Tracy&James | Sunday, 27 November 2022
This week was Tracy’s and mine last full week on the flats and it was an eventful one. I must say that after 6 weeks of fishing we’re both a bit physically battered, in particular our feet are burning sore. Looking after your feet and skin are vital on a long wade fishing trip, we don’t ever use anything other than factor 50 sunscreen and purchase products aimed at surfers or children because we feel they do not wash off as easily as standard lotions. In our boots we have insoles to cushion our feet from the rocks etc. as well as thick neoprene socks, however after 40 plus days of wading up to 6 or 7 hours (limited by the light at this time of year) the normal ache can turn to pain. On the subject of looking after your feet; after the first day of wading I noticed a blister on my toe (the same toe that had the gout flare-up) – this then took 35 days for the hole in my skin to finally heal over. We’ve experienced this with other cuts and abrasions, they don’t heal at the normal rate when exposed to saltwater on a daily basis and scarring is greatly increased. Tracy still has marks on her ankle from a seemingly minor injury that happened on a trip years ago, so look after yourself if you’re planning an extended visit.
Anyway on to the fishing. We didn’t have great tides for our last week so revisited some marks that are either not affected (much) by the state of the tide or ones where we could target predators over the high water period. I will say that the predator fishing has been pretty tough for the entirety of our trip, however, this has been more than compensated for by the excellent bonefishing both in numbers of fish and their size. One evening we dropped into a flat that was on our drive home from where we’d been fishing a southern coastline. We did so in the hope of seeing some tailing fish as the light faded to the point of making spotting fish extremely difficult. After about 30 minutes of wading we realised the hoped for tailing action wasn’t going to happen, so we turned around and waded together back towards where we’d left the car. Within sight of where we’d parked, Tracy noticed a ‘bulge’ in the water moving towards us. This then started to accelerate as we identified it as a shark. Within seconds it was upon us at full speed, totally ignoring our ‘rod slap’ warnings and leaving us both jumping out of the way for the sake of saving our legs from a savaging. We both agreed that it was an exciting way to end the day and that we’d both never encountered such an aggressive shark before. We come across many sharks, that’s just something you get used to whilst wading, and quite a few come up close to check us out. The scary ones are those that travel, unseen, up the silt trail you make whilst wading so the first you see of them is when they’re within a rod length. However most are extremely spooky and either glide away when they see us or bolt at a rate of knots. This one made a full-out attack run on us only diverting when it was a matter of 1 or 2 feet from our legs.
Another day with a high tide during fishing hours saw us return to the rough flat area that I mentioned in a previous FP, the one where I saw two large bonefish that totally ignored my fly. This time I selected a big fly with a weed-guard and commenced walking down the side of a crinkle rock island whilst Tracy headed off at 90 degrees to check out some lagoon type areas. The first bonefish I encountered I pretty much walked into, it was sat on dark brown grass in knee deep water so it was a difficult one to spot. It didn’t spook, rather it swam around me in the general direction of where Tracy was. The second fish I spotted was deep amongst the mangrove bushes – pointless to even cast at given its position, so I moved on. Next I saw three fish together on the outside of the rough area, away from trouble, giving their position away by occasionally cruising over areas where the brown grass gave way to clear rock. A fairly straight forward cast saw one of these fish pounce on the fly, however it immediately ran straight at me and then behind into the mangroves. The leader parted before the fly line was even off the reel, it was a good fish too. I added a new tippet and a new fly and continued to wade. I hadn’t got far when I spotted some more fish, possibly the same group. Again the fly was instantly taken and this time things seemed to be going in my favour as another good bonefish took off in a ‘safe’ direction. However, again before the fly line was out of the tip ring, the fish did a complete 180 roostering the line all the way into the mangroves with the same result as the first fish. As you can imagine I was a little frustrated as I attached my second new tippet and fly in a matter of minutes. I paused at this point to compose myself and have a biscuit (our standard lunch when out on the flats). From where I was I could see a nice clear corridor of sandy bottom that I decided deserved to be waded. I accessed this by traversing a waist-deep dip a couple of metres wide which quickly shallowed to a perfect knee depth. The moment I stepped on this sandy area I spotted a fish coming down it, and a big one – it took me a second or two to confirm it was a bonefish and not a cuda. In the shallower water with a clean bottom and great visibility I decided to lead this fish by quite a way with my cast, maybe 20ft. It was obviously the perfect distance because as soon as the fly touched down on the bottom the bonefish accelerated and tipped, my first strip was in fact a strip-strike. Now I’ve been bonefishing for a couple of decades now and I have caught a lot of bonefish, big and small. I’ve been told on at least three occasions that I’ve had a 10lb-er but these fish never seemed to hit the size that I would expect of a double figure fish. However from the moment this fish took the fly I knew, it was the second largest bonefish I’ve seen on this trip – the largest did a u-turn whilst it was still a good 35 yards from me so I didn’t even get a shot at that one. Luckily this fish ran into a completely clear area and behaved nicely during the fight – it did set itself aside from most bonefish in that it felt very heavy during the retrieve after the first run. Incidentally, that first run was nowhere near the distance of the ‘Usain Bolt’ bonefish that I reported last week. After landing it, and taking a really crappy photo, I’m now content to say I’ve finally had a double figure bonefish – a fish of a lifetime as far as I’m concerned.
I caught one bonefish that day and so did Tracy. She had a really nice fish (she takes much better bonefish selfie pictures than me). We think it may have been the first fish that I saw that day (or rather, didn’t see until it was too late). She also showed me where she caught it and I was amazed that she could land a fish like that from an area with trouble in terms of mangroves, rocks and dead trees in all directions.
When this is posted, Tracy and I will be travelling home. Today there’s a twenty degree temperature difference between where we are and North Wales, I’m worried my teeth are going to crack with thermal shock when we arrive.
Have a great week,
James
