Bill Watson
En-Route
That thing put up a good fight? That’s a good lookin fish if I do say so myself.
Bonefish have a need for speed so they look it and they fight like it. Perfect flyfishing targets in that the fishing is visual in sunny tourquoise colored waters. They readily take a fly that imitates a shrimp, small crab or other bit of food. They stay in shallow water as much as they can because the boogey man is looking for them in the deeper waters. They are always moving as singles, pods of 3 to 6, or schools of dozens. When you get one to eat you are rewarded with 2 or 3 reel screaming runs that go well into your backing, then they run out of gas and come to hand where you remove the barbless hook and release them. Few people eat them.
I like wading for them so it’s like a stroll on a big beach looking for shadows. Learning to see them before they see you is one of the big tricks but sometimes they just swim right at your feet. They are spooky but predictable. This particular place is highly pressured in the winter season and the fish are said to have PhDs. Very tough compared to other places I’ve been. I saw hundreds of fish in 5 days, had good shots at dozens, had about 8 get fooled, hooked 6 and would have landed all 6 if I hadn’t been trying to take videos at the same time.
The 5 days were like taking a 5 day tailwheel course; challenging but I’m a better fly fisherman today than last week.
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