ORR-SOME NEW CALEDONIA.

 

Glad to hear the Bynoe Sheepstation Stakes went well despite the weather, sorry we couldn’t be here to participate. 

Had a great time in New Caledonia though, stayed away from Noumea except for a day right at the end to check out the markets, aquarium etc.

Camped in the Mozzie-Dome every night up north, right on the beach most days, loved it.

Caught fish for “le mange” while touring around, best was a Goldie about 60cm off the oyster rocks that required a bit of brute force to secure!

Distinctive vertical bars on those South Pacific Goldies- Nice!

The others included “Aiguiellette” or black-barred garfish, which are huge for a gar, remain airborne for 90% of the fight on fly, and are delicious!

Also red-throated snapper-thingies, jungle perch (2 species) and small trevors, all on fly, supplemented our protein intake.

As to the “raison d’être” for the adventure, I intended to start with a couple of days bone-fishing at Boat-pass early in the trip, staying in the campground at Gite de Poingam. 

What a fabulous place!

Rebecca on the beach at “le lagon”, Relais de Poingam.  Our campsite is just behind the row of trees.

Rebecca at the entrance to the “Gite”.

Sign at campground says it all!

Unfortunately the run-in tide was in the afternoon and the south-easterlies were insane, with fast-moving cu-nim overcast conditions every afternoon.

A rare moment of sunshine but the wind was insane!

Even so, saw a ripper bone about 12 lbs swim past within 4 to 5 metres in shin-deep water.

Had a shot at the departing fish, not ideal, but it had already seen me clearly and was very suspicious, although it didn’t actually spook.

Saw a couple of smaller ones, maybe (!), hard to be sure with whitecaps across the flats and no sun!

Eventually got one to take, but it was swimming fast towards me and the hook-set was rubbish.  It took off at high speed but dropped the fly after a few seconds.

So.... we went touring down the east coast, sight-seeing, swimming, snorkelling etc, pretty-much just relaxing. 

It was a holiday after all!

Spectacular coastline scenery just north of Hienghène.

Looking down on the northern reef lagoons just off the east coast of Grande Terre.

Returning over the top to the west coast about half way down the island a week later, we headed north for Boat-pass once again.

Inshore reef lagoon at Plage de Poé on the west coast.  Wave-break on the reef in the distance.

That brought us back to Poingam closer to the neaps when the run-in tide on the flats was in the early morning and the weather hopefully sunny with light winds.

Wishful thinking! 

The wind was still pretty extreme, although there were occasional breaks in that huge plume of cloud that streams off the northern end of the island and I did get a few nice photos of the flats and fringing reef.

Looking back across the eastern edge of the flats at the northern tip of Grande Terre.

Looking north-west across the Boat-pass flats towards Isle Baaba.

It seemed to have made little difference to the fishing however, and I didn’t see a single bonefish during the morning tides.

There were plenty of big mullet and a few GTs moving over the flats to keep me interested, and a couple of small sharks to keep me on my toes.

…but I had nothing to lose so soldiered on each afternoon regardless.

Finally hooked this big bugger late on the second day while casting at fleeting shadows in a shallow sea-grass drain on the run-out tide.

That’s after a solid 4 1/2 days bone-fishing in total!

Check out this big New Caledonia Boat-pass bone!  Not bad for a first-ever bonefish.

Holy sh!t those things go! Now I know what all the fuss is about! 

Even with 300 metres of backing on the 9-weight I was getting rather worried on the initial run - and that’s stepping into it with 20lb tippet and a 1/0 Gamakatsu SL12 tie!

When I finally got the flyline back on the reel, that fish did two full circles around me and took off again! It was quite a while before I had the leader in hand.

Couldn’t land the thing by myself out on the flats (found out Boga-grips don’t work on bonefish!) so decided to swim it all the way back to the beach (around 300 metres!) for Rebecca to get a photo.

Of course that gave it a ‘second wind’, and it almost did me in the mangroves!

At just under 70cm fork length (couldn’t weigh it at the time), the on-line length/weight charts put it at 10.5 to 11 lbs.  Top stuff! Still grinning like a fool...

Had only two more days before the return flight so rather than keep fishing I cut it away and bolted for Noumea early next morning to give Rebecca a day back in civilization.

Bloody tourists! Rebecca being disarmed by a Megalodon at the Noumea Aquarium.

Didn’t get a chance to chase up any Rusa deer hunting unfortunately. 

Had the bonefish cooperated earlier I would have spent a bit of time trying to tee something up but that will have to wait till next time.

There will be a next time!

Cheers all

Tony & Rebecca