Brown Trout Delight

The next day we fished another area and the fish were extremely spooky. We did see barracuda, lemon sharks, and a huge six foot manta ray in slow motion ballet.

Because of the too easily spooked fish, Dan wanted to fish the west side of the island which was a fifty mile boat ride away from civilization. When we reached the west side, the water color tingled timelessly in a blue neon fish dream.

Sydney shut the Yamaha off and stepped onto the poling platform. We were into bonefish instantly.

“Left, two o’clock, fifty feet out, left, get your line out, drop it, strip, strip stop strip strip pick it up throw it left!” In all this shout of rapid fire instructions my fly line wrapped around my head and the fly stuck in my shirt.

Dan said, “Bern, you have buck fever.” Then it was Dan’s turn to fish and he caught a four pounder on his third cast.

In the afternoon we saw a school of bonefish close to the boat within easy casting distance. Magic was in the air. I managed to get the fly in the right place in all the excitement.

I stripped the fly and Bang! Something very solid hit and headed for Miami. A few hundred yards of line spun out immediately and the reel was getting hot.

Several runs later we were able to get it close to the boat and grab the fish by the tail. It was eight pounds of Bahama silver!

As the day continued, I settled down and my double haul casting improved markedly. I hooked another bonefish about five pounds. As the fish was running, a big lemon shark attacked it. I reeled in half a bonefish.

We put our rods away and enjoyed the waterscape back to the east side.

Over the next few days we fished a variety of areas, sometimes just wading the flats all day stalking fish in the bright ocean colors.

Almost every evening we were at Hank’s Place enjoying fishing conversation over dinner. On Saturday night they barbecued wild boar, chicken, fish, and played local Bahama music.

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Copyright © Bern Sundell 2007. All Rights Reserved.