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All the other stuff — 7 Comments
19
May 10

FIBFest continues

There is some good stuff trickling out of FIBFest and the place to see it is Michael Gracie’s blog.

Another FIBFest participant is Deeter from the Fly Talk blog over at Field and Stream.  In that latest installment he makes the claim that bonefish are the perfect species for a fly rod.  Now, that may be overstating somewhat, although the number of folks in the comments section that think carp are actually the finest fly rod species tells me that his readers and I probably don’t share too many rivers together.

Bonefish are a fantastic fly rodding species to be sure.  Perfect?  I’d think the trout is still the species most suited for fly rods… from a 2 wt. on a mountain stream to a 20 pound steelhead, the trout covers a lot of bases… dries, nymphs, streamers… rivers, lakes, creeks, lagoons.

No, I’d say the bonefish is more of a niche species.  It is for folks that like the hunt, the visual search  for the fish.  It has way more to do with the stalking than the rod, in my totally BS opinion.

I’d still trade 100 trout for a single bonefish and a dozen days on my mountain rivers for a day on the flats.  Just say’n.

This is not the perfect species for the fly rod.

Locations — No Comments
17
May 10

Insult to Injury

So, I’m sick… just a nasty cold that came on yesterday.  This is the insult part.  The injury part is that I had to miss out on FIBFest due to selling our foothills home, moving, child care cover issues.

You can follow the action on the FIBFest twitter feed here.

You can check out Michael Gracie’s blog to see the line-up of folks.  You’ll notice gold medalist Johnny Spillane there.  Nice.

Nice.

Locations — 1 Comment
15
May 10

Stu Apte at Black Fly Bonefish Club

A nice little write up on Stu Apte (and Captain Vaughn Cochran) fishing at Black Fly Bonefish Club in Abaco can be found on the  Black Fly blog.

There’s a plug for Airgate Aviation which flies from Daytona to Abaco… direct.  The pricing is a little… um… steep… but maybe there is some magic in there that brings the cost down.

How’s the fishing?

We rig up, get our boots on, pick our fly and hit the water. We walk about 50 feet and here comes the first fish, then another, and another…the fish are leaving the flat on the outgoing tide and they’re feeding along the way.

Doesn’t sound like it sucks.

Yes, seems like a place I'd like to be.

Locations — No Comments
13
May 10

DIY Acklins

Acklins is on my list.  It is a place that lots of folks have been heading to for a DIY experience and, at heart, I’m kind of a DIY guy (my budget is CERTAINLY DIY).

I found this little vid of a DIY trip from March 2010.  The sound track has been disabled, so rock your own tunes.

If you’d like to do a DIY trip with a little bit of help… you can check out the DIY package put together by Cattaraugus Creek Outfitters… if you can get 4 guys together, they have a package for $850 a person for SEVEN days (basically, it’s the lodging, a rental truck and information so you get to start beyond square one, you pay for meals, flights and anything else).

Locations — No Comments
13
May 10

Andros South

Some fishing bloggers you probably read are headed for Andros South next week.  I would have been among them were it not for moving/childcare hurdles that could not be overcome.  I’m glad that at least some of my flies will be there.  I sent Pete from Fishing Jones about 8 patterns to try out down there.  Hope they work.

I hope to make it down there some day soon-ish.   This recent trip report from Rick Grassett about a hosted trip to Andros South makes it sound like a place I want to be… badly… very, very, very badly.

Andros South... yup... I want to be there.

Locations — No Comments
12
May 10

A Plea to Mother Ocean and Father Time

Joe Doggett has a plea to Mother Ocean and Father Time for another trip to Christmas Island. The story is in the Houston Chronicle and it is a good read.

Christmas Island sure does seem like a wonderful, fantastic bonefishing destination and I hope to write my own story about the place and the fish one of these days… probably not any time soon, sadly.

Read Brian Gies’ interview about Christmas Island.

Looks nice.

Flies — 3 Comments
10
May 10

Oliver Owens – 90 Percenter

Saw this on the simply named Fly Fishing blog.  This pattern, called the 90 Percenter, was created by Oliver Owens out of Hawaii.  Fox Fur is the active ingredient and it looks like a fish getter.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUieJnQfokc&hl=en_US&fs=1&

Oliver has been guiding out in the islands since 1999 and he’s fished or guided all the Hawaiian islands except Nihihu.  I’d bet he has one or two interesting stories.

All the other stuff — No Comments
09
May 10

Happy Mother’s Day and Tag Ends 5/9/10

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mom’s out there… really, there are probably very, very few moms reading this, but, still… cheers.

My mother lured my father into thinking she was going to fish, but after the wedding, she never fished again, or so goes the local folklore.

My wife, mother of my 3 year old, tried fishing very, very briefly on a trip to Montana/Yellowstone.  She saw a big snake in the grass along the Firehole and also rather forcefully declines my assistance with her casting while at a high mountain lake going after Yellowstone Cutts… those two episodes concluded her short-lived and undistinguished fishing career.

Still, there are some great angling women/mothers out there for my little girl to take as role models on the water.

A few other bits from around the web, non-mom related:

  • Moldy Chum with some… disturbing bits about the Gulf oil leak.
  • This is Fly Daily picks up the One Surf Fly story… see, that is starting to look like fun… and that SoCal surf looks a lot more agreeable than the Santa Cruz breakers.
  • Nice little post from our friend over at Flatswalker about our “quiet” sport.
  • MyTurksandCaicosBlog has a bit about mangroves… I love mangroves.
  • Trip report from Skinny Water Culture down in the Keys.
Locations — 1 Comment
08
May 10

Sea of Cortez Bonefish

Well… look at that… a bonefish vid from Puerto Penasco in the Sea of Cortez… You don’t see anything ever a lot of reports about bones in the Sea of Cortez, tucked in there behind Baja California.  Really, I tend to think of Rooster Fish and trips put together by Gary Bulla.

This fish is hardly a bruiser… not even close to really even an 8 wt. class fish, but it does show that they can turn up in some places you might not expect them.

Pacific Coast bones are a scarce commodity, really.  While they get massive in the South Pacific and around Hawaii, the bones of San Diego are rather smallish and the bones of Puerto Penasco (or really, THE bonefish of Puerto Penasco) seem similarly diminutive.  Probably still a place to pack your 8 wt., but probably for other species.

All the other stuff — No Comments
08
May 10

Death to Conversation

I have, for the most part, lost the  ability to have simple conversations.  Parenthood doesn’t help and being a stay-at-home dad helps even less.  My bonefish fixation is another nail in the coffin of conversation.

I’m either talking about pre-schools/swim lessons/nap-time routines or bonefish.

Tonight, waiting in line at Uhaul I was sporting my “I bonefish” t-shirt. A guy in line said “Do you mind if I as what a bonefish is?”

Oh boy… here it goes…

I primed him first, telling him that I was going to try and limit myself, as I could rattle on  wayyyyy too long.  I gave him the generalities… inshore game species found on the flats in tropical places… no, they were not good eating.

I tried to explain the stalking aspect, the hunt, the wagging tails,  the camouflaged nature of the fish, the beauty of the setting.

Well…  after about 10 minutes (slowest Uhaul line EVER) they had learned a great deal, more than they had anticipated and MUCH more than they were hoping to.

I did notice that they moved on the other side of the display of moving boxes.

Thank god they didn’t ask about potty training.

This and my pre-schooler's play-date schedule are all I can think about.

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