GTPopping.com - Giant Trevally, GTPopping, Topwater & GT Fly-Fishing Resource
Topwater Caranx Ignobilis: Giant Trevally (GT) => Reports & Expeditions => Topic started by: Duncan O'Connell on June 16, 2011, 01:20:23 PM
-
Christmas Island in the Republic of Kiribati has been high on my list of places to visit for several years now. Primarily this is for its repuation as one of the best bonefish destinations on the planet, but also for the potential as a popping and jigging location. Christmas Island is a dot in the ocean that sits between Fiji and Hawaii and is notable for being one of the largest coral atolls in the world. The actual landmass is relatively small, but the network of shallow sandflats contained in the lagoon is pretty vast.
Myself and eight keen fishos descended on the island keen to sample the variety of fishing on offer. Our group was split down the middle between guys primarily interested in flyfishing and those more keen on the bluewater prospects. I chose to keep a foot in both camps, giving the 6wt a flogging early in the week and switching to popping and jigging tackle after satisfying my bonefishing itch.
The popper fishing started at a moderate pace with the normally productive GT spots close to home not producing great numbers of fish. This was put down to the presence of a tuna fleet being in port to re-supply - all the GT's were sitting under the ships sucking down scraps rather than being interested in chasing poppers. The jigging and soft plastics fishing on the other hand was pretty awesome - if you could land anything!! the guys went through nearly every soft plastic and jighead they could lay their hands on in the first few days, providing great entertainment for anyone watching the carnage. Coronation trout, Gt's, red bass, green jobfish, black trevally and rosy jobfish made up the bulk of the catches but a selection of other fish such as highfin amberjack, bar cod and unidentifyables added to the tally. Most of the jigging was done in 40-50m shallows that rapidly dropped off into 80-150m and beyond over a very short distance. Most of the spots had an offshore breeze so you would begin dropping in the shallows and work your way out deeper as the drift went on. At the start of the drift, trout and bass would be hooked, quickly descending into black trevally and jobfish followed by AJ's, and if you continued to drop (and didn't run out of line) bar cod were encountered. One thing that was truly amazing was that the guides used no GPS or sounder to find the jigging spots. our hand held GPS that we brought with us indicated that the guides and boat driver could locate the same spots to within metres each day. The mind boggles to think what they could find with a half decent sounder/gps unit!
The descision was made to make some longer runs to the southern side of the island to see if more GT's could be located. An early start the following morning preceeded a long run to the far southern end of the island. The first spot we stopped at produced a dozen or more GT's plus other species on jigs and poppers in the first hour or so. We thought this was a pretty awesome start to the day until the guide, English suggested that we move to the 'GT Spot'.
'What, theres a better spot?' was our reply.
'just around that point' says English gesturing to the next headland.
A few hours and 40 odd GTs later, when we are stiff and sore from continual double, triple, and quadrouple hookups, we begin to understand what he means by a good GT spot. Apparently the next headland is better again, but we didn't have the energy to fight another fish...
Anyway I'll finish the report here otherwise there will be nothing left for the tight line mag article. I'm sure some of the other guys will be keen to post a few pics as well.
Keep an eye out for the You Tube videos - we have 20-30 hours of GoPro footage to edit of Popping jigging and fly fishing from the week.
Cheers
Duncan
-
A few pics
-
Another Selection
Anyone identify the critter in the second picture? came out of 150m+
-
a few more
-
A few more
-
Who was the charter company you used?
-
Top work Duncan, thanks for sharing.
Make sure you send us the link to you tube.
-
Ben,
We stayed at Ikari House. To my knowledge, they are the only people there with a halfway decent centre console rather than just the traditional outrigger canoes that everyone uses for flyfishing the flats. The boats are pretty basic and we carried our own Epirb, GPS and Satellite phone just in case things went pear shaped in the middle of nowhere.
-
Nice report Duncan,
Looks like a beautifull destination with a great variety of fish on offer.
Pete
-
Dunk, talked to Kurt yesterday mate, how good is Christmas Is ;D ;D
-
The boys had such a good time on the trip that at midnight when they got home there was already talk of going again. I am investigating booking another trip for early next year. We booked the whole lodge so 9 people in total. If anyone is interested send me a PM and I will keep you up to date with dates, prices etc. It really is a great value destination with the whole trip (including airfares, tips etc) for less than $4,000. If you are into fly fishing keep it in mind as well we will be trying to put together a mix of fly fishermen and Popper fishermen again as it works really well with guides and boats.
I have been watching segments of the Go-Pro footage. Looks like awesome fun.
Cheers,
Janelle
-
You guys definately took nice photographs. Thanks for sharing.
-
first off, awesome report! would love to one day make that trip. Second, sorry if I missed it, but how many days did you spend there?
-
Rick,
We spent a week there. the timing of the flights means that you arrive very early morning on a Wednesday and leave late in the arvo the following Wednesday. You effectively get 6 1/2 days fishing but you can squeeze another half day in on the last day if you're still keen.
Duncan
-
Rick,
We spent a week there. the timing of the flights means that you arrive very early morning on a Wednesday and leave late in the arvo the following Wednesday. You effectively get 6 1/2 days fishing but you can squeeze another half day in on the last day if you're still keen.
Duncan
Thanks Duncan. One week sounds like enough time to get in some good casts!
-
Great photos!
-
Great report and sounds like a good variety of fish!
-
Janelle
I've tried to PM you re: the trip, though fear that I have got in too late as it tells me your inbox is full!
If you have slots available, please PM me any details you have.
Thanks
Dan
-
Hi Dan,
sorry I will have to clear out my inbox.
I will PM you as soon as the dates come through for the trip. Am waiting to hear back from them now.
Cheers,
Janelle
-
Just a few more picks, wish I had my new camera over there. Managed to get through the whole trip with out injuring myself and I am still limping around after going round to Kurts to drop off his memory stick and going arse up :)
Andrew
* Awesome trip keen as to go again, talked missus into fiji drop off when I go again ;)
-
Looks like an awesome trip.
When you fished jigging and popping how many people in a boat and how big a boat were you fishing in?
Any pics of the boats ?Thanks ,Dave
-
just some more pics from the trip cant wait to go back
(http://s4.postimage.org/2rg82brac/image.jpg) (http://postimage.org/image/2rg82brac/)
(http://s4.postimage.org/2rgbdeg9w/image.jpg) (http://postimage.org/image/2rgbdeg9w/)
(http://s4.postimage.org/2rgeoh59g/image.jpg) (http://postimage.org/image/2rgeoh59g/)
(http://s4.postimage.org/2rgjn36qs/image.jpg) (http://postimage.org/image/2rgjn36qs/)
(http://s4.postimage.org/2rh6sm1no/image.jpg) (http://postimage.org/image/2rh6sm1no/)
(http://s4.postimage.org/2rh8g5e5g/image.jpg) (http://postimage.org/image/2rh8g5e5g/)
(http://s4.postimage.org/2rhlog63o/image.jpg) (http://www.postimage.org/)
-
Wicked photos! Love the pic of the Yellowfin on the popper.
Looks like an awesome part of the world.
-
Great photo's guys, looks like you's had a ball
-
Well done guys,top work..
-
Awesome trip fellas. The variety of fish is sensational.
-
Hi Everyone,
I am still waiting on dates for next year. The boys are looking at actually going for two weeks but people can go for week one or week two or both.
Communication is not always the greatest so as soon as I hear I will let everyone know.
Cheers,
Janelle
-
Nice trip, expecilly for gt fly fishing! :D
Did you never try for wahoos on fly?
Vincenzo
-
great report and photos defiantly a place I would like to checkout in the future, how did you find the performance of the ASWB stickbaits? are they easy to work? were they very productive? what if anything would you liken them to??
Steve,
-
amazing trip guys, best of both words realy. I think i may go there soon, pretty keen to get a bone and a GT off the flats!
-
great report and photos defiantly a place I would like to checkout in the future, how did you find the performance of the ASWB stickbaits? are they easy to work? were they very productive? what if anything would you liken them to??
Steve,
Hi Steven,
Sorry for the late reply.
The ASWB stickbaits worked very well. They have a very nice rolling/darting action. The slim profile of the lure allows great hook exposure so hook up rates i found to be very good. We are just waiting on another big shipment of them to arrive but you can see them here on our website http://www.fishhead.com.au/store/products/ASWB-F1%252d105.html (http://www.fishhead.com.au/store/products/ASWB-F1%252d105.html)
Cheers
Duncan