About Christmas Island Fishing Adventures

In case you haven’t heard, there is a new, somewhat lower-priced fishing operation on Christmas Island. It’s called Christmas Island Fishing Adventures (CIFA), and the web address is: www.christmasislandfishingadventures.com. We are not about to recommend the place at this point because we don’t know enough about it yet. Importantly, CIFA’s website indicates that its lodging and accommodation is provided by a diving entity called Adventure Dive and Fishing Lodge located in the village of Ronton. To us, that suggests that anglers and divers here share meals and evenings together, which may or may not be what you want on a Christmas Island fishing trip. Also, CIFA caters to fly fisherman, but it also makes no qualms about catering to spin anglers who like to jig in deep water and/or fish offshore in various ways. There is a lot of talk on the website about using popping rods for giant trevally. CIFA also caters to kayak anglers, who are invited to bring a kayak along on daily boat fishing trips and/or what they call truck trips. The latter are essentially wading trips that involve the use of a truck to drop anglers off for the day.

All of the above aside, CIFA is significantly cheaper than any of the other fishing operations on Christmas Island, provided you are part of a group of three and you don’t mind sleeping three to a room. Accommodated that way, a group of three would pay only $1,575 per person. A group of four anglers accommodated two to a room would pay $1,630, and a group of only two anglers accommodated in a single room would pay $1,850. All of those prices are for all lodging and accommodation for seven days and six days of guided fishing, three from an outrigger boat and three by wading after being dropped off by a truck. That compares to $2,350 for a weeklong, double-occupancy trip based at the Captain Cook Hotel.

Is this what you are looking for in a Christmas Island fishing trip? If so, book a trip and let the rest of know how things went. My hunch is CIFA is going to appeal largely to spin fishermen and to the growing number of fly anglers who like to fish on their own, or mostly on their own. In that connection, we understand Rod Hamilton of DIY Bonefishing (www.diybonefishing.com) is looking into CIFA. But here is a question for you.

Is Christmas Island risking its reputation as a special place for fly fishing by promoting spinfishing? Popping rods for giant trevally? Ouch…! Anyone else agree there is an important issue here? Should Christmas Island declare itself fly-fishing-only?

Weigh i n , i f you like , at: [email protected].