Cook Islands GT Fishing

[Alan Syme]

GT fishing in the cook islands, south pacific.

i am lucky enough to live here and thought i would share a few photos with you.

rarotonga, the main island of the cooks is a 4 hour flight from auckland, nz, or 6 hours from sydney, aus.

cook islands has 15 islands and a whole heap of GT's.

the fish in these images are the smaller ones that got landed, there are plenty of massive ones around that i have hooked but been destroyed by hence no photos of them!

to be honest i have not had a high conversion rate of success as most hook ups end in bust offs. but it is still so much fun!

the GT being hand fed is wild and is one of 3 that regularly come into the main wharf together on the island of rarotonga, the tuna frame in the photo was from a 7kg yellowfin so that gives you an idea of scale/size.

the best options for a balance of reliable access and fishing are the islands of aitutaki and atiu in the southern group, aitutaki in particular has good charter options both inside and outside the lagoon.

based on the photos i have seen from oman, new caledonia, coral sea etc, the fish in these photos are small in comparison, most of the best terrain is real tiger country but the local GT's very readily hit poppers and stick baits and are abundant in numbers.

there are some big fish here that have never seen a lure, some of the outer islands in the northern group only get visited by a ship 4 times a year. locals do not generally fish for or eat the GT's due to the high risk of ciguatera that is prevalent here. (they do eat them on occasion as by catch)

the country is very safe, clean and relatively cheap. currency is nz dollar, all normal western amenities, banking, services, internet, food, medical products etc are available, access is easy and english is widely spoken.

i will put up some websites of interest.

[Alan Syme]

Some useful websites:

www.cookislands.travel

www.blackpearlaitutaki.com

www.bluewater-adventures.com

www.aitutakifishingcharters.com

www.wetnwild-aitutaki.com

or google search rarotonga, atiu, aitutaki

[Doug Terry]

Thanks Alan great pictures. My fishing buddy and myself are off to Aitutaki this weekend arrive on Monday 10th Sept.
It's a long way from the UK. Staying at ranginui's retreat.
Fishing a couple of days with Mike aboard the Black Pearl.
Taking my popping gear and hope to connect with some of your GT's, also booked a couple of days with e2 and a couple of days with Butch after your double digit Bonefish, also have tied up some Milki dream flies. You never know we may come across some Milkfish as we wonder about the lagoon. I also understand that the GT's come into the lagoon.
Really looking forward to seeing your wonderfull Island. Not looking forward to the 27 hour flight including stopovers.

[Sami Ghandour]

Hi Alan,

Thanks for your time and effort to post another great GT destination,
I will be looking into Cook Island as a must do destination in the future, it looks very promising

[Mark Harris]

Great stuff Alan and thanks very much for taking the time to post this.

[Charles Cintron]

Simply Paradise Alan! The shot with the wave is awesome I can picture my self popping for an hour then putting down the rod and pulling in some lefts getting shacked then popping all over again! The pic of the GT feeding looks so calm compared to the usual violent strikes.

Looks like the best of both worlds Fish n Surf, im in lol

[Nathan Cefai]

Lucky fella

Great work mate,how do you rate the Kaibutsu ?

[Steve Li]

Hi Alan, thanks for the great post!

Just afew questions that I hope you can help with. The fantastic fishing described is actually done on the outer islands correct? Cook (main Island) itself is not where the fish are right? As such, how do we get to the outer islands? There's a airport on Aitutaki apparently, is that where we need to get to? Are the flights easy to connect if I fly in from Sydney?

You can PM me if neccesary. Cheers!

Steve

[Doug Terry]

As I said I'm from the UK. Internation flights land at Rarotonga and you then get a connecting flight to Aitutaki with Air Rarotonga takes 50mins and costs 528nz$ return, which is the curracy of the Islands.

[Alan Syme]

thanks for the positive feedback, i have learned heaps from this site and enjoy all the shared knowledge, photos, locations etc.

to get from raro to aitutaki is a 40min flight that operates 5x times a day by air rarotonga    www.airraro.com

flights are usually about $500nz return, they are code share with air new zealand/star alliance.

yes fishing is way better on aitutaki compared to the main island of rarotonga. rarotonga has big gt's also, the hand fed ones pictures are from raro. the gt's in raro are not as abundant as the outer islands. of the population of the 12,000 people in the country, aprox 8000 live on raro, approx 1800 on aitutaki and the rest scattered amongst the other islands (15 in total in whole country, 13 inhabited)

atiu has untouched gt fishing also but no charter boats as yet. al land based fishing but some massive potential there. aitutaki is the gem in my opinion, yes there are big fish inside the lagoon also. and the largest bonefish in the world, the new world record will come from here within the next 5 years, a big claim but mark my words!

good aitutaki accomodation options that i can reccomend for resonable prices are ranginuis retreat (gt's in lagoon passage on your doorstep at night time) or paradise cove. i personally know both the owners and families and they are good. if visiting by myself i stay at a mates house, if visiting with my wife or friends i would (and do) stay at either of these ones.

websites are:   www.ranginuisretreat.com      and   www.paradisecove.co.ck        you can book online. or look at trip advisor.com

tell them all that you found out about it via me!!! they will look after you and it gets me extra brownie points with them. ha ha

best charter boat hands down in my opinion is mike aboard black pearl charters, he has a 7.5m pontoon boat that  is safe and can get right in next to the reef and breaking waves, he is on it and has lots of experience with gt's. he is not a gt specialist as he does game fishing, jigging, spearfishing, lagoon cruises, snorkelling etc. he has great reviews on trip advisor.com. his email is on the website, that is on the post, black pearl.

he does private 5 hour charters for $500nz (cheap for the quality you get, this includes fully catered, pick ups/drop offs, drinks etc and lots of local knowledge!) he is a really good guy. for full day day i think it is $900 or $1000?

if he is booked out (as he often is) jason on foxy lady is a good option also, his website it one of the links on the post aitutaki sport fishing.

i like my kabitusu rod, i do not have much to compare it with as i have never seen a carpenter, fisherman, mc works etc etc. only seen them on the net! i am sure there are much better rods out there but it works for me and my $ or lack of.

surfing is better on raro that the outer islands, usually always a wave and offshore somewhere. very heavy reef breaks.

doug terry, itu is the man. he does gt's in the lagoon as well as bonefish. he is a top man and personal friend. take a good camera. use etu's home made flies they can be the difference between fish and no fish.

www.e2sway.com

mike on black pearl, another all round good guy/top bloke and another good mate. he is a good operator.

hope this answers all the questions. i am back to aitutaki in 4 weeks time for a week so hopefully i will have some more good photos after that.

see you alan

[John Ryan]

I've been to aitutaki and its a beautiful place. i have a lot of cookie "adopted family" who i stayed with. love the place, and would love to get back there to get on a charter chasing gt's.

[Charlie Chew]

Hi Alan

thanks for sharing. 1 little posting with so much helpful information !

[Stuart Kelly]

Great photos and thanks for the tips! i am heading to Aitutaki in january! hopefully i can hook onto some monsters