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After much planning and anticipation my first travel flyfishing trip for the ghosts of the tropical flats was about to begin. Weeks of fly tying with Dick Brown’s books propped up on the bench in front of me, mornings of sneaking into the local university’s football field ‘bubble’ at 05:30am for some casting practice, and a final evening of packing tackle and reviewing my checklist were all drawing together as I left Logan for Nassau. That doubt still lingering in my head, what was I getting myself into? This trip actually began one fall afternoon in an unlikely location, Orleans MA. I had stopped into the Nauset Angler shop owned by Harry Koons who has been a Cape Cod guide and fisherman for years. I was looking at some pictures in his shop of prior trips to Mexico and the Bahamas and we began to discuss these group winter trips that he puts together. This gives him a chance to escape the slow periods on the Cape and travel to some of the world’s best fishing for tropical species. My interest turned from one of "maybe someday" to "time to call Harry" when my bride surprised me on my 50th birthday with a check to cover a substantial part of winter fishing trip of my choice. (Yes, I AM a very lucky guy!) So I booked a space with Harry’s group going in March of 2003.
Our base of operations for the trip is the Andros Island Bonefish Club located at the Southeast corner of the Northern half of Andros. Owned by Rupert Leadon and managed during the bonefish season by Donna Teeney it’s a bonefish ‘institution’ and I’m hoping for an education, Bonefish 101 classes begin in earnest tomorrow morning. We dine, rig gear and soak up the warm breezes before crashing for the night.
Our guide for the first two days is Eddie, a mid 20’s young man with a calm disposition and great eyes. Since neither my boat partner
nor I had ever flyfished for bones before we warn him that we will put
our trust in his directions. Eddie’s gentle manner was evidenced by
this typical sequence;
"Ok Bob, fish at 11:00. Please point with your rod. Good, left….left… right there @ 40’. Cast now. Ok, very nice
cast. Please pick it up
Occasionally you’d get the "Perfect cast, please let the fly sink. Now strip, strip, loooong strip" Which meant the fish had turned on the fly and the long strip was his way of trying to get you to make a nice horizontal strip-strike instead of lifting the rod too early. Eddie worked hard to keep getting us on fish but it was just occasionally and for me at least, unproductive. My first two days were fishless and I was starting to wonder if I had ventured into waters that my skillset was not ready for. On the plus side, I was seeing the fish pretty well by the second day.
Although we spend fruitless hours looking for fish on these East side flats we do come across some good sized muds. Late in the afternoon we decide mudding fish are better than no fish. I jump out of the boat while my partner works the other side and we both end up with 5-7 fish but all in the smaller sizes ( 1 – 3# ). This also gives me my first experience of having lemon sharks circling around me waiting to track down the bones post-release. No fiddling around with these fish, get them in, pop the hook and off they go. Day 4, we really go to school. We draw a new guide, Wellington who ( at the age of 62) is one of the elder statesmen of the guide group. As the day progresses we are consistently seeing and landing fish but not with the frequency that Wellie likes so we head to a spot that is one of his favorites.
Once we enter it, Willie
begins a 5-hour poling marathon (no wonder it doesn’t get much
pressure!), but there are fish, lot’s of fish. This is our first real
experience casting to schools of 5 – 10 fish at a time. Excellent
sight-casting conditions allow us to work on being selective about which
fish to target in the school and placing the fly for best presentation.
Much different than standing on the bow with 30 – 40 minutes between
casts, the frequency of these fish really allowed us to get into a rhythm.
We burn the entire afternoon there, finally having to leave as we were already late for our return to camp. As we are threading our way to the last cut in the mangroves where we first entered, we turn a corner to the 4 largest bonefish tails I had ever seen about 30’ in front of us. We scramble to unstow rods to get a cast off but they spook with the sounds of the boat and leave wakes like PT boats off into the deep mangroves. Wellington guesses they were in the ‘teens. Oh, to have gotten just one cast at them……! No complaints though, a great day of fishing.
This of course means more breakoffs but we land our share and there isn’t a dissenting voice to be heard. Any day with Wellington is enjoyable regardless of outcome. Back to camp a little early, a last beverage on the patio and it’s time to pack gear and get ready for the reverse trip the next day. In general, Andros was a great experience. Wonderful people, great accommodations and of course some fun and challenging fishing didn’t hurt either. If continuing your fishing education is in your future, then I highly recommend the faculty at AIBC as a great place to get those Bonefishing 101 credits. Now, I heard something about a masters program….?
Just might have to go back to check it out!
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Day
5, our last fishing day welcomes us with strong winds from the east and
some changeable weather. We head back towards Middle Bight for a day of
stalking ‘quality’ fish. A few more fish up on the white flats but
fishing is still better up the mangrove channels.