Off the east African coast and north of Madagascar are the islands and islets of the Seychelles archipelago, scattered over 400,000 sq km of the Indian Ocean, four degrees south of the equator, thousand of miles from anywhere. The islands are granitic or coralline in origin and has the world's largest atoll called The ALDABRA ATOLL.
The Seychelles was once a pirates' hideout. The French took possession of the Islands on 1st Nov 1756. After several clashes with the British, Seychelles was ceded to Britain in the Treaty of Paris in 1814. Today, tourism forms a significant sector, with a large % of the population directly or indirectly employed in the hotel and related fishing activities.
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Mahe Island is the hub of the Seychelles fishing scene although Praslin, some 40 km away, is catching up in number of boats available. Most game fishermen will fish up to 100km offshore, depending on the prevailing weather.
Historically, many fishermen who had been there before us, told many stories of numerous unknown-size beasts lurking below which straightened out hooks without mercy. The fishes are big because there were too few fishermen chasing too many fishes and that's why Seychelles is called "The Lands where Fishes die of OLD-AGE". I have read about world-record dogtooth tuna and marlins being caught in their waters.
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Where fishing is concerned, whoever said that you needed patience to fish had probably never fished in the Seychelles. Sharks and Bonitos are abundant everywhere and they can be a nuisance when you want to catch good sized quality fishes. As for Marlin and Sailfish, there seems to be no season. The best place to catch them is on the drop-off. Using live or stripped baits are consider deadly but lures have proved productive too. Small tuna, averagely 10 to 30kgs are common and found mostly on the plateau. Skipjack and Dorado can be quite enjoyable on light tackles and they can be fished throughout the year. Wahoo and all sort of mackerel are widespread and they can be productive using the trolling method. Jobfish and Rainbow runner will entertain you all the time but the best ever come from the bottom fishing. You can never know what you are going to catch and only when you hook on something big and ugly, you might end up being an IGFA world record holder. During my 1997 trip to Seychelles, my good friend, Vincent Yeo, did actually hooked up a world record Napolean Wrasse of 19.8kg.
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