Boxing Day, the day after Christmas, was our last real fishing day in The Bahamas. (The following day we went scuba diving instead!) So far we had been very successful in finding at least some fish in every place we looked, so I was very excited to go explore the Inner White Sound of Green Turtle Cay.
The weather was grey, with rain forecast in the afternoon, but the wind had dropped and shifted to the southeast. This meant that the shallow, southern end of the sound would be protected from the wind so, despite the clouds, we would have a good chance of spotting any bonefish feeding along the mangroves. We ate a quick breakfast and got an early start, so early in fact that none of the kayak rental staff had arrived to work yet, so the front desk just loaned one to us for free. (Mahalo for that!)
The paddle across White Sound proper, and thence into the inner sound, was upwind but not too difficult. The tide was falling and I felt certain we would see some tailing fish, but we didn’t. We scoured the shallows and peaked into the folds of mangroves but I didn’t see or hear a single bonefish. We had passed a pair of shallow wrecks on the way in so, with no bones to catch, we tied up the kayak nearby and Tara made a cast with the light tackle spinning rod. Instant action! A swarm of fish burst from the stern of one of the wrecks and attacked the lure. She immediately hooked a hungry mutton snapper. We took turns for a few minutes, catching fish on every cast.
Then, quite suddenly, the action stopped. We made some exploratory casts around the area but got no more bites. Then Tara spotted the reason why. A snoozing shark had heard the fish struggling as we reeled them in and had emerged from its hiding place to investigate, sending the gamefish back into hiding!
A bit of rain began to fall so we boarded our kayak and began to paddle slowly back up the sound. The whole area was quite shallow and I began to wonder if the bonefish were just too nervous to feed this far from deep water. But then, as we cruised slowly along, I saw a big tail pop out of the water just 30 feet from our starboard gunwale. I slipped out of my seat as quickly and quietly as I could and left Tara to maneuver the kayak alone while I stalked towards where I had seen the fish. The glare was terrible, and the tail did not rise again so I wasn’t surprised when I walked straight into the fish and it spooked with a splash. However, the encounter had renewed my hopes so, with my rod in one hand and towing Tara in the kayak with the other, I began to walk along the flat in the only direction that allowed me to see at all into the water.
We had gone about a hundred yards when I spotted some shapes in the water. They were difficult to make out and very dark, almost black against the dark bottom, but they were about the size of bonefish. I had tied on a black mantis shrimp pattern, which I knew would be easy for the fish to see in the low light conditions, and I quickly made a cast just past and to the side of the dark shadows. I counted to three to let the fly get to the bottom and started making short strips. Everything went tight and the fish that had grabbed my fly took off for the far side of the sound. As it ran I saw a dozen or more dark shapes flee past me. How such a large school of bonefish had been feeding in such a shallow area without showing their tails, making a splash, or creating a giant mud cloud, will forever be a mystery. But I had found them, and hooked a strong one.
There were very few line hazards around, but I began to get a bit nervous as the fish headed all the way back towards the wrecks we had fished before. I clamped down the drag and palmed the reel as much as I dared and eventually managed to stop the fish and bring it back to the kayak for a photo.
The Fishing Dojo 