About the Author

Joe Rotter

Joe is the "blogger in chief" here at Red's in addition to being our guide service manager and partner here at Red's. He is a father of 3 spunky children his wife Kelly can only be found fishing when the temperature gets above 85 degrees and the fish are gobbling up dry flies.

In addition to being a fly fishing junkie, Joe is a hard core bowhunter, is a volunteer Hunter's Eductation Instructor, and loves riding horses with his kiddos. Joe still guides a small part of the time but spends most of his time working on web marketing, travel, and helping customers find the right tools and information for the job.

Christmas Island Trip Report 2015

August 17, 2015

Well it took me a while to get to this, but here it is. We had a SPECTACULAR trip to Christmas Island again this year. I invite you to join us in 2016. It is affordable, value packed, and you'll get to do more fishing than you can handle. You think I am kidding? You'll get fished into the ground! We have lots of space and whether you have a fishing buddy or not it doesn't matter. Most of the group this past year traveled as single anglers with one thing in common. We all LOVE fly fishing. You fish solo, on foot, 1:1 guide to angler ratio, and you get to fish the flats the way they are supposed to be fished. On foot, in the water, spot and stalk!

The 1:1 angler to guide ratio on this trip makes it productive, unique, and you can travel by yourself. No "angler pairing" at the lodge is necessary other than room assignments. You'll fish solo all day other than the boat ride.

2016 Christmas Island Trip to The Villages

May 10th - 17th, 2016

This trip is hosted by a Red's owner/founder Tony Robins and I am coordinating your travel. You are in good hands on this trip. Between having me coordinate your booking, flights, and packing and a Red's owner hosting it and acting as a mentor - you are insured to have a successful trip and things will be very well organized. I wish that I was going again myself, but am taking a year off to fish for big Tarpon in Costa Rica. I have 2 spots left for anyone that wants to jump on board for that trip.

Specifics About Christmas Island...

First off, if you want technical fishing advice and some background on CI, you absolutely have to read this article linked here. It is the ultimate guide for fly fishing and packing for Christmas Island. It is very detailed oriented and the best piece out there for preparing anglers for success.

An Angler Medley

Our trip was filled with 12 guests composed of myself, 9 solo anglers, and a husband and wife from Brussels. It was a fabulous mix of folks from all over the country. We even had one guest from Japan, Fumi. It was a wonderful experience meeting everyone and sharing stories every night around dinner. We all come from such different backgrounds and geographic areas that there is lots to talk about. We had everyone from an Air Force Naval Aviator, to doctors, to a construction worker.

Christmas Island might be the best Bonefish fishing in the world, according to Lefty Kreh in his book Saltwater Fly Fishing it is anyway. Its too bad these GT's are so bad ass that the Bonefish get overshadowed! If you want a big dog like this however, be patient, be ready, and you need to accept that you may not get one. Think of it like a deer hunt. Not everyone tags out. ITS OK! Just be patient, enjoy yourself, and make every shot count. I can help prepare you for success on GT before the trip.

Kyrstoff came all the way from Brussels! He is a fishing FOOL, his stories from his world travels pursuing fish are unbelievable. Very neat guy. GT was on his buckets list. He'll likely be on next year's trip with a couple other dudes from Poland. GREAT guy and super fun to hang with at the lodge. He brought his wife as a spectator and we had the best time getting to know them and chatting with them.

The fishing speaks for itself but something that really sticks out to me on Chrismtas Island is the value. Its not exclusive to the wealthy. The cost is $2590 for 7 Nights/6 Days. In addition you need to overnight in Honolulu and grab a couple of flights. I do contend however anyone that LOVES to fly fish needs to do this trip. You'll get more fishing in that you could possibly imagine! Here is a great shot of a typical morning.

Each day has us eating breakfast before the sun rises, the Pacific Island Skiffs take off at dawn, and we are loaded 4 guides and 4 anglers to the boat. You'll get dropped off at a flat with your guide and the game is on. The boatman taxi's folks around all day dropping you off at a fresh flat upon the guide's request by radio.

The fishing days are about 10 hours solid on the water. It is awesome! I consider myself very blue collar, I want good value, I am high energy, and even I get tired here. You can fish as much as you like. You'll walk the flats for miles and miles on Christmas Island the cool thing is... that you can't ever cover it all! The place has flats 10 miles long! The fishing was fantastic, it would take my 20 pages to accurately describe all the amazing things that happened.

The Bonefish are amazing, here are a couple of TROPHY Bonefish from the trip. We caught dozens of mid-sized Bonefish most days. The big ones are quite spectacular.

This is one of the best Bonefish that I have personally ever seen, Tony Robins the 2016 host, caught this on our last trip. It was traveling as a big single and fought like torpedo. There is nothing faster than a BIG Bonefish!

I did a Half Day of Bluewater fishing where we troll flies behind the skiffs. It was super fun! We caught lots of Skipjack and they fight great. There was tons of action. Your host can help coordinate this and you can either spend all day pursuing big game like Marlin, Sailfish, Tuna, or Wahoo. Or you can do like I did and hit some Skipjack for a few hours and then finish the day on the flats.

A Few More Shots!

My first Golden Trevally!

My best Puffer Fish to date!

6 am... LETS ROLL!

Only a mother or a fisherman could love that face.

Blue Fin. These things RIP!!! This might be the strongest fish pound for pound on the planet. Pretty too.

Manta Rays Everywhere!

LOTS of nice Boneifsh...ok ok, maybe not lots quite like this one but there were TONS in the 2-3 pound range.

Kevin is an Air Force pilot and a fishing FINATIC! He was big stick in camp this week. He seemed to catch EVERYTHING!