MY FIRST trip to the Seychelles was ten years ago. I had high hopes for the fishing and even higher expectations for capturing great images.

Arriving in Mahé, capital island of the Seychelles, I was met by Devan van der Merwe, a founder of the then Alphonse Fishing Co., now Blue Safari Fly Fishing. We shared a few beers, and I asked questions, fuelled by the excitement for the week ahead.

As Devan explained the expected Cosmo fishing to me, he mentioned the famed giant trevally, but there was one comment he made that instantly grabbed my attention. "Keep a look out for GTs surfing the waves,” he said. “This would make a great photo."

This sounded epic, so I added it to my “shot list”. You can never predict which moments will present themselves, but having a list like this jogs the memory and keeps you focused.

We were wading through the surf break one afternoon. It was calm, with small, tight rolling waves and my fishing buddy had landed a medium-sized GT in the waves. Then, luckily, the shot list came to mind and I had the 70-200mm lens fixed.

"Hey, hold that GT in the wave for one moment, I have an idea," I shouted.

I leant down low to shoot along the wave at 200mm zoom. The burst of images rang out six quick photos as the wave came through. I then jumped to avoid the camera being flooded and checked the playback. As I scanned the shots and checked their sharpness, I got a little excited.

"That's the shot," I said to myself. A GT surfing the wave.

Heading back to the mothership that evening, it was the only shot I was desperate to download and to this day, it remains my favourite GT image.

[PHOTOGRAPH AND WORDS: JOSHUA HUTCHINS]