queensland Christmas comes Early

[ONTHECHEW]

I read this site about three times a day, but don't post too often, but after seeing Angus's 15000 thread decided to start chucking a few more posts up, I do a fare bit of fishing offshore with a few of my mates mainly into offshore jigging and popping for gts.

About 9 months ago planned a fishing trip to Christimas (kirribatti) Island, no this is not the one in australian waters (with refugees) this is about 5 Hours flight north of fiji. This island is mainly targeted by fly fishermen for bone fish and possible land based gts, but we had heard of some decent off shore action.

After two 4 hour flights and a 8 hour wait between flights in fiji we finally arrived to white sands and crystal blue waters. We had only had 3 hours sleep in the last 24 hours but it was straight into the fishing.

Accomadation was Ikarri House, right on the water, we had twin rooms with unsuite and air conditioned which was great considering it was 26 min - 28 max.

[ONTHECHEW]

Straight away everyone was rigging up and loading the boats, one was a fibreglass centre console the other was an old school wooden boat with out riggers.

[ONTHECHEW]

Every one was straight into rigging up and loading the boats. One was a fibreglass centre console, the other was an old school wooden boat with out rigger.

Every day we broke up into two groups, one boat going offshore and the other to fish the flats. It took us a couple of days to talk the fly boys into letting us use the glass boat for offshore as it was being wasted on the flats :whistle:

A few shots of the surrounding flats that we fished off, with varying weather..

[ONTHECHEW]

Offshore was quiet for the first couple of days as we had the less experienced guides, still more consistant than we are used to. On the third day we had English, the most experienced guide, the amazing thing these guys work without a sounder or a gps and put you on the same spot every day (we could check with a hand held we had). Fishing offshore was amazing, you could be 100m offshore and be in 40m of water, then in two casts you where in 80m and in two more casts you could not reach the bottom.

The offshore action was amazing, We got yellow fin tuna up to 23kg on popper, this was amazing how hard they hit and then peel off your line. When fishing plastics, in one day I went through 10 packets of 7 inch plastics in half a day. You could not get your jig head to the bottom with out being totally dusted up.

Popping I have never witnessed anything like it, in one day, no joking around on one boat, with four poppering/stickbaits, we would have landed close to 60 gts all between 15-30kg. No monsters but still unbelievable, just the impact of the lure hitting the water was enough to have two gts at a time trying to devour your lure and try and rub you off on the reef. I am as keen a Gt fisherman as you get, (1000's of casts off straddie) but half way through the day I was sick of catching them (believe it or not) so decided to jig, landed seven more on jig, not a good way to relax. Also managed to hook a +20kg yellow fin tuna 80m down on a jig, not a good way to rest the arms after a busy day.

[Doobsy]

Some wicked action man and some great pics.

Thanks for posting.

You didn't get on to any bones?

[ONTHECHEW]

Along with the usual culprits there was a large variety of other nasty critters, including varieties of trout, red bass, emperor and a large amount of unstoppables.

[ONTHECHEW]

Had to have one day chasing the elusive bone fish, no not on fly but took over a 2-5kg rod witha 1500 luvias. I was thinking just a big whiting, boy was I wrong they go like little torpedoes. It was an awesome day walking the flats chasing these amazing fish. A few photos, my pb bonefish and a few of the boys land based efforts, bone fish the main target but, trigger fish and gts and bluefin trevally featured as a welcome bye catch.

[ONTHECHEW]

Awesome trip all round, 9 days with 8 guys out in the middle of no where, with some awesome fishing. On the flight home we where already planning our next trip. Cant believe the amount of good fish we did not take photos of, but alot of the time there was 2-4 way hook ups so no one had a chance. Can't wait to go again.

[Guest]

Thank you so much for sharing this, i very much enjoyed the read and viewing all your pictures....This post has been 10/10 for me Wow there are some great fish being caught

Top post mate 10/10

Cheers

Darren

[eg_vtec]

wow thats one great trip! i wish i could do a trip like that one day. well done mate, thanks for sharing

[adambris]

thanks for sharing mate, that was awesome!

[jnewy]

thanks mate awsome loved the pix

[neal82]

awesome trip mate. so jealous

[Angus]

Awesome report mate. I am hoping to have a similar experience on the Ribbon Reefs in September.

Thanks for sharing!

Angus

[kreel]

Dear Mr THECHEW,

Dont. Wait too long to post again, that was a great read - I'm very envious of your trip, just make sure you take me next time.

It looks like you had a little piece of paradise there.

[Zim man]

EPIC, i am well jealous and the pics are great as well. report of the month nomination from my end.

quick question, why are some GT's almost black and others not? i have always been curious as to this

[madmullet]

what a cracker sesh. you baged a good mix of fish. great g.t's ( love the big black ones ) but corination trout, tuna, red bass, blue trevs ( wow ) triger fish and bone fish... that to me sounds like heaven.... very well done mate.

[Manni79]

What an awesome trip, amazing fish too, what an experience !!!

When were you guys up there? what gear were you using to tackle those beasts !!! ?

[ONTHECHEW]

Thanks guys for your replies.

Angus - ribbons should be awesome that time of year, should be able to fish the reef edges for all sorts of reef fish as well as awesome surface action. Also starting to warm up a bit more so trolling up some monsters would also be an option.

Kreel - It was an amazing location, it just pops up out of the ocean, I think the highest point above sea level is only a couple of metres, also has a pretty small population so not crowded.

Andrew

[ONTHECHEW]

Zinman - I know a matured male GT can sometimes be completely black, but also I think sometimes it could be related to maybe stress of the fight or the competitiveness between other fish to hitting the lure.

Manni79 - Tackle used was fairly extreme, but the light gear was the most fun.

FCL Labo 80Extreme - Stella 10000sw - 130lb Varvarias - 200lb leader

Seven Seas 77 Ultra - Stella 10000pw - 130lb Varvarias - 200lb leader

Saltiga Jig Heavy - Saltiga 6500 Expedition - 90lb Saltiga braid - 100lb leader

Steez Hotdog - Certate 3500HD - 35lb Saltiga braid - 30lb leader

Diawa Seahawk 2-5kg - Luvias 1500 - 12lb main line - 16lb leader

Didn't loose too much heavy gear, but really need to restock on all plastics and jigheads again. My 5-7inch supply totally went in the first two days.

Andrew

[mick2me]

Wow what a trip, total enjoyed the read and photos, I second the 10/10...

would love it if my wife said I could go on a trip like that,

maybe I could convince her that a trip like that would be great for the both of us, only problem is she doesn't like fishing.

Cheers mate

[sweresy]

@ ONTHECHEW .....SO in summary i you were using average gear, for average fish, in an average location!!!!

curse you.

How awesome do those big GT look when they throw on that mottled black colour scheme!!

VERY nice fishing

(green) sweresy

ps.oh that yella is simply stunning!!

[kmcrosby78]

As others have said mate absolutely awesome report and fish caught. Those black GT's look wicked (literally I would imagine!!). Definitely have to do a trip like this one day.

[Surfingant]

What a trip! Those GT's look badass, what did you get the bones on? I've only ever seen people fly fish for them. Awesome report and photos mate loved it.

[PlasticFantastic]

About time you put this report up, was I jealous? Of couse I was but I did win first prize in the MBC Snapper section whilst you fought with Gt's and Fin not really the same though is it.

Cheers

Mark

[ONTHECHEW]

Mark (Plastic Fantastic)

You have to come on the next one, I will lend you all of the gear so you only pay for flights and charter. I pretty much have two of everything any way :whistle:

Yes well done on the comp, wish I caught a 44cm snapper over there would have been an awesome live bait

Its all good, will have to get you onto a couple more GT's in summer, but winter first we need to upgrade your kingie pb on the jigs and go look for some YFT.

Hopefully we can give offshore a pounding once this bloody wind dies off.

Andrew

[tiotony]

Mate best report ever! You certainly brought back a lot of good memories for me as I was stationed in Kiribati for 2 years in 2006-2007. I was on the capital island of Tarawa and I'm kicking myself now that I never got off my butt and got up to Kiritimati (Christmas) island while I was there. tried my guts out to get a bone on Tarawa but I think the combination of heavy pollution and intensive gill netting of the flats has made them very rare in Tarawa, although I did see a few bones caught by locals using whiting fishing type techniques. I did get the same sort of GT, trout etc action as you though!

Right now my Mum has followed in my footsteps and is living up there working for Ausaid, so you have inspired me to go and visit her!

Cheers again for the report mate

Tony

[tugger]

Great looking trip Andrew have missed your reports you always bag some brutes

Mark

[Manni79]

Zinman - I know a matured male GT can sometimes be completely black, but also I think sometimes it could be related to maybe stress of the fight or the competitiveness between other fish to hitting the lure.

Manni79 - Tackle used was fairly extreme, but the light gear was the most fun.

FCL Labo 80Extreme - Stella 10000sw - 130lb Varvarias - 200lb leader

Seven Seas 77 Ultra - Stella 10000pw - 130lb Varvarias - 200lb leader

Saltiga Jig Heavy - Saltiga 6500 Expedition - 90lb Saltiga braid - 100lb leader

Steez Hotdog - Certate 3500HD - 35lb Saltiga braid - 30lb leader

Diawa Seahawk 2-5kg - Luvias 1500 - 12lb main line - 16lb leader

Didn't loose too much heavy gear, but really need to restock on all plastics and jigheads again. My 5-7inch supply totally went in the first two days.

Andrew

THAT"S COOOOL!! thanks for sharing that mate, well done !!!

[ONTHECHEW]

Surfingant,

We targeted the bones on our small soft plastic gear, using a 1/16th jig head with a 2inch wiggletail gulp. They seemed to like them, we caught them easy enough, when we could see them.

Tony,

If you have the opportunity, deffinately make your way over there. Awesome place in the world. Will deffinately be going back, they have made Gt's and bonefish a no take fish which is a great idea and should keep their tourism market alive.

Andrew

[tiotony]

Andrew,

Are the bones just no take for tourists and not locals on Kiritimati? Just interested as they were (and probably still are) a delicacy for the locals on Tarawa and the surrounding islands- they carefully scrape the meat off the bones and make it into fish cakes. I worked with the Maritime Police there and a couple of the lads were from Kiritimati- they used to tell me that the bonefish numbers were really dropping due to all the gillnetting, its a great move if a no-take-of-bonefish law holds as the foriegn angler's dollar is worth a hell of a lot more to the locals than selling netted bonefish on the side of the road for $2 a kilo.

[dan25]

Trip of a lifetime i say!! :woohoo:

One of the best reports ive seen in awhile with some awesome photos.

Thats definetely something id love to do one day, awesome stuff

[Keen-as-fisho]

Thanks mate that was torture, whens the next trip over?

[plugga]

wow great stuff mate(:

great report

great photos(:

Jordan

[Oggy]

Sweet pics..... looks awsome :side: sweet catches.... Well done

[ONTHECHEW]

Thanks guys for all of the replies, if any one is interested, Duncan from fishhead at victoria point is organising another trip in february. Would be another awesome trip, but don't think I could go to the following year it would be pushing the minister for finance to much.

Andrew

[yoyo]

In a word - EPIC