Denis Island – a surprise every day

Seychelles February 2019

The weather conditions were excellent and there were not as many sharks around the hotspots as last year. After breakfast I set off for a bit of fly fishing on the flats. As it was high tide I tried my luck fishing from a kayak. Fly fishing on Denis turned out to be extremely arduous and by the end failed to deliver any particular highlights.

At 2 p.m. it was time to board the Lady Claire, a 31 ft. Bertram, for some jigging. Between the spots we rigged up our lures and teasers and in addition to some dorado, wahoo and small tuna managed to catch a sailfish with the pitch bait method. The best wahoo was a superb specimen weighing 22 kg.

Jigging at the drop-off and the surrounding underwater mountain ranges was successful and we were able to catch everything that lives there. The biggest doggy weighed 41.5 kg and was caught on low pitch tackle.

On day 5 we hooked a black marlin while jigging which surfaced once right next to the boat. Unfortunately, it threw the jig. We quickly dropped a dead bonito on a circle hook and trolled it slowly around the area. The marlin was still close-by and a short while later re-appeared behind the bonito which it followed for some 5 minutes without attacking it. Then the marlin lit up in a turquoise-blue colour, swam in a wide curve and then struck. After a 20 minute fight we were able to tag and release a 350 pounder.

On our last day we specifically targeted amberjacks at depths of 90 to 110 meters. On the last drift a shark grabbed the amberjack that was hooked on the jig. When it surfaced we couldn’t believe our eyes. The shark turned out to be 4.5 meter long hammerhead – awesome! Our mate was only able to hold it on the 100 lb. leader for a moment before it snapped. In the hustle-and-bustle the photograph we took was a bit out of focus…

Many thanks to Skipper Perry, Aubrey and our Kenyan mate Dzoro.

Tight Lines Stephan Kreupl, March 2019