Tracy&James | Sunday, 12 November 2023
In the last week Tracy and I have been lucky enough to have 3, maybe 4, good bonefishing days – good but not spectacular by any means. We managed to double our bonefish count for the holiday over the course of these days. We don't actually set targets regarding the amount of bonefish we would like to catch, but we do keep copious notes for future reference regarding the weather, state of tide and the fishing. Obviously we already had a lot of notes from previous trips to this island but this time, apart from the navigational information, they proved to be of little use – the fishing has changed that much.
What's seemingly apparent to me when viewing social media is that a casual follower could get the impression that tropical saltwater fishing is easy. Beautiful weather and seas teeming with fish – just turn up, chuck a Clouser in a shallow bit of water and expect to catch. This couldn't be further from the truth – the coast is mostly devoid of all fish, and just because you've seen them in a certain place, at a certain time of year, on a certain tide, is absolutely no guarantee that given a repeat set of circumstances they will be there again.
Unfortunately finding out that there are no fish present can take some time. The areas involved can be huge, thousands of acres. This size of flat cannot be covered in a single tide, so multiple days are spent coming to the conclusion that, for whatever reason, the fish simply aren't there in any significant numbers. Sure, we might pick up the odd bonefish here and there, but what people don't see in the grinning social media posts are the six previously fish-less hours spent wading into a force 6 wind with nothing but a few gingernut biscuits for sustenance.
I'm sure Tracy and I could put together a photo gallery from this trip that would make it appear amazing (if either of us was a good photographer that is – we're both point and snappers). However, we're not in the job of selling experiences or products, so I'll tell it how it is – this trip has been very hard work, 3 or 4 good days where the tides aligned with the weather from in excess of 30 days fished so far. When I look at our notes some weeks have been truly dismal – I really feel sorry for people who may book one week a year for flats fishing only for it to be a complete wash out – I bet this happens far more than perhaps sellers of exotic trips make out.
I will make the obvious point here that Tracy and I are DiY'ing. As such, the areas, flats etc. we are fishing are accessible by car and on foot (sometimes by kayak). Obviously fishing from a boat, with a guide, opens up a lot more water that we simply can't get to. A full time guide isn't going to be shocked by a lack of fish in a certain area either – he (or she) will know that the fish have moved, thus their clients just get whisked to a productive area to get on with the business of fish catching.
Tracy and I have discussed what the antidote to a bad fishing trip is – I think we both agreed that it's another fishing trip. This time perhaps we'll go guided though, otherwise there's golf, I've always fancied a crack at golf...
Hope you have a fishy week,
James
