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Locations — No Comments
04
Mar 25

Compare/Contrast – 2019 to 2025 on Xmas Island

This was my second (and not last) trip to Xmas following my trip there in 2019. So, what changed? What was different?

The airport got a major upgrade. There’s now a legit waiting area with enough seating. So, good job to whatever government(s) got that sorted.

Things that were totally the same:

– The boats
– The trucks
– GTs being hard
– Wind, all the time
– Periods of clouds and periods of sun
– Long days full of fishing
– Mostly, the guides
– The beauty of the place
– The quality of the roads
– The quality of the fishing

Things that were different:

Fished a different lodge. In 2019 I was at The Villages and this time I was at Christmas Island Lodge (which wasn’t even there in 2019 and has taken over the site of the Captain Cook). CIL has more of a truck-based program, although their second boat was being repaired, so that might not always be true. Trips to the backcountry and Huff Dam by truck were new.

Triggers were… jerks. In 2019, I had maybe 10 trigger shots and landed 2. It did NOT go that way this year. Had maybe 40 shots at adults and went 0/40. Got one little peachface, but that was it. I had three eats, zero conversions. I don’t know why it was so much harder, but it was.

My bonefishing sucked less. In 2019 I had a day where I started off going about 0/25 on bonefish shots. This year, I feel like I was more on it. I caught more fish on my own, and I had some magical/awesome sessions where I was just dialed. It isn’t that I improved so much in the last 5 years, it just went better this trip. I ended up landing 40 bonefish to 6 pounds. I maybe had half that number in 2019.

A female touch. CIL had a female guide and I think also another female guide in training. Ari, the woman guide, was fantastic. I thought she was maybe the best guide I had. She communicated clearly and often. She asked questions about what I wanted and she had a plan. 5 Star Guide and if you go to CIL, request her.

The beer was better. Flame beer, from NZ, was an upgrade from whatever we had in 2019 and we drank great quantities of the stuff. A nice, light, clean beer, best when cold and after a long day of fishing.

Hosted v. non-hosted. In 2019 I went on a hosted trip with my friend Shane. He saw to all the details. In 2025 we didn’t have a host, but Ty, the manager of CIL, sort of filled that role (in addition to everything else he did). This proved not to really feel like a big change, but was different. Shane was there at the same time, at the Villages, but his trip filled up before we could get in.

Tides. This was not a thing I paid a lot of attention to, but our tides were less than ideal. We had lows througout most of the fishing hours and that really impacted what the Korean Wreck looked like (barren). We were out there for about 20 minutes of the incoming tide and it was shaping up to be MAGIC, but then we had to leave. Boo. They say the best time to go fishing is when you can, and this fell into that sort of category. This was the week I had available and I was going to go no matter what.

More species. Did you know there are Queenfish in Xmas? I didn’t, but I caught one. Also got a sweetlips and wasn’t the only one to catch either of those species. Caught a goatfish as well, which I don’t recall catching before.

I pretty much only want to fish Christmas Island at this point. This is such a special place. I’ll be back.

Locations — No Comments
02
Mar 25

Ari on Christmas Island

In my opinion, one of the best guides currently working on Christmas Island is Ari (and not just because she complimented my casting).

Ari with Wallace, walking off the last flat of the trip.

In a place that is fairly male-dominated, Ari is a female guide working out of Christmas Island Lodge.

I had her for 1.5 days and very much enjoyed having her. She not only saw the fish and knew where they’d be, which probably all the Xmas guides can do, but she communicated well. She asked questions. She gave feedback.

The first day I had her as my guide, Phil had told her that I likely needed some sort of therapy due to my blown shot at a big GT earlier in the week. So, she set out a path for the two of us to walk that would give me multiple cuts and points to go in search of trevally. She developed a plan, quickly, that would maybe do the trick, or at the very least it would set me up to be in a good position.

In one cut we found some working bluefin and I managed to get one to hand. When I gave her the phone to take the pic, she’s the one who put it on portrait mode and took the shot below… which is rad.

The next day, I was with Ari as we were fishing the last water we’d fish… and what did we find? A GT on the edge of a channel. It was a 20-25 pound fish, or there abouts. Not huge, but a very nice fish for sure. I managed to get a good cast in and got a follow, but the fish saw us in the last 15 feet and waived off (which is how my previous trip had ended as well… but… that’s for another time).

Ari consistantly put me in a good position to get the shots I was looking for and she checked in with me to make sure we were on the same page.

Fish Tails / Locations — No Comments
25
Feb 25

Shot of a lifetime

We were out at the Huff Dam area. It is an interesting place with lots of long shelves (with lots of Snapper) and Phil, the guide and I were walking back to the truck to head home.

To get out to the Huff Dam area you have to get a permit and then you drive past alllll sorts of birds. So, I have some bird pictures.

I had just been prospecting for GTs and had hooked one, briefly, on a popper. I don’t know how big that fish was, but it was a big popper and it pulled hard for the 5 seconds I had it on. I had also caught a small GT and small Bluefin, in addition to some excellent bonefish action and several, several blown trigger shots.

I figured I might as well at least have a look over the ledge as we were walking back. This one was particularly straight, as I recall.

There, about 150 feet ahead, just holding, was a laid up GT. It was a big one, maybe 60 pounds. It wasn’t really moving much, just hanging out. The guide later said they sometimes do that, waiting for some little snapper to wander out and not pay attention, becoming part of the circle of life and death on the flats.

There was a thought the GT might have been looking slightly away and so I wanted to get ahead of it. I started running on the elevated stone shelf. Well, with my first running step the fish blew out. It had heard me through the ground (I am not a small, light guy). So, we all learned a thing right there. They can feel the vibrations and know what is up if you aren’t careful.

Luckily the fish only spooked about 20 feet and then started slowing coming my way.

I got down in the water (you can’t really cast well on those shelves, as there are all sorts of little grabby bumps and the edge can be pretty sharp) and I started pulling off line. I had a window of time to get things set up.

I was still using the popper and I threw it out in front of the fish. Pop, pop, pop and it appeared to look at it, but it didn’t get excited about it. Another cast, pulling the popper in front of the fish and it… just… didn’t seem to care.

And then it went away.

Later, Ari would tell me that she likes poppers for prospecting, but if you have a fish in front of you, she likes a baitfish pattern. So, keep that in mind.

I’ll be thinking about that fish for a long, long time. It was the shot of a lifetime.

All the other stuff / Locations — 2 Comments
16
Feb 19

On not getting the runs

I had heard pretty much everyone who goes to Xmas gets the runs at some point. I’m here to tell you this is not the case.

The risk is certainly on Christmas Island, however, and caution is your friend.

The Villages provides purified water in a pitcher in your room. Use it. Use it to brush your teeth. Use it to rise your toothbrush. Use it for anything.

Don’t put water in your mouth in the shower. Just don’t.

I had a phone appointment before I left with the Kaiser Travel Clinic and they got me a 3 pill prescription for antibiotics specific to what I might encounter there. I didn’t need to use them.

It was frequently the case that guides missed days because of GI bugs. Water borne disease is pretty rampant on Christmas and the locals are very much not immune. Many guides powered through their days even with their stomach bugs and would simply excuse themselves to take care of business. It’s life on the island and that guiding money isn’t going to come from anywhere else.

Only one guy out of our 16-17 anglers had any issues and that was minor, treatable with Imodium (which is NOT how you treat sever diarrhea). Caution and prevention is where it is at.

Fish Tails / Locations — 5 Comments
08
Feb 19

Everyone wants to know about GTs

GTs, Geets, Giant Trevally. Everyone wants to know about the GTs of Christmas Island. Everyone who goes there wants to catch one. They are undeniably special and when you look at all the species in a place like Christmas Island, the GT stands out, in relief, and your finger keeps finding them on the page.

Yes, I saw some big geets in Xmas. The first one was at the Korean Wreck when a good fish (40#? more?) smashed a bonefish I had just released about 8 feet from where I stood as I was looking the other way. This was right on the shore. Scared the hell out of me (and the guide too). It gave me an impression of just how impressive these fish are and underscored just how precarious is the life of a bonefish.

Later that day the guide took me out to one last spot and in a couple of minutes found me a small GT on shore patrol. One cast, a couple strips and he was on. Not a big fish, but a GT. It pulled hard, very hard, and I could imagine what this fish multiplied would feel like.

A mini Geet

Another, about the same size, came by about 2 minutes after releasing the first fish. Didn’t have my act together enough to get a cast in.

The next day I was out at the Wreck again and the first fish we saw was a GT with it’s back out of the water. It wandered off into the breakers and we followed. I put some long bomb casts out into that area just where the breakers do their breaking, but I wasn’t getting any love. The guide told me to reel in and so I put out another cast and was putting the line back on the reel when something kind of magical happened.

You’ve seen when the face of a wave becomes a window into what is below the wave? As I reeled in a wave came rolling in and when the face of the wave was in full view I could see my bait fish imitation clearly and I could also see the GT come up and eat it. It was like watching it all happen on a high-def screen.

Here’s where I made my GT mistake. When you get a GT in this sort of environment you CAN NOT LET IT RUN. Just where those waves were breaking is a drop off and along the drop off there is pretty much nothing but a bazillion coral heads waiting to snag your line or your tippet and to free that fish from you. You are supposed to immediately crank down your drag and not give one god damned inch to that fish (if possible).

The fish was off the edge in a heartbeat and threw the first wrap against the coral a split second after that. I could still feel the fish pulling, but I knew it was in danger. I walked out a bit further to see if I could get it unattached and could see the line come back toward me and wrap on another bit of coral. There, about 20 feet from me, right at the edge of the drop, I could actually see the GT. He wasn’t huge, maybe 20 pounds (25?), and he was still attached. I walked out a little bit more and picked up the fly line winding from the point it was wrapped to my left to the spot it was wrapped in front of me. That bit of added tension did it. The leader cut on the coral. The fish was free.

Fast forward to the last day and the last flat. I was still without a big GT. I don’t think one was actually landed on the trip. Largest might have been about the size I had lost to the coral, but the 40 and 50 and 60 pounders, or those elusive 90 pounders were all un-landed. One guy had lost his whole fly line on a GT when trolling and there were other anglers with other good shots, but nothing in the books. I was fishing with one of the top guides, TK, and we were walking a flat not far from a GT highway. The sky was grey and the light was flat and diffused. I couldn’t see anything in the water at all.

Guide TK

At this point I started to wonder if TK was just riding out the last minutes of the trip. I couldn’t imagine you could walk out on a flat like this and find a GT without being able to see in the water. Part of me was also telling me to trust my guide. He was very much searching the water, not going for a stroll. He knew the water and the fish, I didn’t. I should just trust him, right?

With time running out and the 10 weight primed in my hands TK pointed at a fast moving bulge of water headed more or less in our direction. “GT!” It was a short cast, maybe 30 feet. I cast ahead of the fish, just beyond his path and when TK told me to strip, I stripped like mad. The fish reacted, veered toward the fly and it all seemed like it was going to happen.

“How perfect?” I thought. “Here I am on the last day, on the last flat, and I have this monster GT chasing down my fly in two feet of water and this will be the crowning moment of this trip. You can’t write a better story!”

Except… the fish then exploded and altered course in a direction distinctly not toward the fly. Maybe it didn’t like the fly. Maybe it didn’t like the strip. Maybe it saw us. I don’t know, but I watched the massive shape displacing a lot of water quickly fade from view.

I had the shot. I had a good shot presented by a guide who knew his water and knew his fish and it just didn’t happen.

We walked a bit more, maybe 10 minutes, to the edge of the flat where the boat would pick us up. TK turned to me and said, simply, “Maybe next time.”