Bonefish on the Brain Bonefish and all that relates (maybe a bit about tarpon too).

I’m a fan of cheap, as many of you may know. I like value when it comes to my fly fishing. I like mid-priced rods and I like mid-priced reels and I get a bit excited when I see something that really looks like a deal.

I don’t think that exists for GTs.

A good, cheap, DIY bonefishing trip might come in at $1,200 or so, maybe a little cheaper if you are camping somewhere, but there is still airfare and there is food and maybe some sort of transportation. Seems like getting to the fish once you are actually in one of these places would still take some doing, requiring you to pay someone to get you in position for a shot. Costs on top of costs on top of costs.

GTs tend to live a lot further away than bonefish do. Yeah, there are some in Hawaii, but I haven’t seen anyone foolish enough to promote HI as a GT destination. Beyond that you are talking places that are much harder to get to… Xmas and some other spots in the South Pacific and then the Seychelles and maybe a few other places in the Indian Ocean. The flights alone when you start looking at places like that tend to start at $1,200 and go up from there to maybe as much as $2,500.

The operations fishing GT’s are beyond my budget with a week’s fishing starting around $6,500 and heading north from there. That’s not something I’ll be doing right away.

So… my question to you, the BOTB readers is this… is there such a thing as a budget GT?

That GT would crush most of your bonefishing gear… just say’n.

I can already see the emails from people not understanding that I’m saying this tongue-in-cheek… that is unfortunate, but I’m going to plow on ahead anyway.

Reason #5 – No stream access fights

You can reach a flat, you can fish a flat and you don’t have Huey Lewis and Charles Schwab trying to kick you off lands that are actually your birthright.

Reason #4 – No ice in the guides

There is no such thing as de-icing your guides while bonefishing because it never freezes in those places. That’s always nice… not freezing.

Reason #3 – No stinky waders, no leaky waders

After a season of hard trout fishing there are two things I’ve learned to expect from my waders. First, they’ll stink like something died in them… in the sun… and stayed dead, rotting, in the sun for a number of days. Secondly, they would do a really crappy job of keeping the water out (this could be because of my poor choice in waders, I admit).

Reason #2 – No tiny flies

Man, I hate a #22 sized midge pattern. I really hate the tippets that you have to use to fish a #22 midge pattern. I have a 5x hook-set. Pretty much anything less and I’m going to pop the fly off. While bonefishing I’m mostly using 16 pound fluoro. I like 16 pound fluoro.

Reason #1 – The song of the drag

As a trout angler you have few chances to really hear your reel sing. Sure, you may end up catching a 22″ bow in heavy water and you may have a little line taken out. You probably will not see all your line scream through your guides at a totally unreasonable speed. You just don’t have that… unless you get your line caught on the propeller or something. It turns out having your line pulled like that, having it ripped fishward by a fish swimming in just inches of water… well… it is kind of awesome.

It isn’t an exhaustive list and I could easily have added “for me” onto the title, but that wouldn’t get people all freaked out and in the end would be less amusing for us all.

I trout fish more than I bonefish… at least 5:1 and likely more than that. I love trout and the places I fish for them. I love the feel of my waders (when they are not full of holes) and the familiar feeling of the wading belt, wading staff, net, chest pack. The feeling of a trout on the line. The sound of the water running over rocks. The evergreens and the dippers and waterfalls and gray, overcast days. I really do love it.

It is true that there are some people that would pick trout over bonefish if given side-by-side opportunities (of course there are people that would pick strawberry over chocolate too, as crazy as that sounds). I won’t argue here that they are wrong (although I think we all know that they are). I know that I’d pick bonefish for the reasons listed above and a couple dozen more.

See you on the trout stream.

Me. On my way to fish for trout.

Saw this article over on the Chum about Jim Klug’s evacuation from Bolivia not that long ago when he got hit, hard, in the eye in a freak accident that left him (temporarily) without vision in one eye and suffering a severe concussion.

Luckily, Jim had Global Rescue, a service that will basically get you medical help anywhere in the world.

Now, I’m not the global traveler that Jim is (few are) and I have not had need of that service just yet. I’m betting one or two of you might have a story to tell. I’d love to hear about it.

Foremost among weird stuff would be this thing.

Well… that’s freaky.