Want to read a book set in a Grand Bahama bonefishing lodge? Well, there happens to be such a book… Island Salt. The author of the book is Sydney Watson.
The little story about the book was something I found on Bahamas Islands Info.
Island Salt, is set in a legendary bone fishing lodge on Grand Bahama, which becomes the vortex for murder and misplaced loyalty.
Trout and I are on pretty good terms.
Bonefish are my obsession and I’m still figuring them out.
Surf Perch… we don’t get along.
I went out to the surf south of Santa Cruz today… swells were small, 2.6 or so… easy compared to the first time I was there.
See, that isn't so bad.
I wasn’t alone out there… saw a bunch of seals, even a couple dolphins cruising just beyond the breakers.
I was out with my TFO Clouser 8 wt. throwing a T-400 and throwing and throwing and throwing… stripping, throwing, stripping, throwing and every once in a while bracing for a bigger wave.
Ruh roh.
Hold on.
Nut’n. Zero. One grab and that was it. Two and a half hours and one, unconverted grab. My line hand was getting to be non-functional and I started losing the line on the double haul.
Oh, Surf Perch, I don’t know you at all.
The surf zone is still pretty hard for me to read and the fish… the fish aren’t visible, don’t show themselves, the structure is merely hinted at by the surf. With a trout you can look at a run and pretty easily identify where the fish is going to be. With bonefish you see the actual fish. Surf Perch… you don’t see anything (or at least I don’t).
Might need to get some help on this one.
I’d rather be fishing for bonefish (or trout, or bass, or carp).
At least I don't have crabs.
#UPDATE# – Colton Harris was caught today in the Bahamas… I had a feeling this would be the end… he wasn’t even fishing! Read more here.
I read the first story in Outside Magazine a while ago and caught news today via the OM Facebook page about a possible update on Colton Harris, teenage criminal mastermind and modern day Robbin Hood (without the benevolence or otherwise good intentions).
Seems Colton may have stolen a plane in Indiana and flown to Abaco… where he promptly crashed. The kid taught himself to fly, but has yet to get a hang of the landing part.
From the Black Fly Bonefish Club:
@BFBonefishClub :Much excitement over the barefoot bandit landing in our frontyard at the lodge. Local hog hunters were not successful in finding him.
Let’s see… a 6’5″ white kid roaming around Abaco? How long could the kid really hold out? I’m guessing he’ll be sticking out a bit when he isn’t crashing in the vacation homes of wealthy Americans who may have second/third/fourth homes in the Bahamas.
I didn’t see a fly rod in this picture…
Hi... I'll be staying at your Abaco beach house, if that's OK with yoou... and even if it isn't.
Deneki Outdoors has long been one of my favorite websites for my bonefish fix… he simply puts up a lot of interesting content.
The most recent post is 4 Things to Learn About Bonefish… all from one simple photo.
I’m not going to steal his thunder… go ahead and visit the site and check it out.
Thinking about what I might be able to illustrate in one photo…
4 Things from this photo:
Ah… my 20’s….
Marshall Cutchin is the editor and publisher of the website MidCurrent, which sits firmly in the middle of the flyfishing-meets-web world. He was a Lower Keys guide, so he’s no stranger to bonefish. Marshall recently agreed to answer a few questions about his bonefishing life.
Marshall, where would you say you are on the arc of the bonefisherman?
As in all my other fishing, I remain an adequate bonefisherman. I’m on pretty good terms with them — they do all the things I expect them to do, like run up and eat flies that land 20 feet away and reject all of my absolutely perfect presentations. It’s pretty hard not to like them.
I saw you had flies included in Aaron Adams’ book A Fisherman’s Guide to Saltwater Prey. Is there a bonefish pattern you are particularly enjoying tying these days?
One of my favorite bonefish flies is still a small Merkin. They are very easy to tie and cast, and they work in almost every part of the world that I’ve fished. Not to mention that they are handy to have on the line when a permit, mutton or small tarpon shows up.
Do you have a favorite bonefish rig (rod/reel) these days?
I’m using an Orvis Helios 8-weight and Tibor Everglades reel almost all the time now, though I also carry my old Sage III RPLX nine-weight and Abel 3N, both more than 20 years old now — that’s a mojo thing.
Through your blog, Midcurrent, I’d imagine you are paying pretty close attention to what’s going on around the industry. What’s the biggest bonefishing story you’ve seen in a while?
We get a ton of fish pictures, but honestly I think the best stories I hear are from the real experts — people like author Carl Hiaasen, who told me about a week of spring fishing when the fish wouldn’t eat anything… until they did. Just catching one difficult tailing bonefish on a place like Islamorada’s Shell Key or Buchanan Bank is worth a week’s frustration. And they don’t have to be 12-pounders.
Do you have a bonefish that stands out in your memory more than others?
Probably a 10-pound fish that Del Brown caught with me after we had already caught a couple of permit. He was annoyed that the fish had garbaged one of his perfect flies and that I had to retie his leader.
What are the toughest conditions you’ve experienced out on the flats?
I’ve fished four or five days when the wind was blowing 30-35 knots. A couple were permit fishing and the other two were tarpon fishing. Every time the fishing was fantastic, if painful.
When I think of bonefishing, I also think of cracked conch and a cold Kalik. What associations do you make when thinking of chasing bones?
I think of not eating lunch because the fishing was so good. Crystalline light. Getting in the water with a dying sperm whale while at the end of an evening trip for tailing bones. And the first time I ever caught a bonefish, which grabbed a pink streamer I was throwing to baby tarpon beneath the Boca Chica (Key West) naval air station runway. It’s the unexpected that’s easiest to remember.
Thanks Marshall. Much appreciated.
Now, I’ll be the first to tell you I don’t know a lot/anything about boats. I do know that I am drawn to the lines of flats boats. Bob Hewes, it turns out, is one of the guys responsible for the clean, sleek and function driven modern flats boat. He recently passed away at 86.
Robert Hewes, founder of Bob Hewes Boats Enterprises, died Sunday at his home in Miami. He was 86.
Hewes was involved in the marine business going back to his childhood working with his father, before founding his own company, which is now run by his family. He developed the first of what is now known as the modern flats boat and named it the Bob Hewes Bonefisher.
via Robert Hewes pioneered the flats boat.
Seems the company that Bob created was sold a long while back and it is now Maverick.
Nice looking boat.
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)
More news on Buccaneers and Bones from the filming down in Belize and El Pescador.
…this past week Ambergris Caye was host to some heavy weights in the entertainment industry as they filmed “Buccaneers and Bones”. El Pescador (Lodge) was chosen from three locations in Belize to host Orion Multimedia, Michael Keaton actor/director, Tom Brokaw news anchor/author, Yvon Chouninard founder Patagonia, Bill Klyn director Bonefish and Tarpon Trust, Zach Gilford actor, Thomas McGuane acclaimed author, Lori-Ann Murphy director of fishing at El Pescador, and Aaron Adams, scientist, Bonefish and Tarpon Trust. According to Ali Flota of El Pescador, this was the “Coup de grace of fly fishing”, and truly an honor.
via El Pescador hosts Stars, Belize News, San Pedro Sun.
Don't you wish you were there? (photo from San Pedro Sun)
Fly Fishing in Salt Waters keeps on delivering good bonefishy wonderfulness to my mailbox. I pay them to do it, but I still appreciate the quality of the content.
Good Stuff
“Buccaneers and Bones” is the succesor to Pirates of the Flats and the Ambergris Daily shed a little light on the filming currently going on in Belize.
The “Buccaneers and Bones” series features the anglers’ passion for fishing and the camaraderie they share as they search for answers on how to safeguard our environment. In addition to fishing the famed salt water flats of Belize, these notables are fishing for answers, too. How can we save our last great coastal environments? It’s a question that has been the heart of Bonefish and Tarpon Trust’s mission since 1998, and is being pursued by some of the world’s top scientists.
As you can imagine, I’m looking forward to this.
