Fly Fishing on St. Brandon’s Islands
Yesteryear. Back in 2005 I went on an incredible fly-fishing trip to St. Brandon’s Islands, some 500 nautical miles north of Mauritius. We were a part of 6 and it was one of the first fly-fishing trips to these remote atolls, most of them uninhabited.
Upon our arrival we asked about bonefish but none of the local knew them. Bonefish, for those of you not familiar with them, are one of the ultimate fly-fishing fish. It is sight-fishing and you choose your fish, usually on sand banks where they hunt for crabs, often with their tails exposed above the water. When I caught the first one and showed it to the locals, they laughed as they call them banana fish, a fish with lots of bones and rarely eaten.
The fly-fishing was insane with some of use landing and releasing more than 30 bonefish a day. There was no shortage of kingfish and wave garrick (three-spotted pompano) were a curse and one had to wade through them to get to decent fish. Several fish were chopped in half by sharks as they got close to us in waist-deep water.
The trip from Mauritius to St Brandon’s Islands took 28 hours on a bit of a wreck – no facilities, old oil-stained mattresses to lie on and little shelter from the rain. It was by far the worst trip of my life and I was a little nauseous for most of the trip but the fishing was a total mind-blow and a trip that will never be repeated. Great memories.
