August 3, 2007 Catching bonefish on your own is easy. Just spend hundreds of days on the water, casting at everything that moves: jacks, pinfish, needle-fish, barras, mullet and boxfish; divine their locations from the mysterious cycle of the moon; stalk the flats for sunburned days — scurrying in the mud like a bonefish yourself [...]
Posts under ‘Old Scratch’
Dog Days
August 2000 “Bloody heat! I kya’ see how nobody kin stan’ dis kine a’ heat! Bloody Augus’!” No one is around to hear my mutterings as I string the rod. Should have done this back at home, but that would have made too much sense, been too logical, you know. Sweat burns my eyes as [...]
Bonefish Everywhere… Right?
June 28, 2000 It has been a continual source of surprise for me how many different species one can mistake for bonefish. To the neophyte any nervous water, splashes, wakes, or tails that appear on a flat are automatically “bones”. Man, nothing could be further from the truth. So far I’ve mistaken grunts, shads, mullets, [...]
The Smell of Rain
June 2000 Gray light of day; a stiff breeze out of the southeast carries the smell of rain. The tide is out, revealing the pockmarked flat. Exposed turtle grass lies in southeast striations. The overcast is fairly uniform, and across the sound a squall draws a rakish block of gray rain over the far shore. [...]
Out There…
June 11, 2000 I think I shall one day publish a book of my memoirs on bonefishing. It will be titled Casting at Shadows, and listed under humor. The confessed trout bum, John Gierach, says that “the solution to any problem is to go fishing, and the worse the problem, the longer the trip should [...]
The Early Bird
June 10, 2000 Daybreak, meridian: 81º west. Southeast breeze, easing to five knots. In the harbor boats at anchor ride a smooth swell that passes easily beneath to foam against the dark ironshore that rings the bay. To the east, giant cumuli pile, a dark mass against the purple sky. Overhead, ragged clouds hurry on their way to [...]
Jumpin’ Tarpon with the Boys
From last year’s tarpon trip. That’s BarJack on the fish and Nate W. on the leader. Your’s truly is behind the lens. We hooked several that day but this is the only one we brought to the boat… and Mr BarJack spanked that poon in under 15… just like he does every time.
