Hi Mat,
Many thanks to you and the team at Fly Odyssey for organising Jacqui’s and my recent visit to Tetiaroa and The Brando. Although we are hoping for a return visit in 2016, it certainly counts as a ‘trip of a lifetime’ so far!
Although, I will focus on the fishing, first, a few words on The Brando. Jacqui and I have stayed at a number of top class hotels and resorts but The Brando is amongst the very best. There were two superstars – first, the Tetiaroa atoll itself and, second, The Brando staff who are exceptional. Without in any way being intrusive, the staff are always available, friendly, responsive and, often, anticipate your needs. Those two ‘superstars’ aside, the accommodation, facilities and food were extremely good and exemplify total attention to detail.
I fished the Tetiaroa flats and inner reef margins for seven days – each day guided by Teihotu. I wouldn’t describe the fishing as easy – in pretty much every case you are targeting individual fish that demands some reasonable casting and presentation skills. Sometimes that means casting into the wind although, because of the geography of the atoll, it’s possible to get some shelter no matter what the conditions. I would also say you don’t need to be an expert! One huge advantage of Tetiaroa is that the fish have not seen 10+ anglers every week of every month. Consequently, the fish were perhaps more forgiving of my poor skills!
I have caught bonefish in a number of places around the world. In general, I have been casting to small groups of 2-3 fish up to to large schools of fish all competing to eat my fly. In contrast, everyday on Tetiaroa I was casting to individual, large bonefish every one of which exceeded that largest I had previously caught. On Tetiaroa, every bonefish I caught was 6lb+ with my two best fish 10 and 12lb respectively. Although I caught the majority of the bonefish on shrimp patterns, I caught the 12lb fish on a small crab pattern. I am sure that if I had exclusively targeted bonefish then I could have caught 3-5 large fish everyday.
As you know, however, I love to stalk and target trigger fish! This was a totally unexpected pleasure on Tetiaroa as I know its generally featured as a bonefish and GT fishery.
Pretty much every day Teihotu and I looked for triggers on the reef margins inside the lagoon. At other venues I had spooked, missed, hooked and lost a lot of trigger fish. I did the same on Tetiaroa! However, I also managed to hook and land my first two trigger fish ever – both on crab patterns. I would recommend to anyone that they try fishing for triggers – they are challenging, difficult fish to hook and land but adding triggers to the target fish on Tetiaroa greatly expands the variety of fishing on offer.
An unexpected side benefit to looking for triggers in the reef margin is that, over the seven days I fished, Teihotu and I saw more GTs there than in any other single habitat. This may have had something to do with the high water conditions in the lagoon but everyday on the reef margin we saw at least one GT in casting distance. Goodness knows how we would land a GT in the reef margin but in the last couple of days we started carrying the 12wt as well as the 10wt for triggers. I had several GT near misses – hooking and losing one, lots of lunges at the fly – but my ambition to catch a GT sight casting for a specific fish remains unfulfilled! As an aside, the work Alex Filous has done on Tetiaroa to understand GT behaviour – sponsored by the Tetiaroa Society, Fly Odyssey and others – has really increased our understanding of these fish and, I hope, increases the odds of my successfully catching a GT in the future.
Finally, a word on my fishing guide for the majority of the time on Tetiaroa – Teihotu. Like any angler I like to catch fish but over the years its is the environments and people that fishing takes me to that I most enjoy. Teihotu was an excellent guide and companion. Teihotu has a passion for the environment, knowledge of the atoll and ability to ‘spot fish’ that made every day fishing a pleasure. I look forward to the opportunity to fish with him again in 2016 and, this time, achieving the ‘Teihotu Slam’ – a bonefish, trigger and GT in one day.
Thanks.
Peter Radford (UK)
Tetiaroa bonefish at The Brando
Tetiaroa triggerfish at The Brando
Tetiaroa bonefish at The Brando