Kiritimati, Christmas Island or CXI as it is affectionately known is without doubt the most productive bonefishing destination on the planet… But if you add the diversity found in the fish rich waters, then it escalades to an entirely different level.

For a fly fisher, it quite simply doesn’t get any better full stop…

Bonefish have been described as the ghost of the flats, because once they turn sideways, they simply mirror the ocean floor and sky and fade into oblivion… Until they turn up at your feet and become incredibly hard to cast at with a 9 foot rod and 10 foot leader, while you try to hide behind, nothing, in a mass of exposed knee deepwater, sun and a seemingly endless sand flat…

Until finally you hook your first bone, and as the line screams through your fingers and somehow you manage to avoid the coils from your feet, bum bag, hands and reel seat. As the line flies through the air in uncontrollable loops and with a speed that you hadn’t considered possible, and your knuckles avoid the handle as it spins at a thousand miles an hour, and continues to, and you wonder if it will actually stop as the tip of the rod you just bought especially for the trip tries to bury itself into the turquoise water as you struggle to keep the rod butt pointing anywhere near upright…and you realise… this is exactly what you imagined it would be, except better, and now it’s real, and you have 6 full days of it coming up… You ripper!

Sure there are bones in varying sizes from schools of the smaller 1, 2 and 3 pounders, that you can catch a plethora of, to the solitary 4, 5, and 6 pounders, up to the magical 10 pound mark that pull like a racehorse on the juice, but now our focus has changed somewhat to also target the other species that for so long were overlooked.

GT’s have both quality and quantity on their side and found on the flats, pancake drop offs and patrolling reef edges, and well, some look like a Toyota Land Cruiser coming to eat you… The smaller ones under 20 pound you can knock off on your 8wt bonefish rod, but you need your big 10 and 12wt to tackle some of these brute’s with 100lb tippet and a reel that likes spinning under a load that would pull the concrete off a footpath… Then you know your fishing to something serious.

Then we add Trigger Fish to the equation which offer a whole new world of power and fly fishing skill… They are as big as a Chinese wok on full heat, way beyond cautious, they are constantly on edge, with eyes like a blow fly, eat in upturned finger like coral, only eat crabs on the bottom moving slowly… And pull like a John Deere… Yep, they are a genuine trophy in themselves.

If we head to the entrance in the morning we have 20+ pound Milkfish, with schools 10 deep and as long and wide as a double lane freeway at peak hour. Ridiculous schools of Tuna, a football oval wide smashing bait on the surface in calm water that you watch as an individual fish takes your fly like it was a real baitfish and then tries to hit the ocean floor 300 metres down in the next 10 seconds.

Now anyone who has encountered a Sailfish understands what power, beauty and chaos all mixed in together is like, Wahoo, Barracuda and even the occasional Marlin dropping by and you seriously wonder why you go fishing anywhere else in the world, seriously, why would you! 

The island looks exactly like you always imagined, a beautiful 28 degree days with a sea breeze, everyday, crystal clear water against bright white sand, palm trees at every angle you turn your head, and nothing but wagging tails on a sand flat as big as the MCG. In fact the islands lagoon holds the largest conglomeration of sand flats in the world that you need to see to believe. I promise you, on the flight in, when you see it from the air, you will be in awe, but at the same time itching to set your 8wt up and start casting, it is a jaw dropping sight that reminds you how lucky you are to be experiencing this incredible place.

The island itself is virtually untouched in comparison to what we are all used to, and I guess once you look on a map to where Christmas Island is situated, well you can understand why… It is simply so far from absolutely everywhere… Halfway between Fiji and Hawaii, it is literally sitting all alone in a fly fisher’s paradise.

And that’s the bad stuff!

The waters are alive, the attention is of the ‘nothing is too much trouble’ type and you will be so glad you chose Ikari.  For more info or bookings please contact us.