Who's been saltwater fly fishing? The Tropics

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Post Options Post Options   Likes (1) Likes(1)   Quote piscisfly Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Apr 2019 at 7:40am
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Originally posted by Jofly Jofly wrote:

Just back from a week in Aitutaki with Will.  Videos and details to follow later but here is my first (and only) bone of the trip.  

What a magical place and what an infuriatingly frustrating fish to catch! There is a lot of irony in the pic below that will come to light later.  I will have to go back...


Nice fish alright! Seriously fat! Well done.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote piscisfly Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Apr 2019 at 7:52am
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Originally posted by Snuffit. Snuffit. wrote:

Yeah, great trip Fraser. Much fun had with a bunch of good lads. 

Craig, here's a side on shot of Mr trev.

 

Wikepedia states "It is often confused with the giant trevallyCaranx ignobilis, but is best distinguished by its lighter dorsal colouring and abundant black spots."

Well, it confused me until you mentioned it. On review the smaller eye size, golden eye colour and distinctive spots give it away.

Clap


Great trip report Nick! Sounds like a cracker trip, and great photos too. Those GT's are tough, plenty of them but seem to be super fussy. I managed a Brassy Trevally (Rua calls them Yellowtail trevally) of about 4-5kg in the O'otu channel while I was there. But I have to admit I did catch it on my son's light trout spin rod with 5lb braid LOL! There were heaps of them but very, very fussy.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote piscisfly Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Apr 2019 at 7:56am
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Originally posted by FishMan FishMan wrote:

I managed to hook into this nice trevally off a sand island in a small to medium surf. The trevs were cruising the shore and making 'smash and grab' raids into extremely shallow water in the breaking surf in order to nail small dart that were hiding there. I got lucky and managed to drop the fly right in front of them just as they finished a 'raid'.

The trev in the picture is a brassy trevally (Caranx papuensis). This is quite a large specimen for the species. At this size they are often mistaken for GTs. The body is longer in a brassy and the snout slopes more. To be certain look for the white silvery spot at the top edge of the gill plate. Also the end of the maxilla (the top lip) will line up with the front of the pupil in a brassy while in a GT the end of the maxilla will line up with the back of the pupil. Once you get used to the two species the differences in body form make the two species easily seperable.

Brassies are quite common in Aitutaki and Raro, but they are not aways easy. They seem to cruise along in shallow water quite visibly, but do not necessarily eat when they are doing this. They are easiest when they are feeding or are presented with a quiet fly that they can't connect with the angler in any way.

The sand island in the Indian Ocean that this brassy came from had lots of other visible trevally cruising the shoreline, but all of them were very difficult to get to eat. Even getting a response to your fly was often hard. They can be very frustrating when they are like this,so catching a decent one on the nine weight is very satisfying.


Great fish Craig! Sounds like a great trip with plenty of variety.

Another thing to distinguish between GT's and Brassies is GT's have a black spot at the upper base of each pectoral fin.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Snuffit. Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Apr 2019 at 8:26am
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Originally posted by Jofly Jofly wrote:

Just back from a week in Aitutaki with Will.  Videos and details to follow later but here is my first (and only) bone of the trip.  

What a magical place and what an infuriatingly frustrating fish to catch! There is a lot of irony in the pic below that will come to light later.  I will have to go back...


Nice Johan! What's that fly? 
You cant eat my toast fish
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Jofly Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Apr 2019 at 4:29pm
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Nick, it's a fly that was meant for a trevally, not a bonefish Confused which is where the irony comes in.  

I had been casting for, I think 5 days, to what felt like a 1000 sighted bonefish which I could not catch, only to land catch one accidentally while fishing a channel for trevally. All this after giving up on the bones for the day late that same arvo.

It's one of my anchovie patterns I use in Auckland tied with dumbell eyes and blue and white SF blend pretty much clouser style.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote FISHBYFLY Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Apr 2019 at 5:15pm
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oooh, ya might have accidently discovered something there.
 
we all ty on the mantis shrimp imitations, but maybe there are times when the small baitfish are more abundant and become the food of choice, could explain the fly refusals.
 
I rekon next person to go there test out the theory on some small lightly weighted clousers in baitfish style.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote FISHBYFLY Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Apr 2019 at 5:20pm
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actually, it might explain why Butchs yellow clouser[which doesn't lookshrimpy] can be the go to sometimes
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Fasted landing of a bone I've ever seen 1.36 minutes. He hauled that sucker out the lagoon thinking it was a trev heading for the bomies. A very entertaining evening.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Snuffit. Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01 May 2019 at 6:35am
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Originally posted by Jofly Jofly wrote:

I had been casting for, I think 5 days, to what felt like a 1000 sighted bonefish which I could not catch, only to land catch one accidentally while fishing a channel for trevally. 

As Craig/FBF said there are days that the bones go crazy and eat heartily @ Aitu. Seems to happen more when they're in schools from what I've seen - and those types of days are thin on the ground!!!! I think you did really really well to see a lot of fish to cast to, that's half the challenge right there.

Really cool to take one on an anchovy fly! Congrats. 
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Jofly Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01 May 2019 at 8:04am
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I was absolutely elated when I saw the fish was a bonefish! As Will said I had fought it like a trevally and then unceremoniously dragged it onto the beach as it finally dawned on me that it was my first bonefish.  Was pretty much ecstatic and a dream come true especially as at that stage I was really thinking I would go home without catching one.

Trip of a lifetime thanks to Will.  Can't thank him enough for the invite and the time he put into planning, preparation and getting me into a fish.  If I had not gone with him I would not have even seen one fish. His experience was what helped us find sheltered places and consistently find the fish.

Note to anyone planning a trip, if you have not done this before, you need at the very least 1 day with someone experienced, either a guide or someone that has done it successfully before otherwise you will be struggling.  This is by far the most challenging fish I have ever tried to catch but reward is great.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Jofly Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01 May 2019 at 8:06am
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Another couple of highlights from the trip.


Species Craig?

And another first, a Queenfish


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Nice brassy trevally (Caranx papuensis) there Johan You'll see that the identifying white silver spot at the top edge of the gill plate is quite visible.

And a nice queenfish (Scomberoides lysan) too. That's a good size for that species inside the lagoon. Unfortunately that species gets nowhere near as big as the monster queenfish species they get in northern Australia. I've only caught four inch long lysan queenfish in Aitutaki so good effort
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote WillP Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01 May 2019 at 6:26pm
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Originally posted by FISHBYFLY FISHBYFLY wrote:


oooh, ya might have accidently discovered something there.
 
we all ty on the mantis shrimp imitations, but maybe there are times when the small baitfish are more abundant and become the food of choice, could explain the fly refusals.
 
I rekon next person to go there test out the theory on some small lightly weighted clousers in baitfish style.



Will definetly be trying this next trip. We were with the fish there was plenty of them but they would not take flys plenty of sniffs and I did land 3 but we should have had hundreds based on number of cast :) Man I love these Fish. I did hook a big bone again this time but it straightened my hook in the first 5 seconds. We had a weird experience with 2 extra big bones out the back flat of one foot, appreared to be teritorial both swimming together spotted 4 times on 4 different days hugging the shoreline sitting in the current at the same place.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote FISHBYFLY Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 May 2019 at 5:19pm
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yip, sound spooky, 
 
one of those places were its hard to perfectly 'match the hatch', I tried to dig around in the sand to find some examples, but everything would just disappear down there little burrows.
maybe go tiny on the fly and lighter on the leader and drag 
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote WillP Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 May 2019 at 8:33pm
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I,m going to make some mini hollows with weighted bottoms to mimick those bait fish we allways see, spend to much time catsing to idle bonefish with the same fly during those times of fly refusals, Need to change it up. 106 days to go.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Hengemaster Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 May 2019 at 2:03pm
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The bigger clouser could be the go. Can't speak for Aitutaki but in Ascension bay and Cuba the go to fly in any kind of coloured water or deeper water is always a clouser. And they're also used on the bigger fish. Bones are not always fixated on shrimps (although I've read Bob Clouser thinks that SW fish take clousers as shrimps more than bait fish). In Los toques the go to fly is a gummy minow. I'd be throwing the entire fly box at them in those circumstances
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote FISHBYFLY Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 May 2019 at 5:22pm
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 yip, its also hard to gauge how much pressure the fish have received prior to your arrival,
definetly  possible they see more pressure than we realise, so would be good to invent some new patterns.
my most attacked fly there was more based on action than realism.
building the head up[so it sat on the sand vertical with tail up, using the artic fox as tail]no retrieve, just let the fox fur sway in the current
I was trying to imitate the way mantis shrimp sit in a burrow with pincers out.
have noticed there tying similar patterns in Hawaii. 
anyways im rambling, and humming with jealousy.
no wind weekend is here and im off to explore a backwater for stupid snapper and not so stupid Trevs!
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote WillP Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 May 2019 at 4:54pm
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Off tide seduction? There is definetly a rythm to these fish on Aituitaki, Is the same as every where else they feed with the incoming tide and get spookier and less interested on the outgoing. they meander in between tides high and low but they are not scavenging for food at these times. I am thinking along the lines of a wounded baitfish that normally swim at the surfaces and on the edges getting deeper in to the water chain and getting gobbled up by a passing bone fish. Made from craft fur as hollows and very delicate so have good action in the water.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Jofly Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 May 2019 at 6:17pm
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Here is the video from our (me and WillP) trip to Aitutaki...enjoy.


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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote FishMan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 May 2019 at 6:57pm
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Excellent video Johan You're very good at this game Love the brutal honesty Very pleased that you managed to find a way around the video posting problems. Shame about the weather!
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