John Montana, the impressive Columbia Gorge angler from carponthefly.blogspot.com, recently posted a blog titled “Clouds are the Devil” which echoes some of my recent frustrations.  I only went bonefishing a couple of times this month but each time I was frustrated by a lack of sunshine. One day it was windy, another it was calm.  I fished a high, incoming tide and a low, low tide.  I fished a calm bay from our inflatable boat and a choppy flat on foot.  The only constant was cloudy skies.  Without sun, sight-fishing for bonefish, or for carp, is very difficult.  Regardless of the other conditions, sunshine can make the difference between great fishing and complete frustration.

One thing I noticed on those cloudy days was that in the brief moments when the sun actually poked out through a hole in the clouds I often found myself surrounded by fish, often so close that I could not cast without scaring them!  It just reminds me that even when the sun is shining and conditions are perfect, there must be many fish that pass by unseen.

I finally decided to embrace the overcast skies and went out early one morning with some bait and my light-tackle rod.  I was able to make my way by memory to a large, sandy pocket in the reef where I know bonefish often hold.  Sure enough, within a minute I felt the “tap-tap” of a bonefish picking up my bait.

Now, with the month almost over we are preparing for a visit to Oregon where I am planning on doing some tenkara fishing for trout and hoping to pick up a couple of nice carp on The Big-C!