Seychelles

Seychelles 2019 – Denis Island II

Denis Island – climate change is leaving its mark here as well

The Seychelles, November 2019

This time the weather conditions were mixed. We started off with some fine weather but water temperatures in excess of 30 degrees made fishing extremely difficult. Torrential rain and storms ruined the last five days. Climate change is making itself noticeable here as well with rising water levels and excessively warm water temperatures in turn causing corals to die. Nevertheless, the island has retained its incomparable charm and offers a wonderful range of fauna and flora.

Adhering to the maxim “Make the best of what you’ve got” I set off for the flats early every morning with my fly rod, always searching for bonefish, trevallies and other reef dwellers. The afternoons were spent jigging and trolling at sea from 2.30 to 6.30 p.m.

Nevertheless, on our seven outings we managed to catch a few fish – including a small blue marlin – when trolling between the jigging spots. We trolled 2 of the lures from our own range together with 2 teasers. The fly rod was always close at hand in case a sailfish put in an appearance on the surface. Unfortunately we only raised two sailfish behind the boat, one of which immediately attacked the lure and was released after a short fight. We were able to tease the second one to the fly which it promptly struck. Regrettably, it threw the hook after a series of jumps.

We tested our latest product, “BWF Flasher Lures” extensively and with great success both on the Great Barrier Reef and the Seychelles. These will be available in our shop shortly.

We hooked all kinds of reef fish while jigging, including a beautiful wahoo. The hotspots were infested by sharks which were quick to steal the fish off our hooks so there were no real surprises this time.

Fly-fishing along the flats was quite difficult due to the high water temperatures and wind speeds of up to 40 knots. I’m not quite sure how many miles I walked in the end. The first signs of metamorphosis definitely became apparent as I seemed to be growing webbed toes! I didn’t discover many fish, either. On my tenth day I came across a couple of bonefish by pure chance. These turned out to be the personal highlight of this trip as I failed to find any more.