If you are not sure who Jim Klug is you may not want to know.  His life has more fish in more places than you are likely to believe and it might make you bitter and angry that someone actually gets to live that kind of life (co-owner in Yellow Dog Fly Fishing Adventures, for starters).

You don’t need to be that bitter, man… you just don’t need it.

However, you may want to take a look at his photo gallery from the Seychelles.

Cool.

I'll bet your soul feels kind of happy in a place like this.

I had a little photo contest on the Facebook Page and we came up with a winner, Johan Persson Friberg (click the link if you are into Abaco… do it).  Really, the FB format makes it a bit difficult to do photo contests, but, I’ll look for a better way to get that done in the future.  The prize was 3 dozen flies from the Pile O’Flies I had dropped in my lap just before Christmas.  Johan said I should give those flies to someone that needs or could use them down in Andros… so… that’s where they’ll be going.

Here’s the photo that people liked most…

Yeah... n-i-c-e.

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I like pictures… I like bonefish… I like the Caribbean.  So… it stands to reason that I LOVE pictures of bonefish in the Caribbean.  I found this “A photo-journey through the world of bonefishing.”  Yeah.  I like it.

The flats create an amazing and fascinating world. These areas of seemingly endless shallow water, which are still so abundant with food for the bonefish.

via Life is good – A photo-journey through the world of bonefishing – Global FlyFisher.

So, I juuuuust posted something about my fishing friend Mikey Wier heading down to Belize and fellow trip-mate Adam Barker shooting some great pics.  Well, Adam has a blog and pics from that trip are now up.  Worth a gander.

Some of Adam's fine, fine work.

I was checking in on fishing friend and Patagonia Fly Fishing Ambassador Mikey Wier’s blog, Burl Fish, and was happy to see some pics from his recent trip to Belize.  He was down there with a group of anglers doing a mother ship trip.  One of those anglers was Adam Barker, a photographer from Salt Lake City.  Some gooooood looking shots.

Nice shot Adam!

You can see more of the shots on Mikey’s blog here. You can read more about his trip here.

You can find more photos by Adam Barker at his website.  He does a lot of skiing/outdoors type photography, but has a gallery devoted to fly fishing as well.

Just a little sample of the pics up at Fishartist.com

Nice fish and a nice photo

You’ll not only find lots of photos on the site, but books and all sorts of  saltwatery goodness.

Brian O’Keefe is a name you have probably seen often if you like looking at well taken photographs of wondrous landscapes and the fish living there. Brian is one of the photographers behind the e-zine Catch Magazine and continues to be one of the preeminent fly fishing photographers clicking a shutter today.

I'm thinking that's a self-portrait

It has been said that the fish that gets away stays much longer and clearer in the memory of the angler than all the fish landed.  Along those lines, is there a bonefish that you didn’t land or connect to that you still think about?

Yes.  I was fishing in the Berry Islands in the Bahamas and a friend wanted to cast my rod and made a dozen long casts to check out the action, line, etc.  Well, my first cast afterward was to a huge tailer.  The fish ate and off it went across the flat. Then, the leader broke with very little pressure. On inspection of my leader, there were several wind/casting knots in the leader…

Is there a picture of something on the flats that you didn’t get that you still think about?

Yes.  I was wading a flat in Bonaire when I saw an adult couple wading in the shallow water.  From a distance it looked like they had on matching red swimsuits. When I got closer I noticed the red was sunburn. I had waded into a nudist resort!!!

We often picture bonefishing as happening on clear, sunny days. However, things don’t always shape out that way… what are the worst conditions you’ve ever caught a bonefish in?

In the Seychelles a storm blew in. A typhoon, actually. We were sitting in the water as the storm raged overhead. The bonefish still took the fly. Only 10 feet away. Our sailboat was blown off anchor and drifted far, far away. We were barely able to find it with our little zodiac. That was a close one. Several people died in the storm on nearby islands.

Is there a place you haven’t been yet for bonefish that you’d like to get to?

I would like to fish the new destination – St. Brandon in the Indian Ocean.

Do you have a go-to fly pattern, and if so, do you think it is really the fly or the confidence you have in it that matters?

I have found the fly to be important several times. Saying that, I should also emphasize that size, weight and presentation are all important at the same time. An orange colored fly has been super hot a couple of times in the Caribbean when there were very selective, spooky fish.

Do you have a tip for aspiring photographers for getting a good shot out on the flats?

A polarizing filter can help on bright sunny days. It makes skies more blue and reduces glare on bright fish.

Thanks Brian. We are all looking forward to watching your adventures appear on pages and screens for years to come.

I’m a lucky man… I have a Val Atkinson print hanging on my wall… about 4 feet from where I’m sitting right now, as a matter of fact.  Val donated the print to an event I was organizing and my parents bought it as a housewarming gift for my wife and I (OK, for me, really).  It’s a beautiful piece of art.

Val does saltwater photography too… I don’t have any, and I want some.

I met Val while guiding at Clearwater House (now Clearwater Lodge) many years ago.  I’ve seen Val’s work all over the place… beautiful books, calendars, catalogs and magazines… pretty much of places I either have known or have wanted to know.

I was therefore excited to see Val as a part of the Pirates of the Flats television program (set for ESPN and airing December 27th).

Val on why he fishes…

You can see Val’s work from Pirates of the Flats here.

Anglers all over the world do this… doesn’t matter if you are fishing for trout or bonefish… folks do it when the camera gets pulled  out… they hold the fish out as  close to the camera as possible.  This little trick of perspective makes the fish look bigger, of course.  Who doesn’t wish the fish they caught was bigger?

Don't be this guy.

Here’s my issue… I feel like this is disrespecting the fish.  Don’t do this.  The fish you caught is the fish you caught… you likely worked hard for it, were excited about it and wanted to capture it in all its pixelated glory.  So, don’t go and try to get the picture to lie for you.  Respect the fish.  You don’t have to kiss it, or take it out for coffee or lie to it about those jeans really making its butt look big… just hold up the fish you caught and get the photo and let the thing go.

Or this guy...

Don’t you feel a little more honest when you snap a picture that doesn’t try to stretch the fish through illusion? If you hold that fish up, straining to get it closer to the lens, it calls your word into question.  Well, if you were trying to make a 20″ fish look like a 24″ fish, was  your 7 fish day really a 5 fish day?

Respect the fish.

Be this guy. Respect the fish.