Day 6
We are coming to the sixth guided fishing day. Else than the more or less poor last day, this day should be again like Day #4 with a lot of big fish. I mean Day 5 wasn’t totally bad but at Aitutaki you get spoiled with some day where you catch and catch and catch. Also that day?, Rua was again my guide, Itu was still booked by another guide. Although I’m really happy with Rua, I hope that there will be at least one more day fishing with Itu. Why? Not because I thought Itu is better than Rua. No, but you know Itu is Itu, from Itus Bones and I would like to experience also with him. OK, now it starts. 8:30 Rua arrived at Ootu beach, also this time together with Junior. They were pretty hectic because they have seen something….

We headed immediately to some coral blocks just about 200 meters away from my home beach, Ootu beach. The water was brilliant blue, but murky. I saw the coral just as a black something in the water. And in the middle of it I saw a lot of tails from trevallies high into the air. A feeding frenzy. I didn’t knew what they were after but that’s I had the chance to catch on of these, whatever it was. I made a long cast aside to the pack. When I started stripping, all tails where gone. Did I spook them?. I had my worries but they were all gone once I saw the pack going after my fly. If that happens you know you get a fish. That’s almost impossible not to hook a fish unless you set the hook properly. They were like perch here in Europe. Every fish was envious that another fish gets the bait firstly, so every fish tried to be the first one. I forgot to say, stripping was here pretty fast. Since the fly didn’t went deep you really could see the bodies of the trevallies half out of the water. Now I saw also what it was, bluefin trevallies. Two strips later a big hit went trough the rod. BANG!!! Fish on!!!. I couldn’t see what it was, I assumed a bluefin trevally. I was totally wrong. Like with my first GT on the second day, same scenery. A GT took the fly. That’s strange. You never see them. I could swear I have seen only bluefins but in the end there was a GT on. However, good for me. Not that I wouldn’t value a bluefin trevally but a GT is far better.

It wasn’t a big GT but a very intense fight. Also this time I couldn’t allow him to take a lot of line. In the murky water I coudln’t see all the other corals where he could cut me off. OK, with a 12 weight rod I had no problem with this size of GT but don’t worry. A 10 pound GT offers a very nice fight, not comparable with any sweet water fish you can imagine. And where did the pack went? Rua spotted it a hundred meters further down the lagoon. So lets try to get one more. Junior steered the boat there and the game repeated but with a different outcome. The fly landed not aside of the pack but directly in the middle of it. Fish on? No they all spooked. 5 minutes later they appeared again on another coral and we tried again our luck. This time all worked perfectly and the pack started to hunt my fly, successfully with the result of a nice bluefin trevally. With this fish we finished the fishing there and tried our luck for GT on the reef located southerly we haven’t fished so far.

But there too the wind was far too strong for seriously fishing for GT. With high tide a lot of waves made it over the reef. Rua struggled to push the boat forward. Instead we checked the gates that link the lagoon with the outer reef. This channels are like food conveyers. The water that is transferred by the tidal change is pushed through there. This attracts a lot of fish. But that day there was anything. Aitutaki has 3 of this gates and at least two of them didn’t offer a catch. So we decided to do some bonefish fishing in the hope to have there more luck. But it was similar like the day before. The bones were super sensitive. I managed to hook some trevallies and a one bonefish. The time past very quickly and a little bit frustrated we debated where to fish the last hour. We decided to give the channel between Rapota and Moturakau a chance. That channel is known for its big bonefish, some of them we caught already. The wind was strongly blowing, casting was difficult and stripping as even more. At least the bones where there and due to the deeper water not so spooky. I’m pretty sure I had a lot of bites but due to the fast drifting boat I were not able to use any of them. I was frustrated. And the day would have ended even more frustrated If not the following happened. It was one of the usual scenes. I did a cast for a bonefish and tried to strip in the correct speed, tried to feel the bite.

A lot of times I failed doing it correctly. Either the fly was too slow, too fast or there was slack in the line so that I couldn’t feel the take. But that time everything worked perfectly and I will never forget what followed. The fish went after the fly and Rua called, to make a strike. I did it and against the usual, there was a resistance at the end of the line. Before I realized the bonefish went up to the horizon. Wow. The screaming reel indicated that this must be a big fish. A minute later, the fish still taking line I started to get a bit scared. That was the bonefish that will change my trip. Rua advised me to tighten the drag to stop the fish before he turns after the next island were I definitely would have lost him. Luckily the bonefish were clever enough and once he stopped I was able to get some line back to the reel. Four more times the bonefish took that much of line. What a fish! Bonefish are really very fascinating fish. They are really the strongest fish, compared to their size. And once you have them at the boat the fight is not over. It follows an in-flight, still with some flights into the backing, especially when the bones realize what or who is at the other end of the line. I hoped not to loose him. He looked huge in the water. I jumped into the water turned the bone towards me and when he passed me I grabbed his tail. Landed!!!. All my pressure went away. What a magnificent fish. Rua estimated him to around 11 pound. Yes!!, my second double digit bonefish. One fish can turn a day into a very successful day you will always remember. Unfortunately it was already 5 o’clock what meant it was time to go home. Now there is only one day left but with this bonefish I was happy.

Next Chapter: Blue water fishing.

greets
Philipp