The Skinny Waters Research Team has Unearthed Some Explosive Content!

Christmas Island, long known for it’s fantastic fly and spin fishing, has an interesting past that most folks don’t know about. In the late 1950’s they tested 4 hydrogen bombs. The crack research team at Skinny Waters have unearthed some of the footage that we are guessing was recently released/unclassified. The British military built a stunning amount of infrastructure to get the testing done. This included mile and miles of roads, buildings, vehicles and some serious equipment.

I recently had a visit with John Bryden, he started JMB there in the late 1960’s. He is retired now and still living on the island. I try to stop in on him when I’m there and last week he shared this link with me. He also went in depth about the history of the place and has some great old photos. He was there on a 3 month work assignment to help introduce more and better agriculture options for the 600 or so that lived on island at the time. His replacement didn’t show at the end of his stint and he decided to stay. He’s built a great, quiet life for himself there and is greatly respected by the community. Surprisingly, he never was a fisherman!

If you love that fly fishing mecca as most do, the 7 videos are well worth a watch. When the British military left, most of what they brought with them was abandoned. Much of the JMB structure is made from the left over buildings. Their main camp was located at the old Captain Cook hotel site and the well you can see in the videos is still there as are some of the buildings.

Enjoy and let Skinny Waters help you plan your next fly fishing adventure!