Uncharted Waters - Bassas Da India

[GlynnH]

The next few hours, before the tide would push us off for the day, would reveal just how lucky we were to land that fish. The fickle eating habits, immense explosive power and the hectic coral would stop us from landing any further parrots. That said I was grateful for the 6 I did hook and lose, just for those seconds of insanity. This area was overrun by parrots so we saw little else but it didn’t matter. This was as challenging as chasing permit and we were all consumed by cracking the code of getting them to look at, never mind eat the fly. Which we did crack in the end through watching, learning and trial and error. It’s a pity we had so little time, you could spend months on that area and never get bored! The tide said leave and we did, a little too late which would not be repeated. All finally safe on the tender we headed for the mother ship and another blue water session.

For those that are interested, the notes are as follows on the parrot fish and I’m sure if you are visiting the Seychelles or other flats with parrots you could have a ball. I think there is fantastic potential in this species as a genuine target. My advice would be don’t pass up the opportunity for a great tussle. I stress these are just our observations and not a "how to" I'm sure there are many here who have been very successful with parrots but this covers our first experience of them at Bassas.
We found moving fish were not really worth targeting with the majority ignoring presentations completely. Tailing fish were far more interested. They were feeding by breaking coral and hunting down the crustaceans etc that darted out from the pieces. Clearly eye focus was specific to this immediate area. White crab patterns spooked them while Tan worked best. We got takes by casting upstream and letting it drift through the feeding zone and broken coral. Any drag and the pattern would be ignored. My best fish followed the drifting fly right to 2 inches from my wading boot where it did a comical headstand on the fly pinning it down while staring at me with one eye. Slow solid strip into a fish after you felt the tension would result in the hook finding the scissors and avoiding the beak. Any jumping the gun with a strike would end in a destroyed fly or cut leader from the coral cutting beak. The coral issue we didn’t master, and became the reason for loosing the majority of fish. We just tried to keep up and hold the rod high.

We boarded the mother ship and just before lunch I grabbed my heavy fly gear and went to the washboard. The others were all around the boat sorting gear etc. I tied on my hammerhead fly – It’s a scaled up mega clouser I’ve been working on for the last few years while deep water flyfishing in Mozambique. It's a lot heavier than the standard mega from the home made eyes thanks to a friend in the UK who molded them up for me. It easily fishes the 25meter + mark without line twist. While not exactly sight casting its an extremely effective way of coaxing some of the reef dwelling leviathans into a take on Fly gear and I love it.







I Stripped off my full line and sent the fly up tide. The 750grain 70lb core line went straight down to around 25 meters and once it was vertical to my position on the boat I spread my stance and started stripping making certain to manage line placement. Now I don’t mean a fast strip, I mean a strip so fast that even with months of practice it’s still hard to get enough pace in the fly. I got about 10 meters into the process and that’s when it hit me, it nearly wrenched the line and rod from my grip. I held tight on the line, sending the hook home and feeling the line burn into my hand through the glove... This was big.

The line cleared in a second and the reel did its thing. A brand new Nautilus Monster we were testing on the trip, drag on full and I was palming the reel but simply could not slow it down never mind turn it. He headed straight off the back for the deep water and horizon and kept going for a long way. Finally it stopped for a brief second when I took my chance. Knowing the tax man was around around I was giving it everything and pushing the tackle to its edge. I angled the rod as low as I could, trying to turn the fish, finally it did but then it hit the gas again. It headed straight back in a circular way to my right and towards the atoll. A decision that I believe saved that fish from the beckoning jaws! He did another blistering run and I managed to turn him again but this time it came straight at me! Desperately trying to keep up with it, my forearm and hand were screaming, any slack and I could lose my prize. The big game handle and huge arbour of the Monster were a ***send but even still it was tough. This has got to be the biggest fish on fly I have managed any sort of control on. I was beginning to win the battle but this was no dogged wait it out fight it was fantastically dynamic, the fish was going nuts. I was feeling so tired I was sick like back in my school fitness drills running trams. I don’t know how but I did manage to avoid the taxman, the fish came past the washboard and in the swell with a lift and heave my king landed at my feet.

I grabbed his tail and my lord did I hold it tight. I stared with disbelief at my fish. There was a few high fives and back patting but I was humbled at the fact that this beautiful specimen was most probably the first ever fly caught King Mackerel at Bassas Da India. Certainly the first Brent had seen and no baby at 1.4 meters and my best battle on a long rod! Truly grateful, I will take that memory with me everywhere. Those that know me will get tired of hearing this story but I will never get tired of telling it. I am unashamedly Proud of that fish!

[swsmith]

Epic story and a truely magical place...thanks for taking time to share this wih us....

[Umhlangarox]

What an absolutely EPIC story, thanks for sharing!

[Korrie]

Really appreciate you, sharing your trip with us.
Thanks

[beefybovril]

We want more...we want more...we want more...WE WANT MORE!!!

[Bryan]

Really enjoying this report!

[Quintin]

Awesome report!!! Thank you for sharing.

Q

[dlampert]

Great DVD Glynn! Condolences on your Dad, you have some awesome memories of him from this trip. That Marlin was insane and as for the speed of those wahoo ....

[GlynnH]

Thanks for all the comments. Yes, special memories of this and many other trips, a fortunate family. We all had a cracking time together! As for that Wahoo, I don't think I will ever see a reel spin like that again. Awesome fish out there!
....

Over lunch the satellite phone delivered the news we were dreading. The 40Knt wind forecast a week back was now much worse and a full on weather front. Tornadoes had hit SA, which was unheard of and the system was moving north towards us! We had an estimate of it arriving sometime the next day in the afternoon. That may just give us a session on the flats but it was uncertain. 250 miles out and isolated we could take no chances and needed to get to the sheltered side of the atoll. You will hear me talk about massive seas and huge rolling breakers but in most photo’s you’ll see calm conditions and beautiful flats. This is because there are very different environments around the atoll. As you can imagine as the water and the current hit the structure you get huge currents and seas on the one side but then the structure acts as a shelter to the other side and you get very protected waters there. The bigger fish are typically in the rough side and this is where we did most of the blue water stuff. Access to the flats and anchorage was generally in the protected side. With the weather news there was no point dwelling on it and just sitting there pooping ourselves for an experience we had no precedent! Instead we soaked up Brent’s confidence and went fishing – Blue Water Style !

The session went much the same as the day before, fish after fish smashed into us but a few definitely stood out! A giant Barracuda Pengas got right to the washboard was one of the biggest I had ever seen! Unfortunately as the lures were running out we had switched to try a cheapo, it wasn’t up to the job... It literally fell apart just before we lifted her out the water and she slipped back into the wash. We did manage to land a nice one though.



Tomo at the ready made a cast to a disappearing teaser and exploded a massive wahoo in the wash. She went easily over 60lb! The fly was set and I can still close my eyes and see that reel spinning. Tomo was giving it everything and held onto that fish for ages! Unfortunately it would not stop and run by run it stole chunks of backing. Eventually we chased her as close to the 20ft breakers as we could go and the tippet, sadly while a 150lb it was not rigged with wire and parted company. It was amazing it lasted that long but there were literally yards of backing left and with no more mobility I’m not sure the result would have been positive anyway. The whole boat was gutted for Tomo, it was a great and long fight, he was knackered and I could see in his eyes gutted. We were also a little more scared each time we cast into the unknown. This fishery was truly remarkable and every single cast produced the chance of a magnificent fish!

I'm fully aware that most anglers never get the chance to engage a 100lb fish so when I delivered my fly to the boil at the back and saw a tuna resembling a dolphin eat it, the adrenaline and shock was awesome. Strip striking wasn’t much of an option as the fish took at full cast so I kept my knuckles clear and hit is as much as I could with the rod. The hook was definitely set and not going anywhere. Clearly I was not going to get this in the allotted 4 minutes but Brent got me excited when he said the sharks don’t normally get them when they are that big. It makes sense when they are surrounded by a pick and mix bite size tuna bar.

There’s no doubt that tuna are awesome fighters, but compared to the GT’s and other big game they are pretty fair. Especially in deep water it’s just now down to the tackle and angler. Hear me out, I’m not saying it’s easy or take anything away from these awesome fish, they are epic fighters that never give up but it’s a different metric. I’ve lost hundreds of GT’s that have been properly hooked but not tuna. Take the Bassas Death squad out the equation and your chances of landing a hooked tuna are very high unless there is a tackle or angler failure. Sure you can get away with ok tackle on Bonnies and smaller chaps but these dolphins and fish this size – these are the occasions where substandard gear just doesn’t work, it just farts and falls down. Thankfully I had arguably the best tackle in the world, from rods and reels to lines and tippets. The tackle worry is now out the equation. So down to the angler, with big tuna and light tackle you simply cannot just sit there and let the tuna just swan around. My father used to say “If you’re resting, then it’s resting! And it’s a lot fitter than you!” It will take hours and the fish will sound and will most likely die, deep down, you’ll be left to lift a dead carcass - which is in my view a hollow victory. So you really have to get stuck in physically with these fish to give them every chance of survival. That means you are going to put an unreasonable amount of strain on the other angler metric, your knots. They aren’t going to have the normal to and fro of one directional traffic. They will be under serious strain and pressures for an extended period of time. I always find it amusing when people get into the argument about breaking strain and reel drag as though it’s a simple equation. The forces of stress on gear in these tussles are a lot more complicated than fish weight and real drag and anything else my mathematical skill can comprehend.

My 16# maxed and every inch of power and effort I had was being poured into her quickly and at the beginning. When the line flew back at me and I flew backwards, I was choked! I have lost many girlfriends but never had I been that heartbroken... It turned quickly to frustration and anger when my bimini loop came back without a fly line. I had nobody else to blame. I had replaced the line earlier and allowed myself to be lazy and just loop the bimini straight onto the line and omitted the cats paw which allows the load to be spread under these sort of battles. I am certain that the single loop cut through, A mistake of keeping up with the Jones’s I will not make again on my return to basses.

It doesn’t take long to get over losses as the excitement just continued as fish after fish came and went all afternoon. Terry got stuck into a lovely wahoo which managed some pretty good acrobatics. I love the colours of the Wahoo as they hit the light in the sun...




I was pulling a marlin smoker, sitting on the fighting chair and took a strike. Brian in a scene of deja vu to my left stood on the washboard. I tucked into the take and gleamed as a sailfish leaped across the evening sun. She tailed all along the horizon but managed to shake the hooks free. While retrieving all the line it had just run out I got smashed again and caught off guard as the rod lurched out of my bucket and I missed the strike. The wahoo came off after a dive and a splash. Amazingly, reeling in that slack I got smashed by another mammoth tuna, I felt it run for a few seconds but that came off too.... While rather humorous, clearly my karma was finished on my King earlier in the day. Another bill and sail cut through the wake, the boat must have attracted her. Yes our not so virgin salt water virgin was there again and made the cast. 20 seconds of blur and haze showed just how much pace the fastest fish in the sea has. Unfortunately that too let us know just how grateful you should be if you are one of the lucky ones who have landed one on the fly.

We averaged another few yellowfin each to finish off the day... a day of some big losses but still great fish, I think we were getting greedy. Tomorrow would dawn an intimidating challenge. We would take a 9am weather call again but we knew what was coming. We planned to hit the flats, if we could, even for an hour before she hit us but first things first...

Midnight rum snapper club time! After sushi and a braai that is!

[GlynnH]

That morning we awoke, all anticipating the 9am sat call from base on the weather. Unfortunately there was no miracle and there would be no avoiding the front, it was coming! Knowing that we would not have good weather for at least a few days, we decided for a quick dash to a new bit of the flats.

Frantically we all readied and piled into the tender. The dark front, now clearly visible on the horizon, was starting to take over the sky. As the tender carried us over the reef and into the lagoon, the front arrived. We were aiming straight for a shipwreck to target some GT’s but the lightning and thunder was all around. There was laughter and banter coming from all sides in the tender but I noticed every rod was as low as it could go. There seemed to be a non stated competition between making sure your rod wasn’t the highest point. Not that there was much point to this little game as we were all clearly the highest point next to the shipwreck.

Through all the bravado an incredible lightning strike lit the sky with an almighty crash of thunder. It branched across the whole view of the now black sky. The heavens opened and visibility dropped fast. The laughter now gone and with it the smiley faces and rosy English cheeks! Nobody wanted to be the wuss that suggested that we head home... I even muttered the daftest statement I’ve ever made “Perhaps we can go and get shelter in the shipwreck and then wait for it to blow over and let us fish?” I remember Jon stating a telling answer to the question with a rather specific tone of voice... “What?!”

There was another remarkable strike. I looked back at Brent driving on the tiller steering and realised he had been completely silent through all the banter. “What do you think Brent?” I asked. “I think you are all bloody crazy!”
That was an instant unanimous “LETS GET BACK TO THE SHIP!”
Through the torrential rain, constant lightning strikes all around us, thunder and boat filled to the gunwales, that ride back to the mother ship was the longest 4 minutes of my life!

We stepped off the tender and onto our floating home. Suitable drenched we resigned to our fate and the forecasted 3 days of 30 – 45 knot winds. I did a lot of wondering about how ships are protected from lightning. No more flats for now.



Trying to forget that we were all sitting on a rather high point with lovely outriggers straight up in the air, I grabbed my heavy sinking fly gear in shear disapproval and dropped a fly to the depths. I was immediately rewarded with smashing take close to the boat on my first cast! Line and backing started to disappear and I forgot all about my drenched clothes and disappointment. I was reminded even though we were confined to the ship it was anchored smack bang in the middle of what has to be the some of the best fishing grounds on the planet. We tussled, I was losing some line and gaining it. Bent hard into the fish, with the hit and hold Bassas style, I kept my fish from the ever present wall of snags. This was a powerful fish and a great fight. I won and lifted another first on the fly for me and the trip... A Black Jack. A trevally species with all the bells and whistles and finally confirmation of a fish I’d hoped we would have a shot at... This was a baby but still an ok fish and he made a real account of himself. As I landed my fish I watched a few more swim pass the transom and they were a lot bigger, a hell of a lot bigger... We had a new target and certainly something to do!


{Yes that is a guy swimming with sharks over my shoulder}

Terry not to be outdone by Junior was dropping the jig down in a flash. True as nuts he goes tight and the torque reel does its thing. They tussle and dads enforcing a change of direction to keep the clearly decent fish from swimming between the tender rope, holding the tender and the other side of the boat. I was amused and laughing to myself about the incredible shift in fishing techniques we have had to adapt to fishing in this place. Normally a fish like this would take a while but nope, on light rods and with pure strength against strength these battles were brief but brutal. He lifted a gorgeous coral trout from the water. This was another spectacle of a fish and a reinforcement of the amazing array of species in this place. These are just the best farther and son moments... And yes, his was bigger than mine.