How We Caught Two Sailfish
Big Game Fishing Seychelles Open Seas

"Two sailfish caught in 30 minutes
Just a couple of miles offshore near Mahe"

Are you one of those who think that big game fishing Seychelles waters is the best way to end the week? I think so too. So one beautiful Sunday morning we set out in a fishing boat - my young son aged 12 at the time and myself. Our destination was the offshore fishing banks between Mahe and Silhouette islands, some five miles from Beau Vallon beach.

It's always good to start early in these islands, so we got up at the crack of dawn and by 8:00 o'clock we had already reached the famous "Fond Requin" bank. The boat was pretty fast so it took us less than 30 minutes to reach our first target bank.

There we slowed down, cast a couple of lines and started trolling for big game fish. We would fish there a while and then carry on to North Island some 10 miles further.

Within 15 minutes one of the lines was running out as we heard the whining of the spinning reel on one of the rods, to the excitement of my son who picked up the rod and took his position in the fighting chair.

We caught the first glimpse of the big beautiful sailfish as he reeled it in slowly. The crew gaffed the 35-pounder and landed it safely on deck within a couple of minutes but only after it had crossed under the boat once almost fouling the outboard motor.

All that happened with the help of the crew, who obviously knew what they were doing. It was our first experience big game fishing in Seychelles both for my son and me. Although I have been fishing for years it was my first time fly-fishing for big game fish.

Best Seychelles beach - Ptit Anse La Digue

Well pleased, and big smiles all around we caught our second of the same species only 10 minutes later - same easy catch, almost no fight at all. Another 35-pounder with little to no fanfare had joined the first on deck.

We were after sailfish that day. It had been a good season for sailfish so far that year in Seychelles especially on those northern shoals and around North Island and Silhouette Island.

We trolled another hour but it seemed we had run out of luck. But we had two beautiful specimens to show for our fishing effort off the banks of Mahe Island. There was no need to go further. So we decided to head back to Beau Vallon beach where we would spend the remainder of the day with the rest of the family. After a half-day big game fishing, Seychelles waters had yielded a catch of 70 pounds - Not bad at all!

Of course the sailfish would get consumed - Some of it barbequed while the remainder would be prepared and smoked and kept for a rainy day! Have you ever tried smoked Seychelles fish? To say sailfish tastes good would be an understatement. Smoked sailfish is so... good!

Now why was it so easy to catch those two sailfish? I'll tell you the secret in a minute. In Seychelles the sailfish lures are very rudimentary pieces, with no hook at all. Yes you read that correctly. No hooks are used and that's also the reason the sailfish don't even put up any fight.

Their long, rough, beak-like snout gets caught in the fine stringed mesh of the lure and the more they pull the more firmly the lure holds them captive. "What is that lure made of? How is it made?" You ask. Here's the easy sailfish-catching secret in a nutshell. Once you know this you can leave all your hooks at home and still land big game with just a line and a lure...

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To make the sailfish lure, take a piece of thick white cotton string or any thick line with the same soft texture of cotton, say about 18 to 24 inches in length and half an inch in diameter. First tie up one end - just make a big knot at one end to hold the fibres securely in place.

Then with any pointed tool or object like a table fork just unravel the strands by opening it up and pulling starting at the far end all the way to the knotted end. After an hour or so of that you should eventually have a piece of soft fluffy piece of string with all the strands well separated looking somewhat like a decorative part of a piece of macramé work.

That's it! That is your best sailfish lure and you need nothing else to catch those beauties - especially no hooks. Just tie the knotted end to your fishing line and cast it overboard as you troll the fishing banks. If a sailfish touches that lure with its long beak-like snout it's as good as caught - you will be landing it without a doubt.

While you won't catch marlins this way, sailfish just can't resist it, and once that long, rough, wood-file-like snout just touches that lure they're caught. The more they pull the more securely they're held.

The big game fishing boats in Seychelles always carry those sailfish lures in addition to more conventional flies. So now go fish the Seychelles waters and catch all the sailfish you want. :).

But the real big game fishing prize is the marlin. In Seychelles waters you'll catch record-breaking monsters - both the black and the blue marlins, and these can put up a real fight, which of course is the thrill that sports fishermen seek. But marlins are not easy catch...

 

Anglers love to watch these majestic beast of the ocean literally flying out of the sea, during the ensuing fight they put up that could last several hours. More than half of them actually get away after being hooked, but that's another story.

Sailfish can of course be caught the same way on the more specialised lures as the marlins and they do put up some fight then. So it's your choice, which way you land your trophy sailfish.

For big game fishing, Seychelles does produce excellent catches and on your fishing holiday you can expect to land reasonably sized sailfish and marlins while some can be really enormous. You can also land such species as wahoo, bonito, dorado, tuna, rainbow runner, giant barracuda, trevally and many others while trolling...

Our 35-pounders catch that day were relatively small specimens but we were happy with that. If you seek something extra special on your fishing holiday - if you're looking for the best in the way of big game fishing Seychelles has to offer or the best inshore flats fly fishing - then you ought to go read about fishing in Seychelles and plan an expedition lasting a few days further afield.

This is my own true story. If you have a story of your own big game fishing Seychelles seas, then please go here and tell about it. We'll publish it right here on this page. You can also upload a picture of your fishing in support of your story...

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