SECOND PERSON
You come on the scene three days into it, and walk into the Slack Tide at Andros South and immediately someone drops a line at your expense. Ball busting travels. Then you wake up in the morning and you’re on the flats, stepping quietly, and trying to figure out how the hell the guide walking next to you is looking at the same water but seeing entirely different things.
Your line is floating behind you and you’re creeping forward hoping you get it done. The guide stops and points and you don’t see anything but you lay down the line and strip, and you feel the tension as the line starts clearing but it catches on the reel handle and that’s it. Mistakes are not abided.
People compare bonefish to false albacore but they are similar only in their backing runs. Chasing albies is hyperactive and a little bit demolition derby. Bonefishing seems to work best when you slow down your heartrate and make the moment small. Easier said than done.
You start seeing the fish and you race. Thinking about what is 50 feet and are you making too many false casts and the next thing you know you’ve left it short and the fish keep swimming. You pick up your line and shoot it and you overthrow and watch the water explode with spooked fish.
You keep walking, wondering if you’re ever going to get this right when your guide stops and points and you finally see what he sees and he asks, Can you make the cast? I can try, you whisper and before you can overthink it your line has landed and you watch a fish make a move to your fly. You raise the tip and the line comes tight and starts ripping out of your hand and the reel reverses. Then everything else that happened before doesn’t matter. Except for the comedy at your expense. You’ll have to think of a way to repay that sumbitch back at the lodge.
THIRD PERSON
Norman noticed the dark clouds forming behind and started the long wade back to get the skiff. He said to keep moving forward until he returned to pick us up. Gracie spotted a ray gliding ahead, fanning its wings and kicking up marl. “There could be bones trailing behind that,” he said.
Gracie had taped his fingertips because of the line cuts accrued in the days prior but unfazed he talked across the flats about data encryption but then suddenly stopped, and the only sound echoing across the water came from his reel. That ray swam right by him and he made the cast, picking up the lead fish of four about two feet behind the barbed tail.
Watching other people stalk bonefish is just as interesting….
The tide is barely over our ankles on the flats and Smithhammer is rolling through a set of off-color guide jokes. After walking a distance over several football fields, Ellie notices separate sets of tails working in opposite directions. He points Smithhammer, who doesn’t need the same help, off to the fish on the right.
Ellie walks and walks, then stands patiently, then points at the disturbed water about a hundred feet forward. The sound of a reversing reel interrupts him and he turns his head back to witness Smithhammer holding his rod over his head to keep the tension on one of those other tailers. ”He’s done it,” Ellie says, and then turns to move closer for a shot at our rooting fish.
FIRST PERSON
I’m in the dining room trying to hold down some cereal in a digestive system unsettled by last night’s beverages, and from losing straight up cash to Gracie at the card table. I’ve played Texas Hold Em five times in my life and never sober, so it always needs to be re-explained. Never won, go figure.
The van is just outside and it’s time to leave. I get a window seat on the Western Air flight to Nassau. The prop plane pulls off the runway in Congo Town and that’s it, mang, time’s up.
I didn’t count my fish but I can replay every take in my head and, jesus, it’s about time I took a day off to go striper fishing.
Good stuff. My drinking is about as out of practice as my poker. I would have painted the walls and lost my cash… at least that is what I’ll keep telling myself.
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You forgot to mention all the fish you did catch…I stand as a witness! You are not going to push me off the sandbagging throne.
Well written. I very much enjoyed it and can’t wait to catch a Bonefish.
Tight lines
@Bjorn, thanks again for the flies. So you know, at cards Gracie is stone cold.
@Gracie, I guess since you saw me catch a few I can’t take your SB title. (Or is it BS?) Good times fishing with you, ray jedi.
@Fish Whisperer, thanks, and I highly recommend it.
STFU and lets go ditch fishing
What’s with the ads?
That’s a wordpress.com deal. I think you have to pay to shut them off.
I haven’t caught a peacock bass yet this year. That needs to change.
well played Sir
Very cool with the three perspectives.
Thanks Matt and JP. And nice carp there in the avatar
Unrelated, but since I’m in denial about where you’ve been while I’ve been driving my desk…
Buy the new Deluxe Edition of Exile on Main Street with all the extra good stuff… good video stuff baked in. all good fun.
Did you buy, then? Good article on it all in the weekend’s times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/23/arts/music/23stones.html
I did… on iTunes as an “iTunes LP” with video content of Chateau Nellcote, and a lot of footage from around/in the studio, and slideshows of a lot of pics over tunes you know very well, but the quality/remastering/whatever-the-eff-they-do makes it sound outstanding. Listen to an album all the way through again! Remember when we did that?
striper and trout on the cape this weekend… woods hole, kettle ponds… all good.
Pete, good to meet you at AS! Sorry you could not have stayed longer. The group that came in after you guys were NO FUN! Of course it would be tough for any one to follow the FIB’s.
Hey Dick, likewise, I had a blast. You were holding out on me. When I was asking you about cameras I didn’t know you were a pro shot. Good stuff, looking through your portfolio.
Thanks, look at the Flyfishing and Bahamas galleries on my site for some stuff from AS. I’m working on another site where shots can be downloaded of most of the guys and will send the link to it later.
For more shots from Andros South take a look at: http://gallery.me.com/pitini#100072
All the photos are downloadable – but it would be pretty weird to have photos of the FIB guys on your wall.
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Dude, so so sweet… and so soooo jealous. You (and your brethren) have inspired me, though. Been doing the Google earth thing searching for someplace I can get a little of that. Good stuff all ’round and couldn’t have happened to a better lot. (Although, I’m having a feud w/ Deeter over on “Buster…” right now about whether fly fishing is “metal” or not.)
You have to get on the next one my man. I should do a little sat photo recon myself.
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