Grand Bahama DIY

As I wrote in my last post, I was interested in finding some bonefish on my own. On Monday, my wife and I took the ferry over the canal to another resort for a day of beaching. I took my 8 weight. We found a couple of open chairs on the far end of the resort's beach and I strung up the rod. We took off toward the point pictured in the first pic below and when I made my third cast something grabbed my crab fly and instantly broke me off. I retied with wire and a deceiver and was met with a blank for the next 30 minutes. I changed to an EP streamer on 12 pound tippet and after a few minutes hooked something that took me into my backing and thrashed around until, it too, broke me off. After an hour and a half fishing my way out to the point I clipped off the streamer and decided to try fishing the sand beach near our chairs, with another crab pattern, hoping to hook a few small jacks that I had seen earlier. When I got there I noticed a school of decent fish that showed up as gray/green shadows over the sand...nice sized fish. I led the pack and dropped the fly about 4' in front of the traveling school when two fish sped up and intercepted the fly. Feeling tension, I strip set and came up with nothing. Before the school moved off I repeated the cast with the same results. It seemed that the fish were interested but not completely convinced. Pattern change. I replaced the crab with a bead chain eyed, Crazy Charlie style fly with a few rubber legs. I tracked down the school and led them again with a cast that dropped the fly 3' in front of the lead fish. The fish sped up, tipped up its tail, ate the fly and I was into my very own DIY bonefish. My better half, seeing the action, walked over and took the camera off my belt and snapped the action (see below). I had hooked it only 150' from the chair she was tanning on! I worked the beach for another hour or two and managed a few more casts at the school, but by then they were a little skittish. They actually spent most of their afternoon close to the swimming area and I decided that cutting up a few swimmers with hot backing behind a hotter bonefish wasn't the right move. I met a lot of very interesting people while I waited for the school to move my way...It actually got to the point that I had a half dozen people updating me on the movement of the fish! Not exactly solitude, but highly entertaining.

Bonefish II

I fished on Grand Bahama for 1/2 day last Friday and a full day on Sunday. (The full day amounted to a half day because the wind, rain and black cloud cover foiled our attempts to catch any bonefish until it all blew over at 11 am.) When the rain finally stopped and the blue sky returned we were back in the game and were greeted by a large tailing fish in skinny water that I reached with a decent 60' cast. The minute the fly landed...the fish bolted. I lost more fish than I landed, due in part to a reel that was giving me hell and a couple of neophyte moves, namely the "trout set". If you go...for God's sake practice the "strip set". I was pleased to say that I spotted all of the fish that the guide called out (and a few that he didn't see) with the exception of 3 fish that I just couldn't zero in on. I asked about DIY (do it yourself) fishing on the island and was told by everyone that all of the bonefish were on the the North and East side of the island and that due to the soft bottom, a boat was needed to reach them. The fishing with the guys from Grand Bahama Bonefishing was great. If you go, I wouldn't hesitate to call them...
there are a lot of bonefish on Grand Bahama and these guys will bring you to them.

My Bro Kept calling me a "Softie"

To understand why...check out this post on his blog.

AAAA HAAA HAAA HA HA (Evil Laughter)

Grand Bahama

I landed on Grand Bahama at 1:00 pm today. Consumed some local beer and looked over my gear. Bonefish in my future? Stay tuned.




I landed on Grand Bahama at 1:00 pm today. Consumed some local beer and looked over my gear. Bonefish in my future? Stay tuned.

I got a real kick outta this...

Last Saturday my eldest daughter, she's 4 years old, said, "Daddy, can we tie flies today?" Sure honey. Sure we can tie flies. She can thread a bobbin, wrap a hook with thread base (once I get the thread started), tie a figure 8 around lead eyes, and she loves to use the scissors. Check it.