Appreciate you breaking me off a little here in Vallarta. Maybe, just maybe, next time, you could let me catch more than one?
The skunk is broken for the trip.
I should add that this fish was caught with a Chernobyl Clouser… glow in the dark materials. So, a skunk breaker on two fronts.
Sadly… I was the kickee as opposed to kicker today. The sun came out, mostly, but the wind came up, hard, and while I found fish, I spooked nearly every single one of them.
I spooked so many fish it is practically Halloween.
I got out to a little bay/cove on the East End today and went down to the far end where I found fish tailing in the corner up against some mangroves about 2 feet off the bank.
“Sweet” I thought. “This is going to be a great day.”
Cast, cast, gone.
Then the wind. Uff da.
Luckily, I found a little mud and got a skunk breaker.
I like this shot for no reason in particular.
I had some company on the flat starting off the morning… but they didn’t touch any fish. I think someone sent this guy out here to make me feel good about my casting. Watching them go at it I was again thankful for the good guiding and good fishing I had with Captain Perry.
Company.
I found a lot of fish today… but these fish were not the virgin/naive fish of the far reaches of the East End. These were educated fish. Most of the spooking I did came from the fish seeing the fly… any fly. I tried lots… #2’s, #4’s, #6’s… pinks, yellows, tans, whites… bunny, silly legs, very plain… they all send the fish running (swimming, I suppose) away at great speed, pushing water as they went.
I found one little pod of nice fish, made the cast, got the follow and got it to eat, but I missed the hook set and he/she/it wouldn’t eat again. Frustration was mounting at that point.
I drove down to Rocky Creek, but the tide was wrong for the flat there. I should have known better, really.
I drove back to the first spot. The wind was howling. It was too late to go anywhere else… this was going to need to be it. As I was walking out to where the sand stopped and turtle grass began I had the sun to my back and the wind in my face… I had one window to see the fish, but that also meant casting into the 15-20 mph wind. Just when I was coming to the conclusion that I wasn’t going to find any more fish I picked up 4 or 5 nice fish cruising my way on the edge of the grass… pretty much directly into the wind.
I slogged a cast out there and it wasn’t bad (surprising even myself). I saw one fish break off from the school. I moved the fly, I stopped, stripped, felt the fish, set the hook and I was hooked onto my second bonefish of the day. The fish started splashing around, it came tight, but didn’t start it’s run. I got ready to enjoy the sound of the singing reel and then it just spit the hook. wtf.
Damn.
Tomorrow promises to be pretty much exactly the same as today from a weather perspective. Wind… lots of wind… 12-16, all day.
Now I have figured out that I can see the fish. Need to see if I can’t catch a few more tomorrow, or I’m going to be reduced to throwing for little cuda’s again.
Sometimes you just need to feel the pull of a fish.
Air travel once was glamorous. Not any more. Between watching TSA make a blind 10 year old girl take off her shoes, my red-eye neighbor hogging all the leg room and an aborted take-off on American Eagle, I think it is safe to say that it certainly is not about the journey any longer, it’s about the destination.
Fifteen hours from when I left the house I was standing on a flat in Grand Bahama. The tide was rising, the water temp was 72 and there were patchy clouds in the sky. It was 2:30. I soon spooked my first bones.
I was happy I was able to start seeing the bonefish much earlier than my previous trip. However, they wanted nothing to do with me. I probably cast to 30 bones, but no takers. Spooked a few, others never saw the fly.
Nice looking water.
In the end, the light was failing and I just couldn’t find the fish again. I left, after 2 hours, fishless.
I decided to stop off at a spot that my dad and I had fished back in Dec. 2008. It’s a big, white sand flat. There’s a boat launch there and I figured that if it came down to it, I could probably catch something (anything!) throwing clousers from the launch. I decided to walk the flat before throwing the big clousers. Low light conditions, from what I’ve read, can mean tailers and that would really be the only way I was going to find fish as the sun sank lower in the western sky.
Behind me, about 50 feet away, I heard something. I spun around to see a tail. I made the cast. I took up the slack, felt the fish and somehow managed not to trout set. I had the fish. The fish was on and a couple seconds later I was looking at my backing. That was exactly what I needed. This bone is the first I have caught on a fly I tied, making it extra special.
First of the trip!
Same fish, but more to the fish's liking.
#4 Pink Gotcha
Notice how my finger is reflected on the gill plate of the fish in the underwater shot? That’s what makes these fish so hard to see.
Sure is pretty here. The weather is improving and I’m out with Captain Perry tomorrow, all day. Can’t wait.
Purdy.
