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Conservation — 2 Comments
30
May 12

O’io… the gamefish

From the outrage over the bonefish netting a few days ago has picked up some steam.  There’s an on-line petition to ask for bonefish to be moved from the “kill as many as you can catch” category to the “gamefish” category, meaning they would not be in markets any longer.

Hatch Magazine has a story about it…

Opponents of net harvesting of Hawaiian bonefish, known locally as o’io, are attempting to have these fish placed under gamefish status by Hawaii’s governor. Once under gamefish status, killing bonefish would not become illegal, but Hawaiian bonefish would be harvestable only when caught by rod and reel, thus ending the ability of local fisherman to harvest large catches of bonefish via netting.

Read the story here.

Of course, this has been going on for a long time.  I ran a story about the netting bonefish on Kauai a while back. Bonefish have been eaten by the locals and natives for a long, long time.  However, modern tactics (like nylon nets) have the potential to wipe the fishery out.  Seems like it is time to do something about it.

Go ahead… sign it.  Only 296 had done so when I last saw it. We can do better.

Tactics — 2 Comments
24
May 12

Tips from Fly Paper

Check out Fly Paper for some tips about bonefishing from Water Cay. Pretty long post.  Check it out.

Let’s be clear, if fishing is your top priority and you believe that the only fisherman you should compare yourself to is the one you used to be, then the info below is your bell ringing.

All the other stuff — 6 Comments
22
May 12

Know Thyself!

I think it is important to have a view of yourself that is honest and takes into account your flaws. Sitting where I sit (as the guy who writes a bonefishing blog), it is easy for people to assume I’m an expert bonefisherman, that my casts are always true and that I’ve caught so many bonefish that I hardly celebrate or hoot when I hook up.

In the words of the Avett Brothers (The Weight of Lies):

I once heard the worst thing
A man could do is draw a hungry crowd
Tell everyone his name in pride, and confidence
But leaving out his doubt

Here are things I am pretty sure about myself, as an angler.

  • I continue to be a better trout fisherman than I am a bonefisherman.
  • My casting is better now that it has ever been in my life, but when you put me next to a really, really good caster, you know I’m not in the same class.
  • I am prone to put a 20% trout-set in my hook-set, the kind where you strip, but also sweep the rod a bit off to the right. Still screws up my hook sets.
  • There are some days where I just can’t see the fish.
  • I really suck a tying with deer hair, so I don’t do it.
  • My Merkins are getting better, but largely still suck.
  • I prefer a reverse Gotcha, but almost every guide selects the standard and most plain Gotcha’s, making me wonder if they are just creatures of habit or if I am barking up the wrong tree on those patterns.

In short, I know my faults and want you (the reader) to know that I have no super powers… really, I’m just a regular guy who loves the flats.

On the deck in Cuba.

 

Fish Tails / Locations — 2 Comments
21
May 12

Charlie’s First Bonefish on the Fly

One of the fun things about my last couple trips has been fishing with people really at the start of bonefishing.  Back in Andros, it was with Rebecca Garlock and in Cuba it was with Charlie Levine.  Now, they were both coming from different places.  Rebecca has been fishing the long rod for a while now, but hadn’t really done anything in the salt.  Charlie has spent a good number of days in the salt, but mostly in the deep, dark blue stuff with conventional tackle.  There were some parallels with the two experiences though.  Basically, both were kind of hard on themselves.  They felt the pressure to make it all come together. Of course, it all works better when you slow down and, of course, they both got it to happen.

Here’s Charlie’s story over at BDOutdoors.

Stoked in Cuba

Locations — 2 Comments
17
May 12

Found vid – Some dramatic music and Deadman’s Cay

Yeah, well, I was out with an old college buddy last night, so instead of something thoughtful, you get a YouTube vid. Good news is that no fish appear to be wildly mishandled in this one.  Some dramatic music for some pretty relaxing times.

Fish Tails — 5 Comments
14
May 12

Me, in Cuba

This is me, fishing with Avalon down in Cuba in the Jardines de la Reina.  This is back in the mangroves… deep in the mangroves and Matt Hansen was Johnny on the Spot with the video.  What you’ll see here is me botch two bonefish in about 4 minutes.  It was pretty difficult stuff to fight a fish in, but it was exactly what I wanted to be doing.

Warning… there is some profanity, in case you are worried about your ears bleeding.

Fish Tails — 5 Comments
13
May 12

Heartbreak

I just got this photo from Cuba taken by Matt Hansen.  I know exactly what happened here and I think this picture pretty much sums it up.

We were pushing through the back country looking for bones and we had just emerged into a little lagoon.  Off to the left flashed an impossibly large bonefish tail. I made the cast right on its nose and it ate almost immediately. It went streaking across the lagoon, pulling off 100 or so feet of line and then it took a slight left detour, brushing up against the clump of mangrove right below where my rod tip is.  The fish came off.  This fish was my immediate reaction to losing the fish.

It probably would have been my biggest bonefish ever.  That tail haunts me.

 

Gone.

Uncategorized — No Comments
11
May 12

A Crooked Report

Yeah, not the Crooked River in Oregon, which I fished a long time ago. I’m talking Crooked Island in the Bahamas.  This report is courtesy of Fly Paper, the blog by Scott Heywood.

Damn fine picture.

All the other stuff — 12 Comments
10
May 12

Has bonefishing ruined you?

I know Rebecca’s email was partly in good fun, but I got to thinking about what’s happened to my trout fishing since I discovered bonefishing.

I have to say, I do it less now and if I had to choose between walking a stream and wading a flat, I would likely pick the flat 99 times out of 100 times.  I guess I need to explain that I LOVE walking my streams. My home waters are dear, dear places to me. Sacred, even. It is an odd thing to acknowledge that they’ve slid down the pecking order and that places like Alaska or Montana are now further down on my desired destinations than Abaco and Andros.

I don’t know how to fit it all in.  I want to get on the flats every opportunity I can and yet I know that I really can’t do it that often and that I have many, many more opportunities to fish places like the McCloud, the Metolius or the Madison than I do Belize or Los Roques or Christmas Island.

At the same time I see my trout fishing slump, I know that my bonefishing has probably made me as good an angler as I have ever been.  My casting is much, much better.  I can understand stalking fish now. I understand gear better and know many more knots.

I am more well rounded, but my days on water are down to the 20’s now.  My high was the one season I guided when I was on the water (either fishing or guiding) for a total of about 200 days that year.

This weekend I’ll actually be back up on my home water (with Matt, who I met on the Cuba trip).  I’ll be on the McCloud and maybe the Upper Sac or the Pit or Hat Creek. I’ll enjoy it.  I’ll love it even.  Still… it isn’t the flats.

Have you had this experience with your own fishing?  I think I’m probably not alone.

The McCloud... Upstate California.

Locations — 4 Comments
08
May 12

A complaint letter at Andros South

Rebecca is ruined… ruined for #20 flies and fish that don’t show her her backing.

I understand.

She was driven to write a complaint letter to Andros South (read it there).

It’s been exactly one year since I came home from a week of fly fishing for bonefish at Andros South and I have a couple of bones to pick over the following issues I experienced (suffered) as a direct result of a week at Deneki Fly Fishing paradise.

Rebecca's first bonefish

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