I feel like these pics are so second-class putting them up after having a look through Daz' photos of Christmas Island...

One thing you won't find on the Monties as opposed to Christmas Island is greenery.  The islands must take an absolute flogging from mother nature - the shrubs are low, most rocks exposed to any sort of swell are pockmarked and so sharp that to fall on them would be messy.  Where the tidal currents rip through as the water pours out from between the islands, exposed rocks and outcrops are worn away.  But all that raw nature still takes your breath away, it's awesome.

We didn't spend much time on the islands, we had a look at some of the remains from the nuclear testing but other than that the remaining time was to flick lures around while we waited for tea to be cooked and the boat prepared for tucker time.

How's the tide.

How's the serenity

The best way to enjoy the serenity is always to immerse yourself in it, so we made the most of it most nights after a few refreshing drinks it was time for a swim

Other than the main species shown in Part 1 we did get onto a lot of other fish:

The two highlight fish of the trip were:

This thumping cod that took me an age to bring up.  Unfortunately the second pic doesn't give a true indication of how big it was.  It was a thumper, in my realm of cod catching anyway.  We estimated it at being around 30-35kg.  After we took a couple of quick shots he went back in and we swum him for quite a while.  We attached about six 24oz sinkers onto the largest release weight and sent him back down.  He didn't come back up, that we saw anyway, so hopefully it pulled through okay.

But the last fish of the trip was definately the best.  It was Wednesday evening, we were on our way home and it was just going dark, and one of the TLDs started screaming.  Unfortunately (for me) it was Jared's turn on the rods so he picked it up, let the fish run a bit, and then sank the hooks.  Fifteen minutes later he brought up this beaut little black, his first billfish and the only one for the trip to make it back to the boat.  It was an awesome way to finish the trip.

Karma caught up with him for taking my fish (I was the next on the rods - but after we got that one we pulled them up and that was it for the trip) and as soon as the sun went down and he lost the horizon he began telling the dolphins about what he'd eaten for tea.  Hurl time. (Revenge is sweet when you're the one putting up the report!)

And so that brought the end to an epic five days in the Monties with Bluejuice.

We thought it couldn't get any better but of course it did - we found the Planet Burger Bar for tea the following night, man those burgers cranked! (See below) And then we managed to bump into Adam (thanks to his FW shirt) as he was flying to Perth to head off to the Cook Islands.

Great trip all round and we're all hoping we can give it another go again soon!