BONEFISHING
by Jack Hardy
The first name in bonefishing is The Bahamas. The Spanish Baja Mar means Ôshallow seasÕ and shallow water is where bonefish like to feed. The first World Bonefish Championships were held here, acknowledging The Bahamas as the bonefishing centre of the world.
True, the largest ever catch was elsewhere. It's in relatively unfished waters that you'll find the occasional gargantuan specimen. But when it comes to good bonefishing action on a regular basis, the Out Islands of The Bahamas are the Mecca of devoted bonefishers.
It was back in the early 60's that Sandy Point led the way for Abaco by having a bonefishing camp established at The Point. By and large, bonefishing is a phenomenon of the second part of the century and now attracts the most discerning of sports fishermen. Sandy Point is still the main centre but other places - Different of Abaco comes to mind, and there are several guides operating out of Treasure Cay and the Cays - have joined the party.
The average bonefisherman is not average. He - or she - is likely to be a person who is broad minded and educated and very discriminating in other areas of life as well as sports.
What is the fascination of bonefishing? Well, you can go out one day and catch one or two or three or more and really feel good about your prowess. You can fish the same tide next day, same place, same bait, same everything, and come up blank.
This is the frustration of professional guides. They can only take you to your best odds location and pray. There's an enormous amount of skill attached to bonefishing, but there's more luck.
What is a bonefish? It's a fish that stands alone on the evolutionary scale. Even the ladyfish (bastard bonefish) that looks so similar is very distantly removed. Therefore the habits of the bonefish are not linked to any other fish: they are unique in the piscine world.
They inhabit just about all the tropical and subtropical seas of the world but prefer to feed in marly, sandy, grass-bottomed tidal areas that The Bahamas tends to have on the western side of just about every island.
The Bahamas was made for bonefish and the government has established rules to protect bonefish against indiscriminate fishing. Don McCarthy, Head of the Fishing Information Bureau in the 60's, pressed for these regulations and it is has long been illegal to net bonefish or sell them in the Nassau market.
Bonefish are very sensitive to just about everything. They are fussy about the tides and favour the last third of an ebbing tide. They are fussy about the temperature and prefer the early summer and fall for maximum activity. They also don't like windy conditions. When it's too windy to see the bottom over the flats, it's not a good bonefishing day. If you fish from a boat, the slightest tap will "spook" them. They have to be either stalked or waited for.
Bonefish travel in schools: sometimes a dozen or so, sometimes hundreds. These smaller schools tend to join larger schools and then sub-divide again. Whatever rules they seem to establish are rarely adhered to on another occasion. You see bonefish every day for weeks on end in one place. Next day there there are none.
There are two basic ways to bonefish: use a boat or wade. There are two basic ways to bonefish: use a fly or spinning rod. There are two basic ways to bonefish: bait or lure. There are two basic ways to bonefish... I think you have the message: there is no basic way to bonefish. One of the biggest bonefish I ever caught was on the east side of Abaco at high tide in two fathom water, fishing for something else.
Usually, if you are fishing for bonefish, you won't catch anything else as a consolation. If tarpon or pompano pass by, your tackle will probably be too light for the job. You might get a boxfish (cow fish) or puffer (if you are too close to shore) or even attract a busy durgon, but the last two will not excite you. If you are trying to catch bonefish, it's bonefish or nothing. Whoever named bonefish Albula vulpes (White fox) obviously did some bonefishing in his time.
The fashion these days is to catch bonefish by flyfishing. This has the advantage of a certain cachet but also allows you to land your hook nearer the school without spooking it. Fishing with a spinning rod should not be disdained, however. It needs the additional sense of anticipating the movement of a school as a heavier lure is used.
Bait or no bait? One of the ways in which bonefish show their fussiness is in their feeding habits. Small shellfish make up to half their intake but I've never seen anyone fish with clams or tellins in the shell. Small crabs (or big ones, if cracked and portioned by an angler) make up most of the rest of their diet, which also includes worms, other small fish and shrimps. Bonefish have been demonstrated to have a keen sense of smell so chumming in a known area can be successful. Just be sure to move along with your chum stream if you let if flow free. A punctured can of sardines in oil, or clam juice, makes a good chum source to bring the bonefish to you uptide. Even a fly or lure benefits from a sliver of bait. A piece of conch cut long and thin like a small worm sometimes does the job even though conch is not a particularly good bait for bonefish if cut in other shapes. Just remember that bonefish have been caught on a plain hook being retrieved after an unsuccessful strike.
How to find your bonefish? Hire a guide or go to a promising area at the back end of an ebbing tide. I like to wade, mainly because I don't own a boat. I'm also a spinning rod man, which will probably cause plenty of readers to throw this article down in disgust. That's your problem. It's hard to catch bonefish with a spinning rod too.
The dimpled crushing palate of a bonefish is almost impervious to a hook but the fast action take-off usually sets your hook in the softer lip area. Try to make your strike to the side. Whether a lure or fly, try to jiggle it without too much retrieval. Not too much jiggling. Send a tremor down the line every ten seconds or so. That should do it.
And when youÕve hooked your bonefish and it's screaming into the distance? Just hold your rod high and scream your head off. You've hooked a bonefish - enjoy the experience to its fullest. If your guide starts to give you some advice, tell him to shut up. Absorb your bonefish, its power, its speed, its determination. If it breaks the line or slips the hook, fine. You have been there with it. YouÕve shared with a champ, and he won. My most memorable bonefish were never caught - they stripped the reel. Yours may too. Don't fret. Those that get away are always bigger then those that are caught.
If Don Shula - a keen sport fisherman - had not retired as the most successful professional football coach of all time, he would by now approach becoming the coach with the most losses all time. Same with bonefish: you catch them, you don't catch them. The more you win, the more you lose.
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