After a week, I finally found time to throw up some pictures for the board. The best pictures are actually in the process of getting devolped as I took more film shots then I did digi shots plus another member of the group took a good number of photos on slide film that I can not wait to see.

Overall the fishing was pretty damn slow. Given that the vast majority of the fishing is done via walking flats looking for fish, you have to see 'em to catch 'em.

But because the weather was downright awful at times, we had a very difficult time spotting the fish, especially myself because this was my first time fishing the flats.

2 days it absolutely poured and the other days were filled with constant cloud cover...the best days weather wise were the day we left and the day we arrived (it was the first rain they had had in over 3 months).

A typical Christmas Is. day should consist of about 15-20 bones landed...well, our typical day was 3-4 fish landed and I was accompied by some of the best guides and some very very good and experienced bonefishermen. The last day made up for it as we managed 100 fish to hand for 4 guys before lunch.

However, we did find some decent trevally fishing as I hooked up but lost a Giant Trevally that was over 60#'s. Another member in my group hooked up with one over 70 that ran into the coral and took off with 25' of his flyline. In addition we had a fair number of shots at similar sized fish that either totally ignored our flies, followed our flies but turned away or were beat to the punch by the pesky little smaller trevally.

And we all hooked and landed large numbers of the smaller but equally strong Bluefin Trevally of which I have pictures getting developed at this time. I also landed 3 of the prized and rare Golden Trevally of which the pictures are also getting devolped.

BTW-I also had the thrilling experience of a death-defying DC-10 ride over the Pacific Ocean filled with violent and viscious turbulence, loud explosions, passengers screaming "We're gonna DIE!" and flight attendents nearly hyperventilating.

The following two pictures were taken after we arrived just in front of beachside bungalow. This oceanside flat is actually populated with bonefish and the occasional Giant Trevally but we were tired to give her more then a quick try after getting back from a day's fishing.





...and speaking of our bungalow. Here is a picture of our home away from home for a week's time.



...and our primary quarry for the next week (our seconday being the Giant and Bluefin Trevally of which I am awaiting picutres on).

An a little larger then average sized bonefish caught by yours truly during our epic morning at the famed Korean Wreck.

3 Things Christmas Is. is famous for (aside from its fishing)...

Birds (and lots of 'em)....


Land Crabs (dont leave your rods out overnight or ono the thousands of land crabs will chew away your cork )



...and Victoria Bitter. 'VB' as it is reffered to, is one of the finest beers I have ever had and it is very very popular on the Island (which is evidenced by the fact that Island is littered with VB cans). Oh how I miss my VB....

To reach your fishing destination(s) for the day you either take a truck to the local marina in the village of London to hop on a skiff and head out to the massive lagoon to fish the flats or your endure a bumpy truck ride to one of the many oceanside flats (my favorite) or one of the flats in the very back of the lagoon.

There is a flat somewhere back there...


One of the many small things that make Christams Is. such an enjoyable place are the daily shore lunches that consist of recently caught small bluefin trevally or sweetlips which are thrown into a small fire. A few minutes later the fish is pulled out and you begin to pick away and devour some of the most delicious tasting fish you will ever run across (think of a very very very moist and fresh lingcod)...



...and the weather. The evil evil WEATHER! The weather we experienced was very atypical for the Island. And on top of the nasty weather, the Pacific Ocean was churned up due to some very nasty storms thousands of miles to the North (when I was in Hawaii, pictures of record sized waves at Northshore were hitting the front pages of the newspapers). Because the Lagoon entrance faces the North, the Lagoon was churned up and a mucky mess due to the abnormaly large swells hitting the Island.

The poor weather can be delt with BUT add in mucky water plus an influx of cold ocean water into the normally very warm lagoon and the bonefish are not only going to be very difficult to see but they are going to be off the bite.



More pictures to follow in the next couple of days!

Were you playing with the Emergency Exit handle again?? :p

Cool pics.

Very nice Ryan, I hope to see more pics.

your last comment is why i WILL not fly again.. after watching a boeing 747 "bend and flex" down the middle of the plane during some turbulance, i said damn, this is the last one for me.. and that was 97' , only been on a lil puddle jumper since , now if say they needed someone to fly in a black bird..that i might do...

Ryan, that was like our trip to Kamchatka from Valadivostok 6 years ago.
Our pilot was drunk and the co pilot was just a kid. The seats were missing bolts and ducked tape was the interior theme of the plane. We even had a goat sitting up front. Everyone had to carry all there luggage on board and find room some where ( we had 9 bags between the 4 of us).

On board meal? Booze and dried I don't know what. When we arrived in Kamchatka we were transfered in cars that was built before Christ.

Thank God we got to fly Alaska air back home.

Dan,
how come you didn't tell sparky about your last exciting plane ride? (Grant)

I have a thing with planes it seems.

It only seems to happen when planes and fishing get mixed together though.............all those flights back east are always uneventful, except for the kids.


Put a rod in the plane/helo though, and things liven up a bit.

Hey Sparkey,
That looks like V.W. chowing down on that bait...

Yep!...it was is him.

You just can't trust that guy when there's food around, I think he's part coyote!!

Glad you guys had a great time out there!!