Exploring the Red Sea

During the last 10 years we’ve been dreaming of new frontiers for sportfishing and fortunately there are still virgins place to explore and fish. The Eritrean Red Sea has been on my mind for many years but other exciting venues have kept me away from this lost paradise. With the war wreaking havoc in Yemen I found myself with free time for a new and exciting exploratory trip.

Together with the WSE (Wild Sea Expeditions) team we started planning a trip to Dalahk archipelago to check and verify various logistics issues in order to understand how to organize fishing trips there. After years of work in Sudan, I knew that certain periods of the year including summer and just afterwards, aren’t ideal due to the high water temperatures. However, I knew this area would be chock full of fish due to its pristine nature and absence of human impact. Still, my expectations for fishing weren’t extraordinarily high.

The boat transfer isn’t very long as we arrive at a beautiful island surrounded by a productive-looking flat. We land on the beach and immediately begin the frenzied camp and tackle setup, under temperatures of 40°C or more! The water was quite nearly boiling due to the season, but as we say, a virgin place is always a virgin place and if there are fish, we will catch some…

My fishing partner Fede and I began wading the flat near our campsite and after a couple of hours we only saw some schools of huge milkfish which didn’t produce any results. We decided to try another nearby island flat which looked promising. Once again, we only saw some triggers and a GT chasing its meal but just a bit too far from us. I noticed shortly afterwards a strange shape close to shore and decided to cast my crab. The shape moved like a plastic bag…but then hit the crab and strike!

Releasing a juvenile nurse shark.

Something was on. To my surprise, it was a grouper! A grouper on the flats about 50 meters from the reef…With that we called the first day and agreed: a full moon and 35° water, not too bad.

Our second day started with Fede spotting a trigger about 20 meters from our camp. Without hesitation, the trigger hit and was hooked properly. Quick landing for a photo then a release. Apparently this was Fede’s day as we saw milkfish schools feeding on the surface in front of our camp. Surprisingly, they were feeding on weeds. We had a Milkfish Dream flies in stock and quickly tied them on. We harassed the fish with incessant casts and after an hour, Fede hooks up. Excellent milkfish fight, it appears to be of good size but not a monster. Once landed, we didn’t know what to think…is this the milkfish capital of the universe? For the rest of the trip we never saw them feeding on weeds again, just cruising the flats.

After changing locations, we come upon a good-looking flat. We saw grouper again, a few bumphead and a black tip shark but no luck. We decided to spend the last hour on yesterday’s second island and saw a trigger and a permit but we spooked them.

On day three we’ve determined that we didn’t have enough gasoline so we sent the boat back to Massawa for more fuel. We spend some time shore fishing near our camp and landed grouper and snapper while flyfishing and using poppers. Once the boat returned, we moved again to a new island and encountered a flat with a broken-coral bottom and its perimeters exposed to the open sea without a reefline, just a sandy dropoff. As we began to work the flat, my fellow fisherman Jon got his line snapped by a GT. At the same moment, Fede and I saw tails, big tails, breaking water at some distance from us. Like excited teenagers we hurry toward the action and find another surprise: bumpheads tailing in 50 cm of water. Fede has had some experience with bumpies while guiding in Sudan and has since become obsessed with them. He started molesting them for an hour, cast after cast into the same school which never spooked. Finally he hooked two, one of which bent the hook and broke the line. Meanwhile, I watch a GT chase ballyhoo but just can’t get close enough to cast.

A big GT for the author.

Anyway, it looks promising! We continue to explore and see a few mangrove jacks of maybe 1,5 kgs but they spooked as well. 5 minutes later I spot a permit, quite small at about 1 kg but still a permit… I cast a few times when suddenly a GT darts in front of me. Fede didn’t see it so I run frantically to get a good shot. The fish came up and missed the fly twice before getting spooked. It wasn’t very big, less than 10 kgs, but plenty enough to upset me! It went downhill from there as we spotted a dozen permit in the 300-400 gram range. I’m thinking if there are small ones, there must be big ones.

We move the camp to another island a bit further away on the fourth day. As we beach the boat without our rods ready, and MT and a GT pass right in front of us. Once again, I grab my rod and attempt to follow the fish on the flat, but they disappear. Failure once again, but I’m still motivated.

Our popping group goes out and has good action on GT up to 20 kgs. We better understand which side to fish according to tide and currents as the tide amplitude here is about 2 meters. The tide on the flats is too high to wade and we only see a big trigger, impossible to hook.

The next morning we wake up before light for an early session and surprise again, we see more grouper on the flat close to our camp. They were too lazy, unable to hook one. Another popping colleague, Simone, who is about 100 meters from us, spots a big GT on the flat 15 meters from him. We’re too far to tray on fly and let Simone battle it out with his GT. It seems this flat is good for trevally. Nothing more happens until we hop to another island. This time I go alone in the flat and get a snapper fishing the edge with a popper fly. Wading inside, I see monster milkfish of 30 kgs each, a good black tip shark and a school of permit to dream about…They aren’t tailing and they spook just in front of me. It’s a school of 40-50 fish of about 3-4 kgs and they all scatter away! Couldn’t believe it.

We decide to spend the evening on camp island. The tide is low enough to wade the flat and Fede and I decide to try the flies again. We understand why this flat seems to attract GT as a carpet of ballyhoo cover the surface of the water in front of us. A few minutes later, a GT starts to hunt like crazy just in front of me. The light is waning but I cast in the direction of the commotion and work my fly. I’m quickly connected to my first Eritrean GT. Extremely exciting. The popping guys on our expedition also hooked up with GT and has several lines broken.

On our last day we only had the morning to fish as we had to travel back to Massawa. Naturally, I decided to fish the flat (again) with my colleague Guillaume as Fede went popping. The tide is low and the flat is perfectly navigable by wading, otherwise its two meters deep. After 20 minutes of walking, in 40 cm of weedy water, a school of 5 or 6 GT swim away from us. They were simply resting motionless in the weeds…I’d never seen that before.

After we split up to cover more water, I see more GT which spook easily. It’s exciting but also frustrating. I still have a couple of hours left to make it happen and I want to believe! We’ve seen too many GT on this flat…A half an hour later, I spot a GT cruising by my side at about 20 meters. I’ve got this one last chance and I go for it. Strike! Hooked up again with what will be my last Eritrean Dalahk GT for a while to come. Pure bliss and happiness.

It’s finally time to leave but we’re all happy to have enjoyed this experience in a beautiful land with nice and lovely people. Summarizing our trip, given the conditions and the fact we fished only four and a half days, in an area completely unexplored with serious current and tidal influence, we declare our trip successful. We can’t imagine what could happen during the right season, with cooler water and more knowledge. We can’t imagine, but we do want to discover it.