We’re not getting much sleep on this Yellow Dog Flyfishing Adventures (YD) Ambassadors Summit meeting. But who cares. The four of us (Wil Flack, Oliver White, myself and Jako Lucas) and camera crew are having an absolute ball down here in Grand Bahama from sunrise till midnight. The fishing has been unreal!
Today my boat mate to start the day was photographer Mike Greener. I only met Mike this week but he’s treat to be with. He takes his photography serious and is thrilled that he recently became part of the YD staff. Our guide was Kevin of H2O Bonefishing and we hardly left the boat ramp before we saw our first tailing bonefish.
I broke out my brand new 7-weight Winston Boron III X. A 7-weight is considered a bit light by many for bonefishing but for me I can still cast it in the wind no problem and if you know how to angle the rod during battle, you can easily force lighter rods to handle strong fish. I made a point to stick my Size 6 Pink Crazy Charlie in the corner of this bonefish mouth on second cast.
After the quick catch Kevin took us on a long run to search for some huge bonefish he saw a few days earlier. By the time we got there the skies were overtaken by clouds followed by heavy rain. We lucked into a couple small bonefish but overall, our visibility vanished.
One fish you can see in the rain, especially when they’re rolling, is tarpon. I was staring out past our flat and spotted exactly this, rolling tarpon. My 9-weight was conveniently rigged for tarpon so Kevin poled us their way. We saw them roll two more times then we were close enough to see them. I threw an orange colored Toad and got three good casts and three good follows. The last follow was from the smallest tarpon in the school and he came right to the boat. We thought for sure he’d eat but instead spooked at the sight of the boat and took the entire school with him.
It was a close call with those tarpon. Even if I only jumped one of them it would’ve been fun but it doesn’t always work out. After yet another big rainstorm, this one so heavy we broke out the raingear and hunkered down, it was lunch time and we were to meet up with the rest of the group and switch it up. We made a run to the meeting spot and found Ian and Wil waiting for us.
During lunch the weather cleared. Ian and Mike decided that before returning to fishing we’d run some more instructional filming. They filmed me doing a demo on the double haul and also how to hook a bonefish. Then Wil went over equipment and a few other helpful flats fishing tips. When YD gets these podcasts organized and up on their website for viewing they should be extremely helpful for everybody.
Once the work was done it was back to fishing. Wil and I have wanted to share a flats boat together so Ian and Mike sent us off with Kevin and they followed behind with the cameras.
For two ours we couldn’t find a bonefish or anything for that matter on the first three flats we tried. It was driving Kevin nuts because they were a few of his favorites. Sometimes fish just act weird and you keep trying. That’s exactly what we did and at last we found them. In fact, we found a flat that had several big schools of easy to catch bonefish.
Wil and I worked hard to get a bonefish double. We got as far as hooking two at a time but we couldn’t keep two buttoned on for a whole fight at the same time. Trust me, two bones screaming line off the same boat causes some havoc. That being said, I’ve been part of many doubles but not today.
We ended the night filming me on “how to handle a fish for photography” and how to release a bonefish. More good stuff for the YD website on its way!
It was another great day down here at Grand Bahama. Everyone tore up the bonefish today. Now it’s time for a barbeque and beer back at Bones Bar followed by a good night sleep. What a blast this place is! Until tomorrow. . . .
A special thanks to Yellow Dog Flyfishing Adventures, H2O Bonefishing and East End Lodge for making this incredible flats fishing trip possible!
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