So, I have been a bit of ‘dick’ lately – relationships, work, mental wellbeing - an absolute mess (all a regular thing I am told by my more direct older children!). So much so, that when the wife said she wanted to go to Aitutaki for a week and she had organized a day’s guiding with one of the original guides for me as a present for my soon 60th birthday – I told her she was dreaming. That she should have asked me if I even wanted to. All I wanted was a couple of pairs of new crocs.
Why would I not been keen to go, especially given my
full-blown passion for fly fishing?
Well, my depressed old age dementia poised mental state for
one but there is also that the world is turning to a woke focused apocalypse,
that I am in so much opposition against. being around people is getting too hard to put up with. Then there is the ever increasing living costs. The world is going nuts, with far
worse to come along the slippery slope it is travelling down. I feel I just
want to curl up in a foetal ball and wait for the world to implode at times - let
alone go an overseas fishing trip!
But NO, the wife has plans. Loves planning holidays,
maximizing every second of every moment. Plus my sons wedding events fit around this trip to Cook Islands to fly fish. "Perfect" my wife's brain goes - now she can fit in a holiday along with the wedding rather than just go to Sydney for wedding and simply return to darwin the next day. Spend a few thousand more than just return flights and acoomodation to Sydney. Too much for me to even think about but not my wife - she goes into planning overdrive with possiblities.
However, my one and only son is telling me to settle down and suck it up – so here we go to Aitutaki, Cook Islands during school holidays April 2024 – such a hardship! So terrible to have the opportunity to target an average sized bonefish at Aitutaki - said to be 7-8 pounds but there are also rumours of fish as large as 20 pounds that have been circulating by marketing posts.
We will be staying at accommodation near Ootu beach which has some nice looking
flats nearby, if the satellite images are anything to go by.
I did tell my wife that I will be solo fly fishing most days as she did say I "could go fishing while there". Given that she always sleeps in til late morning anyway – as I rise with the sun most days, I can get in a few hours each morning before she even gets up. We have also organized via a series of emails to a day guided fly fishing with a guide who has been around for a while now, Butch.
Butch seems to be my sort of no
nonsense type of guy based on the info we have swapped – simple leaders, simple
flies, only cast to sighted fish – and I am not worried about size or numbers just the opportunity to fly fish in an amazing location. The
rest of my time on the island will be fly fishing the flats solo. I think I can work
out enough at least to catch a few by myself with the knowledge learnt from the
day with Butch and my 40 plus years of fly fishing for countless species.
First thing, as with anything I do, is research to gain some
knowledge about the location, its targeted species, and fly fishing methods.
Me? Fly choice it is
about function, as if Butch uses predominantly yellow over white clousers – I won’t
have to go to pedantic measures about sticking exactly to fly material recipes
– size, movement, the right tone of colour should get me regularly into taunt
lines with (big) bones on the end of the leader. But I want to - give me half a reason to tie a thousand flies and I will! (please hold me back!)
I will take three 8w TFO rods and 3 reels - all won at Darwin Fly Rodders club competitions – one setup is a spare, as will be only taking two on the water when self-guiding on the flats. Will take three lines for the 8s – a full floating, a sink tip floating, and an intermediate. Butch mentioned his line favourite – a Rio flats Pro stealth tip, a floating line with a clear 2m intermediate tip.
However, fly lines have really jumped in price by 50-60% lately - almost $200 for this fly line in Australia (July 2023) – will have to see how the budget is after getting all my material for the flies I want to make. I have a good full floating line and an intermediate line that could suffice but…………… always best to listen to the local guide’s suggestions.
I am not worried about fishing for big trevally that some target at lagoon openings - as I can get them of locally. But feeling I should take a 10w and a fast sinking line for offshore tuna, and 20 or so of appropriate flies for such. But not a key target as again great longtail tuna fly fishing in and near Darwin.
So may give the 10w a miss, might just focus on the flats fishing only – so undecided about this.
Strong hooks the first thing settled on – Gamakatsu SL11-3H
#4 3x strong, the most recommended. Those will be smaller flies than I am used
to in recent years. Ordered some #2s too, as Butch mostly uses #2s for his yellow
over white clousers with medium brass eyes.
It is amazing the number and type of flies considered essential by some. Same could be said for my most frequented fly fishing destination - Darwin saltwater. For that I take a giant fly box in the boat with several boxes in it every time I go out to target fish and yet I end up always using just few of the regular flies.
For Aitutaki I plan on only two medium sized fly boxes – as
I am a fly tying tragic – so maybe only 100-120 flies in each. Though some write ups of previous trips
by others I researched, say they used only 5 flies of the one type for a week
of targeting bonefish. My fly tying itch would not even closely be sated tying only five flies –
arrgghhh!
Aside from 20 or so of #2 yellow/white clouser suggested by
my future guide Butch, I will still tie up several of each of the following –
Gotchas in 3 or so colourations, Scampi in pink over tan, mantis in an orange
based version and then a tan one, CXI specials in mauve, olive, orange, pink, and
tan, and a few Aitutaki Specials (some web pages call them - Aitutaki Secrets)
- these are the flies I will focus on tying for my use.
Of course, varying the eye weight on the above selection
with 70% being made with brass bead-chain and the rest medium brass dumbbell eyes.
Then I spent an evening searching/shopping for materials and hooks, best deals or bulk buys etc. Also ordered a couple of double sided clear topped fly boxes. Got those orders in early, so the items arrive in the appropriate timeframes.
Need to organize a backpack for leader material, fly boxes,
pliers, etc. I won’t worry about a net for self-guided opportunities – rather take
my time til fish tires out or simply beach the fish once hooked. Nothing fancy like a Simms hip
bag at $400+, just something suitable to the task. Think I have an old slime line
computer laptop back pack bag that will do the job for this weeklong trip to bonefish
heaven.
Need to think about some wading boots but might save the dollars and use some old sports shoes given the actually total amount of time I will actually be fly fishing. Also need some lightweight fishing pants – I just use my old outdoor cricket pants locally – but do I have to look the part of a seasoned fly fisherman? Especially when flats fishing for bonefish is such an iconic location. Some of the guys in the videos I watched, were dressed to impress with every bit of fly gear, vest, shorts, flats boots etc – but I am sure I am past that. Basically, I just want to catch a few bones (maybe a big one, or two if the stars align) and let them swim off after a photo/video and really don’t care how I look doing it.
8 months to go! Excitement is building - especially and despite that I was such a ‘dick’ about it when the wife couldn’t keep her secret my 60th birthday present any longer!
