Bits and pieces from around the blogosphere:
Craig Matthews has a life that many of us might aspire to. He started and runs Blue Ribbon Flies in West Yellowstone. He’s written books, put out fishing videos and has fished all over the world. While wadding out chest deep in the fly fishing industry, he’s also been a real force for conservation, co-founding 1% for the Planet with Patagonia’s Yvon Chouinard (see them talking about 3 Dollar Bridge here).
Craig, just back from Mexico
There are big fish and numbers of fish. Would you rather have a day full of bonefish or a few shots at the real monsters?
I like to have the opportunity to see a bunch of bones during the course of the day. This gives me the chance to observe their behavior; feeding, cruising, sleeping, milling, etc. I like observe and then do what the fish tell me to do. If they are feeding I try to imitate what they are feeding on. This comes from spending a lot of time snorkeling with them, etc. I carry fins and snorkel when fishing. If the fish are sleeping, which I find many of them are when tailing, I like to wake them up with a cast into them to watch what they do. Often once woke up they will grab most anything. I could go on and on here but with lots of fish and as much time as I spend fishing, observing and snorkeling with them, I can learn more with every minute I spend with bones. If I have but a few to fish it does not allow me this opportunity. Don’t get me wrong here though, I like big bones too!
I watched your instructional video a while back about bonefishing. Since that was made are there new nuggets of information you wish you had been able to include?
Take snorkel and spend time with the fish. they might let you into them if you quietly snorkel and you can learn so much in such a short time underwater, in their world. Do what the fish tell you to do…they read like an open book!
I have read that you were behind Pop’s Bonefish Bitter. In recent times there have been a slew of alternatives to epoxy that have been rising in popularity. Have you started to migrate away from epoxy at all?
Myself and guide Pops Cabral from Turneffe Flats lodge in Belize came up with the Bitters in 1991 after much time spent searching what bones feed on. I still fish the Bitters and am a fan more of hot glue than epoxy but I find myself tying more and more patterns with soft materials like natural and synthetic dubbing blends, polar bear, etc.
Is there one bonefish that stands out in your memory above others?
One bone, a female over 8 lbs, Pops and I fished for over an hour as it circled and fed around a small caye at Turneffe. We finally fooled this fish on a #10 olive Bitters. When it was landed the hook had penetrated behind the upper crushers and died on us. I have not had this happen since. We opened it up and checked stomach contents and it was full of tiny olive crabs, size #10. One important lesson where fly pattern can really make a difference!
OK, not a bone, but from his most recent flats trip.
Do you find yourself returning to the same places year after year or do you go looking for the up-and-coming locations, new environments?
I like to fish the same venues a lot as you can learn so much from visiting the same flats and reef yearly rather than hit and miss. Too, Turneffe Flats presents some of the toughest bones anywhere in the world to fool so I like fishing there each year. I also like some places in southern Mexico’s Yucatan with lots of fish and so many places to snorkel with them.
If you are able to answer this, what is your favorite bonefish rig?
I like a 9 foot Winston B2x 8 wt rod, Able Super 8 Reel, Rio Bonefish line,. Rio 12 foot bonefish leader tapered to .012 and I add at least 4 feet of 1 or 2x fluoro tippet
Being out on the water a lot you have a chance to see unusual/unique things. What’s the most unusual thing you’ve seen out on the flats in your fishing life?
What I believe to be spawning, pre-spawning bones. I snorkel into them and watch as they rise to the surface with mouths open and quiver and shudder.
Thanks Craig and keep up the good work!
A few bits and pieces from around the web…
No, not from a massage parlor… the fishing kind. Today when the monkey went to sleep I went out for one last round of fishing. The tide was a little better and the water just looked more… fishy. I managed my first fish while changing up my retrieve from super fast to super slow… evidently, slow and steady wins more than just the race. First fish of the day, a Leatherjack, about 12″ or so. Next, I saw a small log floating 50 feet off shore… fish were attacking it, hitting it over and over again. I got a cast out, slow retrieve and the smallest fish of the bunch hammered it… Jack Crevalle, about half a pound, little guy.
So, I stood there, casting, retrieving, casting, retrieving, ya know… “fishing.” All of a sudden, I saw a tail cut through the murky water in front of me, swimming fast, about 5 feet from where I stood… the forked tail was clearly visible and it was… um… massive… I’d guess 20 pounds… maybe more. Safe to say my interest was peaked.
Bait were popping, boils were sporadic, butt pretty frequent, but still… cast, retrieve, cast, retrieve. I was starting to think about heading back, hoping my daughter had slept during her nap and thinking it was a bit of a bummer than my jig clousers had not produced.
Tug, set, bigger tug, line going out, clear the line and it was clear this wasn’t a little guy. Now, the last nice Jack Crevalle I caught here was on a 7 wt. with a cheap Cabela’s large arbor reel… the reel did not do well (grinding is not a good sound when reeling). This time I was fishing my TFO Clouser 8 wt., the rod I brought to the Bahamas, and my TFO Large Arbor 357 reel. This fish didn’t stand a chance. So nice to have confidence in your gear.
The Jack went about 4 pounds. I kept it, brought it to one of the resort restaurants and it fed 3 adults. Toro are not known as great eating fish, but this was de-lish.
I release almost all my fish... but a couple become dinner.
Of course, I have no pictures of any of the fish-just-caught, since my waterproof camera took a header yesterday and is not recoverable.
The trip was a good family trip with lots of pool time for the 3 year old. The fishing mostly s-ucked, but ya know… I didn’t get to fish the best tides, I got to fish the tides when my daughter was sleeping. The surf was also much rougher this trip than I had seen it before. As always, I was amazed at how much the river mouth had changed in just a few months.
Now… back to my bonefish fixation.
PS – The “Biggest Doucebag” award goes to the guy I saw this morning walking around in a “The Working Class Can Kiss My Ass” T-Shirt. If you own one of these you should feel bad about yourself. If you WEAR one of these, you should jump off a really high building.
Appreciate you breaking me off a little here in Vallarta. Maybe, just maybe, next time, you could let me catch more than one?
The skunk is broken for the trip.
I should add that this fish was caught with a Chernobyl Clouser… glow in the dark materials. So, a skunk breaker on two fronts.
Dear Fishing Gods,
I appreciate your efforts to teach me humility. The two goose-eggs produced the last two days are true examples of your power and my powerlessness. That trip to the Bahamas was a real show of force as well and we don’t even need to get into the stolen St. Croix, my brush with the Message Board Which Must Not Be Named or my inability to make it to the East Walker for the past six months.
You have clearly been working overtime to show me who’s boss and I admit that it is you, not me and that I have a load to learn… including patience and humility.
Thinking back, I think you might have been behind that big fish I lost on the Metolius last summer. Boy, that was a good lesson learned there. You truly are a powerful and spiteful deity. You must have had a good chuckle about that one… knot in the leader, green drake, 20″+ fish… and spectators… if there is more than one of you, you must have had a good communal giggle on my account there.
Back to present times, I would really appreciate it if you’d just knock it the hell off and let me catch some fish again while I’m down here in Vallarta for a few more days. I would sacrafice a goat or chicken or something, but I simply don’t have any. However, when I get back home I’ll run a nail over my Fallout 3 game for my PS3, which should satisfy your wanton desire to inflict pain on the souls of faithful anglers.
Tight Lines,
B-
I’m in Vallarta, Nuevo Vallarta to be specific. Here for a few days with my daughter and my mother-in-law and her husband.
I’ve had some really enjoyable fishing the past few years from the beach. This year, I have some glow-in-the-dark flies to try out, so I went out the first night. No dice. The flies held their glow for about three casts before needing to be recharged with the headlamp.
I was picking up exactly 0 fish, 0 hits, 0 anything. As I was walking down the shore I noticed something bobbing just off the beach… a gill net, strung across the whole river mouth. Well… that pretty much sorted that out. Now I don’t know if the Chernobyl Flies would have worked or not. Bummer.
As I was walking back I noticed something in the foam line and a few steps further and I saw it was a sea turtle. The turtle was struggling to get over a little sand berm that had been formed. I watched as it finally struggled over the berm, made its way 20 or so feet up the beach and began digging a whole.
It occurred to me that this stretch of beach is just about the only bit of sand this turtle could have laid her eggs. This is the most natural bit of beach for probably 15 miles in either direction with resort upon resort upon resort. I watched her for a while as she started dropping her eggs and I left her in peace to finish her work.
Vallarta Sea Turtle
While I was bummed about the gill net and lack of fish, I felt pretty fortunate to see the sea turtle.
Today I went down to the river mouth to try my luck again. Got skunked, which doesn’t happen often here. On the walk back I looked for the spot the turtle had laid her eggs.
I found it… there was a hole and a couple dozen eaten turtle eggs. Something had gotten to them and all her effort was wasted.
Well… that sucks. C’est la vie.
My blog here is changing to be a self-hosted blog… that means I’ll have a little more control over things and can do things like offer advertising… in this case, I’m going to promote some of the people and companies that I like… BTT, Skinny Water Culture, Deneki, Off the Hook Fly Shop, etc.
Things will have a new look and you’ll see some new things. Thanks for reading.
There were a lot of great things to look at during the Fly Fishing Show… reels, rods, locations, excellent fly tiers doing their thing and fly fishing art. There were some less than wonderful sights, however, and I think the most disturbing of all was a show-goer walking around in a “Man Boobs Are Sexy” shirt.
No… no they aren’t.
I was not surprised to see that this shirt comes in XXX-L.
This is certainly not part of the fly show uniform… I think they should institute a dress-code next year just to keep this guy out.
Some thoughts from my recent trip to my first home waters…
Happiness
The wading boots are still wet… cold in the morning from a night in the car.
The rod is rigged with whatever was working yesterday,
The knots tested, the tippet long enough and the weight sufficient for the task.
.
The pulse of the river has already been taken and its mood known.
The path along the river has been plotted,
The first cast visualized,
The result predicted…
With confidence.
At the river's edge... ready for the day.
