Wanting to get away from the gloom of Seattle winter I joined Jay, his son Matt, and our friend Jeff in the Bahamas for a chance at some bonefish and a good chance for some sun. I started wondering about the sun when I landed on Friday afternoon in Florida where I was going to spend a few days visiting my uncle, mother, and my second cousin, Carey. It looked more like Seattle than Florida on Saturday morning when we took off from Bayport looking for Jack Crevalle with Capt. Steve of Angling Adventures. The rain held off though and we did find some jacks in the cold water close to the springs. My mom got her first saltwater fish, Carey got a nice 10 lbs jack, and I managed one fish on a spin jig before moving to the fly and getting one on it.
We also got to see a manatee up close when it came up right next to the boat along with lots of bird life in the marsh where we were fishing. The weather cleared the next day so I at least got to see the sun shine in Florida before leaving.
On Monday I flew to Miami to catch my flight to Exuma only to find Jay and Matt sitting in the waiting area, their flight on Sunday got canceled due to snow in Dallas so we got to fly into the islands together. We finally arrived in George Town around 3:00 p.m., took a taxi ride to the lodge and got out to fish the flats right at the lodge since we were cooped up in planes all day long. We stayed at the Peace & Plenty Bonefish Lodge, one of three P&P lodges on the island. The Bonefish Lodge is on the south end of the island close to many flats and very near Little Exuma. We were greeted by our hosts Bob and Karen as well as the lodge pets - a talking parrot named "Loco", two dogs, two cats (one of them a three-legged cat), a school of mangrove snapper, and a trio of pretty good sized Lemon Sharks.
That evening I got to experience my first conch in the form of conch fritters and conch chowder. Conch is the national food of the Bahamas and is severed in hundreds of ways. I gave up on conch after the cracked conch a few nights later though the conch jokes lasted the entire week.
Big pile of conch
Fishing started on Tuesday and we awoke to a pretty nice day. We grabbed breakfast, gathered our gear and headed to the dock where the guides were readying boats.
We drew Charlie the first day as our guide and had a pretty good day. The highlight for me was a bone that hit close to some mangroves and ran me into my backing running through the mangroves. He cleared the first group of them, ran up a channel, then headed back into the trees. We could hear him flopping around in there so went in after him. Jeff jumped out and untangled my line as we followed in the boat. He finally found the fish back in the trees and released him. That day I hooked up my first bonefish totally on my own too though managed to loop my reel seat and loose the fish ultimately. I was 2/5 that day and Jeff got 1 in the afternoon wading a flat. Jay had the good day that day with 4 fish.
We went back to the lodge and donned snorkel gear for a bit of snorkeling in the fish-feeding pool and under the docks. I wanted to try out my e-Bay Nikonis snorkeling finally.
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On Wednesday we awoke to a decent looking day but the wind was up. We took off fishing with Steven and began at a spot close to the lodge. I blew a fish after about 30 minutes, Jeff got up and we noticed that there was a huge rain squall coming down on us. Steven kicked the boat around and we outran the rain back to the lodge. We figured we'd sit out the storm a bit and maybe fish again but after the rain came a big cold front with high winds so we canceled the fishing plans for the day. Jay and Matt went offshore for the day and ended up having a rough go of it though Matt got a Dorado and a Barracuda from the big boat before the storm forced them back into the harbor. |
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We went into town for a bit to walk around instead. We saw the harbor, the local church, visited a few souvenir shops, and ended up at the main Peace and Plently hotel in George Town.
Later that afternoon, Jeff and I decided to take the kayaks out in the wind. It was crazy but somewhat fun getting blown around out there.
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Thursday didn't look too promising, the wind had changed direction but the water was cold and we figured the fish were not in the mood to eat. We rode with Martin up to Moss Town where we took off from the landing there. Jeff got one almost right off the bat so our hopes suddenly rose up.
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The rest of the day was just frustrating. We found fish but they just were hard to see until we almost stepped on them. I had one big fish materialize out of the channel right in front of me but couldn't get him to eat a fly. This day needed some redemption. Matt did better than the rest of us, getting his first bonefish of the trip plus one other bone that day thus getting the most fish of the day award. He also totally spanked us in Texas Hold-em that night in the start of the rest of the week poker game.
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That evening was shark night at the lodge. The same pool we snorkeled in on Tuesday was now the feeding table for several big lemon sharks. The light called them in and then Karen hand fed them.
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Friday was the last day of fishing and we awoke to a very nice sunrise that brought new hope.
Jeff and I had Charlie again which was also a good omen for me - he was the only guide I seemed to actually catch fish with. We hit a good school of fish right off the bat and took a while finding the right fly and retrieve combination that would work for us. We worked the school for a while just to get some fish in the boat finally - I was 1/4 on the school and Jeff landed about 4 out of it before we drew in too many sharks. Jeff got one fish that did hit the mangroves so I got to wade in this time to clear the line and return his favor from Tuesday.
In the afternoon we hit a flat very close to the lodge and Charlie informed us that we would be fishing for big bones here. Well, he was right, it didn't take long until we saw a small group of big fish working along the flat. I was up, made a decent cast and was shaking as the lead bone came off the group and started following my fly. The next thing I knew he was on and running me way into my backing.
The fish made two very long runs, came in near the boat for a while then tore off again deep into my backing. After this run he stayed pretty close to the boat but I just couldn't get his head out of the water at all. Very tense moments as the fish tried rubbing the fly out on the bottom as I tried to lift his head up. Finally the fish tired and we managed to land him, by far the biggest bonefish I've ever caught.
Of course we didn't measure the fish at all but guessing from the photo it looks like it is about 30" and Jeff said it was bigger than the 29.5" fish he had taken before. We got into a few more fish on that flat but more big ones just were not going to happen for us. I finished the day with 4 boated and Jeff got 6 including one on the last cast of the day, Jay got 5 and Matt got 2 - we had our redemption.
I took along three rods - a 6-weight, a 7-weight and a 10-weight, all Sage RPLXi. Basically I threw the 7-weight the whole time though I did make a few casts at cuda with the 10-weight. I use Ross Big Game reels in size 4 for the 6 & 7 and size 6 for the 10-weight. For lines I stick with the SA Bonefish taper though I throw one size up from the rod recommendation. I used 1X Umpqua Super Flouro tippets on a 9' 1x bonefish leader making a 12' leader in all.
The fly
that worked the best for me was a #4 Gotcha variation - I tie it with a pink
rubber tail and rabbit for the wing. This is the one I got the big
fish on plus most of the rest of my fish. This was also a very productive
fly for me in the Yucatan in a #6.
Other flies that worked were a standard Gotcha, a deep-water Gotcha, Jay's rabbit puff, and some tan rubber-legged shrimp fly that Jeff was using. I also threw a White Crazy Charlie, a small Clouser's, and a very funky shrimp pattern, none of which got any interest from the fish.
