SPAGHETTI ALLA SUDAN

NO STRANGER TO BIG FISH, WHEN MEREDITH MCCORD VISITED THE FLATS OF SUDAN SHE WAS ON THE HUNT FOR TRIGGERFISH, BLUEFIN TREVALLY AND GTS. WHAT SHE DIDN’T EXPECT WAS THE SPAGHETTI WORM. NO ONE EXPECTS THE SPAGHETTI WORM.

Written by Meredith McCord Photos. Tim Leppan

“What is that?” I asked, awe-struck, as I stood looking in front of the three of us just twenty feet off the shoreline. The light was still low on the water and Kayla, Tim and I had just started our day walking and stalking the sandy beach and flats of a small island called Talla-Talla Kebir. We were looking for triggerfish or anything else we might cast a fly to. We all stopped and stared hard, willing our eyes to see through the silver roof of the water’s surface to whatever was cutting its way parallel to the beach and coming towards us.

“I don’t know what it is,” said Tim quickly. “Just cast!” Before I could even think about what I was doing, what fly I was tossing, or how light the tippet was on my 9-weight Hardy, I cast my tan Spaghetti (worm) fly a few feet directly in the path of this “thing”. I had just begun to strip my line when a huge silver forehead, followed by a big white upper lip, slowly emerged from the surface of the water and literally sipped in my tiny #2 fly like a brown trout. It was as if it was saying, with ease and grace, ”Thank you, I will take that tasty little Italian morsel of a treat.”

Our first four days of fly fishing the Red Sea’s crystalclear waters in southern Sudan had already been a great success. Our group of six was made up of a newly engaged couple from Boston (Simon romantically proposed to Kayla on the white sand flats of Abu’Isa on our second day, right after Kayla landed her first trigger of the morning, and our guide/photographer Tim was prepped and ready with his camera to capture it all); long time fly angler Susan from Michigan; Uncle “Big Fish” Bill from Seattle; and Traveling Charlie and me from Texas.

We had made the long trek across the pond to a country new to us all to chase triggerfish, bluefin trevally and -- the golden egg -- the giant trevally (respectfully referred to as GTs, or Geets, by fanatics). Our home for the 10-day exploratory trip was the 31-metre steel trawler dive boat, the “Don Questo”, with a crew of six and captained by a passionate, hand gesturing Italian, Lorenzo. We were being led island to island by three incredibly fun and fishy guides: South African head guide Brent Poultry, Spanish guide and fly tier David Fernández and, new to the team, the amazing photographer Tim Leppan.

On the first evening we made a hard overnight push as far south as possible to the islands near the border of Eritrea and Sudan. Each day after that we explored, walking for miles and catching more fish than one could believe, always working our way back north towards our final destination of Port Sudan. In the evenings, Lorenzo and Brent would study the map and, taking into account the wind and weather, would make a plan as to what new islands we might fish the following day. Every morning the nine of us (two anglers paired with a guide) would load into two Sudanese seven-metre fiberglass pangas, run by either Manga or Mahmoot, and venture off to walk and wade various uninhabited and untouched small desert islands to see what they might offer. It was an incredibly adventurous feeling to know that, on some of these islands, we were almost certainly the first fly fishermen to step foot on the flats, and were casting to fish who had never seen a fly.

By the fourth day the group had landed 37 triggers and over 20 bluefins, as well as a few small giant trevally. Although we had caught no large GTs, we had seen them and a few had even felt the sting of a hook. This particular day was a special one for me, as Brent took Susan and me to a very small island that looked to be a good size and shape on Google Earth but had never been checked out by fishermen. When searching the satellite map for good fishing areas, a few things are looked for on and around these tiny islands. Most are so small an angler could walk around them in less than an hour to half a day. The first thing you look for is the number of fishable flats between the shoreline and the reef and blue water drop-off. The second is whether or not the island is big enough to block waves, wind and current in order to create a “receiving” lea side into which to bring the panga to safely deposit guide and anglers. There is something heart-thumping and wild about this kind of exploratory fishing. Not knowing what might happen brings an electricity to the venture that is palpable for both guide and angler and heightens the sense of being alive.

About mid-morning on this particular tiny island, Susan, walking ahead of me, spotted something dark cruising the shoreline and shouted, “Big fish!” I grabbed my 11-weight rod, rigged with an original James Christmas NYAP with a sailfish pink/white popper head in front of a loop knot (definitely not the sexiest of rigs, but very effective), and made a cast to the silvery blue Geet, which by then was right at my feet. One pop of my fly and it charged, swirled, and seemed to reject the fly. I kept popping, with each “kurrr-bloosh” trying to will the fish to eat and, on the third pop it worked! The GT jack-knifed back on the fly, smashed it with a sound I cannot do justice to, and the fight was on! I cranked down the drag on my new 9600 Mako reel and ran backwards to get as high on the island as I could in order to keep my prize out of the coral. Brent whooped and hollered and after a short fight ran out to tail the trophy - my first Sudanese giant trevally, a beautiful dark 84cm fish. After a few photos, I picked up my 9-weight rod and was able to bring to hand my largest Titan trigger ever. Needless to say, the trip was going well.

We returned to the Don Questo after fishing to learn that everyone had had a bang-up day. Bill and Simon had both caught big bluefins, and Kayla and Charlie had landed an epic ten triggers, all on the Spaghetti fly,, This is nothing more than a simple worm pattern tied in seconds with a piece of chenille wound behind a pair of small dumbbell eyes, with the “tail” protruding out below the hook just under an inch. A few sharpie stripes on the tail finishes off the fly. Who would have thought such a small and basic piece of material could have such an effect on the triggers? David had learned about the fly from Johan Persson Friberg a Norwegian fly fisherman who had crushed the northern flats of Sudan with a very similar worm fly. On witnessing the fly’s success, David began to tie his own version in tan, olive and red, which he called the “eS-Paghetti”, as he pronounced it with his thick Spanish accent.

I love fishing with women for the simple reasons that they listen and take suggestions. David had tried to get past groups and anglers to fish the Spaghetti when the triggers were being their normal tricky selves with the normal “goto’s” of Flexo Crabs and shrimp patterns. But all these folks had taken one look at the fly and rejected it, saying they would rather stick with what they knew and what had worked for them in the past. But Kayla, new to triggers (though she had already caught a dozen or more so far on this trip), was open to the suggestion on the morning she and Charlie set out with David, and she put on a tan “eS-paghetti”. On getting out of the boat, they spotted over a dozen triggerfish cruising the pristine white sand flat. Kayla put in the first cast and a trigger charged the fly the moment it landed from over three feet away. Never had David or either of the anglers seen a trigger chase with such aggression. By her second trigger in a matter of ten minutes, Charlie was changing over his fly to the “eSpaghetti” as well. It was an epic day for them both: Kayla with six and Charlie with four, of both the titan and yellow margin varieties of triggerfish.

That evening, sitting on the deck top watching the red glow of the Sudanese setting sun and munching on roasted peanuts and popcorn, we heard about the success of everyone’s day. David was thrilled and proud that his fly had performed so well for his anglers. Toasts were made and spirits were high.

The following day, Kayla and I were paired together with Tim and, as we set out for Talla-Talla Kebir, Tim asked what our goals were for the day since the island was known to produce all of our target species. Kayla and I answered that we would be happy with whatever the day brought, as we were excited just to be fishing together and exploring yet another island. Naturally, Kayla was sticking with her new, well-proven Spaghetti fly, while I still had on a crab pattern from the day before that had managed to catch two triggers.

Not five minutes after the panga dropped us off, Tim spotted a nice yellow margin 15 feet from shore tailing near a bommie (South African slang for coral head). I told Kayla to take the shot and, on one cast and a strip, the trigger shot over to her Spaghetti and sucked it down. After that it didn’t take me long to change over to the magic fly. When Tim had finished snapping a few photos we begin walking the edge again. Clouds and facing into the sun made visibility tough, but the occasional split between clouds from time to time would give us good visibility, only to close over again. With his 24-year-old’s eyes Tim again spotted a darker trigger, this time a small Titan twenty feet out from the shore and now I was up. One cast and it spooked.

Looking back, I am so thankful that that trigger didn’t eat, for if it had, none of the following would have taken place. As we saw the “disturbance” cutting through the glare of the water coming down the shoreline in front of us, I had no time to think, no time to change to my 11-weight rod rigged for GT’s and other monsters, so I cast my Spaghetti fly on 16lb tippet in front of the cruising wake. I can still see that huge forehead as it rose above the surface and literally slurped in my Spaghetti. Shocked, I make one long strip and went tight - real tight, like into a stone. The second it felt the hook, the beast woke up as though it had been shot.

In that moment, the white flank of the fish flashed in the 30 inches of water and we knew...”GEEEEEEE TEEEEEEE!” I shouted. “What do I do?” All I could think was, ‘This is not going to last long’ - a massive GT hooked on a size # 2 worm fly tied to 16lb with NO bite tippet?! No way in heck we were going to be able to stop or land this fish. Tim’s response to my question was, “I don’t know!” We all grew quiet then, and I went into serious fish-fighting mode. As anyone who has chased IGFA world records or big fish with me can tell you, I grow instantly quiet and intensely concentrated on the fight until the fish is either in hand or has gone. After the situation had settled down a bit, I told the others, “I am going to crank down and see what happens.” With that I dialed down the drag on my Mako 9550 to about 8lbs (it tops out at about 10lbs), and tried to keep the rod tip as high as possible to keep my line and the fish out of all the coral littering the flat. There were sharp cutting edges everywhere and all of us had lost fish to abrasion throughout the week.

My fish suddenly took a strong run, peeling off about 50 yards of backing. I knew I had to stop him, so I cranked down on the drag a little more, which was risky with all my all fly line and over 50 yards of backing out, but the further away he got, the less control I had to direct him. Tim started heading out into the water to tail the fish whenever the opportunity arose. As he walked, every minute or two without a word, he would give me a double thumbs up, as if saying, “Good job. You’re doing well. We’ve got this!” There is nothing more powerful than a guide who believes in you, and I could tell from day one of this trip that Tim believed in me.

The unknown, of course, was how large a fish we were dealing with. I kept coming back to my experience fighting big tarpon on 16lb. If I could just force this GT to hand, maybe just maybe... Finally, the fish stopped taking line, and I had just started getting the backing back on my reel when he made another run, this time picking up a big mass of sea weed. Just what I didn’t need - more weight on the line! I loosened the drag just slightly. It felt like the fight went on for 30 minutes, but Kayla’s video of the fight showed it all happened in under five minutes!

Finally, Tim leaned down, creeping as discreetly as possible behind the fish and quietly stuck his hand under the surface for the tail. In that moment the fish sensed his presence and make a strong tail kick…right into Tim’s hand. He let out a holler that could have been heard all the way across the Red Sea in Saudi Arabia. As I came closer to him, his back was towards me, blocking my view of the fish.

“How big? How big is it?” I asked frantically, and Kayla shouted from the shoreline while filming, “Show us the fish!”

With hands shaking from adrenaline, exhausted energy and excitement, Tim lifted the tail to show the fish’s huge lower half and all three of us screamed.

I realised I hadn’t been breathing during those last seconds as Tim was going for the grab. Now I inhaled deeply and threw my arms in the air with rod in hand. We had won! A 94cm GT to hand on 16lbs tippet, with a Spaghetti fly nestled perfectly in the scissors!

Who would have guessed Italian would be on this GT’s menu that day?