Hurricane Jean had passed through the Cay 3 weeks
earlier, hot on the heels of two other big hurricanes blowing the Cay to pieces
this summer, so we watched the weather very closely as trip time came up in
October.
It was a great relief to get there in time for two weeks of perfect weather
.
The Island had taken quite a hammering. Buildings were gone. Roofs disappeared.
Palm trees snapped off at the base everywere. The shoreline was littered with
thousands of sea urchins that had been ripped from the sea bed by the violence
of the sea. A fine off-shore 30 ft. boat lay upside-down in the middle of the
mangroves, obviously blown away from some mooring on a neighbouring Cay. It
was impossible to get to the north of the Cay- sand blown inshore had covered
the small roads making them impassable. The Bahamian people were just as friendly
as always and glad to see visitors even with the problems in restoring power
and telephone lines and re-building houses on the main agenda.
The bonefish flats had changed considerably with less
turtle grass and more exposed sand than previous trips.
The fishing though was superb with more bonefish than I had seen before tailing
on the sand - There is something very special about seeing that scimitar like
tail flapping in the air, that set's the heart rate racing - knowing that a
bonefish is full on feeding within casting range!
Shoals came through on every tide with the flood and back out on the ebb, often with fish averaging 8/9 lbs or more in them.
In the first few days of glorious hot sunshine, the sandflats were
teeming with fry,
literally numbering in the millions. Pelican diving and splashing for this free
harvast were a constant distraction.
Wether this was the result of the hurricanes driving them inshore or the spawning
of fish, I was unable to find out, (or identify the species).
Then one morning
as we arrived on the flat, they were gone - not a fry to be seen!
Sally and John Edgar , both who had never bone fished before, were on the trip with me and took a bit of time to get the hang of spotting the fish and acquiring the fast reaction needed to get the fly in the right place to intercept them. After day two they broke their duck and both had fish in the 9lb plus range on one of Ian and I's "shorty's puff" flies, (so named after the cottage we invented and tied it in) with more to follow as they gained in confidence over the next 10 days
.
Ian Coutts who has been with me before, and now helps me with the orginising of trips- had a superb fish of around 12lbs on a white crab pattern. The fish took in 12" of water, with Ian, making as low a profile as possible, on his knees as the bone tracked the fly almost to the rod top before it took. A real achievement in such skinny water, the fish ripped of 175yds of micron backing on its first run!
I managed a few
casts myself and had a few to 9 or 10lbs - see picture at the foot of this page.
(thanks to Sally Edgar for the pic)
The fishing was just as difficult as always, We were all
exhausted after full days on the flats - with dozens of fish covered- some in
the 15-20lb class! spooked before success and a hook-up. It was never short
of exciting though with Barracuda and small sharks in greater numbers than previously.
This always makes the bonefish a bit more wary. So kudos to all who fooled those
bones. This is one of the best and most satisfying challenges to master in all
flyfishing.
Disaster struck on the first day for me! My trusty old
Olympus digital camera fell out of my top pocket in the water just as I stooped
to unhook a fish. I have it on a zinger but it unrolled just far enough to hit
the water! Ahh!! So no pictures of the trip just as the action was hotting up.
I got some on one of those cheap disposable waterproof cameras baught in the
local shop, but the quality of the pictures on these is very poor. I have loaded
a picture I was lucky to get with that camera of a Bonefish -
- of around 9lbs
that we stumbled on as we headed home taking a shortcut through the Mangroves
at high tide one evening. The fish just appeared round a mangrove root and we
just froze. It was fascinating to watch this fish followed by another some way
behind - only 3 yards away in only 8 inches of water, hoovering the sand
with its down-turned mouth blowing a jet of water, kicking up the sand and pouncing
on the tiny shrimps that were exposed. The bone actually swam to my feet and
round me before it realised there was four of us and danger! We were showered
by the explosion of water as it disappeared at high speed!
Another day after playing a bonefish of around 8lbs to
my feet in 6" of water, a shark of around 5ft, Dark stripes against a pale backround.
( A Tger probably) intent on getting the bone beached itself on it's side. Realising
it's mistake it had a hell of a job getting back into deep enough water to allow
it to swim in. I contemplated dragging it back in to deeper water by the tail,
but then thought ........................................... No not a good idea!
..........Exciting or what?
Unlike some other more heavily fished venues in the Bahamas I have fished, this was the only encounter with a shark chasing a bonefish in the -
2 weeks we were there. All in all a great trip! Thanks to all my guests who fished with me you were great company and made the trip a pleasure.
I hope to see you again sometime soon.
Tight lines wherever you fish,
David Norwich. November 2005.
UPDATE SEPTEMBER 2006!
Click on the Link for the story of the capture and
return of a potential World Record Bonefish..
