Bassas de India - What dreams may come - Trip Report

[Scott Maybury]

Epic, looking forward to the rest of the report

[Andre van Wyk]

Part 3:

Awaking to the sounds of the waves crashing on the atoll, the fluffers kitted themselves out with their wading gear, as welcome coffees did the rounds. Craig dropped them off and returned the tender to the boat with the metal heads armed with stick baits and poppers heading off to the inside.

 We also learnt that hooking them was the easy part.

[Andre van Wyk]

another Grouper from the inside

Returning to the yacht we were greeted by the welcome sight of lunch, Prego rolls and chips! Suffice to say like vultures at a kill within minutes the offering had been reduced to mere crumbs and sated contentment.
The anchor was lifted as the prevailing wind required us to move our mooring. Of course no sooner were we underway than an assortment of piscatorial temptations were spread off the back. Within minutes a fundamental truth was revealed. Should one opt to troll you WILL spend your entire day fighting fish non-stop.

 Your only limitation would be how many skirts and rapalas you could fit in your 30kgs allowance. Repeatedly it was fish on, and on and on with Craig finally having to intervene with the lines up signal in order for us to actually make it to the mooring.


So to avoid the monotony of turning this report into a Bold and Beautiful rerun where each episode seems more than vaguely familiar, it has been opted to instead to allow each of the team to share their special moment/moments in their words.

[Matt Born]

this is one the greatest reports i have read..... keep checking every hour.... hoping for the next instalment!! aboslutely awesome!! very jealous!!

[Fernando Duarte]

Wait for a guy I will call "Stealth Hippo" part.......

[Vincenzo Caccico]

Congrats Anre! nice photos, fly fishing there is my dream

  Vincenzo

[Luke Seyrek]

Fantasic stuff Andre (and crew)!!! Nice variety of species and an excellent read...you really sure know how to captivate the audience. Insane report, keep it rolling.....

[Andre van Wyk]

[Andre van Wyk]

 

and manage some very nice promo shots!

 

[Andre van Wyk]

 

In the scissors

 

I forgot count of all the fish I got, from GT popping to Yellowfin on mooring, snappers on stickbaits and soft plastic, black GTs on spoons and soft plastics, Bigeye on spoons, groupers on stickbait, etc.

 

Most memorable fishing moments

 

The first GT, the boat had just finished mooring I picked up my JM 8'6" rod with the Stella 10000 and casted a couple times to a water color change on the direction of the Atoll and VAS fish on my first GT ever and on a stickbait and we had just arrived the boat had not even stopped.

 



Mr Bohar

 

All the GTs were a hell of an experience and my prime target but the late afternoon bigger one that trashed my stickbait when me and Andre went for an end of the day session on the dingy was something special that I will not forget so soon

 



 



 



 

With the two high points being first the discovery of a sunken dingy

 



 

And being "investigated" by a shark and not having any kind of defense weapon with me had to try spook it away with my camera flash

 



Bassas is surely a place to revisit, next time I would just change the tactics of GT popping inside the Atoll and try cover more area there and on the outside explore the up to 50/60 meters jigging areas in search for Dogtooth Tuna.

 

What I would surely not change is the bunch of guys that shared this experience and the Captain that took us there and back safely.

[Andre van Wyk]

 

[Andre van Wyk]

Franz Hirschberg (aka Hirsch aka drug dealer aka impact player)

 

For me there were too many highlights to single out a specific one.

 

[Andre van Wyk]

 



 

Black Jacks 0: Jannie LOTS

 

Man what a place.

 



 

Bassas is an awesome place and a definite must to go back. I think we only managed to cover one percent of the atoll. The possibilities are endless and I think as a fly fishing destination there is no other place on earth quite like it. Flats fish and offshore game fish within a couple of meters of each other.

?

[Andre van Wyk]

Bassas comrades

The sun was setting as Craig turned Sarah westwards for our homeward trip. Each of us quietly reflected on what had been. We retired to our customary places (fighting over the bean bags again as usual) at the helm and reflected on our experience. It was unanimous, we would return, there was unfinished business and we had only just begun to learn the secrets of unlocking this mystery.

[Andre van Wyk]

ANDRE VAN WYKS TACKLE TIPS