Aaron Adams and BTT are everywhere, carrying the water for most of us who love, like or otherwise fish for bonefish. Found a story from the Miami Herald.  BTT went down and met with Bahamian guides to discuss increasing participation in the tagging and reporting of tagged fish.  Read the story here.

Tagged bone. Photo from... MIKE MAZUR / FLY FISHING IN SALT WATERS

How long is your commute?  I once had to drive 100 miles, but only had to do it twice a month.  Mr. Bonefish, it turns out, can put in some serious miles.

Florida has a tagging program thanks to the Bonefish and Tarpon Trust and  the Florida Keys Fishing Guides Association.  One of those tagged fish was caught and tagged near Key Biscane.  From there it crossed the Gulf Stream (something researchers didn’t know they did) and was caught off Andros, about 186 miles away.  This more than doubled the longest known movement by a bonefish.  This has all sorts of implications… it means Florida bonefish may be intermingling, and maybe interbreeding, with Bahamian bonefish.

Here is the news from Science Daily.

That's a long commute, Mr. Bonefish

Hawaii is a beautiful place.  Really.  I love it.  For a long, long time it was not thought of as a fly fishing mecca by most of the fly fishing public (as far as I know, any way).  While that is starting to change,  thanks to the presence of big, huge O’io (bonefish), there are other things that are slower to change.

Hawaii is still primarily a meat fishery.  Lots of blue water, lots of dead fish and some tasty fish tacos.  Mahi Mahi, Trevally, others.

Ulua

I recently sat next to two native Hawaiians at a wedding reception and we started talking about bonefish (yes, pretty much all I talk about).  The woman talked fondly about bonefish fish cakes that marked just about every important event in her childhood.  Bonefish are still eaten in Hawaii.  It has cultural connotations (here’s another reminiscence of O’io cakes).  The memo about the economic value of a bonefish hasn’t reached the islands.

There are some folks that are doing some good work, however.  There is a tagging program at work in the Islands aimed at learning more about Hawaiian O’io.  The Oceanic Institute and Hawai’i Pacific University have teamed up to launch the tagging program.  I look forward to learning more about their work in the future.

I also look forward to a day when bonefish are not made into cakes and the locals are OK with that.

Tag 'em!