Three guides, three weeks, one isolated pacific island, unlimited bad ideas
Fishing guide days off sometimes resemble the pool scene from Caddyshack. Fishing for fun after months of high stakes fishing through clients creates a cathartic intensity that often leads to legendary events both on and off the water.
Oliver Jones is a Kenyan-born fly fishing guide who now lives and works in New Zealand. Ollie and his team of exceptional guides at Chris Jolly Outdoors are out on the rivers of the central North Island almost every day from October through May. Come June, when trips start to slow down, they take a few weeks of mostly DIY flats fishing.
Picture three fly fishing guides roaming a small Pacific island surrounded by warm water and massive flats. Though GTs are their primary target, fly fishing travel blooms around the margins—unexpected species, experimental fly patterns, and cultural immersion.
This year, we asked Ollie to send us periodic voice message dispatches recounting their adventures and mishaps. As always, Ollie delivered.
Dispatch 1
We have now landed and are prepping to go for our first day fishing. It was the easiest travel I've ever had going through an airport with three fishing guides. We were through security in five minutes had no issues on the transfer over from the small island to the even smaller island. We've got 14 fly rods between three anglers—six of them are 12-weights. We brought 18 12-weight lines, plus another 12 lines for the lower rods. We also brought a turquoise kids' fly rod with a tiny plastic reel (we're calling it the Ugly Stick) for a bit of fun.
We rented a sweet apartment and a trio of mopeds. Everyone on the island gets around by moped. Our first meal of the trip, fish curry, was absolutely delicious. Clancy ordered chicken but got fish instead. Serves him right. We’ve got aircon for the first time on this island, which is amazing, because it’s usually so hot no one can sleep. Unfortunately we got a little too excited and turned the house into a fridge. All of us woke up at like two in the morning and put jumpers (sweaters) on, because we were freezing our nuts off.
We've got the tide table printed out and pinned up on the wall and will be heading into our first incoming tide chasing these geets this afternoon. High tide’s at 4 pm, so I'll let you know how we go in terms of the fishing. I'll try to send you cool stories or stuff that we've been entertained by rather than anything else. Oh, last night Clancy decided to order a daiquiri but got a mocktail rather than an actual cocktail, so we're now calling him Mock all week.
Dispatch 2
We’re sitting at the boat yard having done a day and a half fishing and about to go out for day two. So far, we had a couple of interactions with GTs but no commitment. Both Angus and I had one follow to our rod tip and ran out of line. Otherwise, lots of little snapper and grouper and that sort of stuff on the reef, which has been quite fun. Yesterday we had our first day on the boats with the local guides. No GT interactions whatsoever, but I caught my first Pacific bonefish, and lost another. Clancy, I mean Mock, got an awesome Queenie, as well as a few blue trevallies.
Last time we were here we struggled with the triggers. Over the summer season in New Zealand, I enlisted a fly tier at Taupō Rod and Tackle to help me put together a pattern that imitates the crabs here. One of the local guides, Tia, suggested something with long legs, claws that stick straight up, and lots of weight. Bron came up with the idea of using polystyrene for the claws and carapace, so the hook always lands upright and the claws float.
First cast on that crab pattern I put a two-inch welt in my back. I didn't realise how heavy these crabs were! Bit easier to under arm them rather than fly cast them, but once they're in the water the crabs work an absolute treat. We hooked three triggers on them yesterday—more triggers than we hooked in an entire two weeks last year. Sadly, we didn't land one of the buggers. I had terrible strips sets on both of my attempts. One of them was a fat blue thing that I've never seen before, but that was quite cool.
Looks like we got a little bit of weather, but it's hard to know what the forecast actually is gonna be like here. Coming through high tide now, just looking at the beautiful turquoise lagoon. The boys are feeling a little crook (ill), as we got into it at the golf club last night with all the locals—caught up with some people that we had some fun with last year, which was great. We're gonna head round to one of their houses this afternoon and get some fresh chiles off them so that we can mix up some soy, ginger, fish sauce etc., with these fresh chilies and have a bit of sashimi tonight.
Dispatch 3
We've had an all-time week here, even though the weather’s been terrible, to be perfectly honest. It's been pissing down for about four days, but we've taken our shots when we can. I've had a horrendous week with losing fish. I think I've had three line breaks on the reef. I had 130+ centimeter geet snap me off (I think with its teeth more than anything else) through 180 pound fluoro. I finally managed to get one into the boat yesterday, so that was a bit of a relief.
The funniest day of the week was probably the golf. All of us went out, literally walking around barefoot playing with all the locals. It was a scene that I've never really seen before where there's about 80 people playing a single hole. Also, this island is absolutely crack at darts. I've never seen darts players like here. Clancy and I entered a darts tournament after playing golf and lost miserably. It took us about 30 minutes to hit a double whilst these guys were hitting nine darters left, right, and center. It was hysterical. The locals here are just so nice, mate, they include you in everything. They never have a bad thing to say. Even if they have a negative opinion, they won't bring it up, which I think is just such a cool way of life. A guy at the fishing club invited us to go pig hunting last night after wiping us out at darts. We sang karaoke at the boat yard the night before which, as you can imagine, us boys can't really sing.
Our girlfriends arrived a few days ago, which is lovely. Bea came out on the boat yesterday, got her first look at a GT, and said, “there's no [freaking] way I'm catching one of those.” So, we got her on reef fish with the Ugly Stick.
The island has a fuel shortage, so all our bikes are showing fuel light warnings, and we're just waiting for one to run out. It's a bit of a gamble every time we jump on. Hopefully a boat that comes in tomorrow, and we're able to replenish our tanks.
We’re thinking about chartering a deep sea fishing boat to go find some tuna. If they're busting up we’ll definitely throw a fly into them, but it's more about catching a couple and putting them in the freezer to take back home for sushi.
Final Dispatch
The women have gone, and the chafe itch has set in. It’s now nearly a month of wading in salty, sandy water where we just can’t keep anything dry. The tubs of cream we packed are nearly empty. It's officially time to go home.
Our gear has held up better than we have this year. Only one rod broken and a half dozen fly lines sliced. I went through three lines, personally, all to reef edges, coral heads, and pissed off GTs. Last year, we busted more than double that amount.
Between three of us, we interacted with 30-40 mature GTs, got about 20 eats, hooked a dozen or so, and landed four—three over a meter long. Add in all the bluefin trevally, yellowtail trevally, triggers, bonefish, queenfish, various grouper and snapper, plus the wahoo we trolled up, and we had a very productive trip.
We'll be back next year with a new crop of lines to stretch and flies to test. The fishing will be great, as it always is, but mostly we'll remember everything around the fishing—barefooted golf courses, backyard fish dinners, and getting our arses kicked at darts.
Ollie Jones guides in New Zealand, Africa, and elsewhere. Follow his adventures on Instagram @olijonez. If you want to book a trip with him, send him an email at flyfishing@chrisjolly.co.nz