Fly Fishing Blog by Alphonse Fishing Co™

FARQUHAR ATOLL FLY FISHING REPORT | 13 NOV – 20 NOV 2024

Ten anglers and friends from America joined forces and set out to conquer the flats of Farquhar, some returning guests and some seeing the picturesque atoll for the first time.

Day one of the week started off a little slower than usual with overcast skies, but Bill, a long time guest in the Seychelles, kicked his trip off with a GT right away. Guide Yousuf had a fantastic day with his guests Wes and Lake. Wes landed himself the first moustache triggerfish for the week and Lake was the angler of the day having caught a bumphead parrotfish, a GT and a bonefish all on foot and, all in the surf to round off his flats slam. Proving that when you find the right spot you can catch multiple species in close proximity.

Day two saw great weather conditions and better results all round among the team. Don, James, Wes and Dick all opened up their GT accounts for the week. Skip and Jim opened up their moustache triggerfish accounts, with Jim catching a trophy specimen of 53 cm. On day three Skip landed his first GT for the week, while Bill and James both landed another one each. Wes managed to land another moustache triggerfish as well as another GT. Day four was the day of the GTs. Brett landed his first for the trip, while Don, Skip, Wes and Bill all landed another each. James was not to be outdone and topped the day’s leaderboard with two GTs.

Day 5 was another one for the books with many epic catches having been brought to hand. Don and Dick both landed a GT to up their tallies. Bill and Brett managed to land two GTs each. It was evident that Skip was becoming something of a triggerfish connoisseur and landed himself another two moustache triggerfish, which can be a difficult task for even the most skilled anglers to accomplish.

On guide Chad’s boat a monumental day ensued as one of the anglers would go on to catch the fish of a lifetime. Wes and Lake set out on a mission to try catch a large GT. Wes opened the account for the day with a small GT to get the ball rolling. After spotting a nice fish on a coral head, Lake laid out a beautiful cast to the fish and after a few strips the fish ate the fly aggressively and turned, immediately sending Lake’s fly line shooting up over his reel and rod butt. Using a Seigler reel with a lever for quick release on the drag, Lake managed to loosen up and sort out the line quickly. After some coral dodging and team effort the fish was landed and measured in at 99 cm, just barely missing the ever sought after trophy metre plus mark. Still a beast of a fish nevertheless and one to remember for Lake.

Wes was shortly back at it again with another smaller GT, but would soon upgrade to most likely his permanent personal best. After polling a deep cut near the surf on the outgoing tide and having seen little, Chad decided to come back to the same cut on the pushing tide in search of cool, clean water and potentially more fish. The drift paid off and as Wes made a blind cast to nine o’clock a massive GT came up off the bottom at two o’clock. Wes had to strip the line in a hurry and put a quick back cast in at the fish. As he stripped the fly past the fish it lunged at the fly but missed. Wes slowed the pace of the strips down and the fish slowly turned around and followed the fly all the way to the boat. Nobody in the boat thought that the fish would eat the fly in such close quarters, but on Farquhar anything can happen and the fish sipped the fly in slowly like a trout. The first run was massive and took Wes into the backing in seconds. After chasing the fish down through precarious coral heads at every turn for some time, the fish swam deep and refused to come up for ages. Wes put just the right amount of pressure on the fish and managed to lift it up for Chad to net it boat side. The fish barely fit half way into the net and it took Chad and Wes to hold the fish, measuring in at 131 cm, making it the biggest GT for the last few seasons on Farquhar and one that Wes will never forget!

With so much action already having taken place it was hard to believe there was another day still to fish and the final day of fishing did not disappoint. Dick and Bill managed to land another GT each, while Douglas got what he was after and landed his first GT for the week in the nick of time. On guide Shaun’s boat the fishing was on fire for the last day. Don landed himself two GTs, while Skip landed three and many more were seen during the course of the day.

On guide Casey’s boat, Wes and Lake were at it again and making every shot count. Wes landed two GTs to end off his trip, while Lake was the angler of the day once more. While walking the surf and with great light conditions, Casey spotted several GTs on stingrays and Lake managed to catch two of them. Not long into the surf walk and Casey found a large group of tailing bumphead parrotfish, clearly in feeding mode. After a few casts into the group, Lake went tight with a solid specimen and in full combat fishing style, battled the fish in the surf on foot in a tug of war until eventually tiring it out enough for Casey to net the fish. He then topped off his trip with a bonefish to complete his second flats slam for the week.

Week five proved what Farquhar can offer in terms of variety and quality. Great fish were caught every day and the species checkbox was ticked throughout the week. What a week of fishing on Farquhar!

Tight lines, Blue Safari Fly Fishing

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