Fishing Tour

Seychelles has some of the richest fishing grounds in the world. The abundance of wahoo, sailfish, dorado, tuna, rainbow runner, and trophies such as marlin make for an unforgettable big-game fishing experience for both the seasoned and novice fisherman alike.

Traditional bottom-fishing produces a dazzling array of grouper, job fish, snappers, and emperors, rewarding you with some of the finest-tasting fish on offer anywhere in the world.

Seychelles has become the epicenter of saltwater fly-fishing, and casting your fly lines on the magnificent shallow flats of the Outer Islands will afford you the chance of landing several energetic silver bonefish to challenge the record books. Blue-water fly-fishing is also becoming increasingly popular, providing the ultimate challenge of landing large pelagic fish on relatively light tackle.

Fishing Around the Islands

The Inner Islands consist of 41 granitic islands that form a cluster around the principal islands of Mahé, Praslin, and La Digue, some with peaks rising nearly 1,000m high. Interestingly, there are also two low-lying coral islands, namely Denis Island and Bird Island, within the Inner Islands.

These islands offer a variety of fishing grounds that are easily reached by Seychelles’ fleet of modern fishing craft and whose crew each have their favorite spots where they will be happy to introduce both the fishing aficionado and novice to the thrills of deep-sea and bottom-fishing.

The Inner Islands are convenient for both full and half-day fishing excursions and offer exciting fishing opportunities for spectacular - and tasty - catches. Inner Island trips can take fishermen as far north as Bird and Denis Islands, where the ocean floor plummets to 2,000 metres.

Similarly, the islands of Frégate to the east, North Island, and Mahé’s lofty neighbor, Silhouette, all possess fertile fishing grounds and offer the opportunity to catch a wide variety of fish.

Seychelles’ dazzling chain of Outer Islands and their seldom-visited fishing grounds present unique opportunities for the intrepid fisherman to do battle with the heavyweights.

Seychelles holds several International Game Fish Association (IGFA) records for species caught in and around the outer islands.

These include the bonefish, dogtooth tuna, moustache grouper, and bigeye trevally. The resorts of Desroches Island in the Amirantes group and Alphonse Island offer convenient bases for forays in areas legendary for their fishing, where big-game, fly, and bottom fishermen alike can test their skills to the limit.

Further afield, sparsely populated islands such as Providence, Farquhar, and Cosmoledo, accessible on long-range fishing expeditions, present the ultimate challenge to the fisherman in search of an exceptional fishing experience.

Fishing Types

Whether you are an experienced sports fisherman or an enthusiastic beginner, you will be thrilled by the opportunities that Seychelles’ fish-rich waters offer.

Try your hand at big-game fishing and the unforgettable experience of trolling in pristine, azure waters from a range of modern fishing boats. An experienced crew will help you exceed your fishing expectations beyond your imagination. Alternatively, you can try fly-fishing in the shallow waters surrounding the Inner Islands or even practice the art of blue-water fly-fishing.

The traditional technique of bottom-fishing will land you a catch of spirited coral-reef fish and grace your table with some of the tastiest fish in the world.

Meanwhile, Seychelles’ Outer Islands offer the experienced fisherman the opportunity to enter the record books in remoter waters, far from the more commonly visited fishing grounds.

Big-game fishing in these virgin waters provides the ultimate challenge, as does fly-fishing from the fish-rich flats of St. François, Poivre, and d’Arros atolls. Blue-water fly-fishing in the waters surrounding these lost island worlds can yield extraordinary results, as can bottom-fishing expeditions in the deeper waters where the monster coral fish dwell.

Not to be missed is the excitement of night-fishing for pickhandle barracuda or shark off a variety of island locations.

The Catch

The fishing grounds around the Inner Islands offer both the big-game and fly-fisherman a varied catch that includes the spectacular marlin, sailfish, wahoo, greater barracuda, rainbow runner, milkfish, bonefish, trevally, barracuda, and jobfish, as well as varieties of bonito and tuna.

The bottom-fisher, meanwhile, can pit his skills against snappers, coral-trouts, seabass, and groupers - just a few of the spectacular species to be found around the Inner Islands.

The Outer Islands offer a chance to test one’s game-fishing skills against the mighty marlin, sailfish, giant dogtooth tuna, and yellow fin tuna, the larger ocean-going sharks, and many other species.

Several of the outlying atolls, such as those in the Amirantes and Alphonse groups, are considered to offer the best fly-fishing in the world and the chance to enter the record books with catches of 5kg bonefish, 25kg trevally, and also barracuda. Given the abundance of fish, blue-water fly-fishing can be especially challenging and rewarding.

Bottom-fishing in these little-fished waters can yield groupers that weigh more than 30kg as well as massive trevally, kingfish, greater barracuda, snapper, emperor, and bream.

Fishing Tips

It seems that the Seychelles was deliberately designed to accommodate all types of fishing.

With most islands situated outside the cyclone belt, Seychelles allows engagement in fishing throughout the year in a marine area of more than 1.4 million km2, with water fish around 115 shimmering Islands archipelago. With such a diversity of choices for fishing, your fishing experience in Seychelles promises to be exceptionally successful.

You are free to fish at your leisure in most Seychelles waters; however, some rules to preserve this unique and fragile environment must be respected, so that everyone can enjoy it now and in the coming years.

Within the Inner Islands, fishing is prohibited within the perimeters of Curious, Cocos Island, Bay Port Launay / Baie Ternay, and the Sainte Anne Marine National Park. To ensure that these regulations are observed, these areas are patrolled by park rangers.

It is the same for the Natural Reserve of Barren; no fishing is allowed within 200 meters of the beach.

Specific regions of the Outer Islands are also regulated commercially. For example, no fishing can only be undertaken by an operator other than the one authorized to do aso round Alphonse below 20 nautical miles from the island. Similarly, no fishing is allowed around the island of Aldabra, one of two sites in the Seychelles World Heritage of UNESCO.

Fishing Season

Seychelles, fishing is appreciable throughout the year is divided into specific seasons, each suitable for a more specific type of fishing, but remains promising for the experienced as well as for the novice fisherman.

For example, fishing is any activity that can be practiced throughout the year, while the months from November to May are more suitable for bottom fishing and fly fishing.

On the whole territory of the Seychelles, the ocean is subject to currents ranging from 0.5 to 1.5 knots, depending on the winds. There are two seasons in Seychelles in the direction of the trade winds, which blow from the northwest ( December to March ) and southeast ( May to September ).

The north-westerly winds often lead to intermittent rain squalls and stronger winds during the period from December to March. These are sometimes associated with the presence of tropical cyclones in the southwest Indian Ocean. Fortunately, all the Seychelles lie outside the cyclone belt, except the southernmost Outer Islands.

The south-easterly trades are drier and tend to blow more evenly throughout the day and into the night, reaching their peak in July / August.

In April and November periods are quiet and sometimes windless, and then the winds change direction. Periods are variable, and wind is accompanied by calm seas and clear waters.

Tidal effects are more apparent in the Inner Islands than ocean currents and generally reach a speed of a node, but up to 2 knots in channels between islands or near underwater ridges.

Tides are semi-diurnal and asymmetrical with a period of about 6 hours between high and low tide.

The tidal range around the Inner Islands can reach up to 2 meters high and 0.9 meters minimum. Tides cause currents that can be strong in the channels leading to lagoons, which can drain completely at low tide. The waves are generally moderate, ranging from 1 to 2 meters and becoming higher only in case of strong winds.

Currents up along and around the bench Amirantes often cause varying conditions in a small area.

Weather forecasts are available by calling the Seychelles radio station ( the coast ) on VHF channel 16 and normally switching to channel 26.

Boats can also be linked by radio via the Seychelles radio.

Equipment Rental & Purchase

Seychelles, no fishing license is required for recreational fishing.

You will find fishing equipment retail corresponding to the basic needs of fishermen, but on the other hand, know that the local stores are not very well-supplied and do not necessarily have inventory items or your favorite brands.

To avoid disappointment, it is recommended that you bring your equipment and supplies, as there is no institution specializing in the rental or sale of fishing equipment. However, if you go through an operator, it will provide you with all the necessary equipment. We advise professional fishermen to check the availability of equipment with their fishing operator before booking.

Air Seychelles offers free allowance for sporting equipment not exceeding 10kg, which applies to diving equipment, golf, fishing, and surfing. The equipment is weighed separately, and if the weight is less than 10kg, no supplement is required. If the weight exceeds 10kg, the device is added to the weight of other baggage, and if it exceeds the free baggage allowance, excess weight will be charged at the current rate.

To use this equipment allowance for free sports on Praslin, travelers must travel exclusively with Air Seychelles to Praslin Island and must be booked on the same ticket as their international flight.

Conservation

Seychelles is proud of its long-standing enlightened conservation policies, adopted to ensure the protection of fish stocks through best practice in the fishing arena.

One example of this is a total ban on the use of spear guns throughout Seychelles’ waters. Local customs officials will confiscate such items from anyone who carries them when entering Seychelles.

Fishing is prohibited within the boundaries of the Curieuse, Ile Cocos, Port Launay/Baie Ternay, and Ste. Anne Marine National Parks.

These areas are patrolled by park rangers. In addition, no fishing is permitted within 200 meters around Aride Island Nature Reserve.

The practice of ‘tag and release’ has been widely adopted to safeguard fish stocks for future generations of fishermen. Tag and release is when a fish is caught and then released alive back into the water.

In addition, the gentle whale shark, common in Seychelles’ waters during August and from October to January, is a species protected both by Seychelles law and by CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

The responsibility of promoting Seychelles’ fishing industry, preserving its resources, formulating and implementing national policies on fishing matters falls under the Seychelles Fishing Authority (SFA). The SFA is a parastatal organization and the executive, regulatory arm of government in the field of fisheries.