CI Report 2014

[PaulC]

Hey Folks,

It has been quite a long time since I had something worth reporting.
I went in November to Christmas Island (Kiritimati) with a group of fly anglers and it was one of those lifetime trips you try and cross off the list.
The main target out there is bonefish, but there are also trevally (Bluefin and giant), triggerfish and a multitude of other reef species.
There is also offshore fishing where our guys hooked multiple wahoo on conventional gear in two outings.
To avoid writing a massive essay, I’ll just throw in pictures with some commentary.
No idea when I’ll have a chance to get back there, but I would definitely love to at some point.

The scenery, fishery and the local people were awesome to say the least.
We ended up flying in on Fiji air via Hawaii. The view coming in from the plane was pretty rad.

The airport was small…


The place we stayed at basically had a guide shared by two people and two people to the room.
It was referred as shark’s place in the past, but I believe they were calling their outfit crystal beach now.
Rooms were rustic, food was decent, and we actually had airconditioning.
We would have breakfast in the morning and get on a truck to ride to the boats at 7am every morning for 6 days.

The rods we carried varied but usually had at least an 8wt for the bonefish and a 12wt for the occasional Giant Trevally sighting.
We travelled around mostly be boat on one of these guys.

The first night there, I ended up screwing around with crease flies and caught a few grouper. Was fun watching them explode on the crease fly.

Most days we bounced around flats depending on the tide.
We tried to get the big schools of milkfish to eat a fly, but only spent an hour for two mornings giving it a shot.
Basically luck of the draw to get one to eat an algae fly.
The weather out there was windy but the sun was relentless.
I covered up as much as possible and didn’t get burnt, but guys going without the buffs got more of the raccoon eye thing going despite repeated use off sunscreen.

The first couple of days we had sun, the third was completely cloudy, and the remainder were patchy with clouds.
Visibility was seriously tough without sunlight.
The bones blend in on the white flats and you need shadows to help spot them.
In the coral littered areas you can see their green backs, but without sun it is tough.
This panorama is one of my favorites from the first couple of days.

The scenery throughout the trip varied.
Some spots we pulled up onto were dramatic in colors and contrast.
You would see bright blues and teals cutting through the sand like a laser beam in some places.

Some were little islands where you are walking on volcanic rock, seashells and coral.
These really made a stripping basket useful. Line would catch on anything.

Some involved some long walks in search of fish.

Some involved some long walks back to the boat catching fish along with way.

There were various crabs all over.

And there were birds all over as well.
Enough with the scenery though, we were there to fish.
Going to try continuing this on a separate post as I appear to be violating some character limit.

[PaulC]

Here is the second part...

This was a common view in the trip.
Now I’ve never really been on a bonefishing trip. I’ve read all about it, but this was the first experience.
Sometimes they would rush over to a plop of a fly and just nail it.
Other times, they would spook when the water was thin and the wind calm.
Sometimes they would see the motion of the fly 5 feet away and rush over and just nail it.
Other times, they would follow all the way to the rod tip. I actually caught a couple once by the guide just jerking the rod tip as we had no more line left.
This guy was a typical bone on a white flat. They tend to be more bleached out when on the white flats, which make them more difficult to see.

This fish was more of a mid-size fish caught in a deeper channel with a darker bottom. He had more coloring to him as a result.

The larger fish would definitely peel off backing in a hurry. We were fishing 15-16 lb tapered leaders and tippet, so busting the fish off wasn’t too much of a concern. I did lose some nice fish by getting sawed off or caught up in a coral head though during the initial run.
The second day, I thought I was casting to a bone, but ended up getting a smaller GT which fought really hard for his size.

Throughout the trip, I had the occasional shot at a large GT, but they would briefly track the fly and lose interest or just plain run away.I never ran into a real hungry aggressive GT that wanted to play. Ran into a huge skull on one flat that shows the chompers the big GT have on them.

The other thing we had going for us is one flat, Paris Flat, had a weird phenomena where the bonefish get together for mating and form these huge schools after a full moon. We ran into exactly that.
I really wish I took a picture of the schools, but you would basically see a dark cloud moving to you. When it got close it was a whirling tornado of bonefish eyes, scales and body parts. Throw your fly in there, strip and wham you are on!
There were big bones in there and I managed this one a guide estimate at 10 lbs. I didn’t have a boga, but it was big and heavy. Regardless of absolute weight, it was the largest I landed of the trip.


This spot was kind of nuts as eventually we had our entire group, two boats of four anglers, on this beach.
One angler would hook the school and it would move away to find another angler out on a deep rock.
We did this for a while before the school found their way out of range, but it was rad looking around seeing everyone hooked up on a good size fish.

The other thing this area is known for is the trigger fish.
They are goofy looking and you can see their tails out of the water waving around like some kind of brightly colored fan in the distance.
I hooked and landed two of these guys and hooked and lost many more. They would give you a bull dog run back to their house and you had to stop them.
If they got in there, you would get sawed off, bit off, or some combination of the two.

The first one I had to hand was an odd situation. Trigger in an open flat with no home nearby. Having nowhere to flee too, he circled around me and we eventually landed him. Unfortunately, he was dropped during getting ready for a photo and we never got a picture of him.

The second fish we saw tailing around near his house. I got a cast in, and he puttered over to the fly and nailed it. Once he realized he was hooked he started screaming off to his house. I was wrenching on the damn thing and couldn’t keep it out of there. The guide runs over and literally pulls the leader and the fish out of the hole scaring it off to the deep. From there on out, I just fought the thing with me constantly between it and its house.
We were really lucky to land this guy and he pulled like a madman on a 7wt.

If I ever go back, I’ll probably spend more time chasing these things than bonefish.

The other critter you would run into out there were Bluefin trevally in packs. Not big but pulled hard for their size.


On the one completely overcast day, I ended up stumbling into a really lucky situation.
We were looking for bonefish and catching them in really poor visibility thanks to my guide’s great spotting skills.
I then noticed a big tail waving away in the distance and the guide excitedly exclaimed, “Golden Trevally!”
I threw out a nice cast landing the bonefish fly next to the fish, which then promptly moved over and inhaled it.
I had to run up to avoid it sawing me off on the edge of a drop off and after fighting it for a while, we got it in for a photo.
Pretty fish.


These lips should look familiar to anyone fishing for corbina.

This panoramic shot was of a cool flat where I fished mostly on my own.
The guide was with my fishing partner for a lot of the day.
I ended up with around 15 fish sighting myself which was rewarding.
Really hard to see them when a cloud obscures the light.
Kind of like corbina fishing in that you could lead them, strip the fly, watch the follow, grab, and off to the races.
It was not like corbina fishing when you realized there was a bone at your ankles and you dap the fly into the water with it taking it and running away.


Out of our group there were three fish in the 10 lb class estimated by the guides caught.
Quite a few they called anywhere from 6 to 9 lbs.
A lot of fish were in the 4 lb and below as well.
The quality of the fishing was great and double digit days of bonefish were quite common for the group.
Quite a few triggers were caught as well, and most guys wanted to spend more time chasing those things if they make it back.

The group my friend Al put together was great and everyone got along. Overall, it was one of those bucket list trips that really worked out well.

I hope to get back sometime in the future. It really is a beautiful part of the world and a unique experience.

[Mark Kranhold]

Epic times there! Thanks for sharing your trip with some good fish porn, looked like lots of fish to hand.

[Darian]

Hey Paul,.... What a trip!!! I really like that Trigger fish (colorful guy). The flats are beautiful. I'm planning on a trip down there next January. Can't wait to get going. Thanks for sharing....

[PaulC]

Hey Darian,

Great to hear from you. I think you'll have fun down there. It was a really neat environment. Surprisingly, we did really well on clousers of all things along with the standard bonefish flies. Clousers seem to catch everything
The one thing of note tying wise was tying everything really sparse. Flies that I fished most often were clousers in olive/wht & tan/wht, CI specials in pink and orange, and gotchas. All really, really sparse. #6 with 5/32 dumbells and #8's with bead chain were probably the most common. Deep water like Paris I bumped up to a #4 with 7/32. All gold eyes on the flies.
There is also I guess a red worm down there. Had I known that, I would have maybe tied some bonefish flies with a red vermille as a wing instead of craft fur.
Who knows though. This was just one trip, but the guides did seem happy with what I had when picking out flies I should use.
I ended up leaving all of my boxes behind to the guides as its hard to get some stuff over there.
Any extra stuff you can bring with you, I am sure would be really appreciated.
Quite a few guides tied as well, but said materials were hard to come by.

-Paul

Here is an Aussie worm variant bonefish fly. Maybe this but in red?

[Darian]

GEEZ!!! That is a sparse fly. Thanks for the info on flies. Was there a use for small crab patterns down there???

Any thoughts about a tiny (size 10), red San Juan Worm for down there??? I was planning on taking 8wt/10wt rods. I don't have a 7wt travel rod. Would you recommend a 12wt instead of the 10wt??

I've seen some photo's of Mantis Shrimp down there. I guess they catch and eat them. Must be a lot like eating Lobster. Some of 'em looked to be around 10" or more in length.

[PaulC]

Good thing with sparse flies is super simple ties. I cranked out a ridiculous amount of flies in a couple weekends. 8 doz clousers one weekend and another dozen dozen bonefish flies the other weekend? I went way overboard, but had no idea what to bring.
I still have two umpqua boat boxes full of various large GT streamers. Those I didn't leave behind.
I think I tied on two or three over the trip so I have plenty for stripers, halibut, whatever later on.
I did fish surfin merkins the last day to see what I could catch. Did catch fish, but crab patterns weren't commonly used out there.
Sparse bonefish flies were what the guides wanted.

If I went back, I honestly would tie that fly above with red vermille to at least try.
That thing got bit well as is and if there is a red worm in the sand like the guides were mentioning, then why not red?

I brought a 6,7,8,10 and 12.
I fished the 7 method which is honestly an 8 in my hands and the 12 salt most of the time. The 6 xi2 never came out, the 8 bvk was a backup and the 10 xi2 only made it out for milkfish.
I think the large GTs if you actually got one to eat would be helpful to be on a 12 with a reel that you can really lock down.
There are 100 lb fish moving around there and coral heads are all over the place in some areas.

The method worked well in the wind, but honestly you don't need to throw far.
The stiff rod was a bit of a handicap for the close in casting, so having a slower rod might be beneficial in that regard.

I rigged up the bigger stuff with Jerry Brown hollow spectra in the 80lb range for backing. I have some nice big game needles I can recommend for splicing that stuff. I also had heavier Jerry Brown 130 or even 200 for loops which is way more thin in profile than the 50 lb meatmaster gudebrod I've used in the past for loops. I'm switching to this stuff on all my braided loops now for the surf. It's less bulky and clears the guides better. All of the bonefish stuff I just used typical dacron backing.

The guides said they like to use puffers for the mantis shrimp bait. They basically hook it and stuff it in the hole. The shrimp grabs on and won't let go. They then pull the whole thing out. Puffers I guess have tougher skin so the shrimp can't shred the bait.
Apparently they also like to eat the big puffers as well.

I'm sure every lodge there is different, but the lunches were pretty bland where we were. I'd definitely bring some sort of supplemental snack food. We had sashimi every night prior to dinner so some poke mix can be another good thing to bring from the mainland. Watch the water as well. You don't want to drink the local water. Make sure your bottle clicks when opening. They sometimes reuse the bottles for ice after with local water. Definitely don't want to drink one of those.

-Paul

[mems]

Aloha Paul, great report. Congrats on the golden and the trigger. Those are great catches. Love CI. Hope Bitta and Sim were good to you guys. You can fish a Rainy's Mr. Limpy as one of the sand worms. The red color works the best. Did you get over to the outer reef areas like Korean Wreck? Too bad you didn't get into any big GT's, they are awesome. Glad you guys had fun, Don.

[PaulC]

Hey Don,
Thanks again for your tips prior to the trip! Guides were great, they definitely took care of us. We could not fish the wreck as there was some sort of closure related to the bird sanctuary. I would have loved to have fished it as I am a surf fishing nut.
Maybe next time!
-Paul

[DeepSea]

Great post!

I'm planning a CI trip and wondered if you could give me some advice.

1) Did you consider any other lodges such as Ikari or The Villages?
2) Your shots are amazing. What camera di
3) what lines did you use for bones?

Thanks!

Bill