Fishing In The Seychelles, Desroches Island: Face To Face With A Tiger Shark 🦈

Intro

Throughout my time at the Four Seasons Desroches Island, we got up to plenty of activities, but fishing was the main one. Before heading off to the Seychelles, I had watched a video from Badcompany talking about how surreal the fishing is out in the country. Well, I've gotta say, I fished from Kayak for a couple of hours, and it was the best fishing in the world.

Reefs End

Sitting by the bar at the FS, and watching the Formula 1 China GP, I gazed out upon the turquoise water and saw a garfish chasing baitschools. It's honestly like nothing you will ever witness, even while you are watching the television, you can observe the fishing activity.

Quickly grabbing my rod which Stephane had provided me (free of charge), I casted a Rappi right on the Garfish's head. While it hit the Rappi, unfortunately, we didn't hook up.

With the F1 finished, I grabbed my pole and headed out to Reefs End Beach, the beach that Stephane recommended for the time of day.

Everyone fishes here on the island, it's just a right of passage. It's so good that at certain beaches, you can cast from the beach and hook into giant barracudas the size of yourself, as well as many other predator species.

Although, I did catch nothing from the beach

However, enough was enough and it was time to paddle out past the reef to see what Deroches had in store for me. HOLY M******** S***T. It's surreal out there and like nothing I have ever seen before. Garfish jumping in front of you, barracudas hitting anything you put in the water, Jobfish almost tipping your kayak, and tuna smashing lures at the boat.

It is quite literally, every fisherman's dream. Out at reefs end, your best bet is usually a set up with a rappi, but bottom fishing also does well, as we ended up landing a decent-sized jobfish later on in the evening here, as well as Barracuda trolling from a Kayak.

The best-tasting fish in the world: wow!

We headed out twice for about an hour and a half each time. Had 13 strikes, 8 hookups, and caught 5 fish over the 3 hours of fishing. While these numbers are good, they do not compare to Bombay.

Bombay Beach

Having fished in about 30 countries in the world, there is nothing like Bombay Beach on the entire planet (okay, maybe Mogadishu).

On my last night before departing off to Madagascar, I began talking with Stephane who told me to go fishing out by Bombay Beach. He was ranting and raving about the fishing and even showed me a video of a 150lb sailfish he hooked on A KAYAK. MENTAL. However, he also told me that no one dared go alone due to the infamous currents and other reasons.

So the morning before departure back to the mainland, I woke up and grabbed my gear to go fishing out at Bombay. Stephane had prepared a brand new setup and tackle for me to fight bigger fish. It was time.

With a kayak pulled up from the rack, I was all ready to set out on this beautiful morning.

Bombay Beach is unique, as about half a KM out, there is a reef followed by a steep drop from 20-100 meters. You can find everything here from Marlin to Sailfish to Dogtooth Tuna and pretty much every pelagic under the sun. Well, I found it alright.

Paddling out past the reef, I found a decent spot to chill out and have a few casts. The night before I had rigged up a soft plastic, and threw it out there thinking it would sink. When I realized it wasn't sinking, I knew that I had forgotten to add a weight (it was a long night). Reeling it in ready for a switch, it was right next to my boat when BOOM, a mother****** tuna hit it. Like what? It's a piece of plastic not swimming correctly?

So I rig up a proper one with a weight and chuck it back out there. It didn't even touch the bottom before I was on to a proper nice Jobfish. A short 3-minute fight later, the jobbie was released and it was rinse and repeat.

At this point, the fishing was so good that every time I dropped down something to the bottom I was hooked up. With all of my soft plastic mutilated, I decided to put on a jig. 15 casts later, 7 hookups, and 1 fish released, I was on to a proper nice one.

Tiger Sharks

What Stephane failed to tell me is that one of the main reasons people don't go out to Bombay by themselves is because there are a lot of sharks hunting prey.

Well, here I am, hooked up for 15 minutes to a ginormous fish that is pulling my Kayak into the middle of the ocean, with not a soul in sight. I look up from my rod tip which is practically in the water and see 4 fins sticking out of the water. Aww aren't those Dolphins so cute (I thought).

Nope, those aren't a pack of Dolphins, it's a pair of 14-15 feet Tiger Sharks swimming in synchronized fashion, no more than 50 meters in front of me. What I thought were 4 dolphins, were actually the main fin of the Tiger Shark, and the tail... Honestly, my life flashed before my eyes. Sure I have been to war-torn countries, but 2 giant Tiger Sharks on a Kayak is far more scary to me.

Holy f*****k s***t (I am sorry for the cursing, but wow). As they turned to face my Kayak the water was close to becoming brown. Immediately, I decided to put the drag high, pull the hook on the fish, and paddle as if the lockness monster was right behind me back to shore.

By the time I got back, I thought my arms were going to fall off.

Now that is a story I will tell my grandkids for centuries.

Final Thoughts

If you are a die-hard fisherman like myself, look no further than a trip to the Seychelles. While I hear Mahe has some commercial fishing going on, the fishing in Desroches is some of the best on the planet, to the point where your jig won't even touch the bottom. It's actually quite frankly absurd how good the fishing is.

Just be aware of the sharks, apparently a Giant Hammerhead rammed a Kayak here not too long ago.