Cocos Keeling Islands are in Australian Territory situated 2750 kilometres northwest of Perth, Western Australia, the Cocos Keeling Islands (Cocos) are a group of coral islands that form two atolls. Only two of the 27 islands are inhabited – Home Island and West Island. Virgin Australia runs two flights each week from Perth, with stopovers at Learmonth (Exmouth) and Christmas Island with a flight time of around five hours.
We first heard about Cocos Keeling Islands around three years ago when the team from Hello Backing set up a professional sportfishing and guiding operation on West Island. Since then, the Hellobacking team have invested in specialised sportfishing vessels, including a bluewater Sportsman and two specialist Americal flats skiffs with a Hell’s Bay and a Maverick.
Katrina and I elected to do two weeks on Cocos and split our fishing between the crew at Hello Backing who run their fishing program from Tuesday to Tuesday to connect with those weekly flights. We flew in on the Friday prior to our fishing package as I always enjoy a day or two to wind down and relax before the fishing starts and then arranged to fish a few days either side with local Cocos Malay flyfishing guide Mahammed “Azrin” Des.
I will split this report into two parts starting with our week with the Hello Backing Crew 😉
This is the view across the road from the Hello Backing Lodge
View from the deck at the Hello Backing Lodge
The Hello Backing Lodge is a private home on the Esplanade walking distance to local cafe’s , restaurants and the Cocos Club Hotel. It consist of three air conditioned bedrooms and will sleep six anglers comfortably.
You will get to fish from three purpose built sportfishing boats including a Bluewater Sportsman and these two US flats skiffs
South Point looking towards Horsburgh Island – Note the shelf ( dark blue line ) is so close – this is where you can chase sailfish , dogtooth tuna , wahoo etc.
The main reason I wanted to visit Cocos Keeling Islands was to catch a Bumpy ( Bumpheaded parrot fish ) which have been made famous in the Seychelles 😉 There has been a lot of robust conversation around whether these fish actually eat a fly or are mostly “flossed” or foul hooked.
With the assistance of my guide Connor I managed to get one to hand – although it was hooked in the top of the head in front of the dorsal – You can watch the full capture in the video below 🙂 I was still STOKED to hold one 🤟 😎
This is NOT the Maori Wrasse I was hoping for – you can watch the video below to see it mother again guided by Connor 😉
I have become a little addicted to “Trigger Fishing” and finally managed to get this dinosaur to eat after what felt like one hundred casts while being patiently guided by Cooper Watson 🙌🙌
I have been fortunate to have fished for bonefish in some stunning locations and Cocos certainly has the largest average size I have seen to date – and while there are no shortage of blacktip whaler sharks we only lost two fish to them in my two weeks , with the key being to land them as quickly as possible and minimise handling.
Cocos Keeling islands holds a surprising number of Aussie Permit – Trachinotus blochii – which I had not caught in some time , so I decided to commit my effort towards targeting them once I had landed a “Bumpy”. Permit regardless of species are challenging and while I had shots daily – I only managed to get one to eat in ten days of fishing which I carelessly broke off ! You can see that eat and the pain in our second video with Az 😉
You can watch the full feature video on this great trip here 😉
Tackle Notes :-
Bonefish , Permit , Triggers and Bumpys – I fished with G.Loomis Asquith and NRX+ #9 weight flyrods matched with Abel ROVE 9/11 Fly Reels – Favourite fly lines were Scientific Angler Magnitude Textured Grand Slam Full Clear WF9F and Magnitude Textured Bonefish Plus with Clear Top – both in matching WF9 line weights.
Flies – mostly shrimp patterns tied by WestOz Flies and Flymax Australia
I will post Part 2 – Chasing tails with Az next 🤟😎
