Lord Howe Island

[duckbill]

Was talking to a friend at work and he mentioned Lord Howe as being an awesome fishing spot. Any of you guys know anything about the fly fishing over there ? ? ?

[Double_Whammy]

yer big tacle fly fishin

but to expensive for me to go there yet

[duckbill]

Saw some deals for 5 nights accomodation plus flights from $900... Could be worthy of a group expedition, i.e. bigger discount and shared costs for the boats...

[smiley=laola.gif]

[Lowy]

Spent a month over there a few years back but didn't get a chance to fish much. Dunc from Fishhead tackle is the guy to talk to... he spent a few months over ther.
I wanna go back and tangle with one of the lagoon dwelling double headers... that would be awesome!
Lowy

[Duncs]

Lord Howe certainly is a place worthy of a lot of attention from flyfishers. The rampaging silver drummer off the rocks are almost worth the trip alone. Heaps of kings, sometimes lots of evil trevally, huuuge Kahawai and bluefish. There is potential for a flyrod yellowfin off the rocks too. Out of a boat there are also Kings, kings and more kingies, Yellowfin, wahoo, marlin and sailfish as well as plenty of reefies if you want to go deep. There are plenty of boats to choose from on the island but Gary Crombie is the only guide I know of with serious fly experience.
One problem with the island is wind. fishing out of a boat is regularly wiped out, anything up to 2 out of every 3 days. The charter operators there are sometimes a bit lacking in motivation too, so they don't always bend over backwards to get you on to fish. Don't get me wrong, they are nice people (a few eccentrics amongst 'em too), but they don't always grasp that you can't neccesarily come back next week when its not so 'quiet' or windy.
My advice is plan to fish out of a boat, and definitely try and book a charter out to Balls Pyramid, but pack hiking boots, a decent hiking pack and have some rockfishing experience under your belt for the days when you can't fish from a boat. Most of the good lagoon and rockfishing spots take an hour or more of cycling (hired bicycles are the main form of tourist transport) and hiking to reach. As its an Island, there is always a lee shore somewhere if you walk far enough. The 'Old Gulch' area is the most consistent spot in any weather except northerlies. You can also get a boat to run you across the lagoon to access some the Old Gulch platforms via a 5 min stroll instead of a 45min strenuous hike.
A 7-8wt rod with floating line and a bunch of floating bread flies on #2 long shanks are essential for the silver drummer, Intermediate line for salmon and trevors and a 10+ weight for all the bigger fish. The big backpack is to carry bread berley in for the drummer, which, in turn attracts baitfish and all the other predators.

Lord Howe is definitely one of the most beautiful places on earth - even if I couldn't fish I would still go there for the hiking, photography, bird life and snorkelling.

[Quinny69]

Theres a good video gettin around the traps made by Harro a long time ago. Its got Harro Morsie and Dean Butt chasing Kingies and some mega silver Trevors and some others fishes on fly. They dont fish around the island though, most of the vids taken from near by reefs. MQ

[basserman]

well i think dunc covered it all i can say after spending three weeks their and haveing the pleasure if charting bell chase from gary crombie and dazza is that it is well worth it and i would galdly give both my testie to go over their again
Great Fishing, Great people, Best location
alot of fishing to be had as duncs sayed ether the charters or rock crawling and even tossing a live out at the jetty at night for some little shark action (but bet they would even take a fly )
lots of reefs to explore via snorkle and the daily fish feeding at neds beach has to be seen! 20kg kingfish takeing food form hands OMG!
i still laugh when poeple go on and on about going to a tropical resort over seas when we have one of the best in our ouw backyards

[nat_bromhead]

Heard good reports too Banana Boy..

I spent a few days with Gary Crombie fishing Hervey Bay a while back and he had some great tales to tell of fishing round the island . He's 5th or 6th Generation islander and knows the place backwards...a great angler and seafarer, he told me of steaming and fishing 200nautical miles north of the island with his father pre GPS days!!

A good friend has been 5 times and loves the place...Big kings are main reason..

Nat