Christmas Is. - Under the Southern Cross Part 3

[Tony Buzolich]

Wanting to try something different, our group next decides to head toward the “back country”, an area several miles to the south reserved as a bird sanctuary and private milkfish ponds. No boats here, and we're dropped off along the way at various spots to walk the shore next to deeper water. No long flats here just lots of mating and nesting Frigate birds and Blue-footed Boobies.











We stop at the end of a road and there's a nice rest area with a dam separating the milkfish farms from the open water of the lagoon and I can see lots of fish cruising everywhere. A quick toss of my airhead and I get instantly slammed by a GT, then another almost a carbon copy of the first.









I move farther out to a point and deeper water. This time I get slammed hard and it's BIG. Line and backing is disappearing and my drag is tightened to max. My #4 Abel is starting to show the bottom of the spool before this fish even starts to slow down. Gawd! What an Adrenalin rush this is. I need to regain some of my backing but can't lift the fish at all. I decide to keep the rod straight and walk slowly backwards letting the drag do the work. This works. I turn the fish and start to get some backing back on the spool. Slowly my fish comes in and I've got what I really came for, another Giant Trevally.











With arms still shaking, T.J. our guide helps me lift my trophy. Enough for one day.





Our last day starts on the flats again with lots of small bones and GT's. At one spot I even get two GT's at a time as one chases the other trying to take the fly out of the first ones mouth. T.J. hands me my second rod and without even a long cast I get my second hook-up instantly.









With the boat coming for us to move to another flat, I make one more cast and get another instant grab. This one goes airborne and I'm not sure what I've got. Several more jumps and I've landed a Queenfish. My first ever Queenfish without having to travel to Australia.

Our last night back at the lodge we're treated to a Kiribati luau before heading home. Platters of fresh sashimi, barbecued lobster, and whole roasted pig finished off our trip, all under the stars and the Southern Cross. Another great trip.

Tony

[mems]

Aloha Tony, looks like another great trip to CI. Nice GT there at the milkfish ponds. There are some big bones there as well. Glad to see the boys still wearing their EDGE shirts. Looks like some fun bluewater action as well. Rainbow runner are great eating. Glad Jim had a fun time as well. Did you go for bones on Oahu? Biita is doing a good job making it happen again. I miss all those guys, thanks for sharing, Don.

[dynaflow]

Sounds like you had a ball Tony & co.and that's a cracking GT...there were lots of the always aerobatic Ladyfish (Skipjack) around on my last trip too which made for some fun between Bonefish.Tell me,are they still chumming at Crystal Beach?

[Tony Buzolich]

No chumming anywhere . I think all of the lodges have quit doing that.
Tony

[Darian]

Hey Tony,.... Great report and trip!! Can't wait to get back there this fall. Congrats on the big GT, I gotta get into one of those. The first photo (of you and Jim together) is a really good one.

[dynaflow]

I'm pleased to hear that Tony as Crystal Beach was a known offender.
Regards
Peter

[Baja Fly Fisher]

Thanks Tony for a great report. I can't wait for October. How was the weather for February. The last time we went in March and just so happened a big front came through the week before and flooded the island. We had to take detours on different roads. Looks like you guys had a lot of sunshine. Makes it easier to spot the fish. Was the off shore fishing pretty good. Is it all trolling and no fly casting? I want to get some yellow fin so we can have some real sashimi and not the thin cut stuff. I thinking I'll buy some spam in Hawaii and have the gals make me some musubi for my lunch. I'll pay them the extra money, much better than the sandwiches they make. What I like is that there is no big hassle going through immigration and customs. Sure not like Mexico.
I might stay in Hawaii for a couple extra days to visit and possibly do some flats fishing. I grew up on Oahu and left there in 1962 for the mainland. Last year's trip to CI was the first time I was back on Oahu since 1962.
Did you guys get to fish the Korean Ship Wreck. This is one area that I want to try. I'm getting my legs and knees it shape to make that long walk. I'm in the gym 6 days a week on the bike for 10 miles, tread mill for a half hour and doing leg presses on the machine. I hope all this works out.
So you must've been there when they evacuated Marysville and Yuba City or were you still at home. That must've been some big ordeal.

I hope we have a good trip in October. Next year I might schedule at least three trips to CI.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Starting in 1986 I went there 13 times so far, mostly in February, and experienced everything from droughts to flooding.

I think Stan Hellekson yearly use to like August.

You do have the two weeks in a month with bigger flooding tides and the two weeks with subtle Neep tides.

Some think the Flooding tides are better for Giant Trevally and the Neep tides are better for Bonefishing.

The 3 days after the Full moon usually have big schools of big Bonefish spawning around Paris Flats.

I think you could go there almost any week of any month and have better fishing than in many other places.

I still believe this is one of the finest fisheries in the world.

When you are wading out on the flats it is magic.


Looks like Jay Murakoshi and Tony will be going there every year now....wonderful.


Thanks for the world class posts Tony.

.

.

[Tony Buzolich]

Jay,

We lucked out with the weather and only got sprinkled a little bit on the ride back to the lodge on the last day. I asked Max (one of the guides) about the weather and he said they were going to have an early "wet" season.

We didn't get to the Korean Wreck as they said the surf was too rough to fish it well, so we opted for the "back country" and did some exploring. It was still a long ride in the back of those little tut-tuts.

Offshore we did great. It was all trolling but, we could have stopped and cast for milkfish once we got past Poland point. There were schools of milkfish sucking the surface everywhere. Literally thousands of them in mass schools on the surface all sucking the algae off the top. They didn't seem bothered by the boat either, but non of us brought a light rod to try for them. I think a 9wt. or 10wt. with a full floating line would be the rod to take for them. These aren't the small milkfish you see on the flats, they're much bigger.

You're right about getting in shape before you go. There's a ton of walking and being in shape really helps. I'd been using a treadmill for several months and wish I had done more. Uugh. It's tough getting old
Tony

[mems]

Aloha Tony, we got some milkies out in the ocean in that school. This is a 15lber caught by Jesse Lange on a scum fly he tied.

This si the one I landed out of the school. I hooked two others right before this one, but the other fish in the school pulled the hook. I asked the driver to pull this one out of the school and I was able to land him. I got all three fish to feed on an unweighted wooly bugger of all thinks. Moana told me they were feeding on a work. The milkies attacked that fly like no other. It was like they just wanted to eat that, and rushed the fly. No sipping, it was a great bite.
Glad you guys had fun. Too bad no ono, they are just now hitting the big island. Don.