The following article, penned by a Frontier Fly Fishing staff member, appeared in the April 2009 edition of The Complete Fly Fisherman magazine. The fishing in the Coral Sea is nothing short of spectacular and should be on the agenda of all saltwater fly-fishermen.

As our float-plane dropped through the dark, heavy clouds, we got our first glimpse of heaven at sea. From the window of the float-plane we could just make out Odyssey, a small speck floating in the middle of a huge, turquoise atoll. The pilot took one low-level fly-past to gauge the conditions of our watery landing strip, then put us down safely over the submerged coral bommies.

Our journey began when we departed from OR Tambo International, heading for Kenn Reef off the north-eastern Australian coast. Phil Schutte was joining me on a trip of a lifetime to a remote atoll in the middle of the Coral Sea, some 550 kilometres off the coast of Queensland, Australia.

This destination is so remote it took us four different flights to finally reach the mothership. 

After a night in Darling harbour it was on to Hervey Bay. From Hervey Bay we boarded a Cessna Caravan and flew over some of Australia’s wild country to the small town of Rockhampton where we swapped wheels for floats and headed out and over the big blue for a three hour flight before touching down in the middle of the ocean.  Here there was no airport or Customs’ officials; instead there was an 80ft mothership and a group of eager fishing guides waiting to greet us.

After being introduced to Captain Damon Olsen and the crew of Nomad Sportfishing Adventures, it was time to dump the bags and get down to the serious business of rigging up all the tackle required for a week’s fishing at sea.

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