The remaining 5 days were spent fishing the lagoon flats for bonefish and triggers with a brief trip outside to jig for snappers dredge flies on day 2. I wanted to drive to the back country, but that will have to wait for next time.
Days started with breakfast at 6:00 and leaving for the 5 minute drive to the boats at 7:00. It took about 20 minutes in the boat to reach the first flat of the day. Due to the reduced travel time, the lagoon days have more fishing time. We were back at the doc between 3:30 and 5:00 each day. This was my first time fishing traditional flats. I had never seen a bonefish except while snorkeling and one I caught blind casting in Hawaii. Again, my son started with the guide. I stared at the water for 15 minutes without a clue. I walked over to them and asked our guide to point out a fish. We were in less than a foot of water and had decent light, so I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to see the fish. I stepped about 50’ away and caught 3 in about 20 minutes. There are a lot of fish! Clouds moved in so I went exploring the edges of the flat to see if I could blind cast up some strange fish – a queenfish would have been great. I saw several bones move onto the flat from the deep water – they were extremely spooky. I also cast to a lot of milkfish – hate those things! The other thing about this flat was the sharks. I bet we saw 50 2 to 4 foot blacktips. Another species I wanted to target. Since this was the first flat we fished, I thought this would be the norm. Not the case - I wish I had tried to catch a shark on that flat. Had one other shot later in the week. They wouldn’t look at a fly with wire tippet. The best reactions were to a small crab on 40 pound fluoro. I had made so many cast to him at that point, I doubt it would have eaten anything.
Due to the motor problem on the normal boat, we had our own boat on day 2. The cloudy conditions didn’t improve so we talked the guide into trolling to the reef at the mouth of the lagoon – it didn’t take much convincing. My son caught a small GT trolling
and a bunch of red guys on jigs once we got to the reef. An 80 gram Buffalo jig from Nomad was money. On one drift he caught 6 fish on 7 drops.
He also hooked 2 fish that took him for a ride but came unbuttoned. One of my first casts (integrated sinking head line) into the 20’ deep reef got hammered after a couple strips and I immediately got reefed. Would have liked to have seen what that was. One more notable event once we drifted off the reef into about 60’ of water - this is what happens to 80 pound fluoro when your fly gets eaten by a wahoo. I looked down and there were 4 or 5 down there. That would have been very cool!
Next came the beginning of my triggerfish journey. I cast to about 20 that afternoon and don’t think one had a positive reaction to my fly – spooked plenty tho. Very challenging fish! I wanted to tie some flexo crabs before the trip, but waited too long to make that call and couldn’t find the tubing. Fortunately, one of the guys brought some and after 3 days on the flats with no triggers hooked, I tied a couple and got lucky catching one on day 5 and another on day 6.
We always had our GT rods with us, but never saw a good one on the flats inside the lagoon. Others in our group did. I can confirm the locals ate a lot of them during the pandemic. If GTs are high on your list, wait a few years to go to CXI. I caught a couple more small ones on the flats. One while casting to triggers and this one I thought was a bonefish.
A few tips:
You can see the flats go on forever
My flexos were this simple
DimeBrite recommended tying some flies that resemble blacktail snapper. You can hardly find a big rock or triggerfish hole that doesn't have some living around it.
I am going to give the GTs some time to recover, but I will be back!
Thanks for all the help preparing for the trip.
Days started with breakfast at 6:00 and leaving for the 5 minute drive to the boats at 7:00. It took about 20 minutes in the boat to reach the first flat of the day. Due to the reduced travel time, the lagoon days have more fishing time. We were back at the doc between 3:30 and 5:00 each day. This was my first time fishing traditional flats. I had never seen a bonefish except while snorkeling and one I caught blind casting in Hawaii. Again, my son started with the guide. I stared at the water for 15 minutes without a clue. I walked over to them and asked our guide to point out a fish. We were in less than a foot of water and had decent light, so I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to see the fish. I stepped about 50’ away and caught 3 in about 20 minutes. There are a lot of fish! Clouds moved in so I went exploring the edges of the flat to see if I could blind cast up some strange fish – a queenfish would have been great. I saw several bones move onto the flat from the deep water – they were extremely spooky. I also cast to a lot of milkfish – hate those things! The other thing about this flat was the sharks. I bet we saw 50 2 to 4 foot blacktips. Another species I wanted to target. Since this was the first flat we fished, I thought this would be the norm. Not the case - I wish I had tried to catch a shark on that flat. Had one other shot later in the week. They wouldn’t look at a fly with wire tippet. The best reactions were to a small crab on 40 pound fluoro. I had made so many cast to him at that point, I doubt it would have eaten anything.
Due to the motor problem on the normal boat, we had our own boat on day 2. The cloudy conditions didn’t improve so we talked the guide into trolling to the reef at the mouth of the lagoon – it didn’t take much convincing. My son caught a small GT trolling
and a bunch of red guys on jigs once we got to the reef. An 80 gram Buffalo jig from Nomad was money. On one drift he caught 6 fish on 7 drops.
He also hooked 2 fish that took him for a ride but came unbuttoned. One of my first casts (integrated sinking head line) into the 20’ deep reef got hammered after a couple strips and I immediately got reefed. Would have liked to have seen what that was. One more notable event once we drifted off the reef into about 60’ of water - this is what happens to 80 pound fluoro when your fly gets eaten by a wahoo. I looked down and there were 4 or 5 down there. That would have been very cool!
Next came the beginning of my triggerfish journey. I cast to about 20 that afternoon and don’t think one had a positive reaction to my fly – spooked plenty tho. Very challenging fish! I wanted to tie some flexo crabs before the trip, but waited too long to make that call and couldn’t find the tubing. Fortunately, one of the guys brought some and after 3 days on the flats with no triggers hooked, I tied a couple and got lucky catching one on day 5 and another on day 6.
We always had our GT rods with us, but never saw a good one on the flats inside the lagoon. Others in our group did. I can confirm the locals ate a lot of them during the pandemic. If GTs are high on your list, wait a few years to go to CXI. I caught a couple more small ones on the flats. One while casting to triggers and this one I thought was a bonefish.
A few tips:
- Pick a day with 20 mph wind and practice making 20 – 30 foot casts landing the fly softly. Put targets in every direction, but concentrate on the half circle in front of you. I am talking from 2 to 10 feet of fly line outside the tip top.
- Bring a 7 wt, but expect to use the 8 most days. Some guys pulled out the 7s on the last day. I think our weather was windier than normal so take that for what it is worth.
- There isn’t room for everyone to carry 3 rods on the trucks and boats. Your main rods will be an 8 and a 12 wt.
- Troll on the way back to the dock each night – best chance at a big GT by far.
- Did I say flexo crabs? They are a game changer for the triggers!
You can see the flats go on forever
My flexos were this simple
DimeBrite recommended tying some flies that resemble blacktail snapper. You can hardly find a big rock or triggerfish hole that doesn't have some living around it.
I am going to give the GTs some time to recover, but I will be back!
Thanks for all the help preparing for the trip.
