Bonefish on the Brain | Bonefish and all that relates (maybe a bit about tarpon too).

All the other stuff — 6 comments
30
Dec 15

New Season of Buccaneers & Bones

Buccaneers & Bones

I was surprised to see a new episode of Buccaneers and Bones record on my DVR last night. I guess there is a new season and that, generally, is a good thing.

This year they are back at Deep Water Cay, a place I got to fish out of for half a day. It is an amazing lodge, definitely on the high end of things. My wife was with me when we toured the private island a couple years ago and even she was impressed.

I love that there is a show about bonefishing and conservation and about the Bonefish & Tarpon Trust. I get to spend a half-hour on the flats of the Bahamas even when I am a couple thousand miles away and it is 39 degrees out (as it is this morning). So… I’m a fan of the show and a fan of the concept.

That said… let me register a few gripes.

Same old crew. This year there doesn’t appear to be anyone new (or anyone under 60). It is the same folks as years past and while that may be fun for them (I mean… yeah, it would be, wouldn’t it?), it is pretty stale.
Same old story line. Yes… Lefty is a legend. That was true the first time they said it and the time after that and the time after that and by now… well… I’m kind of over celebrating Lefty every episode.
“When you make the perfect cast…” On this episode Tom Brokaw says something about “when you make the perfect cast, it is just tremendously gratifying…” or something along those lines. However, here’s the thing… his casting is not exactly much good. I’ve seen really good casters and I have not seen good casting out of most of these guys. Tom… not so much. Huey Lewis? No. Lefty? Sure. Bill? Yeah. But most of the time the casts I see laid out there are absolute turds. The good news is that it demonstrates you do NOT need an excellent cast to catch bones (sometimes).
Fish fighting editing. They recycle underwater fish fighting footage and none of it captures the actual fight of these fish. The footage is of the very end of the fight when the fish is done and they are pulling the fish in front of the camera. If this is what bonefish fought like no one would be interested in catching them.
Too familiar. I wasn’t sure if it was even new. They’ve been to DWC before and these same guys have been on the show almost every year. It was difficult to tell if this was, indeed, a new year. That should tell you something.

Still… I’ll watch. Yvon is a personal hero and I love the Bahamas more than is reasonable and BTT is my favorite nonprofit. So, I’ll watch. I’ll watch, but I’ll also be hoping that if they do this again next year there is a new crop of characters, maybe even some folks below 50. Maybe they could go fish Mexico or Cuba or Hawaii or Christmas Island or anywhere they haven’t been before. I’m looking for a little bit of new and maybe we’ll get that in 2017?

Five Goals for 2016

I’m feeling optimistic and so I’m writing a post about how I’d like 2016 to go, from a fishing perspective.

Get some striper action. My local fisher turns out to have stripers in it and, by god, I’m going to catch some in 2016. I hear they aren’t really around until September, or so, and I’ll be checking.
Get somewhere bonefish live. I’m going to catch a bonefish in 2016. I can’t tell you where (probably not Florida, but now that I’ve said that, it will probably be Florida). I can’t tell you when (but dear god I hope it is soon).
Camping + Trout for the girl. The goal is always to get camping twice with my daughter and to get her into some fish. This has happened the past two years and I hope to carry it forward in 2016.
Get on the water with dad. This doesn’t happen too much anymore. I need to get at least a day on the water with my dad in 2016. Last year was a day up in Montana, which could happen again or we could hit the Lower Sac. I’d really like to get on the Klamath with him again, but it takes roughly an infinite number of hours to make that drive from the Bay Area. It needs to happen.
The McCloud. I love this river and I don’t fish it much anymore. I want (and this is my stretch goal) to get one, long day on the Lower McCloud to fish like I used to. If I could share that day with my friend John D, that would be even more ideal.

The McCloud. Closing. Where I am not.

All the other stuff — 1 comment
16
Dec 15

2015 – a beautiful, hard, fun and tiring year (and hell on my fishing)

Maybe I’m early to do a close out post, but this is when I have the time to do it and so I kind of have to jump on it if this is going to happen.

I don’t actually have the time. I’m supposed to be packing up our house because we are moving in either five or six days, depending on when we get the keys to our new home. And that starts to give you a sense of my year. It has been jam packed. It has been full to the rim and overflowing like a beer poured in an pub-like setting.

Work goes well and I continue to love my job. The family is doing well, with my wife enjoying her work, my son being a real joy and my daughter settling into only being with us 25% of the time. My dad is doing well, a year after losing his wife, and is traveling and seeing the world (dude went to Peru, Alaska and even to Africa in 2015). There are some health issues going on in the family, which is the only reason the year might get a downgrade on the overall scale, but all other sectors of the year have been positive.

Well, except for the fishing.

Spring Break was in Abaco, which was both wonderful and feels like it was a million years ago. My second saltwater trip of the year was in the Florida Keys and while it was a good time, it was also a massive ass kicking… the kind reserved for big tarpon hunting or possibly permit fishing. Five fishless days and one day with a few, but none of the big ones I came there for.

I let Davin fish for about 5 minutes… this was a pretty good shot though.

There were two camping trips with my daughter with fishing around the margins and there was a family trip to Montana.

The girl and a couple of hatchery trout, soon to be smoked.

There were several short sessions of casting either bait or hardware for fish in the SF Bay.

There were not the solo fishing trips of years past. I only got one day fishing with my dad. I didn’t fish with my fishing buddies. I didn’t fish the Lower McCloud or the Lower Sacramento. There were fewer fly fishing days than any year since 1997 when I first started fly fishing.

Life just got in the way this year. Not just for fishing, but for the blog as well. I’ve put up fewer posts this year than any other in the five year history of BOTB.

I’m hoping 2016 has a bit more fishing in it and my recent discovery of fly fishing opportunities in the SF Bay almost guarantees more stick time in the new year and likey a fair number of stripers. I hope there is a bonefish in the mix, and maybe a 20″ rainbow too.

striper one

I hope your year has been a good one, full of fish and family and fun and that the hard times weren’t too hard and that the bad times passed quickly. I hope your 2016 is even better and I hope that our paths might cross, maybe in some Bahamian bar with a Kalik in hand and a story to tell.

Locations — 1 comment
07
Dec 15

In and Out in Florida

I was in Florida for DAYS and not one of them was a fishing day. I didn’t manage to get a day tacked on to the trip and so, for the first time, I went to and left Florida without casting at anything (which is almost how my actual fishing trip to the Keys went back in June).

I am starting to get my head up a bit and starting to look out at 2016 for a saltwater session. Amazing what that does for the mood.

Not sure when… lots to navigate, but I’ve told my wife I want to Christmas gifts… just a trip… just a week of me in the sun trying to find fish under the shifting and hypnotizing patterns of moving water over the flats.

It’s going to happen… likely back to the Bahamas, and likely more on the DIY side of things with maybe a couple guide days thrown in so I don’t get skunked.

So good to have something to look forward to, even if it hasn’t exactly taken form yet.

Flies / Locations — 2 comments
02
Dec 15

The most awesome fly ever

I know this has made the rounds, but damn… this is just the coolest thing I’ve seen in a long time. I love everything about this. Makes me think about getting that trip to Christmas on the books… 2017?

All the other stuff — 1 comment
30
Nov 15

SHARKS!

Gink and Gasoline did a really interesting piece that came up in my email this AM about sharks.

If you’ve been out there, you’ve been around them. I haven’t had any calls as close as his, but I have had a couple of sphincter tightening incidents.

It is their home and we are taking dinner out of their mouths, so, a little caution goes a long way and a bit of education helps. Read the G&G piece.

Company.

Gear — Leave a comment
29
Nov 15

Remember Albright?

Albright GP’s

The emails were as frequent as they were slightly misleading. SALE! Everyday a SALE of some kind or another and you had to ACT FAST to take advantage… except you didn’t need to act fast because the sale price was the every day price.

That was Albright for you. Some years ago now the emails stopped and I didn’t even realize it. Albright shut down, although their shell of a website says warranties are still honored.

I own two of their rods. I have an 8/9 rod that was the first rod I got to do anything in the salt, quickly replaced by a better stick, and a spinning rod I got to chase after jacks and cudas. Oddly enough, I’ve had way more joy out of the spinning rod, although I recently cracked one of the ferrules out prospecting on the beach here.

I guess we are fortunate that we live in a time where a company like Albright can disappear and I don’t even notice it. We are flush with options, most of them pretty good, at a variety of price points, from just over $100 to well over $700 when it comes to rods capable of casting to a bonefish.

They had reels too and it felt like they tried to branch out into other gear as well, but my memory is fuzzy here and it isn’t like I can go research on their website. Whatever it was they did, didn’t work. Fly fishing is a tough market to crack, I’d think. It matters profoundly to those of us who are passionate about it, but we are not so numerous as we sometimes think we are and the established players are very, very established.

So long Albright. My inbox doesn’t miss you.

Fish Tails / Locations — 7 comments
27
Nov 15

Stripe-ah

I’ve had a revelation in fish form.

Stripers, fly caught, in my home town.

See… a couple weekends ago we were doing a family photo shoot at a local park. It went well, as you can see from the nice photo below.

The Fam

As we were leaving I saw a guy with a fly rod. I asked him what in the name of all that was holy and good he was fishing for. He said he was catching stripers right there. Like… right there. just a hundred feet or so away. He gave me the skinny and I thanked him.

I’ve been thinking of that nearly non-stop ever since and today, when my wife got home a little early, she said she thought I should go fishing.

I agreed.

And then this happened.

striper one 12311433_10154484612391808_320635074_o

Stripers. On the fly. Many of them. Without a boat. Minutes from home.

And in an instant, my fly fishing life just changed. I realized my son may have his first fly caught fish be a striper, not a trout. How wild is that?

As I was leaving that spot tonight I saw that same fisherman and I thanked him again for changing my whole perception of the Bay… for changing my life, in fact.

Pretty awesome.

All the other stuff — 1 comment
26
Nov 15

Happy Turkey Day

Heading out in the Marls

Thanksgiving is a good holiday. It is all about family and being thankful.

I have many things to be thankful for this year. Here are a few.

First, the fishing. I managed to get to Abaco this year and enjoyed the experience tremendously. It seems a long time ago now, but it was in 2015. I got to go there with my wife, children and my dad. It was a special trip.

I’m thankful I’ve learned more about the fishery out my front door and can now add stripers and halibut to the list of potential targets and fly fishing as a potential method.

I’m thankful I got to get my daughter onto twenty trout again this year up in Montana, and that she christened her new fly rod with an Upper McCloud caught rainbow.

That was about it for fishing this year. This is probably the year with the fewest flyfishing days I’ve seen since I started fly fishing in 1996. It just worked out that way. Maybe 2016 will be better on that front. I bet it will.

Of course, I have much more to be thankful for beyond fly fishing. I have a wonderful, intelligent and beautiful wife. I have two great kids. My dad is still around to torment me with his tales of all the fishing he is doing. I have my brother and his partner and a great brother-in-law and sister-in-law.

I have a great job that I love, working with people I enjoy.

We are buying a house and should be in our new, permanent digs by Christmas which should put an end to my nomadic roamings (12 moves in 20 years and I’m not even in the military).

I have my health and my incredible good looks, plus my humility and sense of sarcasm.

I hope you all have plenty of things to be thankful for in your lives and I hope our paths may cross (but not our lines).

Happy Thanksgiving.

All the other stuff — 2 comments
21
Nov 15

Bass Pro comes to San Jose

I managed to stop by the new Bass Pro Outdoor World in San Jose when i was down to pick up my daughter.

San Jose Bass Pro

This is not a small store. It is massive. It has a bowling alley (although I’m not sure I get the connection). You can find bait fishing supplies, boating supplies, camping gear, kayaks and canoes and, of course, fly fishing gear.

It is so odd to see all the tarpon and tuna and dorado up on the walls in a place that doesn’t have much of any of those things. Still, a pretty fun place to go and look around. There is a big tank with all sorts of fish I’d like to catch.

They even had some Mako boats there that looked pretty sweet, although where you’d fish a boat more suited to ocean-side tarpon fishing than whatever you are going to find in the Bay, I’m not sure (honestly, I’m not sure… where would you take one of these?).

Mako boat

The store is a great thing for those that crave outdoor/fishing gear, but it does make me think about the little shops, like the California Fly Shop, that will likely end up hurt by this, or little Mel Cotton’s. People go from owners to employees. It changes the complexion a bit and it removes a lot of the personality from the experience.

Bonefish on the Brain Bonefish and all that relates (maybe a bit about tarpon too).