Air Pacific resumed flights to Christmas Island this week after two years. The inaugural flight was received with joy and relief as businesses, particularly the tourism industry, was affected by the absence of international flights.
via New flight gains – Fiji Times Online.
This means those Christmas Island bones just got a little bit easier to get to.
Happy 4th of July.
During college I spent a year in Paris. Few things will make you more of a flag waver than living in Paris where you are constantly told America doesn’t have a culture or history. I came to a few conclusions from that year… first, I am American and I like being American and I am understood best by other Americans and understand Americans better than anyone else. I also realized that no one is as rude as a wealthy American in a foreign city.
On this 4th of July I thought I’d find some unique American Bonefish. The epicenter of American Bonefish has to be Florida, by a long way. We also have bones in good numbers in Hawaii. San Diego Bay has some bonefish. Puerto Rico has pseudo-American bones. There are some more far-flung American bonefish, such as those found on the incorporated atoll of Palmyra.
Palmyra is a long way from anything, but sits roughly south of Hawaii.
The blog Sweaty Waders has a story from 2008 about fishing there for bonefish and GT’s.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service has information about fishing Palmyra as well.
Sounds the opposite of easy to get there, but I wanna go. I’m not going to, but I want to.
There are semi-American bonefish there.
A video from Fly Water Travel. A nice little slide show with some fantastic photos.
Found a trip report about a recent visit to Aruba where bonefish were found and bonefish were caught. The report is on the Fly Talk message board, look for “Aruba Report.”
Well… that’s encouraging. Mark Dysinger is the angler who found those bones in Aruba. Thanks for putting your report up Mark!
Aruba Bone from Mark
Plans are coming together, plots are being hatched, arrangements are being made.
I’m sketching my next bonefishing trip out to a most unlikely spot… Puerto Rico. Specifically, I’m looking at the PR island of Culebra.
After talking with Chris Goldmark about the fishing, the fishery and the gillnets, I really want to come down, see the sights, experience the fishery and see if I can’t help shed some light and spread the word about this “other” US bonefish fishery.
My target time-frame is in the Fall… which creates some issues with weather, but is also my window of potential opportunity.
There is camping on Culebra for about $20 a day, which sounds pretty good to me. It isn’t Andros and it isn’t Christmas Island, but it should be a fairly interesting trip, if it all comes off.
Still lots of i’s to dot, t’s to cross.
Always fun to plan a trip… even if I don’t end up taking it.
Saw this recent story from Tie N Fly Outfitters from Australia about a trip to Nonouti, part of Kiribati. For those worried about Kiribati drowning due to global warming, don’t worry… it’s growing.
A bone from Nonouti
The trip appears not to have sucked.
That’s Trinidad and Tobago, not Thomas and Thomas.
Looks like my folks might be headed to the Caribbean next year with the most likely spot being Trinidad and Tobago.
Now, when I think of T&T I tend to think more of World Cup Qualifying than bonefish. My dad asked if I had posted anything up about T&T. Turns out, I hadn’t. A quick web search revealed why I hadn’t… turns out there isn’t much there in terms of bonefish because there aren’t many classic flats there.
From MyTabago.info:
Tobago is a reasonable, but not ideal, destination for the salt-water fly fisher. There is a scarcity of flats, so essential for bonefish. However, the flats at Friendship (between the Crown Point airport and Lowlands) are popular and ideal for bones, snook, snapper and the elusive permit.
One guide, listed on the above website that I found a few references to on different message boards was Kester Herbert. Reports about Kester were positive.
I'm sure there is a lot to offer, just not a whole mess of bonefish, it turns out.
Friend and new Florida resident Derek Rust caught a few bones from the beach yesterday along the East Coast of Florida.
Derek's beach bonefish
That wasn’t his only fish of the morning… so Derek is doing his part to dispel the notion of the impossible Florida bonefish.
Don’t know how I missed it, Google Alerts and all, but a new flats/bonefish blog has popped up, Thoughts From the Flats, out of the British Virgin Islands.
Nice.
The British Virgin Islands have plenty of the Gray Ghosts as opposed to the non-British Virgin Islands, which mostly don’t (or at least not in numbers that merit going there and targeting them exclusively… from what I’ve been told by folks that would know).
Here’s the most recent story out of BVI.
Alexander Davidson is the author and the blog has been up since February.
BVI Bone
The path to get to Los Roques if you happen to be in Australia is not a straightforward one…
If ever there was a fly fishing destination to challenge the dedication of even the best to us; this is it. Melbourne to Los Angeles. Los Angeles to Miami. Miami to Caracas. Caracas to Los Roques. After all the flying, luggage dramas, cancelled flights and added expenses; we are finally here.
That takes a lot of dedication and a real desire to be “there.” When the “there” is Los Roques, that kind of makes sense.
Here’s the story from Anthony Boliancu’s blog.
Lots of these down there in LR
PS – World Cup is going on… and the US got a point of England… fantastic! GO USA!
