The Brando, Tetiaroa pre opening visit - Fly fishing for bonefish and giant trevally.

I have just returned from a 10 day stay at the luxurious eco-resort The Brando, Tetiaroa. We arranged a 10 day stay for Sir Douglas and Lady Myers, supporters of the Tetiaroa Society, and a client who has fished on and off at Tetiaroa for the past 15 years as well as at at all the famous bonefish destinations throughout the world. This was our third trip to the island together and with The Brando opening on the 1st July it was a good opportunity to see the finished product and allowed the F&B team an opportunity to test their cuisine and service skills.

Tetiaroa has always been one of the most stunning coral atolls in the world to visit. Until now that meant roughing it but with the opening of The Brando that is all about to change. The resort is a stunning piece of architecture and blends in completely with the atoll, not impacting on the visual beauty of the environment. The villas are stylish and spacious and the landscaping provides complete privacy. The eco credentials are to be found throughout the resort - SWAC air conditioning, solar power and coconut oil (Biofuel) powered generators. The resort sources much of its produce form the island from the orchard and vegetable gardens and even produces its own honey!!

Sir Douglas and I spent 10 days fishing the flats with Teihotu Brando who is learning the craft of fly fishing. Bonefish were our main target and we encountered good numbers of fish most days. Tetiaroa's bonefish are typically large alb plus and generally founds as singles or pairs. Occasionally small groups of 5-12 fish will be encountered but for the most part your time is spent stalking these large single fish in shallow water. On most days we would average 5-10 hook ups and many close encounters. These fish will often end up at your rod tip before spooking.

The really exciting thing about Tetiaroa is the opportunity to land double figure bonefish. On this trip we landed 3 fish over 10 lbs with Sir Douglas landing his two largest bonefish ever of 33 inch and 3 22 inch respectively. They weighed in at 13 lbs and 13 1/2 lbs. Absolute monster bonefish.

While the main focus of this trip was for the large bonefish I did manage to spend a little bit of time looking for my favourite flats species - the giant trevally. This atoll has good numbers of GT's that can be found chasing mullet on the flats or cruising the drop-offs in search of food. One each occasion we went looking for GT's we encountered fish resulting in a fine fish of 116cm. In July we will be starting a GT acoustic tagging study to try and understand more about the species movements around the lagoon and to help in fisheries management regulation for the atoll.

FOR MORE INFORMATION OF VISTING THE BRANDO OR PARTICIPATING IN OUR RESEARCH ON GIANT TREVALLY AND BONEFISH ON THE ATOLL PLEASE CONTACT US ON + 44 (0)1621743711 or EMAIL: enquires@flyodyssey.co.uk OR VISIT OUR WEBSITE: www.flyodyssey.co.uk

Cayo Largo, Cuba - Client Trip report

Each April we send a group of anglers to Cayo Largo in Cuba. Here is a report from one of our clients, Mr Robert Thong from the UK, who returned with Marie for the second trip to Cayo Largo. This report was first published on Marie's blog  "The Larder 36" which is a great read.

Just after Easter, Marie and I returned to fish Cayo Largo in Cuba after having had such an exciting time two years ago. We enjoyed another great angling trip, albeit somewhat different compared to two years ago, which just shows the immense variety of the fishing here. So I thought I’d post another blog article on Cayo Largo to inform readers who are considering fishing there.

The Place and Getting There

Cayo Largo is a narrow 25-km long island in Western Cuba, half an hour flying time directly south from Havana via a local air shuttle service. It is a planned vacation resort island, with several mega resort hotels and many self-catering cabanas and villas for vacationers looking for sun, beach and diving. It is situated in a protected Marine Park throughout which commercial fishing is banned and only one designated group, the Avalon fly fishing operation, have exclusive rights for sport fishing. Catch-and-release fly fishing is the only allowed method. Avalon run six guided flats boats for a total of up to 12 anglers at any time, fishing six days a week.

As part of the Avalon package, we stayed in the all-inclusive Sol Melia resort hotel, a 10-minute daily transfer by a dedicated mini-bus every morning to the marina where the flats boats are kept. The hotel is filled with holiday makers from all over Europe and the Americas – there was a pre-dominance of Italians and Canadians the week we were there. We took breakfast and dinner at a range of restaurants situated on-site at the resort, plus a packed lunch on the water with our fishing guide on fishng days. All meals are included and the hotel also has a 24-hour bar offering unlimited beverages including alcoholic drinks – once at the resort, there is no need to carry any cash around as everything is already paid for, making this an excellent option for non-fishing partners and friends of the anglers as there is a full-range of water- and land-based activties on offer at the hotel every day, all included in the price. Of course for the anglers, there is no opportunity to sample any of these non-fishing activities except on the arrival and departure days as the fishing takes up the whole day – I’m sure none of the anglers minded!

The package also includes one night’s stay at a top hotel in central Havana on the in-bound journey and again on the way home, with an easy option to add extra nights in Havana at either end, so the fishing trip can be combined with a visit to a very quaint and interesting city.

The Fishing

The sheer size of the marine park is astonishing, split up by Avalon into 6 distinct fishing areas ranging from two areas within just 5 minutes boat ride from the marina, to the furthest two areas which are an hour’s boat ride away. On any particular day, only two of the areas are fished (by up to three boats each), so that each area is rested for at least two days in the weekly cycle – hence the fish are not at all pressurized. In any case, each area is very large, so you are rarely fishing near any of the other boats, and it’s not possible in a day for any one boat to fish all the available water even in its allocated area. We never fished the same water more than once in the whole week.

  

  

In all the areas, you can find the standard flats species of bonefish, permit and tarpon, as well as snook, various type of jacks and snappers, and barracuda. Bonefish are everywhere, sometimes in huge schools of 100+ fish, and it wasn’t unusual most days to land over a dozen bonefish between the two of us in the boat. Most of the bonefish we caught were in the 3 to 4 lb range, which is on the high side for the Caribbean, many of them aggressive very hard-fighting specimens, with a fair sprinkling of 5 and 6 lb fish, plus one 7-lb and another 8-lb trophy. There are permit around too – we got a few shots at them most days without managing to land one (unlike our last trip), although some of the other boats did manage to do so. And tarpon can be found both in the deeper channels and off the beaches – I had good shots at a few and managed to land a nice 25-lb one after a half-hour battle. A very pleasant surprise were the hard-fighting jacks and the large-ish snappers, many of them 2-lb and up – on one memorable day I landed five bigger jacks ranging from 6-lb to 10-lb, each putting up a tremendous fight. And if you’re so inclined, you can also fly fish for the very aggressive barracuda – see the picture below of a huge 30-lb cuda that Marie landed.

We fished with 8-, 9- and 10-weight single-handed fast action rods, with floating lines on the flats and off the beaches, and intermediate and sinking lines in the deeper channels and dropoffs.

Season and Contact Details

The fishing season in Cayo Largo runs from November through to July, with April to June being the most popular times although there is good fishing to be had throughout the rest of the season subject to higher risk of rain and winds.

We’d like to thank Mat McHugh of Fly Odyssey for organizing our trip and Mauro Ginevri and his team for their expertise and hospitality. Special mention also to Sean Clarke and his group from Farlows who were great fishing companions.

Fly Odyssey attending the Upcoming Events

We will be attending the following events over the coming fortnight. 

This weekend we will have a stand at the annual SPORTFISH show at the Reading store. This is a great event with free entry and all the UK's biggest tackle manufactures showing their latest products and a huge range of demonstrations. For more details please visit the Sportfish website (linked above).

On the 14th May the RISE fly fishing film festival will be returning to London and is to be held at The Courthouse Hotel Cinema located on Great Marlborough St. 

Details of the shows and how to purchase tickets are below:

RISE FLY FISHING FILM FESTIVAL

The feature film Leviathan will show 10 minutes of the bonefish and giant trevally research we have been undertaking at Tetiaroa as well as footage of trout fishing in New Zealand, Giant trevally on the Great Barrier Reef, rainbow trout from Jurassic Lake in Argentina and finally tarpon crashing bait balls in remote Costa Rica . 

LEVIATHAN TRAILER

We look forward to seeing you there.

Fly fishing in the Maldives - FOUR RESORTS NOW OFFERING FLY FISHING

Since 2011 we have spent a large amount of time looking at the fly fishing potential in the Maldives. We have now visited 4 different resorts and each offers unique opportunities to combine a family holiday with some opportunities to wade the flats for a variety of species including bonefish, giant trevally, bluefin trevally, triggerfish, info pacific permit, and many more. You can view our selection of Maldivian resorts here: Fly Odyssey Maldives Page.

Atmosphere Kanifushi: Our most recent visit took us to the island of Atmosphere Kanifushi. This is a new resort located a short seaplane flight away from Male. Unique in the Maldives this resort offers a Premium Plus Plan (all inclusive) while maintaining the high standards expected of a stay in the Maldives. It also has some great flats nearby where you can fish for bonefish, giant trevally and more.

Ayada: Ayada is located in the far south of the Maldives. An 1 hour 30 minute transfer takes you to this stunning Turkish inspired resort. No expense has been spared in finishing this resort and Spa and villa's are as good as we have found in the Maldives. From a fishing perspective there is a stunning flats system known as 5 islands. This has a superb bluefin trevally fishery with double figure fish regularly encountered on the flats. The bonefish numbers don't appear to be has high as other parts of the Maldives but regular encounters with Indo-pacific permit occur. This fishing is ideally suited to those anglers who like to explore by themselves.

Client Review:

All in all Mat it was great trip.  A good adventure, hard at times, scary (thunder and reef edge monsters) but when it came right it was great fun and all the sweeter for the hard work.  I would suggest it is not the place for a total novice but it will certainly teach you new things.  I found the trevally tricky to start with but soon found the secret for them.  It is a great location for some fishing while on a couples holiday, but I think it deserves a bit more than that and I would suggest some exploration during big tides may turn up some very interesting results.

Rob Evans, UK - March 2014

Kanuhura Resort and Spa: Kanuhura is a long established resort. It is set on a stunning island and is located on the same atoll as Atmosphere Kanifushi. This resort is ideal for both families and couples and offers all the usual activities expected of a resort in the Maldives. This resort offers guided fly fishing on the various local sand islands for bonefish and giant trevally.

Client review:

That's my Maldives fishing finished- just going to laze on the beach for my last 2 days. In all I fished 4 half days, landed 2 bonefish( lost a big fish of around 6lbs) , landed 2 small GT's( one was pretty big in my opinion but I guess small by GT standards), lost a GT of around 10lbs that I fought for 10mins on my bonefish outfit, and caught around 10 small bluefin and striped travally up to around 4lbs. Also caught a few queen fish, small grouper and white snapper. 

All in all a great holiday!

Kenny Johnston, UK - March 2014

Island Hideaway, Dhonakulhi Island: Dhonakulhi Island has been closed for refurbishment for the past 12 months. The resort has been updated and a large number of water villas built in the lagoon. We will be checking out to the new changes later in the year and finding out how the resort is planning ton developing its fly fishing program.

FOR ENQUIRIES REGARDING FLY FISHING OR POPPER FISHING IN THE MALDIVES PLEASE CALL US ON +44 (0)1621743711, EMAIL US AT: enquiries@flyodyssey.co.uk OR VISIT OUR WEBSITE: WWW.FLYODYSSEY.CO.UK

The Brando Hotel opening 1st July, 2014 - Participation in Bonefish and Giant Trevally Research

In July, 2014 The Brando hotel will open on the pristine and unique island of Tetiaroa. The Brando hotel is a high end eco-resort with 33 luxurious rooms on one of the prettiest coral atolls in the world. This hotel will provide one of the finest luxury tropical island resorts ideally suited to families and couples. 

With the opening of The Brando Hotel, Tetiaroa we would like to invite anglers to participate in our fly fishing based research programs on the island which will be run in partnership between Fly Odyssey and the Tetiaroa Society.  These projects will be investigating various aspects of the biology and ecology of bonefish and giant trevally on the island and offers the unique opportunity to contribute to a better understanding of the species in French Polynesia.

You can view our webpage and and flip page brochure at the following links which explains the location, the Brando hotel, the fishery and research being undertaken on the island:

The Brando Tetiaroa
Tetiarao Brochure

IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT PARTICIPATING IN OUR FLY FISHING RESEARCH PROJECTS OR STAYS AT THE BRANDO HOTEL PLEASE CALL US ON +(0) 44 1621743711 OR EMAIL: enquiries@flyodyssey.co.uk

CUBA AND MEXICO FLY FISHING INFORMATION DAY AT FARLOWS, PALL MALL - 10 AM, WEDNESDAY 16TH APRIL, 2014

Fly Odyssey will be present in Farlows, Pall Mall providing information on two of our most popular destinations: Cuba and Mexico

We will have all the information on last minute rods and special deals available at both locations along with information on our upcoming hosted weeks to Cayo Largo and Georgiana (Isle of Youth) in Cuba and Playa Blanca and Punta Allen in Mexico. If you are travelling or planning to travel to either destination in 2014 or 2015 please come along to discuss your best options.

For more information please contact Fly Odyssey on 01621743711, via email at enquiries@flyodyssey.co.uk or speak with a Farlows staff member on 0207 484 1000.

Client report - Cinco Rios Lodge, Chile

Some great feedback from regular client Peter Connor who visited Cincos Rios Lodge in Chile for 10 days in February. A great insight to this fabulous lodge...

Hi Matt,

Please accept my apology for not replying sooner. 

You know my philosophy, the place itself provides the delight, and that the fishing sits alongside. I found the country to be quite breath-taking; from the impish shiny eyed uniform who guided me through the chaos of Santiago Airport (for a very small tip) to the bleak barrenness around Balmaceda Airport to the mountains and lakes around Coyhaique. From minute one I was made very welcome, collected at the airport on time and delivered safely to Cincos Rios by one of the friendly staff.  The lodge as you probably know is custom built looking over the Simpson River valley, (though we did not fish it whilst I was there.) None the less a provider of poetic sunsets and stimulating dawns, even the air tastes different as the valley clears its early morning mist, Condors drifting on the early air currents. If you have a look on trip advisor (Cincos Rios in the search engine ) there are a series of photos which show with excellent clarity the style of the place.   

Sebastian was not in residence when I arrived, but the place ran with obvious efficiency, ideal after the long journey. No rushing, just a gentle introduction to the place and the system. The senior guide, Lalu, ran me through an outline of the arrangements, a gentle interrogation on what I expected from my stay. I was delighted to find that all the guides are local, or relatively so, most of them clearly passionate fishermen themselves, fly tyers and, as it turned out, expert handlers of a variety of water craft. I was a bit perturbed to hear the term 'jet-boat' applied to one of the forms of transport, but it turned out to be a robust inflatable water platform powered by an outboard impeller allowing easy navigation of shallow water, rocks and debris. These are virtually unsinkable. In my ten days fishing I did not fish the same water twice, from log strewn lake edges hiding wonderful brown trout to spring creeks and freestone rivers where free rising brownies and rainbows were the order of the day. I dont want to give the impression that it was inordinately easy, it was not; but the opportunty to catch fish was ever present, the only inhibitor in any given situation was my own skill level. I have to report I managed some good shots alongside the odd inevitable duff cast. It was only on the last day, when the wind really got up, it was like fishing in a wind tunnel, that I felt almost defeated by the elements. Even then my guide took some time out to teach me a little single spey casting to beat the wind. We did catch fish.  

In accordance with your guidance I spent some time at the fly tying bench. Over-enthusiasm lead to me taking far more than I needed. The ever present Cantaria Beetles meant that the number one fly was any variation on a big black foam beetle ( though irridescent blue for some peculiar reason also seemed to work ) slapped down on the surface, attached to a 1x or 2x leader usually drew a response. In the Valley of the Moon (what a name) the fly of choice was a bright green grasshopper. We could almost groundbait with the real thing by walking through the grass. A perfect summer's day, with a light breeze, surrounded by a huge variety of birds, including several different raptors, I caught fish too numerous to count, from 12 to 22 inches. Magnificent! On one day we jet boated to the top end of Lake Elisalde, up a gin clear river populated with big brownies clearly visible on the bottom. When we reached the lake, in a large lagoon up to about 12 feet deep, there were many big fish cruising on the bottom. Dropping a big black beetle in the vicinity of a cruising fish provoked a slow deliberate take through the ripple. These were beatiful, well marked fish and many had a single blue spot on the gill cover. As soon as the wind dropped any line movement on the flat calm spooked the fish instantly. We then resorted to taking decent sized rainbows on size 16 Parachute Adams, in the mouth of the river. On a later day I fished a freestone river for rainbows, which needed super heavy nymphs ( 2 tunsten beads + lead ) to get down to the fish, using a floating indicator to help with bite detection.

When Sebastian arrived he made every effort to ensure that the guests were well looked after. I'll give you an example. An American couple arrived, both of whom fished. In the introductory chat they mentioned that it was their 30th wedding anniversary during the week. On the evening in question there were celebratory drinks provided and the couple (and everyone else) were seranaded by a local husband and wife duo singing Chilean love songs. All unannounced and included. A delicate touch I think, unsolicited and gracious. His attention to detail is excellent and the service provided first class. Incidentally, where wives turned up with fishing clients every effort was made to provide activities for them; guided walking treks and horse riding in particular.

All in all one of the best fishing holidays I have ever had, ever, including New Zealand. So well done. All travel arrangements went well.

About New Zealand. I had intended to go in January/February 2015. So watch this space. I will be going back to Chile in 2016 about the same time.

Best regards
Peter

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON FLY FISHING IN CHILE PLEASE CONTACT US ON +44 (0)1621743711 OR EMAIL: enquiries@flyodyssey.co.uk OR VISIT: WWW.FLYODYSSEY.CO.UK