The conclusion
What should I say now. I hope, with all my pictures I was able to convey you the beauty and the fascination of the south pacific. It is truly an unbelievable beautiful place on great planet earth and I am really proud to have visited it in my life. All the money I have spent for it, all the worries I survived, all the troubles lay behind, what is left is the memory of the journey of a lifetime. You have to see it before you believe it. What you have seen is just a snapshot of it. There are so many more varieties, the cooks offer, I haven’t shown, simply because I focused on the fishery there only.
Read More →

The last day
We are now at the end of my Aitutaki fishing journey. I didn’t thought initially, but I made an extra fishing day, especially due to the finally consistent weather with wind from the least problematic direction. And I couldn’t leave that paradise without another day with the hope for another good fishery. It says you should finish when it is the best so I wanted this feeling when leaving Aitutaki. I had this already once at Cuba, fishing for Tarpon. I lost a big one some days before and this was in my mind and It didn’t let me sleep. So I went for it and caught an even bigger Tarpon on the extra day. A big fish on the last day makes a trip totally perfect. So see what happened on Day #8 at Aitutaki. Read More →

Day 7
The day I was waiting for the whole trip. The day started as usually with a call from Itu what and where to fish. Itu said something like that the conditions were rough but possible to went outside of the reef. We agreed to went outside of the reef to fish for tuna and mahi mahi. Sushi time!! Screaming reel and fresh sushi with soy sauce were already in my mind but it came completely different. See what happened Read More →

Blue Water Fishing
There is another very interesting kind of fishing you can do at Aitutaki. Far aside of the blue lagoon, outside of the reef Aitutaki offers a paradise for blue water fishery for a big variety of fish. If you want to fish for yellowfin tuna, no problem. Fishing for Wahoo, Barracuda or GT, No problem. Even Marlin or Sailfish shouldn’t be a problem. Caught fish are regularly reported. Read More →

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…. Read More →

DIY Fishing

For DIY fishing Aitutaki offers a big spectrum of possibilities depending where you stay. I can fully recommend Ootu Beach, close to the Airport. Don’t you will not recognize the Airport at all. The advantage there is that you have 3 very good flats directly infront of your house and the reef directly in the back. Everything reachable within 5 min walk and the home flat just 20meters away. But be carefull. DIY fishing for bonefish is not as easy as it might look. Firstly there were a lot of fisherman who tried their luck already, secondly you also have a lot of swimmers and surfers around. The last is less a problem than it might look. The bones are used to it. Read More →

Day 5
Day5, and still 8 days on Aitutaki. Slowly I won back my confidence that the luck will be on my side to fish all planned 7 guided days. When I planned the trip I thought the weather would be the least problem in the south pacific. Sometimes you are be wrong. On my fifth day the weather was not perfect either. Still a lot of wind and partially clouds, but the clouds where the smalles problem of all. Of course it made sight fishing for me more complicated but Rua, with whom I was fishing that day, had no problem spotting fish under such conditions. With Itu, we called each other every morning, I agreed with him every morning how we will fish, no matter if he will guide me or Rua. The guide that day was again Rua, joined by Junior, a trainee Guide, and fishing for Bonefish and partially for GT. Read More →

The Guides
Bone fishing is a big business on Aitutaki. Depending on the season there are more or less a lot of anglers on the atoll. In terms of guiding you have two options at Aitutaki. Firstly you do have Itu Davey and his guides that offer all kind of fishing. Literally everything you want to do in terms of fishing can be provided by them. No matter of bone fishing, GT fishing, Reef fishing or even offshore fishing with their new 10 meter offshore boat. The second option is Butch Leone who is already guiding on Aitutaki since a lot of years whom you can book fishing inside the lagoon for bonefish and also other species. Since I haven’t fished with him I can’t tell you much about him, just that he is a friendly and competent guide. So my below review is only in respect to Itu and Rua Davey. Read More →

Day 4
The fish are getting bigger. This day it was planned to fish again for GT in the hope to get at last the big GT we were after. Itu was unfortunately already booked by another client. It was planned to fish more days with him but the weather really balked my plans. So Rua saved the day once more and came together with Shaka, a funny guy that is also guiding for Itu. The weather was much better than the days before but not fully perfect. At least the wind came from a direction from where the flats where sheltered by the islands. Good but not perfect
Read More →

Dos and Don’ts

If you now decided to go to the Cook Island and especially to Aitutaki you will be lucky. Here are some things you should consider for your trip. The Cooks are not big and the offer of activities is limited but there are some really must dos and also some things you can stay away in order to prevent from failed trip. Read More →

The tackle
I received already a lot of questions regarding gear and tackle, what to bring to Aitutaki. So what do you need to buy to be prepared. I was, for almost all aspects, perfectly equipped so I’m very happy to share my success recipe in terms of fly tackle. Read More →

Day 3
.. at last. I was close to get a crazy there. Every day wind, wind and even more wind. Finally there came a slightly calmer day. Yuhuu.. Or should I say fuck!!?!?!. I was not the only angler on the island and Itu was already booked. Don’t give up hope, Itu said, and sent me his brother Rua. Yuhuu, lets go fishing. I really had panic that I couldn’t have made my 7 days of guided fishing. But, OK, day 3 was about to start. Quickly for a breakfast and only the cooperation of the bones could stop me now. Read More →

Getting There

How to come to the most beautiful place in the world? With all the beauty of the lagoon and the big fishes in mind, as a European, I have to say Aitutaki is really far away. Flying overseas is peanuts, compared to this. Almost 50 hours of travel time, 23.000 km of distance to travel and 12 hours of time difference. If you now ask me if it was worth to do. Definitely yes, it was. I’m even honest that I did such a extreme journey. Whatever comes after will be just a piece of cake. Read More →

Day two

My second guided day. This day I was invited to fish with Itu and Rua (brothers) together with a clear target. A Giant Trevally on the fly. I can tell you in front, that was the best guided day I had so far. Each, Itu or Rua, has the ability to spot fish far away and in a very good count. But having four eagle eyes on board was awesome. No fish did escape from our vision. Casting and hooking all of them was a different topic but you will see later. Read More →

Giant Trevally

The ultimate gangster of the flats. I was dreaming of GTs since I saw a guy fighting one on the fly rod at Youtube. They grow up to 200 lbs and 150 cm of length. Fighting one is like you hook a truck at full speed. They can make mince meat out of a 12 weight rod with within seconds if the angler is not prepared. There is no room for mistakes when fishing for GTs. And most of all they are very clever. They really know their hunting ground and use every obstacle to fool you. If there is a coral in their way they will use it to get rid of the fly line and at last the hook. Hooking a big one, fighting and land him, then you can say you really reached the peak of what is possible with the fly rod. There is only a handful of fish that can top a Giant Trevally. Read More →

Day one

Let me remind to that day….. Its already more than a month ago but I still can remember like it was yesterday. We initially canceled that day fishing because the weather forecast said that it’s too windy. So I went out in the early morning for DIY fishing. I was 10 minutes on the home flat as my girl friend came running with the message that Kaleena, Itu’s wife is on the phone with the message that fishing can start because the weather became better. I think I made the 100 meters on the flat faster than Usain Bolt. On the phone Itu told me that Rua, his brother, is going to fish with me on that day and he will pick me up directly in front of our beach villa. Read More →

Bonefish

When I think about bonefish immediately a screaming reel comes in my mind. I haven’t seen so far a fish that takes, compared to his size, more line than a bonefish. These are pretty amazing fish. Hard to land, hard to catch and the most of all hard to see. I was fishing for them already in Cuba and they were a miracle already there but in Aitutaki bone fishing comes to its peak, .. for spotting them and especially because of their size. In Aitutaki catching a bigger one, lets say, above 7 pounds is more likely
than catching a small one.
Read More →

The Fishing

There are many reasons to come to Aitutaki, but if you are a fisherman, the biggest of all reasons is the fishery. The lagoon is full of fish, starting from Bonefish, to several trevally species, triggerfish, milkfish, and many more. And the best, they are all catchable with the fly rod if you know how. The main target fish is the Bonefish. No wonder, the atoll became known and popular for it’s bonefish conservation program. In 2009 the marine resort decided to protect the bonefish population, prohibiting netting for bonefish in the lagoon of Aitutaki, and only allowed catch and release fishery for bonefish. The device was. Get the wolf to protect the sheep. The netting fisherman of the past times are the guides that make fly fishermen’s dream come true.

Read More →

The blue Lagoon

Aitutaki is famous about its turquoise-blue lagoon. And this lagoon is so blue that it should be stated in the Duden under true blue. You firstly see the lagoon when you come with the plane. When the plane circles over the lagoon you do see billions of turquoise-blue facets only interrupted by the dark color of the corals blocks, almost white sandy beaches and the green of the palm trees. In that moment I knew that it was worth to come the long way from Europe to the cook islands.

Read More →

The Preparation

Uhhhh.. That’s a sensitive topics. I’m someone who always goes on the safe side. Everything that could be needed must be prepared. Like the device. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.
Read More →

Introduction

Everything started two years before in Cuba where I got infected by the salt water fly fishing virus for Bonefish and Tarpon. From the first minute it was clear that this was not my last adventure to salt water. Last year we were a little bit unsure where to go so at last we decided to go for a vacation close to our home, firstly to take the dog with, secondly to save for the ultimate trip… for this year Read More →