Christmas Island 2010 - Stickbaits, Poppers & Jigs.
Another exciting trip to CI has concluded. The last year had escaped me too quickly & I felt as though I was there only a month ago.
As with any exotic sport fishing trip, you usually spend countless hours preparing your gear for brutal punishment. Ensuring you have adequate terminal tackle & sufficient lures is also just as important. There simply isn’t any room for sub standard tackle, poor knots & ill technique. It’s a matter of going hard or going home & having the appropriate equipment to do the task is fundamental.
The waters of Christmas Island offer exceptional diversity, from throwing poppers to GT’s to jigging Ruby Snapper meters away. You just need to look at the island to get a sense of what it looks like underwater.
Mark from Shorefire Charters is a true local with decades of local knowledge & experience, but most importantly, he is a down to earth bloke that is a pleasure to be spending time with. His wife makes sensational food & they really are great people.
Unfortunately, every fishing trip will be affected by a number of variables which can include poor weather & abnormal water temperatures. Water temp registered a mid 28 to 29 degrees which is extremely high in September. These high temperatures obviously affect plenty of temperate fish species & Yellow Fin tuna was the most obvious for us. Last year the YFT action was chaotic, however, this year, the schools remained quite deep which simply meant to fish jigs rather than throw surface offerings.
In a nutshell, we experienced high water temps, plenty of northerly winds, daily squally weather, high swells & at times, pond like conditions. It was a matter of dealing with what was being thrown at us & being diverse in our fishing approach. If poppers didn’t attract attention, we’d throw a stick bait & if darting jigs didn’t work, we used a sliding jig.
The trip was memorable, with plenty of quality fish being landed. Being bricked was a common occurrence on the jigging scene – 6 Andaman’s were lost within 2 hours on day 3.
We raised good GT’s, YFT, Wahoo, Red Bass, Jobbies, Blue fin Trevs, Mahi Mahi & many others, whilst jigging, we encountered, Jobbies, Black Trevs, Coro Trout, Tomato Cod, YFT, Sail Fish, Oblique banded Snapper & dogs.
My most exciting experiences of this trip included a sail fish that took an Andaman, only to be fought to the boat until it threw the hook, followed by, losing what was a good dog 10 meters under the boat. The dog was hooked mid water, stripped line to get to the underwater cliff face, then worked back to the boat only to have 1 last surge & snap the leader. The leader had been shredded by structure & the dog laid belly up under the boat & sank down instead of floating up! Bummer.
Trip 3, 2011, has already been booked & if last year is anything to go by, time will fly.
Oh, and I just received an email from Rocky letting me know he went out on a solo effort this morning & landed a 60+kg YFT. Amazing!
A few pics are below.
Daz.
Albee Mangles
Posts: 985
Date Joined: 20/05/08
WOW!!!!!!!
Great variety there Daz, you sure are living the dream! Great place for a holiday thats for sure!
Keep em coming mate, great fishing!!
timvb
Posts: 88
Date Joined: 07/07/10
Looks like a great spot,
Looks like a great spot, well done Daz!
danno
Posts: 1676
Date Joined: 12/07/09
thats awsome. sound like a
thats awsome.
sound like a great trip will a few nice fish landed, nice photos there to .
shame bout the doggie but at least you got some fish.
well done.
Lamby
Posts: 3145
Date Joined: 04/08/09
Great pics Daz, awesome
Great pics Daz, awesome looking trip would of had a ball!
uncle
Posts: 9487
Date Joined: 10/02/07
great trip
thats looks like it was a trip full of red letter days
all aggressive fish love bigjohnsjigs
STEVE231
Posts: 1443
Date Joined: 05/01/10
Well done Daz, I was looking
Well done Daz, I was looking forward to this report!!
Some good fish landed and a good variety too. Makes me jealous!!
Gully
Posts: 963
Date Joined: 04/10/05
Jeez mate that looks
Jeez mate that looks unreal,
Top report and some beaut fish and pics. As already stated - shame about the doggy and the sail but means you will just have to get them next year
Gully
Paul G
Posts: 5215
Date Joined: 12/12/07
Great stuff some top photos
Great stuff some top photos ,picked up the colours on the fish nice .Looks like a nice place for a holiday.
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Erin
Posts: 42
Date Joined: 30/01/10
Nice pics mate, definately
Nice pics mate, definately looks like an awsum place to fish!
alfred
Posts: 3097
Date Joined: 12/01/07
Top stuff Daz!
Top stuff Daz! Got to love the battle scared lures!
Bones76
Posts: 476
Date Joined: 03/11/08
fantastic report Daz... 60kg
fantastic report Daz... 60kg YFT solo would have been a mission
SamC
Posts: 2013
Date Joined: 30/08/06
Insane
Gawd damnn Daz that looks like an awesome trip!
That Hoo would gone off...
Count me in if theres a spot for 2011
Cheers,
Sam
Ben Derecki
Posts: 1926
Date Joined: 10/10/07
Oh man, so many good
Oh man, so many good fish.
That first red bass is awesome. Love the shot of you with the Hoo as well Daz, great colours.
Thanks for the report man.
schecky
Posts: 1645
Date Joined: 25/08/08
Finally put those OS assists
Finally put those OS assists of yours to use! haha
Nah nice fish man, looks like a cracker trip
wadetolley
Posts: 2258
Date Joined: 27/06/08
What
What fish is the third from last photo???
DazSamFishing
Posts: 1518
Date Joined: 19/08/09
Rusty Jobfish.
Rusty Jobfish.
till
Posts: 9358
Date Joined: 21/02/08
Rusty jobfish on shab
Rusty jobfish on shab shab?
Looks like a great trip, have to get there myself one day!
DazSamFishing
Posts: 1518
Date Joined: 19/08/09
Oh yeah, lost a handful of
Oh yeah, lost a handful of shab shab's too.
Dale
Posts: 7930
Date Joined: 13/09/05
Awesome stuff, that place is
Awesome stuff, that place is on my bucket list to do sometime before I cark it.
Cheers
Dale
"Just because you are a Character, Doesn't mean you have Character."
Mr Wolf
PilbaraBrad
Posts: 3628
Date Joined: 16/05/07
sweet trip daz, i miss that
sweet trip daz, i miss that place thats for sure
John_M
Posts: 967
Date Joined: 17/01/10
can you do any land based
can you do any land based from the rocks behind you
Some awesome pics man, good work!
damo6230
Posts: 2029
Date Joined: 07/06/08
awesome report/pic and trip
shame about the dog but plenty of other memerable catches to keep you pumped
flangies
Posts: 2546
Date Joined: 11/05/08
I think everyone has said
I think everyone has said everything and I don't know what to say.
Great catches and thumbs up to the camera man.
Now back to reality.. :D
Pete D
Posts: 1681
Date Joined: 07/06/07
Awesome pics and a great
Awesome pics and a great variety of captures there. Would love to get back there again myself.
All jungle to those cliffs John_M93. There are probably 1 maybe 2 places that you could fish based (and one is the jetty in the cove). Those lower ledges are all razor sharp volcanic rock - a bit of a challenge to fish from and that would be after a few days trekking from the closest road. Boat is the only real option.
Are the GT's still hanging around the filleting area at the refuelling bouys? I heard that some big sharks had moved in.
Cheers Pete
DazSamFishing
Posts: 1518
Date Joined: 19/08/09
Yeah, not many landbased
Yeah, not many landbased options at all. It's some really rough terrain & those volcanic rocks will make short work of unprotected body parts.
Pete, the resident GT pets are still there (plus some toothy critters), though, I was a little disappointed to see some people hiding hooks in the scraps they'd throw over.
flangies
Posts: 2546
Date Joined: 11/05/08
Hey don't underestimate us
Hey don't underestimate us Landbased fishos!
Pete D
Posts: 1681
Date Joined: 07/06/07
Hmmm, not good...would of
Hmmm, not good...would of thought Mark would push them off...but then again they would be locals.
I'm sitting here processing video from my trip last october - so much to not cut out!!!! Very time consuming.
Cheers Pete
Jacko
Posts: 72
Date Joined: 15/10/08
Thats some nice photography
Thats some nice photography boys.
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Dicey
Posts: 912
Date Joined: 23/07/10
christmas island should have
christmas island should have alot of landbased game action spots, knew a few guys from there and they get some big monsters on the dropoffs.
Lucky Tim
Posts: 2536
Date Joined: 28/11/07
smashing trip young man,
smashing trip young man, smashing.
Those assist hooks and cord weren't getting chewed through anytime soon either.
I guess a good consolation for you is Fiji ain't too far away.
Chrissy Island was always on my list but I think it has just jumped up a few spots.
DazSamFishing
Posts: 1518
Date Joined: 19/08/09
Yes, bet you're looking
Yes, bet you're looking forward to your Fiji trip too!
I've got Maldives next in 3 weeks which should be interesting.
No doubt you speak to Joh a fair bit about CI... you should definitely pencil in a date to fish with Rocky.
Lucky Tim
Posts: 2536
Date Joined: 28/11/07
yes, yes, yes and definitely
yes, yes, yes and definitely yes.
Goodz
Posts: 2332
Date Joined: 20/07/09
Awesome fish there Daz!
Awesome fish there Daz! Great variety, sounds like a trip to remember! As shecky said, good to see you got some use out of those monster assists, pity about the lost jigs but now you get to restock with more!!!
Faulkner Family
Posts: 18049
Date Joined: 11/03/08
that sounds like a trip to
that sounds like a trip to remember. looks like some of those lures copped a bit of punishment. some awesome fish you scored while there with a couple of different jobbies. some of them fish have some nice chompers on them. well done on the scores of fish you nailed and great pics to go along with the report
RUSS and SANDY. A family that fishes together stays together
Adam Gallash
Posts: 15648
Date Joined: 29/11/05
qualitiii
Not much else that needs to be said, but pure gold!
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Bodie
Posts: 3758
Date Joined: 05/11/07
awesome photos mate!! looks
awesome photos mate!! looks like a sensational place to go.
Just curious, what does a trip like this cost?
Seaquest
Posts: 1131
Date Joined: 22/10/09
Awesome Daz. Some great pics
Awesome Daz. Some great pics of both fish and the landscape.
Marky
Posts: 420
Date Joined: 01/05/09
Report speaks for
Report speaks for itself..... Awesome..... Whats a trip out that way worth?
soupster51
Posts: 2724
Date Joined: 29/11/06
Top Trip
Top work once again. Top write up with quality photos. Some awesome fish amongst them.
The best reason for doing what's right today is tomorrow.
Colin Hay
Posts: 10407
Date Joined: 23/10/07
That is just awesome stuff Daz
I have got to away to Christmas Island some time soon.
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Faulksy
Posts: 67
Date Joined: 05/05/10
Awesome fish and brilliant
Awesome fish and brilliant pics thats dream trip stuff there.
Andy Mac
Posts: 4778
Date Joined: 03/02/06
Spectacular
excellent fishing trip for sure.
You managed some great pics there mate, awesome stuff.
I'm very jealous!
Cheers
Andy Mac (Fishwrecked Reeltime Editor & Forum Moderator)
Youngest member of the Fishwrecked Old Farts Club
Moohan
Posts: 60
Date Joined: 26/02/07
Fantastic report, got me
Fantastic report, got me frothing!
butch33
Posts: 47
Date Joined: 10/04/10
Great report with some
Great report with some awesome photos!!