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Patrick Richer Delavau and I fished
New Caledonia in mid December 2001.Patrick fished 12 days, I
stayed 7. We were picked up at the Tontouta airport. The
fishing is located at the northern end of the island, so we
were transferred 250 miles north over a very good road, a
five hour drive. We stayed at the "Relais de Poingham" which
is built on the edge of a beautiful beach and located
conveniently close to the flats. The small lodge, though not
yet completed, has been open since April 2001. It's managed
by a very friendly French couple who arrived in New
Caledonia thirty years ago. The food and service are
outstanding. The French chef uses all the fresh products
from the island; vegetables and fruits, as well the
excellent local beef, elk, wild pig and fresh crab and fish.
The dinner is served family style on a large dining table
with good wine, red and white. You may have your own table
if you wish. There is a nice little bar too. Right now, the
small hotel can host 10 people in single and twin bungalows.
Each bungalow has a large private bathroom with cold and hot
water. We found them very convenient. They do not have air
conditioning but they do have ceiling fans. They also have a
double and a single bed. The beds are a little small by
American standards and the management is planning to replace
them in the near future. Electricity is European 220V,
provided by a generator. New Caledonia is still very much
untouched and you can see wild horses running on the beach
or taking a bath in the sea. There also are many wild
turkeys and more elk than inhabitants on the island. Marine
life is extremely rich, with a lot of sea turtles, rays and
sharks. Snorkeling and scuba diving are some of the best in
the world, but beware of the sharks. I did not see any other
fishermen while I was there. We had some rain during our
stay but we were not bothered by mosquitoes or other bugs.
We burnt insecticide coils in our bungalow every night and
had to use insect repellent only once. However, it is not
mosquito free and one should bring along a good insect
repellent. The temperature was in the eighties, but not
humid. We did not suffer from the heat. Philippe Leroux, the French
operator is an enthusiastic and accomplished fly fisherman.
He is fluent in English and so are some of his guides. He
uses two 20 ft. "South Wind" skiffs. Basically these skiffs
are Yamaha hulls, with a center console and a 75 HP Yamaha
motor. They are very seaworthy and very good for going from
one flat or island to another, but they are not designed to
be poled. Philippe is assisted by 2 or 3 guides who know all
the different reefs, islands and flats. The guides are
native Kanaks, very nice and very good companions. They love
to laugh and joke. They have extremely good eyes and see
most of the fish. However, they are not fly fishermen and
you need to know what you are doing. They find the fish, you
fight the fish. They gave us very long fishing days. The day
starts at 6:30 AM with two eggs and ham or local sausage,
freshly made coffee, toast and orange juice. Departure for
fishing is at 7:30 AM. Depending on the tide, Philippe, will
pick you up by boat or by car. The boat cannot come in front
of the lodge when the tide is very low so you have to go to
"Boat Pass" by car, a 10 minutes drive. Flats fishing in New
Caledonia was different from all other flats fishing we had
done before. It's 100% wading. Wading is very easy as the
flats are hard bottomed. They are sandy, with patches of
grass where the fish are sometime extremely difficult to
spot. Some of the flats are extremely vast, maybe twenty
miles long.The tides really vary. You will have a totally
dry flat at low tide. You will fish this flat for two or
three hours, and by then you will have almost three feet of
water on the flat. This should give you an idea of the
current that rushes on these flats and in the passes. In
someplaces you use the current to swing your fly in front of
a bonefish. There is always a good breeze, about 15 mph, and
sometimes no sun; then you depend on your guide's eyes. They
see the fish, you don't. Philippe is changing the guide
ratio, and each angler will have his own guide and they will
take no more than two anglers per boat. The other differences are the
quantity and the size of the fish. We did not find schools
of bonefish, but either a single or small groups of two to
four fish. Therefore when the tide was higher, the few fish
which came spread out on these huge flats and it was very
difficult to locate them afterward. They can be anywhere.
The guides know the channels the fish will use to come onto
the flats and they put you right at the good spots. You wait
with your guide, not moving much and cast to the passing
fish. Fish pass here in ten to twenty minute intervals,
singles and doubles, sometimes three. These bonefish are
very eager taker and sometimes will move a long way or turn
back to take your fly. Tarpon and permit fishermen will love
this sort of fishing. We weighed all our fish using a
"Bocagrip" and we released fish from 6 up to 10 pounds. Both
of us saw larger fish that were out of reach. I estimate the
largest fish I saw at about 15+ pounds, but it is difficult
to be certain. The average size of the fish we released was
6.5 to 7 pounds. It was obvious that there are some very
large fish around. How large? Our guide Antoine landed a 9
kgs. (19.80 pounds) fish using bait, the week before we got
there. Can you take them with a fly rod? Claude Nickrass's
party from France hooked and lost some of these large fish
in December 2000 using a fly rod. The next world record
bonefish could certainly be caught in New Caledonia. The
flats are very clean, we did not loose fish to coral or
mangroves and there was plenty of room on the flats to play
your fish. But it is important to be a good caster. New
Caledonia is not for beginners. We fished four or five
different flats, most of them with a Kanak name. Philippe
still has a lot of exploration to do. The flats we liked the
most is called "Boat Pass". It is a large channel bordered
by extensive flats on each side.That is were we caught most
of our fish. Patrick's best day was four bonefish at "Boat
Pass". I never had more than three fish in a day. The actual
record is 7 fish in one day. It has been said that you need
2/0 flies to catch New Caledonian bonefish. We were
skeptical, with good reason. We used flies tied on #4 and #
2. Patrick used a #4 Crazy Charlie most of the time and I
used crab patterns tied on #4 hooks, my biggest fly was tied
on a #2 hook. You need flies tied with bead chain or lead
eyes when the water is deep or when the current is strong.
The "plop" created by the fly when it hits the water seems
to attract the curiosity of the fish. The Caledonian bones
behave a little like permit. They like to take a fly sitting
motionless on the bottom. These bonefish were big and fat,
and they ran and fought like no bonefish we had ever fished
before. Philippe used a #10 rod and I think that is
adequate. Patrick did well with a # 9 and I was just OK with
my #8. Besides bonefish, we found some schools of golden
trevally on the flats and Patrick got a small 4 pounder in a
pod of tailing fish. There are many different fish of the
lutjans family, including snappers, up to 4 pounds that
cruise on the flats and in the channels and they can be
attracted by chumming. They take flies very well. All the
fishing is catch and release, but occasionally the guide
will ask to keep a jack to make a salad or a snapper for
dinner. 
We released several different
species of trevally, most of them were in the 10 to 15 pound
range. All of them took flies very aggressively. The largest
one of course was the giant trevally.These powerful trevally
are plentiful and some of them are very large, up to 100
pounds or more because there is no commercial fishing on the
flats and reefs, and by tradition, the Kanaks only take what
they need for food. Giant trevally are your target when the
water is too high or while waiting for the right tide for
bonefish. We chummed a lot, the same way we do in Baja
California for roosterfish and dorado, and the GT's loved
it. We chummed on the flats and in the passes and sometimes
the bonefish and trevally responded very well to the
chumming. Some good sharks came in to the chumming too.
Patrick hooked a monster trevally on a popper. We saw the
fish when it took the fly and it must have been 80+ pounds.
Patrick's rod exploded 20 minutes into the fight and the
fish was lost. Philippe told us that it is very common for
giant trevally to destroy tackle. No rod is too big for
these fish. Fishing action can be extremely fast when you
chum at the right place. According to Philippe, the best
season for bonefish is from April to October. The tides are
not as high and it is easier to see the fish. However,
Philippe likes October to March the best because that is the
period when he sees the biggest bones and it is the peak
time for GT's, but fishing is tougher. The water and weather
are much cooler from April to October. Chance of rain is
most likely from December to March. It took several years
for Philippe Leroux to negotiate his fishing rights with the
Kanak people. He is actually working with the different
Kanak tribes and there is a huge fishing potential. He still
has a lot of flats to explore. He showed me one of them,
more than twenty miles long. Philippe does not want to
become a big operation. He will have three boats and one
guide for each angler and no more than two anglers per boat.
The Kanak people are very conservative and extremely
protective where their sea wildlife is concerned. New
Caledonia is not the place for anglers looking for numbers,
but it is certainly the place for world record class
bonefish and the place where you can catch huge giant
trevally with a fly rod. My largest bonefish was 10 pounds
and my largest giant trevally was 77 pounds Click here to access New Caledonia's main page Questions? | Email 
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