The Brando, Tetiaroa pre opening visit - Fly fishing for bonefish and giant trevally.

I have just returned from a 10 day stay at the luxurious eco-resort The Brando, Tetiaroa. We arranged a 10 day stay for Sir Douglas and Lady Myers, supporters of the Tetiaroa Society, and a client who has fished on and off at Tetiaroa for the past 15 years as well as at at all the famous bonefish destinations throughout the world. This was our third trip to the island together and with The Brando opening on the 1st July it was a good opportunity to see the finished product and allowed the F&B team an opportunity to test their cuisine and service skills.

Tetiaroa has always been one of the most stunning coral atolls in the world to visit. Until now that meant roughing it but with the opening of The Brando that is all about to change. The resort is a stunning piece of architecture and blends in completely with the atoll, not impacting on the visual beauty of the environment. The villas are stylish and spacious and the landscaping provides complete privacy. The eco credentials are to be found throughout the resort - SWAC air conditioning, solar power and coconut oil (Biofuel) powered generators. The resort sources much of its produce form the island from the orchard and vegetable gardens and even produces its own honey!!

Sir Douglas and I spent 10 days fishing the flats with Teihotu Brando who is learning the craft of fly fishing. Bonefish were our main target and we encountered good numbers of fish most days. Tetiaroa's bonefish are typically large alb plus and generally founds as singles or pairs. Occasionally small groups of 5-12 fish will be encountered but for the most part your time is spent stalking these large single fish in shallow water. On most days we would average 5-10 hook ups and many close encounters. These fish will often end up at your rod tip before spooking.

The really exciting thing about Tetiaroa is the opportunity to land double figure bonefish. On this trip we landed 3 fish over 10 lbs with Sir Douglas landing his two largest bonefish ever of 33 inch and 3 22 inch respectively. They weighed in at 13 lbs and 13 1/2 lbs. Absolute monster bonefish.

While the main focus of this trip was for the large bonefish I did manage to spend a little bit of time looking for my favourite flats species - the giant trevally. This atoll has good numbers of GT's that can be found chasing mullet on the flats or cruising the drop-offs in search of food. One each occasion we went looking for GT's we encountered fish resulting in a fine fish of 116cm. In July we will be starting a GT acoustic tagging study to try and understand more about the species movements around the lagoon and to help in fisheries management regulation for the atoll.

FOR MORE INFORMATION OF VISTING THE BRANDO OR PARTICIPATING IN OUR RESEARCH ON GIANT TREVALLY AND BONEFISH ON THE ATOLL PLEASE CONTACT US ON + 44 (0)1621743711 or EMAIL: enquires@flyodyssey.co.uk OR VISIT OUR WEBSITE: www.flyodyssey.co.uk