A group of six of us recently had a week at Christmas Island (Kiribati), we were there at the same time as the Hawaiian crew who posted a report a few days ago. Our guys were a mixed bunch of fly fishers and conventional anglers, targeting everything we could stick hooks into. Naturally we spent a bit of time chasing the bonefish that made the island famous and along the way we scored plenty of other fish and personal milestones on the fly. My personal one was landing a milkfish on fly, something I've been wanting to do for a long time.
A fair portion of the week was spent popping and jigging our way around the island, both from the boat and shore. The first few days were a little slow on the offshore front, a bit unusual for the new moon period which I've generally found to be pretty consistent fishing wise. The second half of the week made up for it with the Gts really stating to turn it on in numbers and bite more aggressively. also the jigging improved though a lot of the deeper water species seemed to be absent. In their place were plagues of black trevally which often would prevent any jig from hitting bottom, no matter how stealthily you tried to slip the lure down.
One of the GT highlights for me was seeing GTs hunting flying fish. the flying fish would take off and you could see the GT tearing along just under the surface like a torpedo in an old war movie. As soon as the flying fish touched down there was a huge foaming boil and it was all over! Towards the end of the week, pack attacks of GTs became more common, culminating in us leaving a pack of 50+ GTs biting on the last day as they patrolled a current line just offshore.
Some of the tackle used
Rods:
Popping: Zenaq 80-10 and 83-7, FCL UCB78 Ext-H, Synit Razar 83, Daiwa Monster Mesh, Smith Keyolhu
Jigging and light tackle: Synit Mantis Prototypes, Synit Banshee H, Saltiga Dorado, Smith AMJ
Reels: Saltigas 4000, 5000, 6500, Stellas 10k and 18k and Jigging Master PE2 and PE4
Anyway, on to the photos:
Flying in
Yellowfin on Popper
Yellowfin strike
Pennant Fish
