Hi Steve,
Here are some answers to your questions in red:
Hey guys, have always thought about trying out X'mas Island but have had mixed reviews about the place. Was told the weather is very unpredictable and only one small area of the island is fishable due to the boat's limited range. First of all you need to make sure people are giving you advice about the right Christmas Island, (in this case the Republic of Kiribati in the Pacific Ocean, rather than the one in the Indian Ocean when Australia sends assylum seekers). The forecast there for almost every day of the year is as follows: Easterly winds 12-15kn, partly cloudy with a chance of a storm, temp 27degrees at night -29 degrees in the day. I reckon that forecast is right about 70% of the time, the rest is either a bit windier or wetter: it's very rarely calm as far as I can tell. The harbour/Lagoon entrance is on the lee side of the island, so large areas are pretty fishable in most conditions. The traditional outrigger boats are pretty good to jig and plastic fish from, but can be harder to pop from. They go pretty slowly too, but Ikari House who we stay with has a big longboat which can do the long runs to the other end of the island - up to a 2hr trip, depending on location
Was also told that there's up to 90% chance of being sharked when trying to land your catch. I know that jigging can be productive there but never knew popping can be that fantastic (at least from the posts above). We have been sharked there, but most of the time it has not been any worse than most other locations I've been to. Yellowfin busting up on the surface seem to attract more sharks, but I think is the same anywhere
For those with good fishing experience there, would be great if you can share your thoughts on the comments mentioned above. Btw, are the popping grounds far off or totally located at a different area from the jigging ones? Also greatly appreciate if you can share some contacts of good charter operators via PM. Cheers!Anywhere that good popping has occured for us in Christmas Island, an equally good jigging spot is not far away. The dropoffs are so steep there that they can often be one and the same place, give or take 50m. The popping spots close to to the lodge didn't fire on this trip so we did put in some pretty long runs for good popper fishing. I have no idea if this is seasonal, bait/current related or just down to increased fishing pressure.
When jigging, the boats have no technology onboard for fish finding and so rely on visual marks off the shore combined with anglers dropping jigs to the bottom on colour coded braid to confirm their depths. It sounds pretty random, but at this stage it seems to be no hinderance to catching excellent fish on jigs. At some spots you'd swear there were a carpet of reefies just waiting for a jig. When chasing tuna, guides would either look for birds to jig under or failing that, just drift a depth contour that they have previously been successful on. Both methods worked.
Ikari House is where we stay, for a number of reasons, but particularly because they have the boats and guides for the job - most other lodges specialise in the the inshore bonefishing.
Cheers
Duncan
