welcomed us with a large smile and a
very helpful attitude.
After about a half hour truck ride,
we arrived at our lodge in the
village of London. I had heard the
accommodations were nothing special,
but I was pleasantly surprised by a
clean room, fridge, running water,
and air conditioning. What more can a
fisherman ask for?
On the first morning of fishing, the guide
and I stepped off the boat and started
walking a flat. Less than a minute in,
he says, “There’s tails maybe 35 feet,
cast now.” Well, I wasn’t expecting
fish that quickly and my cast was less
than perfect. In fact, I think I finally
hooked a fish on—I think—my sixth or
seventh attempt, about 30 minutes into
the morning.
Throughout the week, I honed my skills
and was able to do quite well on bones
without a guide by the third day. I was
having a blast catching fish and taking
in the beauty of the tropical atoll. On
the fifth day of my trip, I had the treat
of fishing with Moana, the local who
got fly fishing started on the island,
Moana was not only funny, but he was
a wealth of knowledge of all the wildlife
on the flats. Despite a heavy rain all
day, we managed to catch a few good
size bonefish, and hooked into a large
trigger fish that eventually broke me off.
Moana is the only person I’ve seen call
in a fish. This is not a joke, he literally
made some noise on the surface of the
water with his hands and brought in a
group of blue fin trevally.
The last day on the island, I decided to
specifically target Giant Trevally. As we
walked through schools of bonefish, we
finally spotted a pair of GT’s coming our
way. I was able to get a fly in front of
them and the fish ate the fly right away.
It was an awesome experience chasing
that big fish across the flats with my 12
weight held high. I was able to land the
fish and was relieved that I wasn’t going
home without bringing a GT to hand.
I quickly caught a bonefish after that
and we tried for a trigger fish for the
rest of the afternoon to complete the
Christmas slam.
I cast to nearly 25 trigger fish without
hooking a single one, I still think they
are the hardest fish to hook and land
there. I had a great time and cannot
wait to go back!