When it comes to Biscayne Bay and bonefish a guy who will probably come up in conversation is Joe Gonzalez.  Joe has been a guide for a long time, he knows the water, he knows the fish and he’s tagged more bonefish than I will ever catch. Joe and I recently connected via the phone  for an interview.

Bonefish release with Captain Joe

What makes the fishing in Biscayne Bay unique and what’s your favorite thing about the fishery?

What makes Biscayne Bay fishing unique, unlike the mid keys or lower keys, our flats on the north end of the bay are not as large, not as big and you can jump from flat to flat with ease until you find fish, unlike most Keys flats and banks that are massive.  We also have a very strong winter time bonefishery here, even when the temps drop below the mid-60’s.  You can still find fish, usually in large schools and have a banner day with northerly winds of up to 20 mph.  We have a gargonian type bottom, lots of sea fans and basket sponges and gargonian sponges and for some reason the fish like to hang out in those areas at that time of year.  You find a lot of fish, but you break them off.

Biscayne Bay, being at Miami’s doorstep with three million people, you would think the ecosystem would be in a deplorable state, but actually it is a pristine environment with a healthy fishery and plenty of food stores for the fish.

Biscayne Bay is known for two things… big bonefish and tough bonefish.  Does Biscayne Bay deserve that reputation?

Yes, Biscayne Bay is not an easy fishery.  Many think of calm, slick water and sunny days to be the best conditions. But ask most guides and they would usually prefer some wind and low light conditions. I myself love fishing in strong winds. The fish drop their guard and eat flies well. They move better and feed hard.

If you look at the world record books, out of 187 world records, 127 of them were caught in the US, most of the world record fish were caught in the Florida Keys and Biscayne Bay area.  A lot more people fish the Keys than Biscayne Bay, but 10 world record fish have been caught in Biscayne Bay.

Not small... not small at all (nice tag too).

Most people go down to the Keys, Islamorada, to fish.  Most of the time, people don’t think of Biscayne Bay or Miami.  You usually get people when they are coming down on business and you get them on either end of the business trip.  That’s how the start to learn about the fishery, for the most part.

What is the state of the fishery?

It seems like with the cold blast we had in January the fishery suffered a bit. We found that most of the affected areas were the back country parts of both Biscayne Bay and Florida Bay.  The exterior parts of both Biscayne Bay and Florida Bay didn’t suffer as much as far as bonefish depletion.  I fished hard for two weeks after the blast and the fishing was really good.  It was somewhat of a relief to me and to others that there are still plenty of fish around.  The press got a hold of some of the bonefish stories and exaggerated.  Most of our outside fish ran offshore, probably to the Hawks Channel area and or deeper areas to take refuge when the surf temps dropped below 60.

So yes, the fishery is not as strong as it used to be, but we’ll always be talking about how it used to be.

Another nice bonefish.

You’ve been involved in bonefish tagging for the University of Miami with over 1,300 fish tagged.  What have you learned about bonefish through that work?

It has helped understand their growth rates and movements.  Working with Dr. Jerry Alt and Mike Larkin from the University of Miami Bonefish Research Program, we do an annual bonefish census and it gives us the number of bonefish.  We learned that they live up to 20 years by taking the odilith and counting the rings, much like counting the rings of a tree. The oldest fish ever documented was about 20, according to Mike Larkin. 70% of the recaptures are within 2 miles.  The tagging program gives us an idea about the number of fish, but it is more useful in letting us know about the movements of the fish.

Mike Larkin putting in an acoustic tag.

I have also helped with acoustic telemetry, which is putting transmitters into bonefish and setting up receiver fences and every time a fish comes by it records which fish has come by.  We have learned that maybe

I don’t know if you are aware, there is a bonefish I tagged on February 11^th, I believe, 6-7 years ago… the fish was at large 10 months and it was recaptured January 31^st and it was recaptured in the middle bight of Andros.

I’m very familiar with that fish.  I didn’t know that was you!

Everybody thought that Florida bonefish were only found in Florida and that the Bahamas fish were only in the Bahamas and the Mexican fish were only in Mexico. They thought all these fish were different, separate bodies of fish. With that one fish being found down in Andros (and Kenny Knutson our of Islamorada tagged a fish 2-3 years after my fish and it was also found over there in the middle bights of Andros), so there may be a genetic link between Florida bonefish and Bahamas bonefish with that fish making a trans-Atlantic crossing… it was the longest recorded migration at 187 miles, but it was a trans-Atlantic crossing, the fish had to cross the Gulf Stream.  The closest point to where this fish was tagged is Bimini, which is 48-50 miles across the ocean and once the fish is in Bimini it is up on the Bahamian Bank.

I was invited by Venezuela, through the University of Miami, to fish in Los Roques and introduce the same tagging program we have here in Florida.  The asked me to go, I packed and went.  The fishery down there, the different camps and lodges and guides, it isn’t a happy place… folks don’t get along.  I was able to go down there as kind of an ambassador.  I speak the lingo, I speak Spanish fluently and I was able to go down there and make some peace between these guys and help everyone get on the same page and help everyone realize that by tagging bonefish, it is making the whole business down there a little bit more environmentally friendly.  They were very receptive and with me being a guide they were able to relate to me. I was on their same level.  It was a real good experience.  The main guy that pioneered the bonefishing down there is a guy named Alex Gonzalez.  People either like him or hate him.  They’ve started a tagging program and they are starting to be able to estimate numbers, get growth rates, and do what we’ve done here.  It was great being down there.

When I went down there I thought it was going to be easy.  I’ll tell you what… it was hard to get the fish to eat.  When I was on my own… now, I know how to strip, I know how to feed a fish… I thought, but I’d try it and they’d spook and I’d work with one of the guides and they knew how to read their fish better than I did because they were their fish. It was crazy.  It’s like starting all over again.  It showed me that there are things you know from being on the water that are special and unique to each place.

Nice FL bone with a dark, dark back.

The more you are on the water, the more odd and unique things you get a chance to see.  What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen out there?

One of the weirdest things I’ve seen is bonefish being prayed on by porpoise. I’ve seen propose corralling bonefish up on the flats and it’s not a pretty sight.  It’s interesting, because it is nature taking its course.  It is the only time I’ve seen bonefish coming out of the water and not bibbling, as they do in the Bahamas (kind of a rolling thing that bonefish sometimes do).  When a pod of porpoise were chasing a school of bonefish and I saw a couple of bonefish go airborne trying to escape.

Bibbling, I’ve seen that down in Los Roques too.  Bonefish sometimes, when they come off a flat and they are in a deep channel, they’ll do what they call in the Bahamas “bibbling,” kind of a rolling on the surface.

Another thing, they say that bonefish are really spooky and guides and anglers get upset when boats run close by and spook fish.  Believe it or not, there are flats that have a lot of boat traffic, especially on the weekends, but the fish have evolved to get used to the noise… believe it or not, I’ve caught fish on flats despite having boats up on the flats because the wakes from the boats loosed the bottom and it makes it easier for the bones to find shrimp, crabs and crustaceans   I’ll tell my anglers to look for the muds in the muds.  I’ll be on the edges of the channels and the boats will come by and create a lot mud, but the fish are in the mud making mud.  You are in fresh mud looking for new puffs of mud. It’s kind of weird telling my anglers to look for mud inside mud, but when you find it, it’s a gimme.

One really weird thing… and this was real… I was out with a friend of mine off of Key Largo in the early 90’s and I saw a bonefish with its head out of the water. It looked like it was walking on its tail.  We approached it slowly, thinking it was dying or dead, but when we popped up next to it, it swam away… and no, I wasn’t high or drunk. Never, ever have I seen a fish doing that.

What’s your most memorable bonefish?

My most memorable bonefish… I was fishing with a guy named Mike Swerdlow, who’s been doing it forever with some of the best guides in the Keys since the 70’s. Mike’s the kind of guy that, when fishing together would screw me up a bit because he wouldn’t let me get close to the fish so he could make a 70-90 foot cast and usually that isn’t a high percentage shot with most of my clients, but Mike is different. He wants the hero shot, at 100 feet, and what’s funny, is that he can make it. We were fishing an area in Biscayne Bay called Feathervit Bank in the early 90’s when there was a fair number of big fish in that area and we spotted a single fish, up on the bank, tailing.  We had been fishing deeper water for mudding fish so he had on a relatively large epoxy fly that was popular back then and was too heavy to throw at tailing fish, but he asked me pole up to that fish and give him a try. It was a small window of opportunity and we didn’t want to lose it. So, I went ahead and polled up to the fish, but I told Mike the fly was inappropriate, but he insisted on not changing the fly that would have been far better in 2.5 feet of water as opposed to 12 inches. He made the cast with that big epoxy fly and put it about a foot from the fish with a big plop and the fish jumps on the fly, runs 100 yards west on the bank with the line making a bonefish rooster tail all the way. I wish I could have videoed that fish.  It is still vivid in my mind.  It is moments like these that we live for, dream about and spend countless amounts of monies and time for that feeling.

The tailing fish…. One solo fish… back out of the water fish… that’s the highest, the pinnacle… and to do it with the wrong fly on a long cast… it was that scenario… never in a million years would I think the guy was going to catch the fish… and to have it happen and it was probably an 11-12 pound bonefish.

What’s your favorite rod/reel?

I’ve been using the Nautilus Featherweight.  I love those reels.

As far as rods, I’ve been using the S4S in an 8 wt. with a matching Nautilus reel.

A Nautilus from Sam Root at Salty Shores

Thanks for the great interview Joe. Great stuff.

Additional thanks to Sam Root of Salty Shores for some of these pics.

A little article about the Florida Keys Fishing Guides Association (the website touts a 2007 event, meaning they spend more time on the water than at the computer).

About five years ago the Upper Keys had a hatch where the number of guides almost doubled to over 300 that work between Key Largo and Islamorada during the prime tarpon fishing months of May and June. While the numbers of fishing guides in the area have soared, the quality of the guides have dropped, Burke said.

“There’s still only a limited number of guides who do this business well,” he said. “That’s why it’s good to hire a guide that is a member of the Florida Keys Fishing Guides Association when you come down to Islamorada. The fishing is great every month of the year, but only about 25 percent of the guides are seasoned, knowledgeable and going to provide the quality fishing experience that will create lasting memories.”

via Keys guides protect their own – ESPN.

This is the description from Vimeo:

This video was shot in June 2009 by Gabriel Bendersk, a talented and able filmmaker from Argentina. Scott Olson, Patagonia Fly Fishers was fishing with his friend, Martin Carranza, a tremendous guide and also owner of some fishing lodges in Patagonia, Argentina and also Northern Argentina. The tremendous power of a bonefish relative to it’s size can only be described as Martin said: “This is formula one!” The music used is symphonic from a Ralph Vaughn Williams symphony. Scott edited and uploaded the video to Vimeo.

Tournaments are a new thing for me to even think about.  I tend to think “Bass Master” instead of fly fishing.  It seems in the salt, tournaments are much more accepted and embraced.

(Jun. 29, 2010 – Islamorada, Florida Keys)… “Right now fishing is off the charts and if it stays this way our tournament promises to be one of the most outstanding competitions of the year,” said Sandy Moret about the Florida Keys Outfitters/IGFA Inshore World Championship in July.

via FishingWorld.com – News Center.

The tournament is July 13-15. For more information, contact Sandy Moret at 305-664-5423, or via e-mail at sandy@floridakeysoutfitters.com.

(you can see Sandy talk about some bonefishing flies here)

Friend and new Florida resident Derek Rust caught a few bones from the beach yesterday along the East Coast of Florida.

Derek's beach bonefish

That wasn’t his only fish of the morning… so Derek is doing his part to dispel the notion of the impossible Florida bonefish.

Saw a story this morning on Moldy Chum about the (FL) Bonefish Census.

I wonder if they sent armies of old guys out to the flats where no bonefish were counted to ask why they had not returned their census… might have something to do with the higher numbers.

Bruce Chard is a guide, instructor and designer of fly lines (and probably more).  He was featured in the fly fishing movie “Rise” and is a fixture of the Florida bonefishing and saltwater scene.

Bruce, doing what Bruce does.

I saw you on “Rise” and thought it was a great film.  Do you have any up coming film projects?

At this time I am in the middle of my busy season guiding full time every day for Giant tarpon, permit and bonefish in the Florida Keys.  This will continue till August every day.  I will be working on many new projects but don’t have any time frame as to when they will actually be done.  Stay tuned to my blog and Website for updates on the many small videos and informational posts that will be on my blog for upcoming DVDs and Books. On bonefishing.  I am currently booking spots for my hosted fly fishing bonefishing school trip to the famous Andros South Bonefish Lodge on South Andros Bahamas.  These trips are tons of fun and offer learning experiences all week long with me.  Something you can’t get by going on your own.  For dates check out my web site at WWW.BRUCECHARD.COM

You have a series of saltwater fishing schools, including one for bonefish.  Is there one aspect of bonefishing that you find most beginners really struggle with?

Beginners usually struggle the most with the fly casting and getting used to actually seeing the fish.  Both are obviously extremely important for the success of catching bonefish.  All there is needed to fix both is experience and a good instructor and good patient guide.  These aspects also extend well past the beginners but the dedication to the sport from the individual will change these issues promptly.  The more you put into it ( time practicing and time fishing) the more you will get out of it ( like actually catching more fish).

I fished your bonefish line on my last trip (Grand Bahama) and really liked it.  It did get me wondering… how does someone get their own bonefishing line?  What was it you wanted your line to do that other lines on the market weren’t doing?

I was given the opportunity to design my own lines from Jim Teeny himself.  I have known Jimmy since I first started guiding in the Keys over 18 years ago now.  We have fished together for years and he saw how dedicated to the sport of fly fishing I was and to the actual fly fishing industry.  The angle of having some new upcoming young salt water fly fishing talent in his lineup of professional series fly lines something that was needed and wanted in his company.  So he asked me to design the Chard Series of lines.

What went into the thought of designing the lines are the fact that most casters have a hard time forming tight loops consistently.  Then there is always a lack of power in the casting system making it difficult for whatever power that was there to make it all the way to the leader and fly to roll out straight (which is very important in salt water fly presentation).  The reasons it was tuff for the power had a hard time getting that far was most of the fly lines on the market for salt at that time had a very long front taper taking power away from the system gradually.  Then when the power got to the leader there was not much left to roll out the leader and fly straight.  Using longer leaders combined with heavier flies made this issue even more prevalent.  Loaded with this information I then chopped off the front taper making it only 18 inches (most where 6-8ft at the time).  This unloaded mega power straight from the belly of the line right into the longer leaders that we use and into the heavier flies and the then rolled over more consistently even into stronger winds.  A little over sizing on the Head of the line, lengthening the rear taper and thinning the running line where also major changes in the line from others that where on the market at the time that allowed the line to perform superior to all other salt lines to this day still.  You can order Chard Lines from me personally if you like.  Check out my website for more information on them and email me for any order requests of questions.

Mr. Bonefish, chillax'n

The bonefish angler these days has so many options… the Bahamas, Hawaii, Belize, Venezuela, Christmas Island… what is it about the Florida Keys that makes it a special?

The main asset of the Florida Keys bone fishery is the pure average size of our Bones.  Nowhere else can you find a larger average size bonefish.  Our fish average 7-9 pounds with many 10 pounders caught all the time.  The reason for so many large bonefish calling the Keys home is plentiful amount of large shrimp and crabs that can fatten these big pigs up.  We have an unreal variety of thick turtle grass flats, hard coral flats, huge sweeping mud bottom grass flats, and endless deep water access to all these luscious. Super strong current helps keep the flats alive with nutrients.  All these reason add up to some of the best largest bone fishing in the world!

Florida bones have a reputation for being educated.  Do you have a tip or two for going after those educated fish?

Our Florida Bones are not hard to catch.  They are harder to catch than anywhere else but not hard to catch.  The biggest reason that bones are not caught in Florida is that the presentation is not good enough, and you don’t get as many opportunities so you have to make the shots you get count.  Not to many anglers are good enough to put the fly in the right spot consistently enough.   Everywhere else in the world there are usually many more opportunities to have shots at bones and then if you screw up and hit them in the head 9 times out of 10 they turn over upside down and eat the fly anyway.  Not in Florida.  It’s the NFL for bone fisherman.  But if you can cast and present the fly where it needs to be you can catch many bonefish in Florida no problem.

A favorite question of mine… when you are on the water a lot, you see things… odd things, unusual things, funny things… is there something you’ve seen out there on the water that was particularly interesting or memorable?

Well one night I was night tarpon fishing with Jim Teeny.  We had jumped 28 tarpon in 5 hours and we were just about to head in for the night.  I said to Jimmy make one more cast buddy and we will head back to the dock.  Jimmy then said no problem there Bruce just let me catch this permit on this next cast and we can head in no problem (giggling).  Jimmy makes a cast and then hooks up right away. Mind you I have never ever ever ever seen a permit caught on fly at night.  My first thought was here we go another big tarpon so I crank up the engine and get prepared to chase him down.  Well this fish didn’t run like a tarpon.  This fish didn’t jump either.  This fish ended up being a 12 pound permit!  Unreal!  I have never seen anyone call a permit on a blind cast either.  Pretty sweet fishing story!

What’s your favorite bonefishing rig (rod/reel)?

My favorite bonefishing set up is a 7wt Ross World Wide FW 9ft fly rod with a Ross Arius #4 reel, lined with a Bruce Chard Professional Series 8wt bonefish line, and a 12ft hard mono tapered leader from 27LB to 13LB mono then a smaller diameter Seaguar Grand Max 18Lb Flouro Tippit.

What’s your sense of the health of Florida bonefishing stocks?

I think the Florida bonefish stocks are looking great for the Keys.  We are learning how much these bones actually travel.  Our fish will travel great distances in a short amount of time. Weather changes seem to move the fish more than any other reason.  Cold fronts in the winter make these fish move quick and far for some reason.  Also there has been some proof that Florida Bones are in this are for the mixture of fresh water from the everglades and nutrient loaded waters from the gulfstream.  These water mixtures apparently make supreme breeding water conditions.

Thanks Bruce.  Keep up the good work.

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

I understand that FWC is recommending some further protections for bonefish in Florida.  Florida Fly Fishing Magazine recently covered  the issue.

Right now, you can’t harvest bonefish in Florida due to the cold snap, the damage that cold snap caused and the temporary protections that were enacted afterwards.  If you’d like to see such regulations extended/expanded, check out the Florida Fly Fishing Magazine site for who to contact.

As you might expect, you are encouraged to support the Bonefish & Tarpon Trust.

There has been a lot out there about the cold temps and Florida… here’s a round up:

• Here’s what the Bonefish & Tarpon Trust has to say.
• The issue was even covered by the Trout Underground.
• Salty Shores shares some video of some cold snook and bones.
• Guilttrip25 sees things dropping back to normal.
• Captian Raul Montoro sees Miami bones recovering.