Fish&Fly Journal

Bonefish Diaries - Day 6 in the Bahamas with Charles Jardine

Day 6

You have good days: bad days. Memorable days and some not so.

Then you have days like this.

You work hard, put the miles in – we probably walked at least six miles back and forth through the flats at Airport running down to Abrahams Bay today; nothing…well very little.

It is the curse of the Bonefisher.

I think that we all realised, that this week was not going to be a “numbers game”; Mayaguana is not that type of venue. Everyone though, has taken personnel bests so far this week, which is as good as it gets, I guess…but some targets to throw at, it would be nice. Walks are great – bonefish and walks, are better! Much better.

But the area surrounding Airport flats is vast. Truly vast. It is like trying to find silver needles in a vast crystal cream and turquoise haystack: easy, it aint.

It all started very promisingly. Keith and I saw two good fish almost straight into the day and I urge Keith to make a cast – you have to be so quick when you are patrolling the beach just taking pot shots – Keith, to be far was as quick as he could be and took a shot at the duo of fish to no avail I managed a snap shot at one after Keith by scurrying along the coral heads and trying to intercept them, I managed to get a very hasty cast to one fish; it deviated from its chosen, yet nervous path for a nano-second, took a causal glance at the Gotcha and then just sailed serenely – oh all-right, twitchily by.

That was it for the next two maybe three miles – I did catch a Barracuda – not much of one but what a little scrappers these things are, all teeth and killer-eyed athleticism.

We plodded, somewhat disconsolately back for lunch.

After I elected to go back from whence I came, but running along the edge of the fringe of turtle grass at the sea line edge but from the ocean side, given that we were fishing a falling tide. After miles of shuffling across the sand I encountered two bone fish that afternoon – both to be fair exceptional fish….I think. One spooked just as I was making to cast rod flash, a hasty movement – who knows. The other? It was sailing towards me in a very relaxed way and eminently catchable – the cross-hairs of the fly rod were readied, when a pelican took that exact moment to swoop across the flats, casting a shadow the same approximate dimensions as pterodactyl and send the fish in a complete panic towards the ocean. Chance number two – up in smoke. And that folks was it.

Trevor thought, when we recounted all this, that the fish could have been over on the other side of the flat entirely, deep into Abrahams bay; but that is the nature of this particular business, chances, being in the right place at the right time and happenstance.
Two other fishers that have come to the hotel faired only marginally better in Curtis creek that day – a place that we know holds good amounts of fish. Yet they only managed two and saw two others all day. It is a very strange affair.

Overnight, we have had a cold front hit with real venom; thunder and lightening through the night and dark bruised clouds layering the entire vista from horizon to horizon. We are in for a long wet one I think – and very little visibility. Not the sending off we had hoped for. Ah well.

Jeff and Sue left today and we miss them already. An infected cut on the bottom of Sue’s foot has worsened enough for her needing to have it looked at back home, and this above all, is a timely reminder just how far we are from anything really!
Sue has christened the trip “The Mad Dogs and Englishman Tour” - due in part to the fact she was bitten by a dog on Inagua a week previously…the rest is pretty obvious…and apposite.

We view the coming day with some trepidation and low expectancy!

Bonefish Diaries - day 3

Ahhhh….the sweet smell of bonefish slime on shirts.

It had to happen sooner or later…and by degrees, it has.  The “plan” of actual catching fish is slowly coming together.

To be fair, everyone has fully realised that this particular trip was never going to be easy.  We also realised that here was, for once, unexplored – comparatively – virgin turf. Our small marks on it were – are - some of the few. Thus, so much time has been dedicated to just figuring out where fish might be.

All of us hope that this cluster of diaries might help those that go after us.

Even past success stories and “local knowledge” have proved to be entirely fallible with the usual – and dare one say, reliable – schools of fish have been on vacation somewhere that the good lord and the moon and tides will be the only real answer to that one.

Anyway, all that is partially behind us now and Airport flats delivered Bonefish to Julian – he caught two, one estimated over 8lb and the other a bit smaller. Julian noticed some blooms of mud and set about firing a fly into the midst of the disturbance and took two fish in quick succession; Keith on the other hand, lost a fish of a “life time” and he was more than a little reluctant to discuss “weight”: I managed to wheedle out of him that it could have been over fourteen pounds: the line simply caught round the reel handle (so easily done) Then, “Ping!”  He feels absolutely no better having read Randall Kaufmann’s book Bonefish and the estimates shown therein…no better at all. It could have been bigger.

Post note: Airport Flats lies on the south side of the Island – in an area referred to as Abrahams Bay; which is really just an area of flat that runs along the shoreline, as opposed a flat in the conventional sense, these “flats” then lead off into the actual bay so you have an area bounded pretty much by a strip of shallows abutted by deep water – the best times to fish this area seemed to be immediately after a high tide and as it was falling.

Both Geoff and Julian managed to catch fish for the Bar-b-q ….and….

Even I, after a very slow start hunting supper, decided to come back to the Hotel with Trevor via the coast path when he suggested we just checkout the “Lookout”. We did and there they were – a swarm of little grey torpedoes nervously grouping and splintering in the shallows just beyond the Hotel.

I managed one surprised Bonefish from the initial stalk – a good fish, too; about four five pounds , having spooked the shoal, now was the time to go back to the Hotel. I had just got back to the sanctuary of the sun beds when Trevor jabbed out his dark finger

“Charl, mon- der dey is…I told you man theyse never far away from dis area…” The last sight was me pelting down the beach, rod in tow towards the school of grey edging along turtle grass.

And yep; I caught one: it was great. Simply great.

And guess what? Another day beckons.

For those that are fly junkies; the best patterns so far have been:

Steve Dodd’s Charlie variant – with rubber legs

And CJ pinked-up version of the Gotcha – both smallish on 6 -8 hooks.

 

Bonefish from the Bahama's diary - Day 1 proper!

More from Charles Jardine as he wanders the Bahamian flats in search of Bonefish!

Day 1

With a stiff breeze nudging the southern Caribbean seas into a goodish wave, under a canopy of sky, that sort of Azure blue reserved for precious jewels; we – Keith, Julian, and our new found travelling companion Jeff from Bangor Maine – one seems to drag people on to one’s “caravansary” on trips like this we set fair for our own personal "Dual in the Sun" and boldly go where few - literally - have been before and hunt down the bonefish on this lightly fished and even less know area in the Bahamian chain of islands.

After a brief – and we have to be honest fairly slow (we saw very little and caught even less) baptism on the day of arrival – Friday, in Blackwood with all the hope and expectation of someone wandering into an unknown. And Mayaguana is just that; “unknown and unexplored” – most of it.
None of us really knew what to expect. No one does here - everything is new and fresh and an adventure. We are having to work on gut instinct and a "feel" for what might be good areas. Did I mention - It is that unknown here!

Curtis Creek however, has certainly touched every exciting nerve end in a Bonefishers body: an interplay of flats, Mangrove entwined islands and backwaters stretching maybe two miles deep into the rustling of green foliage that carpets this un-spoilt Island – arguably one of the last truly unspoiled tropical areas in this area.
Sighting fish was going to be crucial, the canoe ride to the distant areas was the penance that we had to make. It was clear to everybody, that I was far more adept at casting than using a canoe.
The hunting grounds beckoned and it was very obvious that this was going to be a one shot affair – big fish – scenario. Tough.
I was escorting Keith – Guiding has its own thrill though – the visceral thrill of spotting a tail scythe the shallow water like a flashing blade, then urgently – almost secretly – breathing out instructions to your “charge” embodies the whole elements of the chase. But of course it’s hard for relative new comers fresh from flight thousands of miles long just to put together the perfect cast from a standing start: It ain’t gonna happen. It didn’t. But it did on the fourth time of asking.
They do say that there is a fish for everyone – this Bonefish was not going to deny Keith.
I saw it as a flick of tail flashing across the turtle grass – some one hundred distance. Then nothing. Then….it just materialised: like smoke drifting through pale woods, it just ghosted into form and substance.
Keith cast on instruction: perfectly. Strip-strip-strip-it’s on it- strip- strip-it’s got iiiii----ooooh noooo!
Keith struck; you never strike bones: you pull into them. We looked at each other in unspoken “fed-up’ness”. That fish was big.
But as we turned back from our momentary disappointment, the bonefish was still there and had pounced on the fly: again, and was probably thinking “this shrimp tastes weird” Keith lifted his rod and immediately saw about 120 yards of backing and line peel in tensioned shrieks from the reel. This was more like it.
The fish weighed a good 8, maybe more pounds – Keith’s biggest.
Day 2 (proper beckons)

Bonefish from the Bahama's diary - part 1!

After the previous blog entry from Alex Jardine, I now received one from Charles who at the moment is out in the Bahama's chasing Bonefish on the flats. Here is what he had to say....

Arrived on Mayaguana - one of the least explored and populated of the entire Bahamian chain.  The recent eclipse has altered the tides, of course, and with it made the fish - well odd.  With me are two relative newcomers to all this Keith Johnson from Sportfish @ Theale and his chum Julian. We had a brief shot on the flats yesterday afternoon and the fish that were so evident months ago - Vast shoals of them, were not present.  That is the Bonefishers' curse: here one minute- gone the next. But today is a very new day and we have no idea what it will bring - save sun, tide and the flocks of flamingo drifting like small pink clouds over the crystal maze. 

News from Alex Jardine in New Zealand

A bit of a change to the normal diatribe! Alex Jardine and a couple of chums are down in New Zealand currently on a fishing tour and he has made a couple of nice blog entries with photos that I thought you might like to check out - http://nztour08.blogspot.com/2008/02/well.html

Thanks for rubbing it in Alex! ;-)

The Adventures of Zimbo & Flossie

Well that's the title I could give to a book if I had any idea what these two get up to on their adventures together! Took a ride up to the outer edge of the Smoke last week to meet up with these larger than life characters - one a well known predator fly guide and the other a journalist and tv presenter of some repute! In their own worlds they are the dominant males, so why should they meeting up to join forces? Is something brewing in the dark underworld of fly fishing journalism we should know about? Well they weren't telling if there is but I have a feeling something is coming. Hopefully a fresh face to fly fishing entertainment as there is precious little out there at the moment. Networks and publishers seem reluctant to push the sport forward, instead remaining within their comfort zone and pushing out the same safe and controlled or is it contrived content?

Maybe Fish & Fly will join the cause this year - have video camera will travel should be the motto! Looking for new adventures in this island nation of ours. Hope you'll come along or send in your suggestions or own adventures to info@fishandfly.com .