A nice story on the Skinny Water Culture Blog from Courtney.
She went to Long Island, fishing the same waters I fished just a few months ago.
She did well.
I saw a few very large dark shadows swimming slowly, for a split second I thought they were juvenile tarpon they were so big. Then I realized…, “tarpon don’t live here”. They were bonefish, and not just any bonefish, at least 10lb and up.
Well done.
International flights… they eat up a seriously large portion of the budget, even if the hop from FL to Grand Bahama is pretty short, it adds up.
So, some good news on that front. Southwest is adding flights to the Bahamas. By “the Bahamas” I’m only talking about Nassau, nothing to Grand Bahama and certainly not the out islands, but Nassau is the gateway to the Family Islands, so that’s a good thing.
Hopefully, the “Southwest effect” hits the flights from other carriers and they allllll drop a bit. That’s what happens in the US when Southwest enters a market, so it is hoped the same thing happens for flights to the Caribbean.
Currently, the only Bahamas flight is from Baltimore to Nassua, although other US cities are being looked at as well.
I tried to reserve a flight to see what it all costs and couldn’t get a flight from SFO (or other Bay Area flights), but if I played with the dates I could see a flight from Baltimore to Nassau for about $275, which isn’t bad. Room to improve.
Who do you fly when you go to the Bahamas?
In case you missed it.. there is a proposal floating around Grand Bahama (yes, THAT Grand Bahama) to allow some Argonite Mining… that’s ripping up of the sea floor. It is a really bad idea.
Shervin Tate, deputy chairman of the Sweeting’s Cay township, said the proposed project is slated to create a mere 60 jobs but will destroy more than 300 – some of them very lucrative – and devastate one of the country’s most beautiful and bountiful marine habitats.
“Once you start to dredge, the conch will disappear, the lobster will disappear, and then you will see a disaster in our community,” Tate said, explaining that silt from the mine will suffocate all marine life for miles around.
This is a really bad idea.
This does not seem like a good place for a mine.
My buddy Shane did a hosted trip to Los Roques, as he does every year or two, and he put together this little video.
Makes me want to go to Los Roques very much.
[vimeo clip_id=”98998085″]
From my Cuba trip, 2012.
Today I told the guide I didn’t want to pick up my tarpon rod and I ended up not doing that at all. What was in store was a really fun day of bonefishing with Chris Santella and guide TiTi. We also managed to tangle with a few jacks and cudas.
The bones first. They were larger today than I had expected with the average bumping up toward 4 pounds. On one flat I spotted a dorsal and asked the guide if it was a bonefish. He said “No, shark……………… BONEFISH! BONEFISH! BONEFISH!” Had to be 10 pounds, plus. Didn’t get a cast in to it, but it was very exciting nonetheless.
The guide has two ways of finding bonefish. Looking for them and not looking for them. We went in search of Jacks a few times and almost every time we found bonefish. I didn’t mind at all.
That said… sometimes we weren’t the only ones to find the bones.
One bone got munched in half by a cuda. First time that has happened to me. Odd experience to reel in half a bonefish.
Thanks for the pull. Sorry it didn’t work out.
Those cudas… man… they are devious. Hooked up on a cuda and a second cuda bit the line, freeing his brother. BASTARDS!
All said a good day. Saw some really great and beautiful country today and had a very good time. Pics to follow when the frigging internet is fast enough!
Now, on to drinks on my last night on the Tortuga.
A photo from the next season of Buccaneers and Bones, grabbed from the Nervous Waters Facebook page.
Jimmy Kimmel… that should liven things up a bit. He’s out there with Oliver White at Bair’s Lodge in Andros.
That should be some entertaining television.
A new buccaneer.
A while back I got an email inviting me to go to St. Brandon’s. I couldn’t go. It just didn’t work. I couldn’t get the time off and I didn’t want to ask my very patient wife do mortal damage to our savings to get me the last minute air fare to get half way around the world.
St. Brandon’s is the place I most want to visit, and I had to turn down the trip. I little piece of me kind of died there and then, but that is life as a responsible adult, something I kind of need to be from time to time.
Happily, someone else (Chris Bladen) looks like he had a similar opportunity and he took it and the story is up in its glory on the Skinny Water Culture Blog.
Damn fine fish.
I’m starting to see several reports popping up from friends back from wonderful places… Christmas Island, Los Roques and the Bahamas. One trip that really looked like a good one was an Angling Destinations trip on the Sea Hunter to Crooked and Acklins.
I mean… come on… (here’s the full report).
Damn… that’s purdy.
Earlier in the week my dad and I went on a second river therapy day, again on the Lower Sacramento River. This time we went with Fred Gordon, guide and artist from Dunsmuir. Fred was the guy who took me out, many, many years ago, where it all clicked and I learned how to nymph, which is to say I learned how to be a California Fly Fisherman.
Dad and Fred and a nice Lower Sac trout
Again, the fishing was fantastic and my dad and I had a really good time.
On a river, or on a flat, the world’s tragedies and sorrows melt away and there is only the fish and the water and the people you are with. That’s the way it was on this day. Jetting up river, floating down and catching fish or talking about caught fish from years and trips gone by.
When we got off the river the sorrow was still there, but at least we had that day, and for a short time, life was about as good as it gets.
