Today my dad and I fished with independent guide Sam Taylor out of Freeport. I was going to fish with Tommy Rolle, but didn’t manage to get a hold of him for a couple days and simply couldn’t wait to see if we could connect or not. So, my day with Tommy turned into a day with Sam.
The day was tough. That is going to be the lasting impression. If we go solely by fish count, it was a bit of a disaster. Just two bonefish were landed. I landed both. My dad got blanked. My dad is a steelhead and trout angler and the salt is still pretty new to him. He got shots, but he needs several in order to convert and he didn’t get several, he got a handful (less than a handful). He hooked up, briefly, and cast to a pig (Sam said it was “12-14 pounds”), but it was short lived. Like I said… it was a tough day.
Dad and Sam on the flats of Grand Bahama
We had clouds for a lot of the day. The sky wasn’t wall-to-wall grey, it was mostly blue with a few big, white clouds. Several of those clouds seemed to seek us out and park right above us, dimming the lights on our flats.
We had wind, but mostly at our back and it wasn’t really an issue.
We had big and beautiful flats full of fresh feed marks and devoid of fish.
It was a tough day.
While it was tough, there was also some beauty in the day. I got to fish with my dad, something rare these days and treasured. I also had two perfect shots which produced nice fish.
Sam’s boat is, from what I understand of these things, a Carolina Skiff and it doesn’t draft particularly shallow. At one point I offered to get out and wade so we wouldn’t hit any more rocks. Sam pointed the path he wanted me to take where I’d get back in the boat. As I was wading out that way I spotted a bonefish. I saw it at about 90 feet and watched it get closer. I made four casts as the fish moved closer and when I made the last cast I could tell it was on. The fish diverted and started following the fly. It sped up and ate, but the strip set pulled the fly from the fish. The next strip saw the fish pounce on the fly again and it was hooked. A nice 4 pound fish. I got the whole thing on video and I’ll put that up when I get back and get to edit it.
Later we stopped to wade a really expansive flat. I waded for a long time without seeing anything while my dad and Sam waded together about 150 or so feet away. At one point I actually saw a bonefish, but it didn’t eat. It didn’t spook, but it just passed on the offering. As I was changing flies another fish came by, not spooking either, but just casually passing. A few seconds after I finished retying I saw another fish. This one was about 40′ away. I made one cast and the fish followed and ate and exploded. This very nice fish was somewhere between 22″ to 24″ to the fork, making it a legit 6 pounds and possibly 7. Fish of the trip and I had found it myself, which was nice.
We looked for Cudas a bit, but the wind was coming up and the clouds were building. We called it a day, a tough day for sure, but memorable as well.
Local knowledge is key, but it helps to have the sun and a bit of luck.
