The weather on our first day at Abaco Lodge wasn’t ideal with a dash too much wind and a bit overkill on the cloud cover. It would also be the best weather we saw all week. Breakfast was good and filling, the coffee was hot, the rods were all strung up, initial bonefish flies had been selected and our fishing partners for the day were set.
This day I would share a boat with Mike Sepelak, who can also pen a pretty fine description of a day on the water. It was a lucky stroke Mike was going to be there when I was, as we’ve written plenty of facebook messages back and forth, but had never met in person.
As I got down to the dock I met our guide for the day, Freddy. I thought he looked familiar and when he broke out with a bit of song I knew I had met Freddy before back at FIBFEST II down at Andros South.
This was that Freddy.
Freddy, doing his thing at Abaco Lodge
Freddy had been my favorite guide down in Andros South because he was the most relaxed and fastest to laugh. He sang, often, from the poling platform and nothing seemed capable of beating back his enthusiasm or his sense of humor. He’s just good people. He’s the same Freddy now that he was then. Abaco Lodge has picked up a bit of an all-star.
Mike and Freddy and I got to work in the Marls and while Freddy hasn’t been over here from Andros for too long, he demonstrated that a life’s work spent finding bonefish in Andros translates very well to finding fish in Abaco. He put us on fish, pretty consistently, most of the day.
This was a good day for me, fishing wise. Every cast Freddy called for I served up. I saw most of the fish either before Freddy said anything or just as he did. I was seeing the fish, making the casts and wasn’t screwing things up. It felt like I knew what I was doing. I was on my A Game and it felt really good. I had a couple of fish taken on relatively long casts, maybe 60-65 feet and even dropped one fly about 6 inches in front of a bonefish that ate it immediately.
Mike with a bonefish hooked and playing in a rare moment of fantastic visibility.
I love it when things work out.
Mike was into fish, but was getting in his own way a bit, finding new and inventive ways of screwing things up (probably because he didn’t want to use my flies), which we dealt with using humor. Mike is a fine angler and it wasn’t a skill issue, just an off day. I’d have my own version of that kind of day on my next angling day. It happens to us all.
Good times were had. It was a day I’d repeat a hundred times and enjoy every one.
