# New Caledonia Bonefish



## southpaw (Feb 25, 2009)

Found this article online today and thought I'd share it with yall. This place seems pretty awesome, but I'm probably getting way ahead of myself. I need to upgrade from black drum and skipjack still haha.

http://www.flyangler.com.au/FLYANGLER60/pdf/New_Caledonia.pdf


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## SKIFFSTIFF (May 8, 2009)

Getting a black drum to eat a fly is a whole lot harder than catching a bonefish or a redfish on the fly.You gotta love those poor man's tarpon on the fly.They can get into your backing in a split second.


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## Joe. T. (Jun 7, 2008)

thanks for the read southpaw.ss those big ladies get my heart going every time i see one in the skinny.you have like 3 sec to make a cast.but when they see your fly watch out!!!!


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## southpaw (Feb 25, 2009)

Yeah I curse those dang ladyfish when I'm throwing conventional gear for fraying my leaders and pooping on my boat, but man they are a blast to catch on the fly and I think have helped me a lot with what not to do after you set the hook. I'm still on the hunt for a slot red, but for now while I'm still learning and I'll always cast to the targets that I'm presented with.


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## PL (Sep 28, 2011)

Cool article! I read an article a while back in Fly Fishing in Saltwater about it and the only problem with the place I could find was that everyone speaks French on the island. That and its a solid 5000 miles away from Tx. In the mean time while dreaming of far off lands check out this website for Nomad sportfishing out of Australia. They've got a mothership operation that goes out to the islands in the coral sea (300 miles offshore austrailia) for weeks at a time. They have wahoo fishing on the fly out there....

http://www.nomadsportfishing.com.au/nsa_flyfishing_main.htm


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## Coconut Groves (Nov 2, 2011)

I'll take a 10 pound bone over a 10 pound drum any day of the week. Drum are picky, that's for sure, but a well placed small crab fished permit style will do the job. I am not knocking them, but comparing them to bonefish is like comparing a Volkswagon to a Porche. 

I've heard of the Cook Island and Caldonia bones before being different species, but you don't have to travel all that far away for big bones that don't see a ton of pressure and act more aggresively.

Los Roques has the best bonefishing I've ever seen. The average size there is at least 5 pounds and I caught a handful of 8 - 10 pounds during my stay there. They also act like no other bones I've seen - very aggressive behavior, crashing bait, and sometimes charging over 10 feet and slamming the fly. Big bones don't get big eating tiny shrimp - they eat big crabs and minnows too.

I took what I learn at Roques to the Bahamas and the first group of bones I saw were cruising the beach. So I fished them Los Roques style, using a small minnow fly that I tied. Sure enough, first cast - bonefish. However, I think there areas of the Bahamas where bones are not just spooky based on pressure, but based on how fast, and how high the tidal movement is, along with the amount of predators. The area I fished had 4 tides a day with a 3 foot shift between each change. Add tons of sharks on top of that and those are some skiddish fish.


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## PL (Sep 28, 2011)

I remember reading a deal from Bonefish Tarpon Trust saying that there are actually 10 different species of bonefish found throughout the world, but the only way to tell the them apart is in a laboratory.


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## Coconut Groves (Nov 2, 2011)

I've actually been lucky enough to visit a part of the world where bonefish do not see any fly fishing pressure whatsoever, well, at least until I showed up.

I had a chance to visit the Raja Ampat islands in far eastern Indonesia (Papua, to be exact). These bonefish had never seen a fly before. The native people had never seen a fly rod before. I caught a bone on my second or third cast - they aggressively ate the fly and were not overly spooky at all. After I caught my third bone in a row, my rod broke in two during a cast. Half way around the world, first full day there, awesome bonefishing, and my rod breaks! I had brought a 10 wt with me, so I wasn't out of luck, but it isn't the same as throwing an 8.


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