The following articles are newsletters that we compiled for the group of fly fisherman that are enjoying the awesome fishing on Marion Reef with Gavin right now.

This group is aboard "Odyssey" with Nomad Sportfishing Adventures - from 10th to 16th September 2008.

We will publish a full trip report when he gets back...

Only a week away now and we’ll be jumping in the seaplane to make the crossing out to join the mothership “Odyssey” on Marion Reef. It will be an amazing trip.

I was asked the other day whether the fish in the previous photos were fly caught. No, they were not. Most of those fish were caught using stickbaits.

Not many fly fishers have ever been here to cast a fly, actually only a handful of conventional anglers have really ever sportfished the area.

Stickbaiting is the hottest way to catch fish out here - from our point of view this is great as we don’t have to get down deep all the time to have a chance to score an eat from a trophy fish. Stickbaiting is a surface presentation.

We should be able to capitalize on the work the Nomad team have done, exploring and experimenting in this area.  

Pictures tell a thousand words...

and sorry guys - my mind arrived here a month ago; I am just waiting for my body to catch up next Wednesday morning...

When the predators are on the chew you never know what will happen.  

Look closely, both of these photos are of two fish hanging off the one stickbait.

Go back to the map and look at the lagoon and all the small contour circles marking the bommies that rise up out of between 20 to 60 mtrs to about 2 mtrs below the surface. Just like any place, these can be hot and cold and it’s a matter of going from one to the next till you find fish. These bommies can basically hold any fish from pelagics to reef fish.  

Nice Doggie on a jig now that’s the size we want on fly.

Check out the conditions in the background. Yes it was sloppy but the Dogs were on the chew. Also check out the teeth on that Dog. They’re just built to kill things. 

Found a couple more pics from the rock in the South West corner.
 

This spot produced a number of respectable GT’s. Fly will be very interesting as these Japanese anglers were using 80lb braid on their popping rods and drags cranked up to 15kgs+.

This is why I reckon finger stalls are a must. Call me about an alternative - Patrick & I have a horse remedy that may help here...

Some interesting captures in the shallows.

Maori Wrasse are protected and the anglers spent a lot of time swimming this fish for the release.

Not bad effort in 15’ of water. 

 
It seems there is a mutant strain of Trout here, they’re all enormous.

The great part about these guys is the fact they will swim up behind a lure just like a big old brown trout, eye ball it for a while just to get your heart racing, then kill it.

That’s where the similarity to a brown trout stops…

These guys are like D9 Dozers and are a handful to stop on any tackle.

 Lets not forget the Red Bass. Do you like Mangrove Jacks?

Well these guys will put a Mangrove Jack backwards.

When we fish the shallows for them, we lock the drag with a pair of pliers and even then it’s not enough.

Good fun!

A couple of Dogs caught on Jigs. Check out the teeth!

Poor bugger looks stunned after his fish became food for bigger things.

 
There I go again raving about the fishing and the thoughts that we are going to get blown away by some of the most awesome game fish on the planet.

Have you got an appetite yet?

I look forward to catching up with you all for a beer as the sunsets over Hammo.

Gavin

 

Marion Reef - North

It's really getting close now - and I can't focus on work... so I thought I would send out a few more tasty morsels just to tantalise you a little more...

So, last report about Marion we went to the south passage which is my favourite little spot. This time we shall head up to the north.

There are two main passages to the north, the one I fished the most was the first one. The part I liked about the first passage was right on the end where you see that green section where there is a ledge that runs right around the corner and it drops from a couple of feet down to about 40 feet deep.

The current gouges this part of the reef out and we all know what a bit of current and a bit of structure is likely to bring into this particular type of area.

This edge is straight down and this Maori Wrasse was caught dropping straight down the face of it on jig gear.

Along this edge we have caught Giant Trevally and less than a kilometre from here to the north, into the middle of this passage, we have had some of our hottest dogtooth tuna and wahoo bites.

We have had sessions here where we have sighted marlin and sailfish, particularly on the outside edge where it drops into the abyss. This passage and the next one work best when the current is pouring out to the north east so strong that it causes pressure waves to form.

Coming around to the eastern face through this first passage and casting back into the coral we have caught stacks of red bass, coral trout and GT's. It seems like most fish that you hook here will tend to want to bury you into the coral. Strong tippets, leaders and good finger stalls will be necessary to hold fish here.

A word on finger stalls... they stop your fingers from being cut when you are constantly stripping the fly line, but out here they are used to hold onto the fly line so the fish won't get back into the coral. If you don't have any, give us a cooee as we have some in the shop.

I have not fished the most northern part, but my surfing mate Scotty used to always head here when I was always going to the south pass. We seemed to stick to areas where we had great success, so here is a photo from Scotty's album (just one of many!).

It doesn't matter where you go on this reef, it just seems like the coral trout are on steroids! If you have a look at the water in the background, you will see that is nice and deep with very little structure... I DON'T THINK SO... how do you think you will handle it if this eats your fly...

I have been asked by everybody, "what size outfit should I take?"

Look at this fish and tell me if you think it would make any difference whether you were using a 9wt or a 12wt rod?

So, thank goodness there are some small fish where we are going. But don't let their size fool you. These red bass, even though not much bigger than a nice size snapper, will probably pull that coral trout shown above inside out in the first ten yards.

Look at the water in the background.

It will be great fun trying to drag little red bass like this from among those coral bommies.

To fish these couple of areas near the first northern pass I think would be best done with an outfit between a 10wt and 12wt, something that you can cast constantly without too much strain. You will need a floating fly line if the weather is good, but definitely an intermediate and a fast sinking wet tip to suit your rod.

The best way I can suggest fishing the vast areas of shallow bommies is that it is kind of like the ideal clouser country. You want to cast the fly at as many bits of structure as you can. You never know whether it is going to be a 2kg red bass, a 10kg coral trout or a 50kg giant trevally that will come out and eat your fly.

As you can appreciate, there is probably only a handful of fly fisherman who have ever put in a hard core effort on any of these atolls. So to say what you will need and what you will catch is really hard. I think that what is important is to go to this area with an open mind and a smile on your dial. You never know what will happen from one day to the next.

I had a conversation with Theo last night about whether we need to take extra backing in case we get spooled by that illustrious trophy fish. 

I don't know if the fish beside counts as a trophy fish on fly :-) ... but I think if we have a dogtooth of this size eat the fly we will lose more than our backing!

But hey, it is all about playing with the toys...

So lets take everything we have got,

get the eat...

then we will worry about it.

Right now, I don't know about you, but it can't come quick enough.

Gav

Marion Reef - South 

Well Guys it’s getting close now and I’m really starting to get hyped up. Theo has sent me some of your details and I’m keen to send you a little information about what I’ve learned at Marion Reef, while guiding as part of the Nomad team. If you think other members of the group would like to receive this info, please email me and I will add them to the list.

I know you’ve all had a look at the map of the reef and boy it’s a very interesting place indeed. The map beside is facing north /south. You’ll notice all the little circles in the middle of the reef, these are coral bommies that rise up of the bottom of the lagoon, some of these bommies are only the size of a building at the top and come up out of 60mtrs to about 2mtrs of the surface. These can be hot or cold and when hot are great fun. We’ve even caught Sailfish of a couple of these when I was out there. Remember this is inside the lagoon.

They have Doggies, GT’s and a myriad of other things, Cod, trout, Red bass. I think I put over 50 of these bommies in my GPS when I was out there guiding and there were still more. Everyone thought it was because I wanted to have secret fishing spots, but in reality they are so close to the surface I was worried about running into one when the light was low in the late afternoon. Between you and me they came in real handy sometimes as on the way home we always had a few things to try if the sun was still up........

Looking at the map beside us, one of my favourite places there has to be the south pass. If you follow the hard reef right down to the south you’ll come to the most southerly pass in the reef. This eastern corner when it has a lot of current on it has some of the biggest trout you’ll ever see. I was a commercial line angler chasing trout in the Swains in the mid-1980’s, I love them and the trout in the picture beside us seems the norm here on Marion Reef. They rise out of the reef to eat artificials that are just below the surface - you can see them eat it, they look just like a brown trout about to eat a dry fly. Except that these natives will treat you with total disrespect....... you just gotta hang on and smile!

Once through the pass it drops off into the abyss. You can see anything here. I still remember the first time I went through this pass, it was my first day and really I thought the dame sounder was on the blink, no that wasn’t the problem, there just wasn’t any bottom to register. Felt like an idiot when I realised........ I really love this .....

There are a lot of GT’s & Red Bass to be found popping the outside weather face of the reef heading north from the pass.  In the pass itself, there are dogtooth to be found in water as shallow as 15 metres. I think, from as fly point of view, there’s more fish to be had using a fast sinking lines as the bottom drops of really quickly in the Southern Pass and I think we have to be ready for anything to attack the fly. I feel we can either creep out here with a 10kg tippet or get out there with a grin, a 30kg tippet and a “Bring It On, 10 kg tippets are for Pussies “ attitude. 

Now follow the reef around from the far south and up the western side and you’ll come to the next green patch. This small section of reef has a rock on its west corner that is above the water and drops off straight down to 100 mtrs. This area is great for Dogtooth & GT’s. It’s a great area to dredge flies down deep. Behind this reef is a reef flat full of bommies and caves that I’m expecting fly loses to be high especially on Red Bass & Trout. While I remember...... Bring Finger Stalls...... if you don’t have any email me I have some left in the shop.

Well that’s a little about the southern end (only a small bit - there’s so much country here).

Tactics we’ll use are going to be dictated by what happens each day. But we’ll employ general teasing techniques and also a technique we used at Wreck Reef and that is to actually hook up a fish and this brings the whole pack with the hooked fish looking to kill & maim. This has worked really well with Wahoo as it gets the whole pack worked up as the hooked fish creates havoc and multiple hook-ups can be achieved especially if other anglers are ready with the fly.

I learnt a technique at the World Kahawai Championships in NZ, it’s a method of fly fishing as a team on the back deck of a Game Boat. I’m really keen to try this and will have some things sorted so we can use this technique especially when we’re dredging flies deep.

As far as what outfits to bring, I’d suggest to bring an outfit your comfortable casting with for fly fishing the flats. There are a lot of small fish as well as “Hang On & Get Bricked” specimens where it really doesn’t matter what crowbar your holding, you’ll still lose.  The GT beside us was hooked on 80lb spin tackle on a locked Stella in 5 feet of water. You can see the stick bait still hanging in its mouth which gives you an idea of the size bait that these fish want. What gear you bring is up to you. I don’t think it matters so much as you have fly lines to cover all depths i.e. floating, intermediate and fast sink... and some disposable stuff...

I really enjoyed using my 10/11 G-Loomis GLX Mega and 12wt tarpon intermediate line on the reef flats and used the 15wt and 17/18wt with Leviathan 600g’s for dredging and teasing work. Floating lines definitely have a place but really I found only when the wind was down as the flies I wanted to cast were really big, heavy and wind resistant. I found the intermediates and Leviathon lines much easier to control in windy conditions and being it’s the Coral Sea you can expect a little trade wind.

The photo beside is a lovely bit of structure that has produced the odd big fish. I was always taught find structure, you find fish. Well do you want to cast a couple flies around this bit....... looks good hey?

Well, just wanted to touch base and give you a little look at where we’ll be fishing. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it   I’ll help as much as you can. I really love guiding out there and being part of the Nomad team, it’s an amazing place and we all want to share its beauty and its bounty with you.

Cheers,
Gavin

Tie ‘n’ Fly Outfitters
AUSTRALIA’S ONLY SPECIALIST SALTWATER FLY FISHING OUTFITTER
                                                                                
Ph: +61 0-7 5444 0611
Fax: +61 0-7 5450 6619
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Web: www.tienfly.com

PS – I’m the guide. I know you guys are going for the fishing, I’m going for the food.
Barbequed Lobby tails….. you wouldn’t like them anyway, lucky the fishing’s good…