Christmas Island Photo essay
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Its winter in Australia and a ten year drought has just broken. I was born and raised in the tropics but live at 1,000 meters about an hour and a half west of Sydney. My French wife loves it here but my bones get really cold and I plan my winters to spend as much time away from here as possible. Currently I’m tying flies for a return trip to Christmas Island. Since Air Pacific took up the route last year the place has become very accessible to fly fisherman and a hell of a lot cheaper. We used to have to fly to Honolulu then catch a very expensive charter flight but now its straight through. This is a wonderful place, friendly people and about geographically about as remote as a fishing destination can get. Its a speck in the wide wild blue yonder of the mid Pacific Ocean, about 2 degrees north of the equator. There are no seasons you deal with the weather that’s happening when you’re there. Fortunately the flats are miles long and you can set up a walk in ankle to knee deep water with a left shoulder wind that can last you half the day. Some days are tough with heavy cloud and some days are just about as perfect as a fishing day can get. The bones are prolific, most are small and a 6-7 weight is a great rod to fish, if the wind gets up too much use an 8. Its all floating lines and size 6 flies – tied very sparse. There’s bigger bones there as well and plenty of 10’s get caught every year.
The guide is Moana Kofe – Fly Angler Magazines “Guide of the year” in 1998 (I think). He’s a great guide who is also well travelled – I think he can smell the bones and has the next two fish spotted while you’re presently engaged. This is a classic CI day with a seam of cumulus that forms over the windward side of the island.
The full moon is bonefish spawning time and you cast to big schools of them milling in deeper water – not my favourite but its when the average size is larger.
Dark clouds are brilliant for photography and also brilliant for spotting fish.
The “Korean Wreck” refers to the oceanic flats on the windward side of the island – next stop from here is South America – 3,000 miles away. Wild fishing on surf tossed flats, one moment its shin deep then you’re up to your waist – many, many, bonefish and other species as well.
The Inner lagoon is 18 miles across and filled with pancake flats and flats that run for many miles. A good day here is 30 bones. You get around on these locally built outriggers.
Golden Trevally are also a target species and will eat bonefish flies – these tail furiously on the flats, I think they are a slightly different species from our goldies.
With all due respect to Val Atkinson.
I like to get pics of bones still in the water – they are a beautifully behaved fish with no nasty bits on them – leave the fly in them until you’re done and they’ll lie there like a kitten.
The smaller ones will also sit nicely in your hand.
Somes days are diamonds and on some days you just do the best you can.
Thanks,
Morsie
Morsie,
I’m not sure if your picture post and the recent ones from John and David will inspire me to try harder to become a good photographer, or just throw up my arms.
You obviously have a lot of technical expertise–your exposures look to be dead on. No clipping or blown out areas. You certainly have a good eye.
Bryan
Those are all amazing Morsie. So the bonefish will just hang out until you pull the hook out of its mouth? That’s bizarre.
Thanks Guys, Re the fish holding still, I do this with a lot of fish, trout in particular are great for it. I always keep the hook in them and just hold them in the water until ready to take pics. Once you start squeezing them they’ll fight back. Its a bit of a “fish whisperer” thing. It also means they have plenty of time to recover – I can spend 10 minutes with a fish and not have it thrash around once its first landed – I don’t use nets, just a gently hand scoop under the belly right on the mid point and if it won’t balance or thrashes a little I’ll just drop it back in the water and try again. I’ll always remember a moment whern a great friend of mine landed a beautiful trout in the Snowy Mountains and he wanted that fish so badly he squeezed it and held it hard against his chest – it popped out and popped the tippet and swam off – probably didn’t survive either. Notice that boney has its nose up against a rock – it’ll just gently swim against it. I’ll show you some pictures of trout in the water that I think would have lain there for as long as I wanted them to. Dave Anderson and I will do a joint Tongariro spread in the next few days.
In the meantime here’s some more of Christmas island.
This is one of my favourite pics from over there. This is at the Korean Wreck end of the island. The tide is still high so there’s considerable wash coming over the reef. The bones will swim up the beach with a surging wave – right up the sandy slope but its steep and you have the briefest window to geta fly in front of them before they wash back down with the wave – about 5 seconds and it has to be right on a fast moving target thats travelling up and down the beach. I think its the toughest fly fishing presentation I’ve EVER come across. The concentration required is evident in the body language of the guide and client. It was a day with a high sheen of cloud – very difficult polaroiding conditions, but great for fish photography.
You do get glassy calm days there and the angler here Rod van Beek is looking for tails.
Guide Teata lands a better than average bone for Peter Walker.
On the incoming tide the bones will push right up into the skinny stuff, in places just ankle deep water, and that’s the fishing I like best.
Rod van Beek waits on a flat.
This was taken minutes later and has been used as a book cover shot.
Last day of the last trip I did – Rod van Beek about as casual as you can get on a boney – by now this was probably fish 300 for the trip for him.
Thanks Carter – bit of a sizing issue with one of those images, can’t seem to get around it without creating massive files and it won’t re-size.
Christmas island is also famous for its sea bird life – they’re all pretty tame, hard to tear yourself away from the fishing sometimes. These two should have been shoy as verticals but at the time I had my other eye on some bones about 50 feet away…
This is a frigate bird chick.
And an adult booby on the nest.
Boney close-up. A six weight was my preferred rod most of the time.
I call these next two shots “Morning prayers”. Was trying to catch the brief great morning light you get in the tropics.
And I love these moving water shots – always hard to catch without the fish moving too.
Nice mate!!
Now I REALLY want to go back! :'( You’re back there in a couple of weeks arn’t ya? 😎It is amazing that if the fish quietens down you can take so many pics of them. I learn’t a heap. Cheers mate.
Looking forward to the Tonga spread.
Fantasic shots, Christmas Island has always been on the list of places to visit, but i think it just moved up a few spots closer to the top.
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