I'm sure that for the organised angler this is all surmountable stuff. Just very different to any travel I've done... well barring that time I almost got stuck in Cuba for not having a print out of my Canadian travel thingy, but then again it may have been some officials having a laugh at me... but yes, I think the fishery benefited a bit from less pressure. The thing I've noticed over time is that the fish size has got smaller as numbers increased. I did however see the largest 2 bones I've ever seen, both doubles and i swear one would have pushed 13-15lb. I was tying on a fly when we came eye to eye, and my first thought was 'small GT' until I saw it was a bone. 

I'll add a note here about the people and Covid. All of the locals have received their boosters, and under lockdown were able to receive the NZ Govt benefit. That short window of open travel back in Aug/Sep (from memory) '21 saw anglers arrive again, and the fishing was apparently insanely good. We fished with E2 for 6 days, one of those days casting popper's for GTs outside of the reef and trolling game gear between locations with some jigging thrown in (but since this is a fly forum I wont report that a wahoo and several skipjack were nailed). E2's family harvested parrotfish (speared) and sold their fillets along with crayfish in Raro. E2 mentioned that the weather precluded cray fishing quite a lot; they go and collect them from the outer reef by night which requires low seas and that didn't happen often. 

love the last shot in the channel.

Cool Thanks for the update. It will be interesting to see how it alters the nearby fishing environments when it's all finished.

It could be good or bad, but they did need to do something about the port and its access channel.

As you say - there should be a whole lot more water moving through that area after its all completed.

Travel safely Will & Si. Simon's fly box looks pretty mint

Lucky boy Fishing travel is starting to look real again. I might have to drag a bunch of covid refugees together soon and get up there

haha lol m8888888, what a trip, Ill be putting something together soon. Aitutaki rocks. we have so much footage we thought we would make a movie :). 

On the 6th day I got my first bone on the one foot sand spit as the tide came in and the bones rolled over. The wind was good, the current was running and the shots were long. My first hook up failed to catch but as the next school of big bones came through 100 meters to my right i saw 3 big explosions were the first were headed and the gts and trevs attacked the bones. I have never seen this before. The next school headed over the spit and using the clouser a miracle cast landed in the spot and 3 ran bones for it. I stripped faster and one whammed it. I I was chasing them they were chasing bait fish and the trevs were chasing them so it was full on murder out there. The First bone I brought it was in a predicament whether to hop on to the beach from the ensuing trevs, unfortunately they got it first and took the top of its tail off. i could have cried but it was what it was and it swam off half as slow as it swam in. 

Great report Will Sounds like you had a good time. That high water can be very difficult. I know of a few people who have had that at Aitutaki. I had the opposite on one trip with very low water all week.

The island is looking good and Simon did well