Just got back from an epic trip to South Andros, Bahamas. First time for me fishing the flats...or salt water fly fishing. Fished 3 days out of Bair’s lodge. Guides were top notch and a lot of fun to fish with. Equipment was well maintained and ready to go. Excellent selection of flies and other tackle goodies. Accommodations and food were perfect. Extremely nice but not crazy, carried away, first class nonsense. I.e. perfect for a fishing experience.
First day landed a big bonefish right away. A 7 lb beauty. Took me to my backing twice. All power. Way to start it off! It turned out to be my biggest of the trip and 2nd biggest amongst all the anglers. The biggest caught during the week was 10lbs. Caught well over 20 bones and a lot of snapper on day 1. Day 2 was a combo of boat and walking flats. Lots of nice bones. Lost about 5 right off. Next one first snap off, right at the knot. Put on the same fly. Next fish 5 minutes later sets up the same. Great fight. Land it...it has both of my flies. One on each side of the mouth, same fly. That fish was determined and hungry!
The highlight was a huge barracuda. We had been seeing many of them but nothing too huge. The guide thought this one was a tarpon at first. Too big for a cuda he was thinking. Once we knew it was a cuda I switched to my 2nd rod. I had just rigged it that morning with a toothy critter leader I just bought. The fly was a flashy one I had brought from home and was thinking it could be good cuda bait. I casted at this monster that was just sitting there. It would move almost every cast to the falling fly. Stripping the fly fast...nothing. It would just watch. Next cast, it would move in again on the drop. Finally put the perfect, about 30th, cast right in front of its mouth. As the fly falls in front in clamps down. It was a take and visual I will not forget. I set the hook and the cuda does a couple of turns. Then, all hell breaks loose. This thing does a power run and jumps about 5 feet in the air. It then does 2 frontways leaps right at the boat and comes within 2 feet of landing in the boat. The cuda is going past the boat so fast you can hear the fly line sizzle. The bow in the line was bad and I knew this could easily lead to loosing the fish. So I quickly hand over hand the bow out of the line until it is all tight again. The cuda does another run towards the mangroves. My wife finally gets the camera running by this time. Here is the vid, hard to see the jump but starts about 27 seconds in and we get one more long forward jump. You can hear the reel screaming just before. That was how it went except the first runs where longer and more powerful. The drag was tight too. It was the most epic battle with a fish for me yet, and on the fly. Finally land the beast. The guide wants to keep this one so grabs it by the eyes. Apparently this subdues them...I know it would subdue me! This monster turns out to be 45 inches long and somewhere between 25-30 lbs. Those teeth...
That was the biggest of the week by anyone by far.
Big Cuda run
https://youtu.be/EuIDYd2-a2I
Big cuda at boat
https://youtu.be/-KpcE-TvF80
The rest of the trip continued to be awesome. We saw manta rays, sting rays, sharks, birds, and a dolphin which followed us on the flats for an hour. Crazy!
Vid:
Dolphin stalking us on the flats
https://youtu.be/Cy9Are-h6DM
The water is clear and has the beautiful color.
Vid:
Stalking the flats
https://youtu.be/j6szNzqT-XA
The management was excellent. Beach fires held every night with all inclusive booze... miss it already!
Way to open up the open water season with a bang!!
And now for the highlight pics:
Shots from the plane
I can almost see exactly where each bonefish should be
Flats leading to the deep...gotta head back just to fish this area
The lodge
Hammock time!
Conch gathering for supper
First open water trip with an exclamation!
. Though I suspect similar to a West coast trip but you also have a higher travel cost.
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