Aardvark McLeod

Last weekend once again I found myself over the North Atlantic heading to the land of fire and Ice. Iceland has had a mixed season this year with some exceptional fishing at the start of the season tied in with some trying times through July an into early August. On the West Coast at that point it had not rained properly in five weeks and many rivers such as the Nordurá, Langá and Laxá I Kjos have had a tough time due to exceptionally low water conditions.

Amidst all this doom and gloom many fishermen have thrown the rule book out of the window, changed their fishing patterns and techniques to match having some great success. Peter Baxendale’s team chalked up 104 salmon on the Langá in a river two entire feet lower than last year. How? Single handed trout rods, 8 lbs leader and size 18 Red Francis flies. Dickie Nicholson’s team followed suit on the Laxá I Dolum with over 100 fish to the six rods for the week. All of this happened in blazing sunshine more akin to the south of France.

The North coast is having some of the best runs of fish since 2005, and Laxá I Adaldal has seen some monsters hooked, landed and lost. Neil Parkinson lost of fish of over 25 lbs, but landed one of 19 lbs, but by this time due to the hot conditions and the southerly wind the Laxá I Adaldal had been badly affected by blanket weed flowing from Lake Myvatn. In the first week of August Malcolm Scott and Lilla Rowcliffe, regulars of the Adaldal had persevered despite the weed, one to single hooks and landed fish of 19 lbs and 16 lbs respectively. Malcolm lost a monster that the guides estimate well over 25 lbs.

The ever increasingly popular trout fishing on the top of the Laxá I Adaldal at Myvatnssveit and Laxardal has been a huge success this season. Top rod so far has been Andreas “The Heron” Topintzis who is the secretary of the Salisbury and District Angling Club with 38 fish in 3 days up to 7 ½ lbs. The other high scorer was our very own Chris Yrazabel, owner of sight Cast in Los Roques who swapped his 8 weight for a 5 weight and had over 60 in 5 days. Chris always fishes for trout in his off season and normally fishes in Patagonia. He called me from Caracas on his return to say that it was better fishing than 8 Patagonian trout lodges he had visited in terms of size, numbers and aggression.
This is the time of year that I assess all the feedback received from our anglers and sit down with the directors of the Angling Club to discuss improvements that can be made for next year. It is a shame that the only place to find them at this time of the year is on a river, which makes a perfect board room! My first port of the call was Reykjavik for a quick chat with Pall, and then on to the domestic airport for a 45 minute flight to Akureyri, the main northern town. By 2130 I was safely in the Ness Lodge on the Laxá I Adaldal with Halli, the director of Angling at the Reykjavik Angling Club. It was lovely to see so many old friends.
The following couple of days reminded me of just why I love this river so much. The conditions were perfect, overcast and cooler than the previous few weeks. The weed from Lake Myvtn became minimal almost instantaneously, but there are a few ways to combat it. Using knotted tapered leaders is a good way as the blood knots on the cast catch any weed first and allow the fly to fish freely for longer, and the second is to use small single hooked flies. These are tied on Salar singles which are brutishly strong, and combined with 30 lbs leader fished on a loop allow the fly to swing freely.

In summary my first fish was a cracking 16 lbs hen fish from the lowest pool Höfdahylur that came out of the water like a torpedo to hammer a stripped sunray shadow. I do love to fish this method as the takes are extremely exciting. The Adaldal is a wide and calm surfaced river, so follows are easily seen as large bow waves push across the river. A square cast followed by small strips seems to irritate them the most.  I then took a 12 lber from Grunahyjir or “Pinnacle Pool”, a 10 lber from Birgisflud about four feet from the bank and lost another good fish just below it in the run. There was a large amount of activity on the river with almost constant action. I think with the slightly cooler conditions the fish were feeling less lethargic.
The following day Halli took me to top of a very wide stretch called Vitadsgafi. Here the river is wide and relatively slow moving with an island on the far bank. We saw a large fish move in the middle of the current a long way out. With the calm water I was concerned about spey casting and disturbing it so I stood on top of the bank, tucked my 14’ rod into my hip and double hauled the Rio Powerspey out into the middle of the river and began a small strip. After the second cast there was a huge bow wave that followed the small size 10 Nighthawk and then everything went tight. In my excitement I initiated a saltwater strip strike….. and pulled the fly clean out of the fish’s mouth……school boy error.. Halli, who had been lying on the bank next to me nonchalantly looked up and said,
“Don’t strike the salmon… that fish was over 20 lbs…  idiot!” before returning his gaze to where the bow wave was disappearing across the pool. Knickers. I have never been very good at fishing for salmon in calm water and have always struggled with very gentle takes. Having done so much saltwater fishing I always get carried away. Ah well….

In the afternoon I pulled a nice grilse of 5lbs from the hole in front of Kirkjuhólmakvísl and another 12 lber from a large laval hole in the middle of Pressthylur. This again I attacked by standing on the bank and double hauling the fly out into the hole. I think the gentle presentation of the fly dropped on its nose worked well in the quiet water. You can wade out a way, but again entering the water creates disturbance which in the calm of an evening in my opinion has to disturb the fish.

My last morning I was left to my own devices on Höfdahylur again, and this time I started much higher up the pool in the widest section. I had seen a salmon head and tail there the first time I had fished it, and almost as soon as I arrived on the pool the fish showed again in greeting. The high bank provided an excellent vantage point and again I used the double haul to out the fly right out in the middle of the river where I had seen it “rise”. This time I was employing a black and blue cone head tube fly. I stripped it across its nose and was immediately welcomed by a colossal push of water and the fish hit the fly hard. I think I really upset it as it went charging down the pool putting me well into my backing. I was giggling as I followed it a little before applying some sideways strain and piling the pressure on. I have always had the attitude that if you are attached, play the fish as hard as you can. It is better for the fish, and if it falls off, it falls off. More often than not though the shorter the battle the more likely the hook will hold.

I scrambled down the bank into the water and managed with a little slack line to lift the hen fish’s head and hand tail her. After a few quick shots for Habeus Corpus (proof of body) I revived the fish that went back strong and sat giggling to myself until Halli arrived. After that experienced I put my rod down and did a little guiding for my fishing partner, Mjoll (pronounced Mjertle, the manageress of Nordurá, Langá, Hitará and Laxá I Dolum lodges on the west coast), and got her into a couple of smaller fish higher up. She fishes the Laxá I Adaldal every year, which considering she manages so many of the famous west coast rivers says a lot.

At lunch time Halli and I loaded up the car and drove across the North coast to the Western Rivers. I wanted to see the whole of Laxá I Dolum which was new this season. Rain had finally arrived on the West coast and Laxá I Dolum had had 27 fish in the evening session before we arrived. It was raining hard and already the feeder streams were swollen. The river was still low to where it should have been, but was already beginning to look healthier than previous weeks. Laxá I Dolum is a 26 km private river perfect for an intact party of 6 rods. It is one of the few rivers in Iceland that has such a small number of rods to fill it, and has a fascinating character. For more detail please see Charlotte’s report from earlier in the season.
We moved onto to Nordurá to meet the board members of the Reykjavik Angling Club and had a very enjoyable evening catching up and discussing this season and the laying the ground work for next season. There will be some exciting developments for next year. Iceland continues to enthral me, and every time I go I learn something new, discover and new place and learn more about this fascinating country. It really is the Atlantic Salmon capital of the world as no where will you find such a high concentration of top quality salmon rivers in such a small area. The fact it is only 3 ½ hours away from the UK just makes me want to go more.

For the last 18 months I have been involved in testing a whole new technology of rod manufacture with Hardys. I was wondering not so long ago how rod technology could evolve any further. Where can we go from 60 million modulus carbon fibre? How much lighter and stronger can a fly rod be? Well, this is the answer. The first time I tested these rods I was blown away.

This could be the most significant development in fishing rod design for twenty five years. SINTRIX™ (silica nano matrix) material provides rods which are 60% stronger, up to 30% lighter and with hugely improved impact resistance over conventional carbon fibre. Initially the new technology will be used in Hardy fly rods but eventually SINTRIX™ will also be used in Carp, Coarse and Sea ranges within the Greys and Chub brands.

Decades ago when they moved away from cane and fiberglass, carbon fibre changed the way fishing rods were made. Carbon being remarkably strong for its weight gives us many advantages for modern rod design. The new material feels like the difference between glass fibre and carbon fibre.

The carbon rods we use today have of course advanced over the years but the trends for lighter and faster blanks lead to rods which can be brittle, unforgiving and prone to breakage during use.The carbon fibre in any fly rod blank is supported by a bed of resin, typically this resin or matrix simply holds the fibres in parallel alignment so that as the rod bends, the fibres can flex and return into position. However if a carbon rod is suddenly bent beyond its limits, the normal resins used in manufacture are unable to support the fibres adequately because the carbon fibres are stronger than the resin. The result is catastrophic failure due to the fibres buckling or, put simply, the rod breaks. These failures occur because typical modern fishing rod resins simply do not contain enough toughening mechanisms to give the fibres enough protection.

SINTRIX™ is an enhanced fortified matrix resin which supports and bolsters the carbon fibres to withstand a far higher degree of bending and loading than ever before. Through technology, exclusive to Hardy & Greys Ltd, specially treated silica nano spheres are blended into a SINTRIX™ resin. Thousands of the nano spheres surround every individual carbon fibre giving a very even distribution of the particles throughout the resin which results in rods with unparalleled smooth casting actions. This technology is radically different to any previous nano rods using titanium nano or carbon nano tubes. These previous carbon nano technologies simply attempted to reinforce the carbon and not the all important resin. The bending strength of a SINTRIX™ fly rod is vastly improved over outdated common designs. Controlled testing has proven that SINTRIX ™fly rods are over 60% stronger and up to 30% lighter than previous carbon rods. A SINTRIX ™fly rod will bend further without damage and will also take incidental impacts far better than any conventional fly rod design.

On a recent test trip to Florida five Hardy & Greys product developers caught around 1,000 fish on SINTRIX ™rods .The fish ranged from 5lbs to 350lbs and the idea was to put the SINTRIX blanks in situations above and beyond normal use.  Despite their best efforts to test the rods to destruction our testers did not break a single SINTRIX ™rod!

Andy Mill, Hardy & Greys US based consultant and five time gold cup Tarpon tournament winner said about SINTRIX™ rods.

“These new SINTRIX™ rods are the most powerful, lightest, smoothest casting rods ever designed EVER!”
Andy recently landed an 80lb Tarpon in Just four minutes using a SINTRIX™ rod.

For me these were perfect rods for the flats, I adored using them. They are light, responsive, have quick recovery, fantastic presentation and huge reserves of power. The blanks were so thin they just cut through the wind. Bottom line is these are without doubt the best rods I have ever used and when they go into production I will use nothing else. My best effort was a 7 1/2lbs bonefish off the flats at Los Roques on a 6# Proaxis (The saltwater version). It was like dry fly fishing for bones and the rod easily subdued the fish.I can’t wait to try the 12# on the GT’s in Cosmoledo in February.

Initial SINTRIX™ developments involve three Hardy fly rod ranges, one saltwater range and two freshwater ranges which will include double handed models. The new Hardy SINTRIX™ rods are set to be available in January 2011.

In addition to these increases in performance and durability the company retains its commitment to using the highest quality fittings. This combination has not, however, resulted in a price increase which puts this material and its advantages out of reach to most consumers and prices should be comparable with other premium fly rod ranges.

The Game Fair is always a phenomenon that we look forward to every year. This year we topped and tailed the show with a presentation evening at Robjents in Stockbridge before and then Grangers Fishing Tackle in London afterwards so those that could not make the Game Fair could come and meet our visitors.

This is the first time we have had a Game Fair at Ragley Hall in Warwickshire, but its central location proved a great success. The traffic in and out from all accounts was very well handled. Our merry band made their way up to set up on the Thursday, and as we were not sharing with Nick Hart this year we took normal shedding. We could not have asked for a more perfect position as our stand was directly in front of the Spey casting area on the lake. We headed back to our hotel which much to our surprise and delight was a converted castle. Dustin Kovacvich had been chuntering about not seeing castles since his arrival in the UK from British Columbia, so this was worked well.

Despite the threatening black clouds during set up the weather over the weekend was warm and muggy and was only interrupted by a brief rain shower. Friday was surprisingly busy as this is normally the quietest of the three days. It was lovely to see so many familiar faces that came to say hello over the course of the weekend, and take the time to discuss particular trips with us, or chat with the team on hand.

This for us is the best part of the Game Fair as we love putting faces to names. Dustin’s operation at Nicholas Dean Lodge in British Columbia proved very popular this year, along with Arno Mathee chatting about the re opening of Cosmoledo. Arno is very well known to those who have fished in the Indian Ocean for his pioneering work catching milkfish and Giant Trevally in the Seychelles.

Chris Yrazabel from Los Roques in Venezuela and Páll Ármann from the Reykjavik Angling Club are now old hands as they come over every year to support us, and both had the opportunity to chat to clients that have travelled with them this year. Both these destinations have proved very popular and new clients wishing to go to Los Roques and Iceland could got through the specifics of the destinations with them. Henry Gilbey and Nick Hart also used the stand as a base in between their demonstrations.

Our rod raffle for Help For Heroes was very successful, and we raised a tidy sum in raffle tickets to donate to this worthy cause. The draw for the Hardy Angel 2 TE 9’ 5# took place on Sunday afternoon by Henry Gilbey and was won by Mrs Mason of Lancashire who was delighted with the news.

I took great pleasure in handing over the bucket to the staff at Help For Heroes on my return to the office. All in all it was an excellent Game Fair and everyone worked really hard to make it a success. Next year it will be at Blenhiem Palace near Oxford and we will look forward to seeing you there!

Having experienced low water conditions in July last season at Langá I was somewhat horrified, on arrival this year, to see the even lower level of water in the river. I was quietly thinking to myself “what on earth do the twelve guests think I have brought them to?” Well I need not have worried as the river was stuffed full of fresh fish. In fact the run of fish was deemed to be 40% higher than last season. The weather was more akin to Majorca than Iceland and, at one stage, in the shallows the water temperature rose to 20 degrees C. Guests all said “if this was Scotland we would all be on the Golf course and only going out at dusk”

Well Iceland is different and the fish were very obliging and took in the brightest of conditions. We were all amazed at how small a fly they would take: a large number were taken on size 18s and tiny hitched tubes with a number also falling to micro cone heads. The middle beat fished best followed by the lower section; especially after a high tide. Indeed a number of salmon (and a couple of seatrout) were caught in saltwater). A large percentage still had sea lice on and were extremely sporting on light tackle. Those fish that had made it to the top beat were to be found in deep holes with many having already made a dash for the lake in the headwaters.

The lake tends to keep the Langa topped up with water through the season. However there had been little snow last winter so water was not so plentiful but still better than many neighbouring rivers which were definitely suffering in the adverse conditions. I was hoping for an average of 15 fish per rod for the week given reasonable conditions so we were all thrilled to have averaged 13 in ultra low water totaling 104 fish for the group. Most rods lost a similar number so there was plenty of action. I am looking forward to a week of medium water with overcast skies – that could be truly awesome! Four of us had been before and our average catch for the two years is 14.5 which is pretty respectable for poor coditions.

Iceland is not just about the fishing! The Langá Lodge, although architecturally no beauty, is most comfortable with twin bedrooms (single occupancy) with their own en suite facilities. The sitting room overlooks the river with stunning views of a glacier and hills to the North West. The staff were charming and highly attentive to our needs. The Chef was sensational and our well travelled group felt he provided the best food of any sporting Lodge that any of us had ever been to!

The bird and wildlife were plentiful with arctic foxes and mink spotted along with merlins, golden plover, skua, ringed plover, drumming snipe, whimbrel and bar-tailed godwit to name but a few!

A big thank you to the proprietors, staff and guides of SVFR – we will be back!”

Leaving Langá and getting to Dölum was like playing pass the very large parcel: Óli (the head guide on Langá) drove me down to Borganes where I met Hjόrdes who was driving north to Laxá I Dölum to join her partner.  He is a motorbike policeman in Reykjavik most of the year and normally spends his summers guiding on Nordurá.  His spending this season up at Laxá I Dölum and he is also on the Board of Directors of the Reykjavik Angling Club - with that in mind I remained on my best behaviour for at least 10 minutes.

The drive north to the lodge was uneventful (no pirates), the scenery stunning and the time passed swiftly chatting to Hjόrdis.  The waterfalls above the lodge are a fantastic backdrop to the lodge itself.  There is no mobile signal at the lodge, no wi-fi, no TV and no radio: all of which is wonderful but you do pick up a good signal a few minutes away from the lodge.

I fished the evening session the day I arrived and being very early in the season, we fished the lower beats, rotating around up to pool 10 where we could see, from the hill, a big fish hanging in a pool by the near bank.  Despite several changes of fly, and angle, this particular salmon wasn’t interested at all and we left him in peace and headed off to fish the lowest pools; 1 to 3 which are below the bridge and then 5 and 6 which are higher up, above the bridge.   This lower part of the river is typically rocky but not difficult to negotiate as long as care is taken.  A wading stick would not be a bad idea for balance if, like me, you are a tad clumsy.  However, my new Hardy EWS wading boots, with their tungsten tipped studs, had fantastic grip and made my progress much easier. At this point in the season the water levels are relatively low and water to knee height was normal.  From the lowest pools you can see the sea and from the headland, looking down, we could see the salmon entering the river and beginning their arduous journey up its 25 km stretch.   Casting at one particular boil, had a salmon on in quick order but unfortunately it shook the hook and was off.  As the weather drew in and the rain strengthened, it became harder to spot those telltale signs but fishing the hitch, Árni had another salmon on from the same section of the river.  Sadly the story was repeated and after a bit of muttering, Árni decided to change tactics and go up a size.  The pools on this lower section are deceptively deep and in one, on the far bank and gliding in and out of the white water, we saw five beautiful, big fresh bars of silver just waiting for a well placed fly.  Sadly our time on these pools was already up and we had to move on.  However those salmon eluded the two Icelandic farmers fishing there after us … which made us feel a tad better about having to walk away without even one cast at them.  Small minded?  Damn right.

Ragley Hall – 23rd to 25th July
We’re back again in Fishing Village on stand G0482 directly opposite the rod testing area.

We are pleased to welcome back Chris Yrazabal and Páll Ármann:
- Chris is the owner of Sight Cast, the premier operation on Los Roques in Venezuela.
- Páll Ármann is one of the directors of the Reykjavik Angling Club in Iceland.

Dustin Kovacvich, and Arno Matthee join us for the first time this year:

- Dustin is the owner of Nicholas Dean Lodge on the Skeena system in British Columbia and is a leading authority on steelhead and pacific salmon.

- Arno is the head guide of our new operation on Cosmoledo in the Seychelles. He has spent the last decade looking after clients in the Indian Ocean and was one of the pioneers of Giant trevally and Milk fishing there.

From Aardvark McLeod, our team includes:
- Gordon Richmond and Peter Gibson will be available to answer any questions about Argentina, the Amazon, Bolivia and many other fantastic operations of which they have an in depth knowledge.

- Charlotte and I will be on hand to discuss anything of interest, inform you about new operations, updates on current operations, and help you plan your next fishing experience.

Help For Heroes Raffle
Together with Hardy Greys we will be putting a new top of the range Hardy Angel TE 9’ 5# fly rod up for raffle with all proceeds going to Help for Heroes. The raffle will close on Sunday at mid-day, and the winner will be drawn by international fisherman (and our staff photographer) Henry Gilbey.

Other events in July in Stockbridge and London - Date Change
For those not able to make the Game Fair we will be giving a presentation at Robjents Tackle in Stockbridge on the Tuesday 20th July. This has been moved from the 22nd originally shown on our letter accompanying the newsletter we sent out. We will then be at Grangers Tackle in South Kensington on Tuesday 27th July.

Last week 12 – 19 June was tougher than previous years (this was my seventh visit) mainly due to the low water temperature and probably an overall smaller run of salmon this season. Although the weather was pretty variable eight out of the eleven Anglo - Scottish – Franco - Italian party had experienced a lot worse Ponoi climatic conditions in previous years.

The water temperature was only 8C when we arrived and it crept up to 11C by the time we choppered out. This was our biggest problem - but having said that Ian Henderson hauled out 7 or 8 fish with his Green Highlander on a full floating line the first evening. We got to 70 fish in swift time but the fishing suddenly slowed up mid week with the reliable Home Pool only yielding 2 to three fish per session. Towards the end of the week the weather steadily improved and so did the fishing with a total of 279 being landed.

Paddy Davison was thrilled to catch his first Russian Salmon in his 70 something year and Richard Munro Ferguson kept up his good work at catching big fish. His Home Pool 20 + pounder was bright silver but not as large as his 25 + pounder from Beat 4 some four years ago! Bernard Lunel was in fine form and caught well above the average closely pursued by his charming Italian fishing partner Andrea Borziani from Genoa. Team Scotland (Messrs Henderson and Mackay), with the arrival of a grandson and an MBE (in the New Years Honours List) respectively, had their health toasted on numerous occasions during the week. Despite a slower week than normal the party worked and played hard and all thoroughly enjoyed the trip. The underlying six year average for this week is still in the high 40s which is virtually unrivaled in Salmon Fishing circles.

A prime Varzuga week might be more prolific but you certainly won’t catch fish of 20, 18,16,15,12 and 10 pounds there! Anyway it is not all about the numbers it is about the uncertainty of what size fish your fly might be covering and the camaraderie in the Mess Hut and tales of the “big one” that got away! Most of the rods have already said ‘see you next season Bax’ back at Acha.

Summer has arrived in Iceland, and over the last week temperatures have reached as much as 20° Celsius. No activity has occurred at the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in southern Iceland for the last 10 days. It is looking increasingly likely that the volcano eruption has ended and currently there is only steam coming from the crater. Scientists in Iceland have confirmed that the volcanic eruption that disrupted global air travel is winding down.

During the summer the sun barely sets in Reykjavík and it is light round-the-clock in the north of Iceland. The trout season opened on 1st April 2010. The fishing started off slow due to very cold weather but as the temperature began to rise, so did the trout. On Saturday, 29th May, the famous trout fishing beats on the Laxardal and Myvatnssveit where opened for anglers. The first day produced 250 trout from Myvatnssveit only, and the Laxardalur produced close to 60. The first two days provided great sport, and in the evening of 31st May anglers had reported landing over 500 trout from the two beats. Most of the fish caught are between 45 and 60 cm, but bigger specimens have also been reported over 65cm. We look set to have another fantastic season on these phenomenal trout beats.

With the salmon season closing in and the first rivers due to start on 5th June, avid anglers have been on the lookout for the first salmon. There have indeed already been sightings! Anglers closely follow reports from Nordurá River – Iceland most famous spring river. It is the first to be opened and it has been over a week since local residents reported salmon entering the river. According to Guðni Guðbergsson, one of Iceland’s leading fisheries biologists, the likelihood of a highly successful salmon season for 2010, is in all probability very, very good. “Good years come a few in a row, just like the bad years, and we have had two outstanding years in 2009 and 2008. Last year we had an “almost 2008” with the records shifting to the western north coast rivers. I’m not going so far as to say that we might be looking at another record season, but it might well be in the same vein as 2009”.

The stage is set, and with these words ringing in our ears we look forward with huge anticipation to another season in Iceland. For those who have held off or been forced to change their plans there are a few excellent last minute rods available on a few of our rivers, so we hope you will take the opportunity to come and try them yourself.

We are pleased to announce that we will once again be running trips to Cosmoledo atoll in the outer islands of the Seychelles. All boats registered or licensed in Seychelles are permitted to travel anywhere in Seychelles Waters as long as the vessel has a valid port clearance to the area travelling and is recommended to have security personal on board at all times.  All of our Cosmoledo trips will have security on board and our live aboard operation will commence in October to this salt water Mecca.October to this saltwater Mecca. Having made my last trip nearly two years ago I am desperate to return to this paradise, and the lack of fishermen will have returned the fishery to a virgin state. There is nowhere on the planet where Giant Trevally are so numerous or the variety of species so prolific. After all the numerous trips to other atolls Cosmoledo has remained one of the premier saltwater fisheries in the world.

For those not familiar with Cosmoledo it is an atoll located approximately 600 miles south west of Mahe and 200 miles North of Madagascar in the far reaches of the Aldabra chain. The atoll itself is approximately 152 km². There are 16 individual islets and cays along the rim of the atoll, with Menai (in the west) and Wizard Island (in the southeast) being the largest. The cuts and channels between these islets provide an extraordinary habitat for giant trevally, blue fin trevally, permit, milkfish, trigger fish and numerous other spieces. The internal flats that lead down to the lagoon provide miles of pristine sand flats teeming with bonefish. Fishermen are broken up into parties of three and four with their guide, and move around the atoll targeting whatever species the group prefers. The overhanging coral cliffs are a fantastic hunting ground, and on the huge open flats it is possible to wade and sight fish to individuals.

The new vessel will be an upgrade from previous years in the form of the Neptune Warrior. The Neptune Warrior is owned by our partner Mike Mason from the Masons Travel family. She is a luxury motorised catamaran fully refitted in 2009 for exactly this purpose. Accommodation is in five spacious double cabins and with a draft of only 1.3 metres she can easily cruise inside the pristine lagoons of Seychelles’ outer island coral atolls. She is skippered by Francis Roucou previously of Indian Ocean Explorer who has been taking trips to Cosmoledo for eleven years. To reach the flats Neptune Warrior has two Orca 350 Aluminium tender boats which are 5.3 m long with a draft of only 8 inches and powered by Yamaha 85 hp engines. These trips will be fully guided with experienced fly fishing guides familiar with the atoll with one guide between three rods.

Neptune Warrior will be operating at Cosmoledo from 21st October - 10th December 2010 and then from 11th February - 1st April 2011. The cost will be approximately £5,200 per person based on double occupancy and nine fishermen including the internal charter flight to assumption atoll. It does not include international flights or hotel nights that may be necessary on Mahe. As you can imagine space will be at a premium so please contact us immediately if you are interested in experiencing this saltwater Nirvana.

We have just arrived back from Rio Chico and I am delighted that we made the trip down there. We had very little expectation, but what we found was really lovely. The trip down took us 2 ½ hours by a private transfer in an air conditioned vehicle by our grand hander Jon Jac. Once through the sprawling metropolis of Caracas we moved down into the low lands beyond and passed through small communities and towns reminding me very much of Cuba or Costa Rica. We arrived at the edge of the lagoon and were transferred through to the lodge by small boats which were also to be our fishing boats. They are basic, but functional all with only 9.9 hp outboard motors. Apparently there is a limitation on engine size as the entire lagoon system is a National Park.

La Tortuga turned out to be a pleasant surprise, a beach front property with a lovely palm frond palapa as the central dining area and bar only 30m from one of the most stunning white sand beaches I have seen. It stretched for as long as the eye could see in each direction and I imagine stretched for the entire 40km length of the lagoon. As soon as we arrived the bird life was extraordinary. Some of the birds that attracted our attention were the stunning flocks of Scarlet Ibis, great egrets, little egrets, several heron species, humming birds, ospreys and other raptor.

The fishing was extremely interesting. Essentially it is a baby tarpon fishery, and we had a lot of fun hitting small tarpon on the edge of the mangroves on 7 and 8 weight rods. The fishing days comprised 0600 in the morning until about 1000 when it became incredibly hot. We would then head back, lie under a beach palapa until lunch, and then an afternoon siesta in the cool breeze off the ocean before heading out in the afternoon to fish from 1500 – 1800. Arriving out in the lagoon in the morning we were greeted by huge numbers of rolling tarpon everywhere, similar to a trout rise and quite extraordinary. We could catch a good number, up to 16 a day between us with plenty jumped and lost.

We very quickly realised that in the afternoon and evening sessions there were much larger tarpon moving round, rolling out in the deeper areas. This made us very excited and we switched from fishing against the mangroves to fishing in the main channel. The first afternoon Ian had a fantastic tarpon of 17lbs, and this was beaten by a 26lbs tarpon by Geoff the following day. Ian’s was on a 7 weight, and a great achievement. Geoff had his on a 9 weight and a gummy minnow.

The last evening while fishing with Phil there were large tarpon moving everywhere and almost immediately I hooked a large fish right in the front of the boat. Very difficult to maintain pressure so it fell off rapidly. At this point I thought I would try a popper and bring the fish to us. A large fish rolled and I threw the popper out and began retrieving. There was an almighty explosion in the water as the tarpon nailed the popper and nearly gave me a heart attack! Again, it fell off after jumping. Phil put on a gurgler and again almost at the boat had a savage take covering us in spray. We fished on.

A further 10 minutes later I saw a roll up against the edge of the mangrove and while chatting to Phil threw a cast and began retrieving. Suddenly there was a monumental explosion in the water like someone had thrown a large boulder and the line was being stripped from my fingers. As the line shot out towards my left a huge fish started leaping off to my right away from me coming bodily clean out of the water. My 9 weight was bent double as the fish careered off and I began to apply low pressure in the opposite direction. After some spectacular jumps the fish began to move towards the boat making the angles very difficult.

The guide backed the boat away from the channel so we could fight it in open water and it then proceeded into a game of tug of war around the boat. Every time I thought I had some leeway the fish would come up and breath air and go off again. Richard, the guide, produced a rather small looking net and I was somewhat dubious that it would fit into it. Finally as the fish came towards the boat he managed to scoop it head first into the net which immediately snapped the aluminium frame. Only then did I realise quite how large this fish was!

It took two of us to haul it into the boat, and my 30lbs boga grip bottomed out immediately without even raising its head of the bottom of the boat properly. The guide estimate the fish at 35 kg so we gave it 70lbs. Not quite what we were expecting in a baby tarpon fishery! Awesome! I went back to the lodge covered in slime, but very happy for a few evening drinks.

Rio Chico was a totally unexpected surprise and we all enjoyed it. I would highly recommend it to anyone as a 3 day add on for anyone heading to Los Roques, and the relaxed fishing hours would fit in really well with jet lag on arrival.

We have now returned to Caracas and are going to attempt to get on a flight this evening as apparently many of them have numerous no shows on them.. Hopefully homeward bound!