Axum Flats Week2-Exploratory Season 2025
Big GTs and Strong G and T’s
Week 2 began with that wonderfully dangerous thing in fishing: confidence. The first week had produced the sort of results that make grown anglers giddy and guides quietly nervous because once the fish have shown their faces the pressure shifts entirely onto us. The Axum Flats have a knack for doing that. They reveal enough to excite you and then sit back to see how you handle it. Proper Red Sea flats fishing.
A Night in Massawa With History in the Air
We spent the night in the coastal port of Massawa, a place that still whispers pieces of its past to anyone willing to pay attention. Old coral stone buildings lean into narrow streets, Ottoman era balconies hang overhead and the light at dusk softens everything into something almost too romantic for a tough little fishing town. Massawa has seen sultans, merchants and storms come and go, yet it remains completely itself: warm, weathered and stubbornly beautiful. The perfect gateway to an Eritrea fly fishing trip.
Massawa - Port
The boys arrived the next morning after the magnificent descent from Asmara to the coast. The Asmara to Massawa road is one of the great drives in Africa. It swings from cool highland mist through terraced mountains and then drops dramatically toward the Red Sea. Even the most cynical traveller arrives looking mildly reborn.
Arrival on the Island and the Traditional Chaos
Once the lads stepped onto the island and into their home for the week, they were met with fresh juices and the warm welcome that has become part of Axum life. Many of them are not just clients but close friends, which means tents were sorted quickly and then the real business began. Rods were unpacked, lines stretched, and an impressive amount of nonsense was spoken as everyone tackled up for the first wander. Proper safari fishing energy.
Welcoming group 2 to The Axum Flats
Day 1 The Warm Up Lap Around Home Island
We used the first afternoon to walk Home Island, a place that has already delivered its fair share of drama during this exploratory season. Long sandy flats mixed with mottled bottom and coral bommies give it a wonderfully deceptive calm. One side has a rocky coral ridge which on the right tide holds triggerfish that creep up to feed.
Our team for the lap were Ali, Henry, Riley, Ben, Matthew and Jack. I walked with Ali and James. Within minutes we spotted a shark, and as I turned to warn Ali I saw a large GT sliding behind it. Before I had time to say anything Ali was already casting with the enthusiasm of a man who had no intention of missing his first opportunity. A blow up, a burst of white water, and absolutely no connection. Still, an excellent way to start.
We found two triggers along the rocks. They behaved exactly as triggers like to. They rushed the fly, then spooked for mysterious reasons, then came back in for a look, then bolted entirely. Classic permit and trigger behaviour on the Axum Flats.
By the time we met the others that evening the tally sat at eleven GTs seen and not a single one fooled. There would be another day. There always is.
Day 2 Coffee, Tension and a Proper GT Day
Day 2 began in true Axum Flats fashion. The smell of traditional coffee drifted through camp while the sound of gentle waves reminded us we had work to do. I even wrote in my notes that morning a sense of tension hung in the air. The good kind.
Traditional Axum Flats Coffee
We ran north to a cluster of islands that had been productive in recent days. Ben and Henry were with me. Almost immediately we found two GTs pushing across a pale flat. Ben sent out a solid cast, the fish lit up, and in a flash he was on. The GT tore off, we all stood as spectators and eventually, after a proper battle and a broken twelve weight, we tailed a powerful fish. Ninety eight centimetres, just shy of a metre but absolutely worthy of celebration on any fly fishing expedition in Eritrea.
Ben’s - 98cm GT on fly on foot
A little later Henry delivered a perfect cast to a bow wake moving toward us. The GT ate, turned away and charged hundreds of feet across the flat toward Saudi Arabia. For reasons beyond mortal comprehension the hook never set properly and the fish came off. We were left baffled.
By lunch we joined the other group who reported raising some enormous Bohar which refused to play fairly. Big Bohar snapper on fly behave like they own the place and the boys struggled to present in time. It happens.
The boys
After a fine lunch prepared by our private chef, we fished two more islands. Our afternoon was quiet but when we reunited with Olly’s group the mood told us everything. Jack had landed a monster. One hundred and seven centimetres and the first metre GT of the Eritrea program. A benchmark fish and a proper moment in Red Sea fly fishing history.
107CM Gt - The first Meter GT of the Axum Flats Program
We also saw seven permit that day although none did us the courtesy of eating.
We fThe day ended with a heroic siege on the G’n’T’s as the sun melted over the Red Sea, turning the entire horizon from gold to fire to soft blue dusk. One of those sunsets that forces you to stop talking and just… take it in.
The Bedouin Style Mess
Ceviche Bitings
Days 3 and 4 The Eight Mile Walk and Permit Moments
Over the next two days we fished two islands including one which boasts an eight mile flat. It is a place that humbles you immediately.
Jack continued his extraordinary week by landing a beautiful permit. Not the largest but a permit is a permit and he earned it. Ali had shots at truly big fish around sixty five centimetres and above. They followed the fly so closely it left him physically shaking on the sand when they finally turned away. Permit do that to a man.
Axum FlATS - Permit
Days 5 and 6 Peak Axum and Riley’s Moment
The final stretch of the week produced some of the best fishing we have had in the season. Two more islands and endless opportunity. We landed four big Bohar, had shots at three metre class GTs and saw two of the largest permit I have ever witnessed on the Axum Flats. Both over seventy centimetres. One so large I briefly mistook it for a milkfish. That is not a joke I enjoy admitting publicly.
Bohar Snapper
Another good Bohar Snapper
Barracuda that ate a fly meant for a GT
We also encountered several groups of permit in the thirty five to forty five centimeter class and more than a few triggers that ate but never connected. Standard behavior from the reef’s most chaotic citizens.
The week ended with an unforgettable moment. Riley made an impeccable cast to a GT that ate confidently and came to hand after a clean fight. His first GT on fly at eighty five centimetres. A belter of a fish and a moment that reminded all of us why we bring people to wild places like Eritrea.
Riley - 85cm GT
A Week That Sums Up the Axum Flats
Week 2 captured the full spirit of what fly fishing on the Axum Flats is all about. Wild places. Hard earned fish. Laughter. Setbacks. Triumph. A group of friends standing barefoot on remote islands watching GTs push across white sand with no footprints but our own behind us.
It brought home a simple truth.
We as humans must see these wild places while they still exist in their purest form. The Axum Flats are one of them, and weeks like this remind us exactly why we do what we do.
