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3. Andros Island, Bahamas

Nice lodge, very good made to order breakfasts. Dinners were all excellent. Had lobster tails two nights, grouper, conch strips, chicken, and great ribs the other nights. You make you own sandwiches after breakfast.

All the guides we had new their business very well and tried their best to not only put us on fish but to position the boat for a lefty or righty and tried to get the wind behind us.

I think though the areas, flats and coves we fished have been pounded relentlessly. We only saw a couple honest 6# bones and they took off often as soon as they saw us and before we even cast. One of the party of four caught one 5# and one 6# fish. All the others were small 1# - 3# fish. Although a 3# bonefish will still easily pull a #9 line and 100' of backing in just a few seconds. All my bonefish pictures are on my friends camera.

Looks like an awesome trip, and it makes me want to go back there!

Jason,

The scenery was awesome and the water ranged from very dark deep blue to light turqouise. If you might ever want to do a DIY to one of the major, or out, islands I'd be interested in partnering with you. One of the guys I met at the lodge told me the best bonefish trip he ever had was a DIY to Grand Bahama he did by himself. He rented a little place near the sea and rented a vehicle. Most of the time all he had to do was keep an eye on the tides and drive along the road, park the car, and walk out onto a flat.

He had many pictures of big bones so I'm pretty sure he wasn't BSing. He told me in a week he landed ten bones of 10# or more. Any double digit bonefish is a monster and they are by no means common. He fished Grand Bahama Island in the West End.

He also spent a week on Christmas Island in 2013 and said the fishing was fantastic and he had the pictures to prove it. Lots of Trevally and bones that were an honest 4# and more. I'd consider doing that but the air fare from here to LA is high and then it is another $1,000 from Hawaii to Christmas Island.

Looks like the weather was nice! Great trip Matt, those pics are really cool. That cuda looks like he has been eating very well! CJ

Nice Matt! Welcome home. Looks like you had a good trip! Despite the spring winds.

I think I told you that I have done well on Grand Bahama DIY. Those jacks pull! A lot of people look down on them but I love them. Grand Bahama was easy for me. Same program. Rent a jeep, watch the tides and I have always found plenty of fish.

WOW Matt, one hell of a trip and some very nice fish to show for it! What rods, reels, flies, etc. were you using?

I'll bet that horseye jack fought like a ten-pound bluegill!

Jonathon

I used 9' rods, one #8 and a #9 when it was really windy. I also brought a 9' #7 that I never even cast and a 7' 4 pc medium light spin rod with a Gander Mtn reel loaded with 10# Stren Magnathin fluorocarbon, a 12" 40# wire leader and a 5" Fire Tiger Yo-Zuri shallow running plug.

For the bonefish I used mostly #4 Sim Rams and Gotchas. I also used a couple other flies but those mentioned were the most successful. We used what I considerd heavy tipets. I used Seagaur 0X that has a break strength of 18# but the fish were not at all leader shy.

While I know 'cuda are caught on 7" - 8" long needlefish flies it is just so damn hard to strip the flies fast enough to get the cudas to take consistently. You might be stripping as fast as possible via a two hand strip only to have the 'cuda just kind of follow the fly to the boat and have it turn away. With a high retrieve ratio spin reel you pretty much can get a take on every 'cuda you cast to if it is not already spooked. When we threw to barracuda with the spin reel with a 5:1 retreive ratio you could see immediate interest and the fish would chase like crazy. It is actually impossible to reel too fast! I reeled as fast as possible so the lure was litteraly racing through the water and the fish always caught the lure.

The guide parked the boat in the shallows of an ocean flat and put out an anchor. We walked at least two miles up along the beach and shallows when the tide was dead low. The intention was to get way up into where he thought the best water was and wait for the incoming tide to bring in the better bones. My buddy and I each carried a fly rod and the guide carried the spn rod. He played with it a bit and was amazed at how far he could throw it with the wind at his back. I was actually surprised too as it was sailing out over 150 feet. He told my buddy "Mon your friend will never be able to land even a 10# fish with this line, it is too light." When I landed the jack and a few minutes later the heavier barracuda he came over to me and said "Mon you did really good with those big fish."

Most impressive, Matt. My last experience with barracuda was off the coast of southern CA near San Diego. On the second of two party boat trips I took, the sand bass were not hitting very well (they were hitting like crazy on the first trip, lost count after 25 or so). Out a good hundred or more feet from the boat I saw baitfish surfacing, as if something was driving them up from underneath. Whipping a clear/silver sparkle jig in the direction of the commotion on a spinning rod, and retrieving it just as fast as I could turn the handle, brought Pacific barracuda chasing it right up to and under the boat, where I got six of them to connect (including biggest fish of the trip, won $87!). Like you say, you just can't retrieve it too fast...

Jonathon

I forgot to mention a very pesky problem we encountered on every day of our trip. It is the abubdance of green head flies (Tabanus nigrovittatus). They are nasty bastards and if not flicked away when noticed will inflict a painful bite that will itch and then swell up to the point where the entire back of your hand might be swollen. Even out in the open water, hundreds of yards from the mangroves, the flies find the boat and then gorge on warm bodies.

I escaped almost all the bites because I tucked my pant legs into my socks and wore 1 mm neoprene booties over my socks before putting on my flats boots. I was also applying SPF 30 sunblock liberally to all exposed facial areas. I wore sun gloves so only my finger tips were exposed. None of my three partners wore gloves nor did they tuck the pant legs into their socks. They all were bitten and two of them had big nasty welts on the backs of their hands and calves.

One of our guides got bitten on the face while he was poling and almost fell off of the platform. I learned today that if you liberally apply #30 sun block to your exposed skin it acts as a very effective deterent to attracting these pests.

Ah yes, even when you go to the tropics, there's always the biting insect problem...horseflies to boot! Sounds like the tropical version of deerflies, except nothing seems to discourage them! Insects can very much be both our friends and enemies when fly fishing...

Jonathon

P.S. I look forward to the first month of warm weather every year because that's how long it takes the mosquitos to wake up...

Great pictures, Matt! Lovely skies, lovely water and warmth.

That barracuda is one toothy fish! Looks mean, and fun to catch. Glad you were able to catch some fish despite tough winds. If you looked like a rank beginner, imagine how most would have looked!

Matt...Good to see some sun, no?! I haven't been to the Bahamas since 1972!

I think you and Tony have a competition going to see who can poke the most species of fish in one year! :)

Nice pics...Besides the fish in them, its not always an easy thing to pull off good pictures in all that light.

Nice to see you are getting back into the swing of things.

Spence

Congrats on a great trip, Matt. Thanks for sharing.

Nice job!