A report from New Zealander, Guy Gardiner on his recent Christmas Island trip. Guy is an old friend having traveled twice to the Seychelles with me, once to Farquhar Atoll and once to Providence Atoll. Guy has gone to Christmas Island with us a couple times and here is his report from his most recent visit:
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| Guy with a GT on Providence Atoll, Seychelles |
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Dan and I had a great trip however there were some things you should know. The hot water was down at Crystal Beach and there was not quite the same service focus that Dad and I found in 2010, but that could be because Tim, the owner, was away. The only other niggle we had was that the food was not served truly hot. However we didn’t have any tummy troubles so once again a minor quibble. [We at AD will make sure these issues are discussed.]
The guiding and general ambience were wonderful as before and therefore I have a party of 5 including me who wish to fish there from New Zealand in August or September 2014. Scott, I was wondering it you could check to see which were the best weeks for fishing. I was thinking the neap tide weeks with an incoming tide in the morning i.e. 3 days after the quarter moon. [We are on this and should have then best tides calculated asap. The tides Guy mentions will be better for bonefishing and not quite as good for GTs as they seem to be more prevalent on spring tides].
One of the wahoos was caught on conventional gear after Dan broke my #10 weight fly rod. The sail and the other wahoo and tuna were all caught with fly gear, harling like we did in the Seychelles… so in some ways we did better off shore at Xmas than at Providence in the Seychelles. The sail was one of two which were batting the fly with their bills. When Moana got the boatman to cut the motor, the one I caught wolfed my fly down before I could do a lift cast then it was all on with four full blown tailwalks etc.
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| Guy with his sailfish on Christmas Island |
The bone fishing was very good coming in spurts as we were in the full moon tides and my best one was caught at Paris # 1 flat. Overall, I would rate the fishing per se as good, if not better than the Seychelles outer atolls, but of course the experiences are not really comparable.
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| Guy with nice bone from Paris Flat, Christmas, Island |
[Editors note: Note to Guy: I don't know if Christmas was better than the Seychelles after looking back through my photos of you from both our Farquhar and Providence trips. We did pretty well! Lets's just say you've had some pretty good fishing on some pretty incredible atolls!]
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| Providence Atoll, Seychelles |
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| Big Bawa Snapper, Providence Atoll, Seychelles |
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| Guy with a GT on Farquhar Atoll, Seychelles |
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| Good Bone, Farquhar Atoll, Seychelles |
I remember Guy. He's a hardcore fisherman.
ReplyDeleteDo they kill all the billfish they catch over there? What do they say if you demand they release it unharmed?
Hi Doug.
ReplyDeleteI hope you are well and still wetting a flyline. They are very happy to release the billfish but mine was very bronzed out and bleeding from its intergill plate tissue from all the head shaking so Moana made a decision to keep it. It would not have been wasted being eaten on the island or being sold to restaurants in Fiji or Hawaii. Either way it contributes positively to the local economy. The guides at Outfitters are the best on the island and will even do an offshore day with bait and switch for bill fish if you specify. We didn't do it as we were after more action but I know you a "hardcore flyfisherman" have more patience than I. In fact I almost thought of you when the sailfish were on the fly as to whether I had too much line out to do a lift cast or not, then the decision was out of my hands.
All the best.
Guy.
Thanks for the clarification Guy! This is what I thought. Glad to see you and Doug reconnect too!
ReplyDeleteG'day Guy, good to hear from you and glad you're still out there doing adventure fly fishing. I figured your sail was probably injured. But I can also understand on islands like that with little land for farming or agriculture a nice fish like that would feed a lot of people. Certainly wasn't casting dispersions even though we all hate to see a game fish killed. I think it'd be fun to look for sunbathing billfish and try to sneak up on them and make a cast in front of them and try to get the eat.
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