Nice , hopefully will be going over next year . Haven't been to any of the outer islands but have been to Raro three times .
On another note , are you related to Ronald Syme , author of "the laggon is lonely now " ?
( One of my favorite books )

Nice fish Alan, I tried to get hold of the guys number you gave me but had no luck, we did a day with Seafari but no luck had a good week, weather was better than NZ at the moment too

hogdog, pupuke was sick recently so probably why you could not get hold of him, never mind.

Just returned to the UK having had 2 weeks after the elusive Bonefish of the Island.

The fishing was hard the Bonefish noted for their absents on the flats.
Even Itu couldn’t find them and resorted to putting a small weight onto the fly lines and dragging the fly along the bottom of what he called the milk the deeper water in the centre of the lagoon.

We did managed to pick up a couple in 6-8lb range using this method, and I had a much bigger fish according to Itu, but after a unstoppable run of about 175meters my backing for some unknown reason had looped itself under the rest of the backing on the reel. In over 30 years of fly fishing and 12 years of chasing Bones all over the world I have never had this happen to me before, the 20lb leader just snapped like cotton when everything seized up.
My fishing buddy did manage to get a GT on a popping rod that went 15 kilo but he was well cuffed as it was the first GT he had caught.

We had 2 days with Itu and 2 days with Butch Leone.
What a character that guy is his fishing platform is not as bad as it looks and is in fact quite comfortable. Butch only wades the flats and is a purest when it comes to fly fishing for Bones and during the 2 days we had with him he managed to find us just 2 Bones and both of those were beyond our casting distance .

We also had a couple of days out with Mike on the Black Pearl although he is mainly a lure and bait fishing man it is well worth while taking your 12 weight out with you as he is quite willing to let you have a crack at Wahoo, Mahi Mahi, Yellow Fin Tuna and the Giant Trevally,On the fly.

In all it was a good trip even if it was a bit short on fish it was made up for by the beauty of the island and the friendliness of the people.

We stayed at Ranginui's Retreat which is right on the beach but at 100$nz at night 2 sharing is very basic a bed a microwave a 2 ring hob and a shower. You will need to cater about a 100nz a day for food, unless you are going full board. A beer a main course and a sweet at the Boat Shed will set you back about 50bucks.
If you require any more info let me know.

Hey Alan we are booked in for the Main Island of Raro in October for my sisters wedding so that means when we ant at that we will be trying to hunt down some GTs. Basically wanting some inside info into whos who over there in the GT world. What in your knowledge/experience is the best boat or boats to charter? Looking for a starting point here as we have 12 months but we all know that will go fast. Cheers Alan

Cheers for that Alan. So we have found out the wedding is being help in Rarotonga and looks like we will be staying in the "MURI" area of Raro. So from reading above our best bet is to some how get over to Atutaki and chase some GTs that way? We will be bring a load of our own gear. But was thinking only gear for the GTs as I am not sure on the Jigging there? Wouldnt mind giving a Doggy a crack.

I know this is all a bit vague as its early stages yet but just want to get an idea and lock this in to give chasing some amazing fish a crack.

Thanks Alan

So your recommendations is to travel to Aitutaki if we can?

I got back from Atiu last monday, LOTS of trevally there (we speared at least four different species including GT to 30kg) they were in very shallow, as in less than a metre.... or out waaaaay deep (30+m). 

But did you land the yellowfin? Or the shark, for that matter?