Belize is about 100 days away at this point and if I achieve one of my life goals and watch my daughter smack a bone on a fly, she’s going to need a double haul. We worked on it a bit last weekend.
But since Simon is better at this than I am…
04
Jan 17
The bluster and the long game – Bahamas Regulations Update
The Bahamas Fly Fishing Industry Association’s (BFFIA) president yesterday hailed imminent regulations to govern the sector as “one of the biggest pieces of legislation to come about since 1967”, as “closing the loopholes” will increase foreign currency earnings for Bahamians. (full story here)
1967 was the year the Bahamas became an independent nation. Yes… Prescott is saying his fly fishing regulation law is one of the most important things since Bahamian home rule. That doesn’t sound like an overstatement at all, does it?
Gone is any pretense that this is about conservation. If you recall the first days of this particular episode of this fight it was shrouded in envrio-speak. It was to protect the fish. But it never was about that. It isn’t even about what the regulations say or do now. There is a long game here and this is just part of it.
Mr Conservation, demonstrating proper handling of a bonefish.
Prescott, as he says himself, has been fighting this battle for 23 years. He’s not done. He’s laying a foundation.
“Most people don’t realise(sic) that because they hear the term ‘fly fishing’, but it’s the first piece of legislation that lays the foundation for building ownership by local Bahamians. It doesn’t matter your economic standing; there is something in this industry for you to lay claim to. That is what the legislation does. This is so huge.”
This is about who owns the lodges and where the money goes. Prescott doesn’t like foreign owned lodges since they are the competition and they are competitors that book more days at higher prices. They have more access to capital. They have nicer boats. They “speak American” in a sense and know how to meet client expectations. A lot of the big lodges are foreign owned, maybe all the big ones, but there are several Bahamian owned lodges as well. Water Cay and Swain’s Cay come to mind.
The way Prescott sees it, every dollar spent in the Bahamas that doesn’t go to a Bahamian is a kind of national crime, a continuation of economic colonialism. The first draft of the legislation we saw took aim at foreign owned lodges, despite there being ample legislation on the books about how investments in the Bahamas could be made. The aim, the long game, really is about getting rid of foreign owned lodges.
In the legislation snuck through there is little that impacts most DIY fishing, unless you had your own skiff or rented one while there. There is a license you need to purchase (the actual mechanics for that seem to be mostly FUBAR, but that’s another post). However, think of the long game here. Prescott seems to see any anglers fishing Bahamian flats without paying a Bahamian guide as stealing directly from the guide community and it is very much in his long term plan to change that.
Now, you can claim I’m doomsaying and you can say the regulations don’t limit DIY fishing, but let’s see how the regulations are enforced, how the licensing mechanisms work and let’s see what comes next. I’m gazing into the future here a bit, but I also have talked to a lot of people who have known Prescott for years and they all say this is where he has long said he wants to go. I just think I see the path he’s taking.
Prescott, and his supporters in the guide community and in the government, have been sold on the idea you can convert every second-home owner into a fly fishing guide client and every DIY angler can and will pay for a guide to fish the Bahamas. They also believe foreign lodge owners can be pushed out, and maybe the booking agents as well and that when it is all in Bahamian hands it will be an economic boon.
They believe, when all is said and done, this legislation will result in more days booked with Bahamian guides at Bahamian lodges and more money will be spent and will stay in the Bahamas.
Those of us opposed to this legislation disagree with that math. There will be fewer guide days booked in 2017 than in 2016, especially for independent guides. Bahamian lodges that struggled before will continue to struggle. Second home prices will drop and the economic boost construction and remodeling gave will disappear. Places like Ragged may never get fished (legally) while the legislation stands (a place with 67 inhabitants is unlikely to be able to support a licensed guide). Businesses which rent lodging or cars or boats or provide meals to DIY anglers will suffer. In short, we believe you can’t dictate too much to your consumers, your clients without it coming back to bite you in the arse.
Beyond just what it does to anglers, how about the fact that under this legislation a local Bahamian going out and catching a mutton snapper in 5 feet of water will need a license and could be fined if he doesn’t have one. A license fee or fine is a big deal in a place with a minimum wage of $4.00/hour and unemployment over 14%. The birthright of every Bahamian to go catch their dinner in the sea was just voted away behind closed doors. No one even seems to know it has happened.
The wounds will be self-inflicted and they will be deep and I honestly think we’ve only seen a glimpse of what gets built on this foundation.
Was this my last Bahamian bonefish?
01
Jan 17
How to be great at fly fishing
Davin, taking a shot.
I am not sure which coach said it, might have been at a basketball camp when I was in high school, but the coach said “Practice doesn’t make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect.”
That resonated with me a bit.
A second concept that has stuck with me is the idea that outcomes are not coincidental. That means if you want to improve a particular thing, you have to work on that particular thing with the goal of improving it… your main goal should not be a coincidental outcome, it should be an intentional outcome.
These sorts of things float around in my head, popping up from time to time and even sometimes getting applied to my life.
I was recently listening to the Freakonomics podcast and they talked about “How to Become Great at Just About Anything” where this idea of deliberate practice was discussed. This is where the 10,000 hour rule comes from, meaning to become elite at anything you need to devote a considerable amount of time, you need to put that time in with the goal of improving and you need to push yourself beyond your comfort zone.
The application to fly fishing is pretty clear. Your casting won’t improve if you only pick up a fly rod 5 or 6 times a year and it won’t improve if you practice in the best conditions only and only at distances you feel comfortable with. Your casting also won’t improve if you don’t have a mechanism to elicit feedback. If you come to understand what you are doing wrong, you can’t fix it.
That same sort of thing goes for writing and for singing and for parenting (probably, right?) and for surgery and for selling and for… everything you want to be good at.
Take a listen to the podcast and thing about what aspects of fly fishing you could apply this to… and what areas of your own life might stand to benefit as well.
28
Dec 16
2017 – A Preview
2017 should see me back in the salt. Here’s what I have in store (so far as I know).
From Abaco, 2015.
Belize
I’m headed back to Belize, this time with my 10 year old daughter for her Spring Break. We are going to Caye Caulker. There will be fishing and snorkeling and general hanging around and enjoying Belize. I’m hoping to get into a tarpon of some kind and to get the girl into some fish without her getting too bored, cause, ya know… 10 year olds. Should be a great trip though.
Florida
May sees me at a conference in Ft. Lauderdale and I’m going to tack on a few extra days and try, once again, to get one of those big ocean-sided tarpon. Previous trips have not gone well, so maybe I’m due? I know the odds are the odds and it doesn’t work that way, but I’m hopeful. Could be much of the same crew I’ve done the last two trips with will be back. We’ll see.
Hawaii
Location unknown, but the wife, son and I will head, most likely, to Hawaii in the summer and there, again, I’ll try to catch an O’io. I’m 0/3 when it comes to Hawaii and bonefish… so, again, we’ll see.
Louisiana
Five work trips in 2016 seems an indicator that I’ll be going back some in 2017 and if I am, I’ll likely sneak in a day or two of fishing. Had a great time on my last, very short trip. Looking forward to seeing more of the marshes.
The Bay
There are stripers in the Bay. I plan on catching more of them.
The Mountains
I hope to get up North for one or two trips in 2017 to catch some of those beautiful rainbow trout. Not salty, but home.
That looks like 2017 and I’ll be lucky if I get it all in. Life, as it does, gets in the way of a lot of fishing plans and at this point I’m fortunate to get in as much as I do.
Missing, in 2017, is a trip to the Bahamas. I love the Bahamas deeply, but this mess with the regs has me thinking I may just need some space from it all. I may need to explore a bit more, see what else is out there.
I’m already thinking about 2018… maybe that’s when a Christmas Island trip could happen. Maybe I’ll finally make it to Puerto Rico. Maybe finally fish the bonefishy side of Mexico. There are so many places I’ve yet to dip a toe.
27
Dec 16
2016 – A Review
Redemption
Ah, another year in the books. This one will be notable for many things, but I’m hear to talk about the fishing, the blog and blog/fishing related happenings.
I started off the year early on with a trip to Abaco with my we-don’t-talk-politics friend Aaron. We stayed at Abaco Lodge for a couple days and then went in search of our own luck. The fishing was of the highly enjoyable kind, even if it got noticeably harder once we left the lodge behind.
The second part of the trip, the DIY part, is something that would be illegal in 2017 with the new regulations. We rented a skiff and used it to get to and from the flats. There are no guides where we were fishing who have their own skiffs, so those waters just won’t get touched going forward.
My most memorable fish of 2016 came from this DIY portion of the trip.
From there I got a trip with the family to Maui where I failed to connect to a Hawaiian O’io, yet again.
The summer was full or promise, as summers tend to be, but the fishing didn’t really happen too much. I did get one trip up with friends to my home waters, but didn’t make it back. Probably the least freshwater fishing I’ve done in a year since I started fly fishing in 1996.
That was looking like all I’d get in 2016, beside a few locally caught stripers in the Bay.
At the very tail end of the year I got a surprise work trip to New Orleans (my fifth of the year) and decided this was the trip I was going to stick a Louisiana Redfish. It happened, with guide Capt. Ron Ratliff. Fun times.
And that pretty much is a wrap for 2016. What an odd year it has been.
The year was also just funky with all the Bahamas stuff going on. To fight hard against a slew of bad ideas only to see it slide by on an inside political fix, and knowing it will do so much damage to the Bahamas… well… it has kind of sucked. The Bahamas has been a really special place for me and now, I’m not sure where I am with it.
Next up… a preview of 2017.
26
Dec 16
Bonefish on the Brain – Redfish Expert
Well… I’ve been redfishing in Louisiana now and since I caught five reds I now feel like I can grossly and unfairly make sweeping generalizations about redfish based on 3 hours of fishing.
- Redfsih will let you take at least 4 casts on them before they get bothered, maybe 10 or 15.
- The weather in the marshes is always nice, sunny, about 65.
- Sheephead never eat.
- Only redfish under 10 pounds eat. The big fish never do.
- No black drum over 7 pounds ever eats.
- The longest cast you’ll ever need to make is 35′.
- You’ll never need to run more than 15 minutes from the dock.
- There will never be any other fly anglers while you are out fishing.
- Redfish are highly enjoyable.
Sure… there will be some who will say “Um, you know, you can’t make such broad statements based on three hours of fishing on a single day.”
To them, I say “We are in a post-fact world. It doesn’t matter if it is true, it matters only that I feel this to be true right now, for at least as long as it takes me to write this.”
Now… let’s see who doesn’t get sarcasm.
23
Dec 16
What to read: Body of Water by Chris Dombrowski
As I was flying back to the Bay Area from New Orleans I finished “Body of Water: A Sage, a Seeker, and the World’s Most Alluring Fish” by Chris Dombrowski.
This is the best book about bonefishing I’ve read to date. It isn’t a how-to or a where-are-they kind of book. It is a work of “creative nonfiction,” as the author calls it, and it speaks to so much that is at the heart of bonefishing I doubt I’ll do it justice in the description.
The book centers on David Pinder, guide extraordinaire of Deep Water Cay fame. The book, in language I wish I possessed, takes us through the early days of DWC and the role David Pinder played in the creating of what we know of as bonefishing and his legacy. There is just too much in this book you should read for yourself I don’t want to take anything from that experience.
I’ll say this about the book. It is well researched, unflinchingly honest and beautifully written.
I caught my first bonefish in DWC’s backyard. I’ve fished a half-day out of the lodge itself and have driven out to Mclean’s Town many times and after reading this book I know I didn’t know anything about the ground I was walking on.
In action in Grand Bahama in David Pinder’s back yard.
I don’t know what else to say. I can’t MAKE you read the book, but if you love bonefishing and have ever been out with a guide in the Bahamas, or maybe anywhere, you really should.
21
Dec 16
Louisiana Red
Capt. Ron Ratliff and I heading in after a successful few hours of redfishing.
My wife is in Montana with our boy at her parents’ place. My daughter is in Mexico with her mom. I’m in Louisiana for work.
This is my fifth trip to NOLA since August and I had yet to find time to fish for reds. I decided this would be the trip I’d change that.
When I got in on Monday I was surprised at how cold it was. Temps were in the high 40’s at night. It was, ya know, for a Bay Area person, cold. I didn’t fish Monday. I didn’t fish Tuesday, an equally cold day. I didn’t fish Wednesday morning, but after my last meeting of the day at 11:00, I headed south to meet up with guide Capt. Ron Ratliff for a half-day of fishing.
Wednesday was a beautiful day. The chill had gone away, temps were in the mid 60’s and the wind was negligible. I lucked out, pure and simple.
After getting to Chauvin and quickly changing out of my work shirt and slacks, we were off and on the water.
This was my first time fishing for reds in Louisiana. I was reminded strongly of the Marls in Abaco, but in place of mangroves you have the marsh grasses, which serve the same function in pretty much the same way. Small islands and bays and channels all were created by the marsh grasses, creating a maze of habitat for fish and the things they feed on.
We only fished for a little over three hours, but we found fish, a lot of fish, and they were often grabby. I was surprised at how close in the casts were (30 feet was a long cast and my longest, maybe 40′, was five feet past the fish) and how many casts these fish would let you take. They seemed not to care a whole lot about a half dozen casts landing all around them with a weighted fly. They didn’t like being lined, but beyond that, they were extremely agreeable.
Capt. Ron was easy to share a skiff with. He’s a local and he knows his water, and the fish, well. We had to change flies a few times to get it dialed, but we found what worked and the fish were mostly happy fish. We had a good time on the water and brought several fish to the boat in a day that was short on time to begin with. I had no complaints and was all smiles. I like this country and I like these fish.
I also managed to catch my first black drum, which was a nice bit of work.
I’ll be back. This is a special place, clearly, and it needs maybe some more of my time and consideration.
17
Dec 16
The latest Bahamas draft is here
The latest version of this dumpster fire is out. You can find it here.
This thing is supposed to be live on January 1, but there is no infrastructure set up yet. It seems very unlikely to be life Jan. 1, but at this point, who really knows?
Minister Gray seems singularly bad at administering pretty much anything, so, who knows?
From what I hear the meeting last week was illuminating. Again there was this rational that this legislation was needed because second home owners were running illegal bonefishing lodges. That, of course, is fantasy, but, ya know… there are folks in this country saying 3 million people voted illegally in California. Both claims have about equal veracity, but, if people feel it to be true it may not matter.
This is post-facts Bahamas. This is “acting in direct opposition of own economic interests” Bahamas. This is mind-numbing and frustrating and a bit like throwing pebbles at the waves (or flies at permit).
If I sign any deeper I’ll pass out.
Just a reminder… if you fish at a lodge, this really won’t impact you at all. You have a week with Oliver’s crew in Abaco or at Andros South, you will not be impacted by this. If you are fishing out of Deep Water Cay or Water Cay, you are totally fine. This doesn’t mess up most of the trips you might dream of taking in the Bahamas.
It does, however, screw with a lot of people… second home owners/skiff owners and DIY guys that used boats (even a two person canoe is out).
So, we wait and see. We wait to see if the legislation is going to go into effect on Jan. 1, like Mis-Minister Gray is insisting. We need to see how this is implemented and exactly how bad things get.
