bonefish, bonefish, bonefish

Great little video about the 2010 winter kill in Florida put out by the Snook Foundation (found on Hell’s Bay facebook page).

Sportsman’s Alliance For Alaska.

A great article on the Mantis Shrimp from creator of  the fly, Bob Veverka, is up at Deneki Outdoors.  Check it out.

There were a lot of great things to look at during the Fly Fishing Show… reels, rods, locations, excellent fly tiers doing their thing and fly fishing art.  There were some less than wonderful sights, however, and I think the most disturbing of all was a show-goer walking around in a “Man Boobs Are Sexy” shirt.

No… no they aren’t.

I was not surprised to see that this shirt comes in XXX-L.

This is certainly not part of the fly show uniform… I think they should institute a dress-code next year just to keep this guy out.

I’m sure there are some people out there that loves these lines… they may even have a fan club with a special handshake and membership cards.  However, everyone I’ve ever talked to that has fished them thinks they suck.  A good friend was telling the story of bonefish in a location that were so spooky they would scatter if they heard the fly line being stripped against guides and would run like hell if they heard someone casting a Sharkskin line.  Those are some spooky fish.

I found this bunch of reviews and thoughts on FishandFlies… after the first few good words it got bad for Sharkskin.  Avoid this product, I’d say.

These shows can be a lot of fun, minus the last hour, which drags on like a 6 hour bit of political theater about health care.

I got up early this morning (this post will show up on Saturday, but I’m writing it on Friday, cause that’s how I roll) at 0-dark-thirty and drove down to Pleasanton for the Fly Fishing Show.  Upon opening the crate that housed the Bonefish & Tarpon Trust display, it occurred to me I should have tried it out at home first.  Luckily, I got some help from a ladies fly fishing club I was next to.  Twenty minutes later and I was sorted.

As the throngs of mostly older men passed by (it was a Friday, a perfect time for men of a certain age to browse the show) I heard lots of interesting bonefish stories.

The one place that was mentioned time and time again was Christmas Island.  Tomorrow I have a buddy coming in who will be fresh off the plane from Xmas… can’t wait to hear about it.

Had some good conversations about bonefish, conservation, catch & release fishing and other assorted bits of goodness.

Support Bonefish & Tarpon Trust.

Other Stuff:

• This is Fly Daily, Bahamas, Nets.
• The Message Board Which Must Not Be Named has some Bahamas up… I’m not linking there. I’ve learned (slowly).
• New posts up at Guilttrip25
• Singlebarbed spots some ponzi problems with Able.

Today, via Twitter, Fishing Jones spotted a story on Flies and Fins about a little bonefish action.

I stopped breathing as, “Tap” was felt. I drew the line tight for a millisecond, afterwards line ripping began through my hands. The world came back to me as I realized that I was connected to a bonefish.

Flies and Fins goodness

Check out the story.  Good stuff.

I’ll be volunteering for the Bonefish & Tarpon Trust for the duration of the Fly Fishing Show in Pleasanton, February 26-28.

If you are a Bar Area-ite and are heading to the show, stop by and say “hi” and give me a chance to try and shake some money out of you for chat about Bonefish, Tarpon and Permit research and conservation.

yeah... what he said.

The Being Karl blog (new to me) put up a report about his trip to Belize and his first bonefish.  Always great to hear about someone’s first bonefish… it can be a revelation.

They are at El Pescador… the place I was hoping to go this summer.  I’ve moved my Belize 2010 trip to Belize 2011, but stories like this make me want to head there… um… now.

I make another cast and, bam, I get a hookup.  The fish takes off and is clearly the hardest fighting fish I’ve ever hooked on a fly.  After a couple of minutes of tussle, I bring it to the boat where Carlos reaches down, grips the fish, about 14 inches in length,  and lifts it up for me to see.  My first bonefish on a fly.  I had imagined it would take a day of trying and here we’ve been fishing 15 minutes and I’ve got my first in the boat.

El Pescador photo... go there.

I haven’t seen the Being Karl blog before.  The salty stuff is an outlier, but it is honest and not pretentious in the least.