Doctrine · not a honey-hole list

Seasonal fundamentals

When a coast, a type of water, and a fish actually line up. If you elected Texas on the list, this page opens on Texas — Seychelles stays off the board until you ask for it. Filter by region, method or habitat, and species. The year bar is peak versus present. Limits cite TPWD and FWC — verify before you keep one.

Seychelles

Seychelles — GT country

Indian Ocean atolls. Modeled tide. Lodge water on the outer rims.

Alphonse and St François are the photograph — giant trevally on the edge, bones and Indo-Pacific permit on the sand. Farquhar is the southern atoll, same fish, farther. Mahé is the public door: reef, park water, blue water, not the St François flat. There is no NOAA gauge. Tide is a labeled model. SFA license. Roosterfish does not live here. Atlantic jack crevalle does not either. You came for a GT.

April. Last of the classic atoll window before the SE trades build. GT still the headline.

Type

Spin

Spin is not a consolation prize. It is what you do when the wind, the depth, or the fish does not allow the fly. Gold spoon in grass. Soft plastic when they will not come up. Live crab for a Keys permit that has refused every merkin. A 30-pound black drum in a Galveston channel is a day that does not owe you a strip-set. Carry both. Decide on the water.

Alphonse

April · peak

What is actually on

Bonefish

Permit

Giant trevally

Peak Present Off

Closures

No coast-wide harvest closure on the board. Still verify before you keep a fish.

Permit

Trachinotus falcatus

Peak AprilSeychelles

Thermal window

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70–88°F · best 74–84°F

None in Texas. Keys mecca — flats, banks, wrecks. Bahamas west sides May–Oct. Puerto Rico: east-island banks, not Condado. Seychelles 'permit' is often the Indo-Pacific fish (Trachinotus blochii) — same job, different ocean.

Fly. 9 wt, 10 in wind. Merkin / Del Brown / Raghead. Lead the tailer, let the crab sink, one slow twitch.

Spin. Often deadlier. Live crab, DOA crab, 20–30 fluoro. No apology.

Leads the brief on Alphonse.

Seychelles. Seychelles: Indo-Pacific permit / snubnose. Treat as C&R. Lodge and SFA rules. Not a Keys merkin fish with a different latin name pretending to be the same.

Official source

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