That’s to say… really skinny. Just how skinny are we talking here? Well, you know how they say your child can drown in just inches of water? Well, bonefish can swim in that same amount of water, as it turns out. Deneki Outdoors has some really cool pics on their blog with pics of bones in tiny, little, itsy-bitsy water. Check it out.
Just air drying a dorsal.
There is a place that is slowly becoming synonymous with really big bonefish. The rumors are of an average size of 7 pounds with double digit fish a regular sight. It seems to be similar to Hawaii in that what the fish have in size, they lack in numbers. Despite being in the middle of nowhere (unless you live there, in which case you are just in the middle of whatever you are doing), the place doesn’t have Christmas Island numbers… but it has size… big ole bones… the tackle busting kind. This place is called New Caledonia.
Closer to Australia than to Hawaii (by a long, long way), New Caledonia sits in the South Pacific and looks to be a pretty interesting place. The lux lodges are not around just yet… as one report said, this is not a place for folks that need hand holding. The action isn’t hot and hectic, it is measured and tense… eyes looking for those truly large fish.
Seems in 2007 a group of anglers that included Charles Rangeley-Wilson (one of our bonefish addict faves) and Peter Morse hit the island in search of some of the giants. They both have write ups about this trip.
The price on offer… big bones.
Peter Morse describes the trip…
As always the weather in New Cal makes it a challenge, this is not the place for anyone who needs to have their hand held, you require a level of experience that at the least means choosing flies, tying knots, and making decisions. The fish aren’t particularly spooky most of the time, but seeing them, and dealing with the wind and cloud becomes a test of patience and skill. This is not a place for Christmas island cricket score numbers, it’s a place for quality, a few very, very, good fish that will really last in your memory.
Certainly sounds like an interesting place, not a place I’m ready for, but something to aspire to. Charles uses a bit more style in his article from Gray’s Sporting Journal…
What little I’d discovered about bonefish in New Caledonia told me only two things: that they are very hard to find, and that if you find one, it will be very, very large. It’s the latter more than the former that dragged me here. There are many species of bonefish worldwide—Morsie gave us an expert tutorial in this—but while the physical differences may be subtle, all bonefish are paranoid, skittish, morphing ghosts that mess with your mind, your eyesight, and your sanity. And in New Caledonia, so the international fish-whispering goes, these fish become truly massive. The biggest rush, the biggest wave.
I found a report at Fishing International that said this of the fish and fish size…
We weighed all our fish using a “Bocagrip”* and we released fish from 6 up to 10 pounds. Both of us saw larger fish that were out of reach. I estimate the largest fish I saw at about 15+ pounds, but it is difficult to be certain. The average size of the fish we released was 6.5 to 7 pounds. It was obvious that there are some very large fish around. How large? Our guide Antoine landed a 9 kgs. (19.80 pounds) fish using bait, the week before we got there. Can you take them with a fly rod? Claude Nickrass’s party from France hooked and lost some of these large fish in December 2000 using a fly rod. The next world record bonefish could certainly be caught in New Caledonia.
OK… that sounds pretty interesting, no? Even if I could catch a 19 pound bonefish in New Caledonia, I won’t be going any time soon. See, a quick look at Kayak.com for flights puts a price tag for a flight from SFO to New Caledonia at about $2,750. The trip there is about 24 hours, the journey back is about 30… 30 hours… like, over a day. Now, I’m not accustomed to travel to Australia or Singapore, so that sort of travel is enough to make me think “Andros has some big bones too… Hawaii has big bones and air conditioning!”
Still… New Caledonia sounds like a fascinating place… a place where “Elk outnumber inhabitants” and 19 pound bonefish have been caught (even if on bait). The next world record just might come from this little chain of islands in the South Pacific. Watch this space!
*Bocagrips are generally discouraged for handling bonefish. Don’t do it.
Popping up yesterday on a google alert was a bit of bonefish art. My current fixation on bonefish is pretty broad and includes art, just like it includes t-shirts. This print is by a guy named Mike Salven. He lives and works out of Costa Rica and does some interesting work, including immortalizing that big catch of yours (which looks totally ruling, by the way).
Oh, there are so many faces and facets to angling. That’s one of the great things about it.
Upon seeing this Salven painting I immediately thought of Tim Borski (I’d say they do pretty similar looking work, but I’m no art critic, I just know what I like), who does some pretty good work himself, including doing the art for that pretty frigging cool Able bonefish reel that is benefiting the Bonefish and Tarpon Trust. Tim has set a standard (if not THE standard) for painting fish for our modern age. Some good stuff. Check out his site to see more.
Bonefish Art.
One sweet looking reel!
Needless to say, each of these bits of bonefishy art is more than or equal to an actual trip for me, so they won’t be gracing the walls here in Bonefish Day Dreaming Capital of the Sierra Foothills… but if you have the scratch… art by either of these guys would be nice to stare at when it is gray and 36 outside.
MidCurrent, as a fly fishing blog, is pretty ruling. Chico Fernandez, as a bonefishing angler, is near deity status. The two coming together can only result is some good, tasty, crunchy, sweet and salty (man, I’m hungry) bonefishing goodness… and, so it is.
Chico’s book is near my bed so I can grab it and read a few lines if (really always) my wife is taking a bit too long to get ready for bed.
This little blog entry at MidCurrent should be at your fingertips as you head off to the bonefishy destination. Seriously… a great read to remind you of all that stuff you can do wrong so you can try to avoid those mistakes.
Check out Chico’s book at Google Books here. You can’t read the whole thing, but you can read enough of it to go buy it at Amazon.
Found this little video about some Kiwi’s roaming around French Polynesia… looks very nice, really. Prolly another one of those places I won’t have the fundage or time-age to get to… but I can appreciate that these blokes did and it looks like good times.
Vieques, Puerto Rico… yes, the place we used to drop bombs on… turns out, might have some pretty interesting fishing too. Vieques has several things going for it… first, it’s a US Territory, so travel is a little less complicated. Second, you can actually camp there (although I’ve read not to leave anything in your tent when you leave for the day). Third, and most importantly, there are bonefish there. How many? How big? How hard/easy? I have no frigging idea… but they are there.
There are a couple of guides that work the island… one of them has a blog (The Vieques Angler), which I read.
I found a story (in the NYT, of all places) about bones on Vieques and wrote the author. He said that there were flats you could walk out on, and that for around $15 a day you could even rent a kayak that would get you to other, more promising flats. This makes the island a good possible DIY/Self Guided location.
This is another trip that has some real potential to come in under that magical $1,000 threshold that makes it easier to negotiate on the home-front.
Vieques… looks nice.
No, not the Disneyland ride or a blockbuster movie. This is a new TV show, a bunch of legends, idols and… well, and an actor, out on the Flats fishing for bones, talking ecology, talking about their amazing lives… this is going to air on ESPN of all places, starting 12/27/2009 in January 2010. ESPN is starting to air more soccer and now fly fishing… now if we can just get Yvon Chouinard on Sports Center and Jim Rome eaten by a Bull Shark.
Check out the Tin Shed at Patagonia.com for all the goodies (they seem to have taken that down)! You not only see the trailer, but also photos by Val Atkinson (who is simply bad-ass at what he does, check out the link, as it is his own website and slide show of the Pirates).
The show has even linked up with the Bonefish and Tarpon Trust, so they are really hitting on all cylinders.
Tom Brokaw quoted about the project in USA Today:
NBC News’ Tom Brokaw, in doing his first TV fishing series, says he “didn’t quite know what I was getting into, except it was a chance to go fishing with my friends. … I belong to an informal fishing posse, kind of an aging boys club. You end up in these fishing camps where the emphasis is on good fishing, good wine and lots of good storytelling.”
In Pirates of the Flats, an independently produced series that ESPN will announce today and will debut in January, the posse — including actor Michael Keaton, mountaineer Yvon Chouinard and author Thomas McGuane — went to the Bahamas in search of the elusive bonefish. And don’t get the wrong idea, says Brokaw, just because bonefish can weigh just 3-5 pounds: “It’s not just blind casting. You’re stalking the fish. … They’re ghostly, quite primordial.”
Update – turns out this is filmed mostly in the Bahamas.
It seems the one constant when it comes to watery ecology is this… things appear to be heading toward utter and total destruction. The AP story below says that Florida Bay’s ecology is headed toward collapse with the cascade of damage and ruin already a good number of domino’s down the path. The culprits are pollution, diverted flows, urban sprawl… really this could be just about any water issue around the country. The more things change, the more they stay the same, they say.
ISLAMORADA, Fla. — Boat captain Tad Burke looks out over Florida Bay and sees an ecosystem that’s dying as politicians, land owners and environmentalists bicker.
He’s been plying these waters for nearly 25 years, and has seen the declines in shrimp and lobster that use the bay as a nursery, and less of the coveted species like bonefish that draw recreational sportsmen from around the world.
“Bonefish used to be very prevalent, and now we don’t see a tenth of the amount that we used to find in the bay, and even around the Keys because the habitat no longer supports the population,” says Burke, head of the Florida Keys Fishing Guides Association.
Doesn’t that sound good?? No? Yeah, to me either.
Everglades Foundation, one of the orgs trying to get things sorted (and it looks like they are having some success).
Flatswalker.com has a great video from a trip to go see Big Charlie Neymour. It’s a good little clip to get your heart racing and get you imagining yourself in a fierce wind casting to massive bones.
Check out the video here… couldn’t get the embed to work.
