Christmas Island

[jake61198]

I'm just back from four weeks at Christmas Island and the fishing was probably the best I've had in sixteen years of going there. The bonefishing was off the charts with numbers that were crazy, and fish up to a solid ten pounds. The GT fishing was pretty awesome also with around sixteen fish caught by my guide and myself between about twenty pounds up to eighty five pounds. That also included a few fish in the forty pound class and a fifty five pound fish. My friend John also had a handful including a forty and a sixty pound fish. That would have made for a great trip, but as an added bonus I also landed a Barracuda thet we estimated at seventy five pounds. I've posted a couple of photos in the Fly Fishing Gallery.

[Seth]

Hey, great stuff! I saw the pictures, boy, that 85 lb trevally must have been a beast. What did you land that hog on?

[jake61198]

Seth,
The GT was indeed a very impressive fish. It took around 40-45 minutes to land, and at one point had about 350 yards of backing out. That was against a very stiff drag. I don't fish IGFA leaders because the GT alway seem to find some rock or coral to cut the class tippet. My leaders consist of 60 lb. butt, 40 lb. mid, and 80 lb. bite tippet, so I can lock down on them pretty well. My outfit was a 12 wt. Winston BIIMX paired with a Waterworks Force 4 reel. I've got the reel spooled with 600 yds. of 50 lb. test backing.

The Barracuda, on the other hand, while not quite the battle of the GT, was even more exciting. They are fairly scarce at Christmas Island and that one was a monster that I was very lucky to catch. He ate my fly the first time and when I set up on him the hook broke. Amazingly, five minutes later he was back and ate my fly again. During the whole fight I was expecting my line to go slack when he bit through my 80 lb. bite tippet. It was pure luck that he didn't. That fish jumped four or five feet into the air a couple of time and splashed on the surface quite a bit which was very exciting. When I got home I looked up the records and found that the all-tackle record is 85 lbs., and the fly rod record is 48 lbs. That fish was a solid 75 lbs.

Both of them are career fish that I'll certainly be hard pressed to beat, but I intend to keep trying.

Jim

[JohnRaynsford]

Awesome cuda Jake ! Congradulations

What time of year do you fish Christmas ? I make my annual pilgrimage in the fall, Oct/Nov after fishing season ends here at home.

Cheers !

John Raynsford
Eagle River, Alaska
john.raynsford@yahoo.com

[cameronwhite]

Interesting post!!looks like you got the best of them ...

thanks for the report


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[mark2210]

I know they offer guided kayak fishing trips over there... Better start saving up my money! How was the overall experience travel/lodging/etc?