Field & Stream magazine about Bikini Atoll

Fifty years after being blown to kingdom come, this A-bomb test site has become an angler's paradise...

Immediately following the end of World War II, President Truman directed the Armed Forces to conduct a series of tests, ostensibly "... to determine the effect of atomic bombs on American warships."

Bikini Atoll, a collection of twenty-six islands in the Marshall Islands, was selected as the test site and her 167 residents were evacuated. In July 1946, two 23-kiloton bombs, dubbed Able and Baker, were detonated near the ninety-five surplus warships gathered up as a huge steel bull's-eye. The Baker blast sent a water column a mile high and tossed the aircraft carried Saratoga more than 800 yards. "As soon as the war ended," quipped Bob Hope, "we located the one spot on earth that hadn't been touched by the war and blew it to hell."

Over the next twelve years, twenty-three nuclear tests were conducted at Bikini. The most devastating of these occurred on March 1, 1954, when a 15 - megaton hydrogen bomb, code named Bravo, vaporized three islands and sent a fireball into the heavens, an enduring icon of nuclear holocaust. A few days later an inspired French designer, Louis Reard, named his latest creation, a skimpy two-piece bathing suit, after the test site. It, too, became a cultural icon.

Now, more than fifty years after the first blast, almost forty since the last, a degree of tranquility has returned to Bikini. Radiation levels are no longer hazardous (although crops grown on the island accumulate high levels of cesium 137, which can kill if ingested over an extended period). The shipwrecks have become popular scuba diving destinations. And the fish of the lagoon and surrounding blue water are as abundant as they were before the blasts.

It is those fish that prompted photographer Brian O'Keefe, a peripatetic sport fishing pioneer and frequent Field & Stream contributor to visit last spring. Here is his report:

Around noon on March 26, 1997, the plane descends to Bikini Atoll. Through the window I see a number of long, thin islands connected by reefs, the typical circular atoll topography. Several deep channels on the southern side break the oval reef that appears to be about 35 miles east to west and 20 miles north to south. The blue waters of the lagoon and of the mile-deep open ocean are severe in their intensity.

On landing, my fishing partner, Paul McBride, and I settle into our quarters, a small hotel catering primarily to scuba divers. Our hosts are Peter Fuchs, a manager in a company with a variety of interests in the Marshall Islands--including these accommodations--and Rod Bourke, a Tasmanian and die-hard fisherman, who runs the fishing program.

Our plan is simple enough: Rod and I will explore the fishing from the beach and on the flats around the island; Paul and Peter will take a skiff to investigate the channels we saw flying in. One hundred yards down the beach I see a school of swallowtails coming at us. The swallowtail is a handsome fish, averaging 4 pounds and looking like a cross between a small trevally and a medium bonefish. My pearl-and-tan Crazy Charlie hits 5 feet in front of the fish. After a couple of strips, a 24-incher grabs the fly and for 5 minutes puts a respectable strain on my 8-weight rod. Bourke removes the fly; the fish bolts on release. Welcome to Bikini.

On the reef (ocean) side, the seascape changes from long sandy beaches to continuous patch coral, and hard wadable coral flats. This is home to 4-to 10-pound snappers--species unknown, as each one tatters my leader and escapes to a hole in the coral.

Paul returns with Peter, and it's obvious from their salt-streaked faces that they've had a rough ride in the skiff. But the fishing was worth it. They trolled and cast surface chuggers and swimming lures. In 2 hours they landed a 30-pound dogtooth tuna, a 20-pound barracuda, a 15-pound bluefin trevally and a 15-pound mahi-mahi. A 50-pound plus trevally nearly spooled the reel twice before cutting the leader and swimming off with a $15 lure.

Heavy spinning and trolling gear in hand, we head for Bravo, a 45-foot dive boat that takes us to blue water. At the color change between the lagoon and the ocean, we let out four lines. The plastic skirt is hammered immediately by a 40-pound wahoo. While reeling in, a rainbow runner hits a Broken-Back Rebel. Fish in, line out. Wham! Three more fish, a kawa-kawa, mahi-mahi and red snapper.

We want to explore as much of the atoll as we can, and we've only covered a half-mile of coast, never more than 600 yards from shore. Ninety-nine and a half miles to go before we circumnavigate the atoll. We reel in and head west to fish another pass 10 miles away.

We slow 400 yards from the western pass, a channel 1,000 yards wide, and begin trolling. This is mahi-mahi heaven--20-30 pounders everywhere. While Peter fights one, Paul chucks a Rapala.

Wham! Rod casts a spoon, Wham! I spank one on a fly. We dub it "Rinse and repeat."

I mention that we will never make it back by dark at this rate, so why not go 400 yards offshore, put out the big stuff, and see if there are any billfish around? With three rods out, two with mahi-mahi colored skirts, and Paul's little stand up rod with a small tuna feather, we take off. In 20 minutes the reel starts whirring. Off the stern a 350-pound Pacific blue marlin jumps for the sky. Paul's reel is spooled in 15 seconds.

The best flats fishing is going to be at low tide, about 11 this morning. Rod and I take the skiff and cruise the lagoon to the flats 2 miles west of the camp. On the falling tide we work an edge where the flat drops into the lagoon. Nice-sized bluefin trevally were plastering mullet cruising in knee-deep water. We both hook up.

At the next spot I see a big gray fish near some coral heads. I bite my leader back to about 20 pounds and tie on a Clouser. I cast 15 feet short of the fish. If he comes to the fly, I will have gained that much distance from the coral. When the fly hits the glassy water, the fish charges and strikes. It acts like a snapper, but when I finally slide it up on a sand bar I see that it is a 13-pound long-nosed emperor.

The tide is ebbing on the flat, so we change leaders and look for bonefish. In 100 yards I shout to Rod, "Bonefish coming at you!" The Tasmanian makes a 60-foot cast and sets on a nice bone. The fish is landed, photographed and released.

Farther on we spot several tails. I land a 6- and 5-pounder; Rod loses another. We circle around and head back to the boat. On the way, more bluefin trevally and one yellow-spotted trevally, which the locals call a permit, come to the fly.

This is the day to explore the islands to the northwest. Rod and I search the flats with fly rods while Paul and Peter surfcast and troll with plugs. As soon as Rod and I walk across the first island, we spot a big trevally cruising near the beach. I hook a 25-pounder that wolfs a yellow and red Deceiver. The fish strips my reel down to the backing, and I fear I'll lose my line, but then the leader breaks. Thankfully. I tell Rod I'm not going to cast at anything over 15 pounds.

We hit three more islands with the same results: lots of snappers, groupers, trevally, and swallowtails. The high tide made bonefishing difficult.

The seas are rough but the Bravo handles them well. We are back outside the reef to troll for marlin and cast poppers for giant trevally. We don't raise any billfish, but the wahoo and mahi-mahi are almost a nuisance. Almost. Paul hooks a couple of giant trevally that are unstoppable. Trevally here exceed 100 pounds.

We head back early so Rod and I can hit low tide on the flats. Now carrying fly rods, we spot bonefish immediately. Some hold in one spot rather than cruise in the usual feeding pattern. Here, the tide is so strong the fish hide behind rocks--much like trout in a river--and feed on food that drifts by. Several times I hook fish when my fly drifts down tide like a nymph. Others hit as the fly swings in the current. The fish are 5- to 6-pounders, and in the heavy current I must go to a 16-pound tippet.

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The historical information within this site, while constantly updated, is drawn largely from the book, FOR THE GOOD OF MANKIND: A History of the People of Bikini and their Islands, Second Edition, published in September of 2001 by Jack Niedenthal. This book tells the story of the people of Bikini from their point of view via interviews, and the author's more than two decades of firsthand experiences with elder Bikinians.

Copies can be purchased from this direct ordering link at Amazon.com, or you can also buy and download the Kindle edition.