As I headed down to the Bahamas this past week, all that I heard from fellow anglers was how the Bone Fish is one of the most difficultly shy fish to catch throughout the world. Thinking nothing of this I arrived in Treasure Cay on a small Island Hopper plane and proceeded to the local Ferry for a lift over to Green Cay Island. Blue seas, high sun, delightful people, and my sister and her husband were there to greet my arrival.

I received a few tips on the area from my brother-in-law Nick and the best tactics for fishing the Bone fish (since this would be my first time). Wasting no time, we hit the water around 8 am to ensure the best place on the water. Quick side note, the locals do not have many ‘cars’ but instead they drive in jacked up golf carts with rims and big tires, but I digress. So off we set in our golf-cart and make towards the North side of the Island where we were told the fish are fun and plentiful.

6 hours past and all I caught was a small porgy and one of the worst sun burns I have ever had on my body. FYI to everyone, if you ever visit the Bahamas be sure to lotion up every 45 minutes!! You have been warned! After the burn kicked in and my buzz wore off, I ventured to the side lines and let my brother-in-law Nick kick it in the water solo for a few as I sat back, aloe’d my body like it was going out of style, and cured my pains with a locally brewed brewski.

Jumping to day 3 now, we were able to make friends with a few of the locals. Instead of paying a fortune for a guided tour of the near seas, our new found friends offered to show us a few of their honey holes along the reef, and help us break our streak of unfortunate fish-less 2 days.
Within the first thirty seconds of letting out the troll lines, the pole nearly rips out of my hands as a monster mackerel grabs my line and starts to raise hell. I grab on tight and ready myself for the fight. All of a sudden the line goes limp, then BAM another huge hit. After the second big hit the line goes slack and I reel in to check my hook and bait. To my surprise I have about 1/4 of my mackerel left and me pondering how big the barracuda was that just stole my catch!!

Never-the-less I bait back up and throw out my line once again. Within 30 more seconds my drag starts screaming and I hook up on another fish! After only a 2 minute or so fight, I have my first catch of the week. A 12 pound Barracuda with the teeth the size of my fingers!

At the end of the reef tour we pulled in a total of 3 Barracuda keepers and 1 Grouper keeper.

Now onto the part where I feel was the highlight of my fishing weekend! On the 4th day down under, we ventured back to the original fishing destination where I only caught a serious sun-burn and a hate for the sun. Like always though, I grabbed my gear, lotioned up, and tied on the shrimp imitation pattern that Nick tied for me. Off we went towards the North end of the Island. To be honest, I didn’t have much hope for this expedition to where I was just recently skunked at, but I was way off with my thinking!
I learned during this trip that you don’t fish for Bone fish, rather you hunt them instead. You look for shadows, movement, anything that could be a fish. So there I was, hunting down one group of about 15-20 Bone fish. After about 2 hours of casting at them and giving them everything I thought I had, they disappeared off into the horizon. So there I was, lost, bored, and my previous excitement was shot to the waves. Suddenly I see Nick waving his arms and yelling for my attention. The group of fish I was after was suddenly coming back towards me. Well, I thought to myself that it was now or never, so I threw out my line about 50 yards in front of the group, as not to spook them. As the fish were about 5 feet from my fly, I gave it a little action to help imitate a shrimp. The next thing I knew was that my pole was nearly dipped all the way into the water…. FISH ON!!! I scrambled about in disbelief as my line started stripping out and my drag screeched in happiness and anticipation. After about 8 runs by the fish, each about 40-50 feet, the Bone fish was finally tired enough to admit defeat to me. With tears in my eyes, I picked the fish up as Nick came sprinting towards me screaming in utter shock and exhilaration! I finally did what I had set out to do from day 1. I had hooked AND landed the infamous Bone fish, and my goodness was she beautiful.

So comes an end to the great tales down Under for this angler. The season is young, the weather is changing, and the waters are warming.. be ready for some sweet fish, some good times, and of course some sound advice from your friends here at Moose Knuckle Fishing. Be sure to check out our updates each week and our new flies and gear over at www.paulinskillriverfishing.com for all the latest hatches, accessories, and fresh tied flies!! Now I will leave you with the same scene that the Bahamas left me with..