Providence Atoll - November 2022

 I was meant to go to Providence in April 2021, a trip I had planned with some fishing mates to celebrate my 50th birthday. Unfortunately Covid-19 and all the nonsensical travel bans enacted in those times meant I had to postpone it a few times until I finally got a spot on a trip in November 2022. The week was a full moon spring tide week, so optimal for GTs, but in the lead up to the trip I heard from a friend that went there a few weeks prior that the atoll was full of massive baitballs of small dark pilchards that had attracted all the fish, leaving the flats barren.

  The group met up at IDC Aviation in Mahe, composed of 8 anglers as two of them had elected to fish solo. We flew out to Farquhar where as usual we were greeted by the pets before boarding the Maya's Dugong for the overnight steam to Providence. Conditions weren't great, the Southeaster was still blowing 20+ knots but the crossing was fairly uneventful. Below is my fishing diary for the week, technology these days makes it easy with a voice recorder app on my phone that then transcribes everything to Google Docs - ideal for making a quick record at the end of each day when the memory is still fresh.

 Day 1, Wednesday: my fishing partners for the week were Joern Heiner and Peter McLeod, guide today was Nic. We started off down by the surf, we went to the Deep South to the surf edge and walked along. Once we got there, we saw a couple of really big fish but they cruised by just out of range, so then we spread out and waited. I had three very good fish come at me, I made the cast at the middle one, and it didn't see the fly. The one on the left turned and went straight for the fly and missed it as a wave jacked up and the fly got lost in the foam. We saw a few more fish but never really got another shot.

 We then moved to another flat and as soon as we got there, we saw a little bit of movement, one fish came out, I had a cast at it but it didn't seem interested. A short while later another fish just slowly drifted out from the from the lagoon and onto the flat, I made the cast, it turned and inhaled the fly, and after a good fight we landed it, a solid GT and a great start. 

 

 Shortly afterwards, Joern caught a lovely GT off a stingray. Great aggressive eat and also a mid 80s GT landed. We then carried on and went to a few other flats but we didn't have a huge amount of other action. The fish just didn't seem to be around. We saw a few bumpies but in general, the GT fishing was fairly quiet, probably because of the bait balls that were reportedly still around.

 Day 2, Thursday, guide was Timmo. We went to the east as the western side of the atoll continued to be barren of fish. We started off along a flat walking along the edge, and we saw a couple of fish, but fairly quiet until a big, big fish came swimming down the edge of the flat with back and tail half out the water, looking more like a shark than a GT. I made the cast, it turned and annihilated the fly, chaos mud spray everywhere, and after slapping its tail out of the water a few times it ran down the flat, and then another big splash, and then it finally realised where it was and ran out into the lagoon. I managed to jump on the boat with Timmo, and by then the monster GT the fish had got me around a coral head, but I backed off the drag and we managed to get it off. I started winding and got most of the fly line back until it found another coral head and this time it was all over. Monster fish, well over 1.2m, big enough to give Timmo the shakes, which says it all.

 We then went to the surf edge where we saw two fish, and I had a good shot at one. It came and chased the fly, but never really got close enough to eat it, and then it went quiet. We then went back and went looking for the bait balls, which we found on the edge of the flats. One bait ball was on the flats with big explosions around it, so we jumped out walked along, cast and had and a triple hookup on GTs - absolutely chaos. That bait ball dispersed so we moved to another bait ball on the other side of the channel. I hooked another GT that broke me off and then I caught a pretty rainbow runner, a school of them was feasting on the bait with all the other fish. We spent a bit of time there trying to get the GTs, but there were bluefin trevally everywhere as well as a couple of big Napoleons, but getting the fly past the bluefin proved nigh on impossible. 

 We left the baitball and went to the surf, but there was no action, so with the tide being high we went back to the bait balls and started dredging or bommie bashing in the shallow. We caught a mountain of different fish: grouper, bohar, bluefin trevally, more chaos once again. I managed to get broken off a number of times lost quite a few flies, but it was incredible to see so many fish in the water. We had had some pretty intense action and kept on going until the end of the day. The fish would just gorging on those bait fish, which is probably explains why there aren't too many cruising the flats because there's so much food.

 Day 3, Friday, guide was Milan. We went to middle of the atoll to a bumpie flat. We got there and the tide was still a little bit too high so we went off to do a bit of bommie bashing and caught the usual suspects until the tide was right and then back to the bumpie flat. Once we got there we started seeing bumpies straight away, so Joern and I jumped off and headed off towards a couple of schools. The first school was closer to Joern, so I left him with that and carried on to a second school of about four or five fish that seemed to be fairly relaxed and happy.
They started moving off and headed down the flat so I calmly followed until they finally stopped and started feeding again. I got in position waited, until two of the fish started heading towards a white sandy patch, so I made my cast with the orange flexo crab. The fly landed upcurrent just on the edge of the white sandy patch and started tumbling towards them. The first fish had a good look, and the second one turned and tailed, I saw it eat the fly and just waited a second before strip striking and then everything went tight. Straight away it tore off into the distance with its mates, for what turned out to be a great fight, getting me into the backing four times. Luckily there was no coral around so it was just a question of waiting until finally managed to get it close to Milan who had the net ready. The fish was very cooperative and swam straight into the net and we landed it, it measured out at 103cm, my biggest to date and just a great fish. Pete managed to fly the drone and got some amazing footage, and we also took a whole bunch of pictures before releasing it back. 

 Next we started seeing bumpies feeding on the surface and Pete had a number of casts with the little floating  turtle grass pod fly that Timmo had tied, he had a couple of good presentations but never got a eat. Very cool to see the bumpies feeding on the surface like that, it’s only a question of time before someone catches one like that – just like trout feeding in a scum line, only much bigger and equipped with a vicious beak.

 After that we headed off towards the surf, and on the way we found the bust ups and just amazing scenes of GTs and bluefin tuna smashing the bait. I got a GT, Joern got a GT, and Pete got a GT as well as some great aerial footage with the drone of the carnage happening underneath. We stayed on the bait for a fair bit more action and then headed off towards the surfline, where we had lunch and waited for something to happen. We saw a couple of fish in the distance but nothing ever close enough to cast. And then we went towards GT white and spent a bit of time there looking for GTs, but there really wasn't any movement, which is not really surprising when there was so much bait fish action in the middle of the atoll that seemed to concentrate all the bait fish and also all the predators there. We then went off to a spot to try and catch Napoleon, and had a great time bommie bashing catching groupers and bohar and all sorts of things. Then a squall came through so we started heading back towards the boat. The current was absolutely raging so it was difficult to fish some of the dredging spots, until we got back to where the baitball action had been earlier in the day and managed to catch a number of fish in that area. There was still action, especially grouper, bluefin and bohar snapper were still on fire. We finally got back to the boat at 6:30pm after a great day of action and some amazing scenes.

 Day 4, Saturday, guide was Brendan. We went to the north island and started off walking along the beach. We saw some GTs prowling, I had a good shot at one that ate the fly and somehow didn't stay connected. We then made our way slowly down the beach, and Pete got a very nice one right on the edge of the beach; his 2^nd fish over a meter and an amazing out of the water eat.

 Then we worked our way along the beach, I saw another GT, had a good shot but it just didn't seem interested. We eventually got to the point where there were some GTs busting up in the floating turtle grass and murky water, probably four or five fish. I got a good shot at one and didn't take the fly, I cast of the next one that ate the fly, I set the hook and again didn't stay connected. Joern had more success and came tight on a nice GT.

 We then started drifting around the point where water was milky and full of mullet swimming around, and this big very pale GT appeared right close to the boat. I dropped the fly on its head. It turned around and smashed the fly, a great eat out the water and then it took off and my fly line was just wrapped everywhere. Around my foot, around a bag, and in the end it got caught on the hook of my gravel guards. I tried shaking my foot and even jumped out of the boat to try and relieve some pressure, but that wasn't enough and it broke me off. Damn shame because it was a very good fish.

 We then hang around there a bit, saw a big barracuda and a couple of smaller fish, but it was quite windy and overcast by then. At low tide we went offshore to try our luck on sailfish, and straight away we had a pack of four or five come up on the teaser. We put some casts out but no interest, so we carried on and shortly after another the pack came up, I put a cast out, let the fly sink down, a big fish came and turned, ate the fly, and I was able to set the hook. And off it went for a good long run of maybe 70 80, metres of backing, and then just started jumping like crazy on the surface. I got it boat side and Brendan billed it, we took some great pictures of a solid Seychelles sailfish, probably 40 kilos, close to two metres long

 Then Joern had a go and finally managed to catch one as well after a few attempts - the sails up north were angry that day!

 It started to get very rough so we came back into the flats and went to The Interface where we saw some triggers. I got an eat from a big yellow margin, but the light was terrible and the wind was quite strong by then. We saw some bluefin and had a couple of shots at GTs but they just appeared too late for us to be able to cast to them. We moved back up that flat, saw a few more triggers and bluefin but it was just too windy and tough and not a huge amount of action. In the distance there were some big squalls forming so we pull the pin and headed back to the boat.

 Day 5, Sunday, guide was Nic. We started off looking for sailfish heading south but really didn't raise much. Then we went to look for milkies, and got a few shots in at some fairly active milkies. Peter managed to hook one, but it came off quite quickly, but they were very erratic and then they disappeared so we headed on to the flats to start looking for GTs. The first flat we walked fair bit and didn't really see much, very quiet, and the water was quite warm with no current. Then we went to some coral bommies that we staked out for a while but apart from some bluefin and a GT in the distance we didn't see anything. After lunch we went to another flat where we started walking, but again, very, very quiet. We were in the western side of the atoll about midway, then heading north to where the Dugong was moored. We tried another flat, by then it was afternoon and the light was low so we were looking for waking fish. Very little push and current, just warm water that was very static. We saw very few signs of life, I saw a couple of wakers late in the afternoon and I had two shots, but difficult to figure out which way they were going:
one cast too close, the other one too far. Tough day.

 

 Day 6, Monday, last day, guide was Timmo. We started off in the east trying to catch Napoleons, so we drifted across bommies with pretty much a static line and a clouser. There was a lot of life, I got hooked up to something that pulled me straight into structure and broke off 100lb tippet like it wasn't there. It was probably the Napoleon that we were after just based on the weight and the fight. We kept on drifting through massive schools of bluefin and lots of very big bohar. And then we went to our first spot to look for GTs so we started walking along a line.

  I saw a couple of fish but the light and the wind was not the easiest at this point. Then a stingray with a fish started coming towards me. I managed to just get a cast into the wind, the fish turned and charged and ate the fly at the rod tip – I was running out of line to retrieve so I started running backwards and tripped and fell back underwater, but still stay hooked up and landed it. We saw a few more fish, and then walked up along towards the surf line. We saw a few more GTs there, but the light was getting difficult by then. Saw quite a few triggers but they were really, really spooky and just couldn't get them to eat. After that we went to the north east to a spot where big fish cruise through, and Timmo parked us on coral heads in the middle of the surf and we waited, but nothing really happened again. Conditions were a bit challenging so we finished off on the milkfish. Joern and I both hooked up pretty much on the first drift but both fish came off. The fish started getting a bit more scattered but by then it was it was time to pack up and head back to the Dugong.

 Not the easiest week for GTs, but an incredible experience once again, with huge numbers of reef species caught that gave us all a workout, as well as some notable moments and fish for others in the group.

 

My new boat - Fusion 19

When I decided to move back to Oz, a boat was always part of the plan. After owning my UB 520 for almost 10 years and seeing plenty of other boats, I had a good idea of what I wanted in a boat. It needed to be around 6m long, with lots of deck space and casting decks, good dry storage, in-gunnel rod storage for fully rigged fly rods, and a wet deck/scupper set up like my UB - no relying on dodgy bilge pumps for me thanks. Unfortunately I wasn't able to find any AU boat option that fit the bill, so it was probably going to be a US import. 

Whilst here in SA I had the opportunity to fish on the FlyCastaway Fusion 17 boats that they use on Sterkfontein dam and was impressed with the ride and the finish, and the way they could be customised quite extensively. I also spoke to a couple of people that have them back in Oz (Pete Fry in HB and Andrew Susani in Mackay) and they gave glowing reviews. As I was going to be bringing my car and motorbike back with me, I contacted the shipper and was comforted to know that going from a 20' to a 40' container wasn't going to make a huge difference (approx 40% increase in overall shipping cost), so I got in touch with Brent at Fusion and started the discussion.

Now Fusion have an agent in AU based in Hervey Bay, but I wasn't prepared to wait till I got back to start the whole process, but they confirmed they were happy to build me a boat but then it was my business shipping it over. Being a short flight away from their factory in Knysna also helped so after working through all the details I took the opportunity to go visit a friend in Knysna, do some grunter fishing there and most of all go for a test ride and a factory visit.

 On the day we went for a test ride, the sea was as calm as can be, too calm for the boat designer James that took us for a spin in his boat. The Knysna Heads are renowned for being incredibly rough, one of the few places in the world that Lloyd's won't insure, and James likes to show what his boat can do. James' 19 had a Merc 225 on the back with a jack plate, and that thing is a rocket - after a number of attempts he got us airborne going through the heads, and I tried as much as I could to unsettle it out in the ocean, to no avail. I was sold!

We went back to the factory; it had just re-opened after holidays and they were cleaning the 4 moulds (15, 17, 19 and 21), and had a walk around, discussed a few more details and the order was confirmed, and the build slot secured!

So after confirming the specs and paying the deposit, the wait started until one day I got a WhatsApp message showing my boat coming out of the mould - happy days!:

I had decided on the following fitout: 

• front and rear casting decks with EVA decking
• no exposed cleats or anything that could catch a line - 5 pop up cleats in total - 1 on the bow and 2 on each of the gunnels
• Front lean post 
• Prep for bow mount electric motor
• In gunnel rod holders - for 10' long rods
• built in esky - front of the console under the seat
• raw water deckwash and live bait tank
• cushions for the full front deck
• Trim tabs

The trim tabs warrant a special mention, as Fusion had never fitted any before, but for me they were a must, like hydraulic steering. Luckily I had a friend travelling to the US for business so I was able to order and have him bring back a set of 9 x 12 Lenco tabs with the LED actuator switches - Fusion were able to fit these for me at the factory.

As the days went past more pictures trickled in showing great progress:

And just like that the boat was ready to be loaded onto it's shipping frame and transported up to Johannesburg - after a number of calls and messages I was lucky to find a tow truck returning to Brits, a town just north of Johannesburg, so the boat was loaded and on it's way to a packing yard in Johannesburg where it would await the container

On the day it arrived I was finally able to see it in the flesh for the first time - and apart from a bunch of locusts picked up near Graaff-Reinet, all was good

And then last week I finally got the call I was waiting for from the shipper - container loading time. I headed down to the packing yard and watched them skilfully load my car, bike and my boat into the container:

Vessel in Durban should be leaving early next week, ETA in Brisbane early July. Motor is ordered and deposit paid, as is the trailer, now I just have to wait some more for the next phase in AU.

In the end it took a bit longer, thanks to the vagaries of global shipping, compounded by Covid...  The container went from Durban to Port Louis, Mauritius, where it then waited for almost 3 weeks before then going to Sydney. It spent 2 weeks in Sydney and then finally to Brisbane, but not without a side trip to Noumea, New Caledonia.... On the 26th of July I finally got the all clear to go and collect the boat, so I went down to Spitfire trailers on the Gold Coast to collect the trailer that had been ready for a while. 

 

 

After a detailed brief on maintenance and set-up from the owner Peter, I headed off to the packing yard in the port of Brisbane to collect the boat. Unfortunately as it was a bonded warehouse I was not allowed to take any photos, but they used a jib arm on a giant forklift to lift the boat off the shipping cradle and onto the trailer. I then spent a bit of time adjusting bunks and rollers before finally heading off to the boat yard for the motor fitout, with a quick stop at home to unload a few extra bits that had travelled with the boat.

I managed to get to Brisbane Marine just before closing time, and left the boat there for the motor fitout. Whilst they started the fitout I was finally able to get the hull registered, which ended up being very straightforward, via a visit to my local TMR office. A combination of COVID cases at the boat shop and public holidays slowed things down, but 10 days later I finally drove up to went to check up on progress of the boat. 

 

Everything was as I hoped, with a few adjustments still required so after testing the motor we took the boat down to the marina for the long awaited water trial. The boat was very easy to launch, and the Mercury 150 ProXS had plenty of torque and power, getting the boat up on to the plane with no effort and in no time. The Minn Kota tested fine so I was finally able to take Invictus home, in preparation for it's first journey on the weekend

That Saturday I finally took the boat out for it's first run, across the bay to Tangalooma and for a good run at speed, and I was blown away by the performance, comfort and stability. Fuel consumption was great, holeshot even too fast so more tweaking required with the prop size to better optimise speed and cruise. I still didn't have a GPS chartplotter installed so difficult to really tell, but everything worked as planned and my wife and son were very impressed

The following week I took the boat back to get a few things adjusted, including fitting a longer pitch prop. I then took the boat up the coast for the first fishing trip - a short morning session on the Noosa river, where both my son and I caught a few trevally - a great maiden fishing trip.

On the way back I took the boat to Rob Wood at SCMED and he installed the Garmin chartplotter, NMEA bus and a compass and everything was pretty much complete. That weekend my son and I went out on the bay for the first tuna fishing venture, and we almost succeeded, but the following weekend we found the longtail tuna feeding and I managed to hook and land a solid 28lber on my 9 weight flyrod - a great fish and a great way to blood Invictus

I'm still tweaking and adjusting a few things, part of the fun of boat ownership, but I couldn't be happier with the way the boat rides. Once I'm happy I'll add some performance stats, but so far it seems to cruise at 24kts at 3800rpm, doing about 1.1nm/l which is great economy. Top speed so far is 42.4kts (GPS speed) and with the 200l tank I should get more than enough autonomy for any trip I will do.

Special thanks to the following people who played a part in this long process:

• Brent at Fusion Boats
• Troy at Brisbane Marine
• Peter at Spitfire Trailers
• Rob Wood at SCMED