Story by: David Granville
Photos: Davidgranvillephotography.com

Having been fortunate enough to fish in many exotic destinations around the globe, I am often asked by fellow anglers what the best place I have ever fished is.

It's always a difficult question to answer because it is often much more than the fishing that makes a trip memorable.

But in terms of the sheer number of gamefish encountered in a relatively short space of time, nowhere comes close to a trip I had to Osprey Reef in October 2005.

Osprey is located about 90 nautical miles east of Lizard Island and, although most gameboats wouldn't dream about leaving the edge of the Great Barrier Reef in mid October, we were on a special mission.

I was invited aboard the 43ft Riviera Don't Ask Me with Captain Haydon Bell and crewmen Will Pritchard and Johnny Pender.

Don't Ask Me had been chartered by Florida-based angler Hal Chittum. It was Hal's fourth trip to the Great Barrier Reef and, although he likes catching all types of fish including giant black marlin on heavy tackle, his passion is saltwater flyfishing, and a previous world record dogtooth tuna caught on fly was his real motivation for this trip.

In 2004, Hal managed to land a 26kg dogtooth on 10kg tippet, which was the world record for that line class.

So this year, he had his sights firmly set on the 8kg tippet record.

With 25kt of wind blowing upon Hal's arrival, it was decided to fish the reef edge and wait until the seas settled before heading to Osprey. We flyfished for marlin for a couple of days without success but managed to release a few nice marlin on conventional tackle before the wind dropped and we were on our way.

Travelling at 10kt to conserve fuel and provide a comfortable ride out, it took all night to reach Osprey. We had a couple of lures out all night that were not touched, but once we were nearing Osprey we got a double header, with a wahoo on one lure and a yellowfin tuna on the other.

We decided to leave the gear in the boat and have breakfast, which allowed Hal enough time to prepare his fly tackle for the ensuing mayhem.

Hal had left nothing to chance. His 250lbs of excess baggage comprised of several flyrods and reels, custom teaser rods and reels, dozens of teasers and hundreds of flies. His commitment and dedication was quite inspiring. It was clear that he meant business.

Once Hal was ready to go, the boat was put in gear and the teasers were deployed. We had only gone about a 100m when a wahoo rocketed out of the water, a Mold Craft Wide Range firmly clamped between its jaws.

Will was able to pull the teaser from the fish's grasp and get it back to the boat as the fish re-entered the water.

Haydon took the boat out of gear and Hal made the cast. I could see four or five wahoo milling about the back of the boat from my perch on the flybridge.

It only took a couple of strips of the fly and a wahoo launched like a missile, the fly clearly visible in the corner of its mouth.

It was one of the most amazing bites I have ever seen.

The first run was typical of a wahoo, with the flyreel in overdrive as the fish screamed across the surface.

Haydon was quick on the throttle and managed to stay within reasonable range of the fish to prevent too much water pressure on the line.

Hal did a great job to keep up with the fish as it regularly changed directions, shaking its head in a bid for freedom.

We had been pursuing the fish for about 10 minutes. The fish spent most of the time near the surface and the last direction change it made was a fatal one.

The fish was snaking along behind when it suddenly performed a 180-degree turn and raced along the side of the boat.

As it did, Will took a swipe with the gaff and came up with 50-plus pounds of angry wahoo squirming on the end.

It was an awesome shot and a great way to start the day at Osprey.

We continued the same program throughout the morning and wahoo after wahoo piled on the teasers. I lost count of how many fish we raised. It was truly amazing fishing!

Hal caught five wahoo between 20kg and 30kg for the morning - three on 10kg and two on 8kg tippet.

A couple of these fish were very close to world record size.

Although the wahoo were great fun, Hal really wanted to battle some doggies, so Haydon moved to another section of the reef.

We started trolling a vertical wall that dropped from 30m to 100m. This is the kind of terrain that doggies love and it was no surprise that it didn't take long for our teasers to be mauled by a pack of big ones.

The dogtooth fish were rising on the teasers like submarines, pushing a big bow wave as they attempted to engulf the lure.

The first dogtooth to eat Hal's fly was a really nice fish and, because we all had a good look at the fish as it engulfed the fly, we new he hooked a potential 8kg tippet world record.

Hal has established a technique for fighting doggies that seems to work well and might be worth a try on conventional tackle. Rather than muscling the fish in the early stages of the fight, he just lets them do their thing.

With minimal pressure on them, they seem to be less likely to run to the reef and cut you off. If you can coax them into deeper water, the chances of success seem to be much greater. Once in clear water, then you can put some hurt on them.

That's exactly what Hal was doing with this fish and it appeared that he was winning the battle. With the fish just 100m down, the rod tip started to bounce in a very unusual manner. Suddenly, the fish started to come easy and, as it broke the surface, we were faced with the gut-wrenching sight of a world record fish that had been eaten by sharks.

We estimated the fish would have been about 45kg. It was a shame but Hal just laughed and said, "Let's go get another one."

And he did. Over the next couple of days he continued to tease, hook, catch and release dozens of wahoo, dogtooth tuna, and sailfish.

A couple of moments worth a mention include one in which a mahi mahi, a wahoo, and a dogtooth all ate the fly but missed the hooks before the wahoo was hooked after coming back for a second go.

Then, on another occasion, Hal jumped off a sailfish on 4kg tippet and the fly was just lying dead in the water when a big doggie came up and scoffed it.

It was great to see Hal's dedication finally rewarded. After hooking several potential world record fish, he finally got one that played the game. After just 40 minutes of some of the most impressive boat driving and angling I have ever seen, Hal smashed a doggie that later weighed 67.1kg on 8kg tippet - an amazing world record capture that will be very hard to beat.

With a little time up his sleeve, Hal then went to 6kg tippet and again managed to keep a record fish away from the sharks.

This fish weighed 51lbs, beating the standing record for that class by 23lbs.

I lost count of the amount of fish we had on the teasers, but in the first three days I reckon it must have been close to 300.

I was glad we were fishing fly tackle, though, because we could have done some damage to the population there with conventional tackle.

I hope other anglers who voyage out to Osprey respect the fishery by only taking what they need.

Because Osprey is so rarely fished it's also hard to know if whether we were just lucky.

So, while I still have difficulty answering the question about the best fishing destination I have been, at the moment my answer is Osprey Reef for its numbers.