This past weekend, I resolved to catch a bonefish or permit. Something, anything, off of the flats besides a grunt or school master. The plan was to fish 4 sets of flats between our apartment and town. I set off with high hopes around 8am.
First set of flats was larger than I was anticipating. Creeping softly through the baby mangroves, I made my way toward a mound of sand for a high vantage point. As soon as I made it to the mound, I saw the largest bonefish yet not 5ft in front of me. Well over 20inches, it probably saw me before I saw it. It turned as I cast a crab pattern towards it and fled the flat, never to be seen again.
And that was it. One bonefish spotted in the first 10 minutes, followed by 4 hours of wading around in circles with peeled eyes and focused concentration, looking for a fin, a tail, a ripple, anything.
The only other fish I saw that warranted a cast or two was a 4ft shark with a biologist's tag in it's dorsal fin. It obviously wanted nothing to do with a shrimp pattern and would have sawed through the 14lb flouro in a micro second, but I was bored and took some casts.
The other three flats looked so promising, but yielded nothing. Bonefishing is hard.
That night, Stace and I walked down to the spot where I've landed three tarpon so far. The tide was low but rising, and there were thousands of baitfish clustered around the jetties. Things were looking good.
In the two hours we were there we saw zero tarpon. I'm attributing it to the new moon, a traditionally shitty fishing period. It seems tarpon activity is highest during the week approaching and the week after a full moon, and is shitty for the remaining two weeks of the cycle. This is just an observation based a very little data.
Stace did manage to snap a series of casting shots backlit by a setting sun. Enjoy.
1 comment:
Beeeeeeeautiful shots! Thanks for sharing.
I went to the Virgin Islands once for a week of R & R. When I finally left they were just called The Islands ;^)
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