# Christmas Island. Any tips on what all to take....



## jamie (Jan 22, 2016)

christmas island packing list:
http://redsflyshop.com/blog/christmas-island-fly-fishing-tips

for boots - hard to beat the simms flats sneaker

good read on selecting boots
http://www.hatchmag.com/articles/flats-wading-shoes-how-choose/7712870


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## LowHydrogen (Dec 31, 2015)

Jay Brimberry said:


> Having spent a week on Oahu chasing bonefish with a fly rod....I am addicted. I used a charter one day, Jesse at High Tide, and he is a great guide and fun to fish with. He is doing a group trip to Christmas Island next spring and I am going...by hook or crook. I am curious as to what one would suggest I be putting together for the trip. I will mainly concentrate on bonefish, but I obviously will take a GT outfit too. I have a Hatch Finatic 12 that I use for beach tarpon in the surf, and I understand that it is the GT reel. I imagine I will need other lines and an extra spool for it but I have the slightest idea as to what lines I need for it. What would be the ideal rod to use for GT with the winds there, I presently have it on a Sage Salt 12wt but I do not know with the winds and distance if it would be a good choice. I really need any and all suggestions on what other gear I should take. One thing Hawaii taught me was that the boots I use in Florida just do not hold up on Hawaii so I am also in the market for new flats boots that will keep the sand out and hold up to the coral rubble (I don't know if that is a problem on Christmas Island). Any idea as to casting distances and wind conditions for a wade fisherman would be appreciated, my understanding that most of the fishing is done from foot Are the winds similar to Hawaii....(it roars in your ears when it is coming over your buff) or are they more like Florida, which is just a slight breeze compared to the east shore of Oahu. All suggestions are appreciated and thanks in advance.


What size shoe do you wear? I've got some stuff I never wear.


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## Jay Brimberry (Sep 1, 2015)

LowHydrogen said:


> What size shoe do you wear? I've got some stuff I never wear.


I have wide feet and tend to go with size 12.


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## crc01 (Oct 28, 2016)

I'm in to learn on this one. I'm looking at either Christmas Island or Sudan next year. That Red's link has a lot of good info!


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## ifsteve (Jul 1, 2010)

GT is the bucket list fish left for me. I suggest you take a look at the new Simms wading boot. I think its called the Intruder Salt.

Also, get a copy of The Flyfishers Guide to Giant Trevally.

https://www.amazon.com/GT-Flyfishers-Guide-Giant-Trevally/dp/1910723339


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## LowHydrogen (Dec 31, 2015)

Jay Brimberry said:


> I have wide feet and tend to go with size 12.


I've got some Simms wading boots, that are in perfect shape, they're 12s but made to go over sockfoot waders (so they're slightly larger than 12), if you used them with regular thin neoprene booties they'd probably be perfect for wading, and really durable. 
I would keep them but I need a 13. The only time I use them is in cold water up north, and when I'm wearing thick socks under the waders they don't allow my toes to move enough and they freeze. You can have them for whatever it costs to ship them, if you're interested. 
PM me details if you want them. 
LH


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## Jay Brimberry (Sep 1, 2015)

LowHydrogen said:


> I've got some Simms wading boots, that are in perfect shape, they're 12s but made to go over sockfoot waders (so they're slightly larger than 12), if you used them with regular thin neoprene booties they'd probably be perfect for wading, and really durable.
> I would keep them but I need a 13. The only time I use them is in cold water up north, and when I'm wearing thick socks under the waders they don't allow my toes to move enough and they freeze. You can have them for whatever it costs to ship them, if you're interested.
> PM me details if you want them.
> LH
> View attachment 13147


I think I pmed you. I am not the most technologically advanced specimen.


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## Jay Brimberry (Sep 1, 2015)

crc01 said:


> I'm in to learn on this one. I'm looking at either Christmas Island or Sudan next year. That Red's link has a lot of good info!


I am going by hook or crook....either with my Hawaiian Guide's Group, Nervous Water's Group, or if need be Red's Group....or a Yellow Dog group...etc....etc....this time next year I will have spent a week there.


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## crboggs (Mar 30, 2015)

Jesse is awesome. Glad to know he's still guiding since his social media stuff went completely dark.


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## Jay Brimberry (Sep 1, 2015)

crboggs said:


> Jesse is awesome. Glad to know he's still guiding since his social media stuff went completely dark.


He is threatening to get back on. I tried to explain to him that now a days a guide has just gotta do it. He is now getting into popping a jigging too. Chasing GT in Hawaii...I think he is the only guide that does that. I also "pop and jig" and a few years back I looked for that in Hawaii and there were no guides I could find that would offer that. He has a center console which he got just for that. I did not take a 12 wt with me, be every time we even went near the reef he made sure we had one (his for my use), rigged and ready for GT "just in case".


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## crboggs (Mar 30, 2015)

Yup. I was out there last summer throwing the popper from his Actioncraft...it was quite an experience with one leg wrapped around the leaning post up front in those 4' swells with water breaking over the bow. *lol* We tried popping before sunrise and on the slack tide, but no GTs showed up.

We actually talked quite a bit about what type of center console he should get. He had some questions about some of the style of boats we have here in FL. It wasn't long after that conversation that I saw he'd picked one up.

And yeah...while we were walking the flats with the 8wt he was carrying a 12wt rigged for GTs.

I landed 5 bones, broke two more off, and missed several eats before lunch. Jesse is the real deal.

View media item 1801


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## BM_Barrelcooker (May 4, 2011)

I generally try to stay light when chasing pacific bonefish. They are usually larger specimens but seem to be quite stupid. This being said as I island hop I just pack my h2 5 weight and a ziplock baggy full of shrimp and crab patterns. I like to expend my allowable weight on canned IPA's as they drink warm very well and are enhanced by the ever present sea salt and sweat. On my most recent forrays I've swapped my flip flops for a heavier pair of high top leather converse after an unfortunate scrape with fire coral on an atoll near Bora Bora that left me cut bleeding and wading about half a mile across a beautiful flat to the floatplane as schools of sharks curiously circled. Had I not been bleeding I could have really worked them over and landed more than the two 12 footers that I gently brought in on my trusty #5.
So my advice is pack light and don't get too geeked up about the fishing. It's easy as pie. Just make sure you get some time to interact with the locals and experience their culture.


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## bonehead (Dec 9, 2016)

I second the Reds article..

Also consider going after milkfish and triggers, those things look awesome!


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## coconutgroves (Sep 23, 2013)

Triggers can be tough, don't waste too much time on them. I wouldn't spend more than a few casts. Why target a fish that doesn't key in on flies? Go after the fish that crush a fly from 10 feet out.

While I have not been to Xmas, I have heard the GTs there have adapted to the fishing. Some guides tease them in with cut bait, so they have become difficult to catch. Granted, that doesn't mean you won't get one, but it isn't a guarantee like the bones.


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## crc01 (Oct 28, 2016)

coconutgroves said:


> *Triggers can be tough, don't waste too much time on them. I wouldn't spend more than a few casts.* Why target a fish that doesn't key in on flies? Go after the fish that crush a fly from 10 feet out.
> 
> While I have not been to Xmas, I have heard the GTs there have adapted to the fishing. Some guides tease them in with cut bait, so they have become difficult to catch. Granted, that doesn't mean you won't get one, but it isn't a guarantee like the bones.



Coconutgroves is correct, but they will eat. They are a lot like goats. A small crab placed closed and barely moved got interest most of the time and a few eats. However, My experience with them is in Mexico. I'm sure the species in CI are different.

If you do want to target Triggers, make sure you have strong hooks.


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## coconutgroves (Sep 23, 2013)

I've caught them before, but also have spent a hours trying to get them to eat. Unless there are no other fish around, I would pass on them. They are picky, spooky, and when not eating there are a waste of time.

I'd spend the time on GTs or monster bones. Those fish crush it, trigger fishing is like permit fishing. Slow, quiet, but not as rewarding as catching permit.


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## bonehead (Dec 9, 2016)

Huh, didn't realize they were that tricky... never chased them but always wanted to

Anyways, GT are high on the bucket list as well.


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## ifsteve (Jul 1, 2010)

When you get to Christmas Island, if you guide offers to chum or bait and switch a GT in for you please politely refuse. After many conversations about CI with guys who have been a lot and several travel outfitters I won't even go there for a GT.

But there are still some there that will respond to stalk and cast and some outfitters are pushing them to just stop the bait stuff. For some thats ok. Not for me.


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## DuckNut (Apr 3, 2009)

Don't forget to pack one of these


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## BM_Barrelcooker (May 4, 2011)

Haha


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## DuckNut (Apr 3, 2009)

May 15, 1957 @ 10:38 am


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## ifsteve (Jul 1, 2010)

Anybody who goes to CI will get more, way more, radiation exposure from the airline flights than they will being at CI. Fact.


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## DuckNut (Apr 3, 2009)

Steve,
You have your opinion and I have mine. The radiation from the flight would be less than a single simple chest x-ray. However, I really don't think you will find reported radiation reading on the island because the island is so dependent on tourism these days. 

But yet the 3 governments involved are still paying hundreds of millions of dollars to clean it up and paying people exposed along with paying more hundreds of millions from lawsuits. In 2007 the people who were sent there to "clean it up" have become ill and some have died from the mess.

You are probably more likely to find recording levels for Chernobyl than for CI - as the U.S. was not the cause and therefore the data being suppressed.

By all means I think it would be a very cool and memorable trip, but it won't make my bucket list.


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## bananabob (Jun 3, 2015)

GMO food and cell phone radiation along with tons of other poisons from everything made today I think I'd die from something else causing me cancer or idiots texting and driving since the public highway is the most dangerous place in the world.
The only thing I see missing from his list of things is a plane ticket for me.


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## ifsteve (Jul 1, 2010)

Duck Nut the flight (round trip) from the US will give you about the same exposure as a chest xray (about 10 mrem). I doubt a week on CI would give a person that amount of exposure (which by the way is very minimal). Most of the cleanup activities still going on in the Pacific Rim are to clean up fixed contamination. 

Steve,
Ex nuke worker


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## DuckNut (Apr 3, 2009)

Not trying to start a fight because I do not know how the numeric chart works but NYC has a 9 mrem/y but the atoll has a reading of 184 mrem/y.

Is this a safe number? I do not have a clue, this is why I am asking.


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## ifsteve (Jul 1, 2010)

Yes that is a safe number. Two data points.
1. At 184 mrem/year if you visited CI for a week you would receive about 3.5 mrem. Like I said, less than the exposure you took to fly there.
2. The allowable annual dose for a general employee at a Department of Energy site (not somebody who does hands on rad cleanup work) is 300 mrem/yr.

The exposure you MAY get at CI is nothing.


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## Bonecracker (Mar 29, 2007)

Good read on a guy who fished 27 straight days on CI!
http://www.stripersonline.com/surft...onefish-and-a-whole-lot-more/#comment-9833107


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