GTs proved very scarce - by then we were all beginning to suspect the dreaded offshore crab hatch was on. This is a phenomenon that normally occurs on the October full moon, crabs gather offshore to spawn and everything is attracted to these great big floating smorgasbords. Every now and then this phenomenon gets delayed and can happen in early November, and that seemed to be the cause of the lack of GTs on the flats. We headed towards the island and found loads of bonefish and had a great session where we were often all hooked up at the same time - these were all large strong bones, nothing smaller than 6 lbs and hungry. We went to the bottom of the island to stake out for GTs, and Pete spotted one in the distance and ran off and caught it - well done Pete. We then headed offshore to try our luck on sailfish and after a short while a fish came up, I made the cast and hooked it. After a good fight we got it boatside for the quick customary photo and released it in good condition.
Day 5 and we were with Wes again and even though it was still breezy there were no clouds, a promising sign. After another fruitless quick session on the milkfish we headed off to the flats where we quickly saw some bumpies tailing. We all split up chasing them and by then after so many refusals and spooked fish I had lost interest a bit. But a school swam in the right direction, I cast the small orange merkin crab, and one of the fish lifted up to mid water and snapped it's beak. I instinctively strip struck and I was on, and after a brief tussle finally landed my first bumpie for the trip, the fly firmly wedged in the corner of it's mouth!. After the customary photos I tied on a fresh orange merkin, and Wes called me over as there was a trigger tailing near the boat. I waded over and cast - exactly the same way as I had done to many triggers, but this time it followed the fly and ate. 2 fish in 2 casts, on the same fly, and this one was also destroyed by the gnarly trigger teeth.
We then headed off towards Mark and Pete who had waded off into the distance, and then hopped on the boat to cross a channel to get on another flat - as we approached the flat in the distance we saw large bow waves moving fast up the flat - Wes shouted "Monster Geets" as it was a school of about 4-6 giants, motoring with their backs half out the water!. We got to the edge of the flat and we all jumped off in hot pursuit, but the fish turned around in the distance and headed back down the flat. We spread out and started slowly walking down the flat, and about 10 minutes later I saw a single fish cruising towards me - it looked a decent size so I got ready and made the cast - one slow long strip, one faster one and it smashed the fly, turned, and screamed off into the distance! I still didn't have a good idea of the size, but the way it was pulling line off the locked up Mako I knew it was a good one. I shouted fish on and waved to Wes who was further up the flat - he fired up the motor and headed towards me asking if it was a big fish - it's big, it's big, just hurry is what I might have said! After 100m of backing had gone and still no sign of slowing down and Wes still a few metres away it did a sharp left turn and headed out into the bommie infested lagoon. Wes finally arrived, I jumped on and locked down and saw parts of the reel spool I had only seen once before when I caught a 180lb tarpon. We gave chase through the lagoon, dodging bommies and me winding like crazy, and miraculously made it to the other side where I finally got flyline on the reel. I pulled as hard as I could and still had no idea of the size, even though I was well certain this could have been my new PB. Wes dropped the anchor, jumped in and waded over to the fish and then grabbed it in a giant bear hug. Now Wes is a big guy, so nothing prepared me from when he turned around with the huge GT in his arms, shouting and grinning! It finally sunk in - my biggest GT to date!. We loaded it into the net, pulled anchor and motored back to the other side of the lagoon whilst I kept staring at the giant in the net. Once on the other side we finally got the tape measure out - 121cm and incredibly thick - my largest GT to date and one that will be hard to top - after hooking quite a few fish this size and getting humiliated, I had finally landed one, and if it hadn't been for Wes who knows. After many pictures we let it swim off happily.
We then headed offshore to try our luck on sailies, and Mark managed to catch a lovely yellowfin tuna that we kept, and then Pete hooked and landed a large sailfish after a long fight. I also managed to catch my first Wahoo on fly, and Mark caught one too, so with the skiff loaded with fresh sashimi we headed back to the Dugong where we celebrated my 30 minute slam with lots of El Dorado rum that night
Day 6 dawned and we were fishing with Nic again. The milkies were once again feeding hard and we started drifting and fishing for them. I hooked one pretty much straight away, Pete and I saw it eat the fly under the surface near the boat. After a strong run the hooks pulled unexpectedly, but shortly afterwards I was on again, and this time I fought it as hard as I could on the 9 weight. After a solid 20 minute tussle Nic did a masterful job with the net and my first Prov milkie was in the boat. Next it was Pete's turn to hook one and he also managed to land it, after which they stopped feeding so we headed back onto the flats. We had a fun day fishing flats and edges, and I managed 2 GTs plus some huge bohar snapper on the flats, a great end to an intense week of fishing. The fishing was not easy by any means, but those 30 minutes on day 5 will forever be etched in my memory
Final tally for the week for the group was:
- GTs – 35
- Bonefish – 41
- Milkfish – 4
- Sailfish – 6
- Triggerfish – 11
- Bumpies – 10
- Species – 334
Dave Hirsh also managed to land a 105cm GT, as well as a milkie, and Rocky caught a number of world record Indian ocean bonefish on light tippet, and Mark's giant bumpie also got accepted as the new all-tackle world record!
