Guy Gardiner always gives us a great report on his trips with his fellow New Zealanders to Christmas Island. (2014 report here) Guy is an old friend having traveled twice to the Seychelles with me. Guy has gone to Christmas Island with us quite a few times now and here is his report from his most recent visit:
Hi Scott.
Our party of 8 had another stellar fishing experience at CIO in the week straddling September/October where we fished the new moon tides when we arrived and the neaps at the end. Half our number had very limited experience at sight flyfishing so it was a different group to what I have hosted in the past. My son, Leo, in particular had not done much fishing at all and could be called a novice yet he caught 20 bonefish, a wahoo, yellowfin tuna and a sailfish offshore in addition to numerous hookups. He had only one blank day out of the 8 we fished. It is a great place for a flyfishing beginner. We actually struck king spring tides which meant the fish were bigger but the times and places they were actively feeding were more limited than usual until later in the week when they really came on in numbers I haven’t experienced since 1995. You really can choose whether you go for numbers or size or as we did go for a compromise.
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| Sweet! |
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| Dan, my brother in law, with a trophy Trigger fish caught at Korean Wreck. |
The lodge continues to offer the wonderful ambience and tempo that it always has and the guiding service maintains the same quality levels I have experienced since 2010 when I came with my father. One sad note is that the owner, proprietor and former mayor of the island Jim Tekiti has died and the operation continues under the auspices of his wife Anita and Biita still runs the guiding service. The lodge side of things is managed by Kata who previous clients might remember as the head chef.
The weather was more patchy and our day planned for Korean Wreck was a failure due to the southerly and our back up option also fell over due to the track to Submarine Flat on the south side of the island being flooded out. Also Y site is no longer accessible by truck due to saltwater creek cuts through some off the tracks which is no real problem as more is boat accessible now but it did limit our Korean Wreck day. I am not sure whether it is due to a run of high tides or rising sea levels but an interesting development.
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| That is one big bonefish! |
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| Guy's son Leo and his big bone |
Two personal highlights for me were our off shore day where we hooked up 13 wahoo/tuna/barracuda and boated 5 wahoo, 1 yellowfin tuna and a cuda as well as hooking 2 sailfish and Leo landed one which we managed to resuscitate and release. I fought one on fly tackle for 25 minutes before losng it. The best day offshore I have experienced in 20 years there. The other was my biggest ever bonefish by far hooked on Paris on a worm fly. I scaled the measurements in the photo and it comes in at 72cm as held and probably weighed 15-15.5 lbs. A lifetime highlight. [I'll say! Congratulations Guy, that is a truly tremendous bonefish! Ed.]
All the best,
Guy
