My wife Jackie had never caught a
bonefish. But there she was, only minutes after landing
at our camp on the Los Roques series of islands off
Venezuela, with line screaming off the reel, grit and
determination written all over her face, weeds picked up
by the line streaming in the wind like flags, the
bonefish threatening to spool the small reel. As a
novice, her choice was a light spinning outfit; the rest
of us in our group of five using fly tackle. For the
novice that she was, it was a thrilling, yet almost
frightening experience as the fish made it's series of
long determined, single minded runs.
 When landed, the fish, the first for her, the
first for any of us on the trip and among the first taken
on these huge flats after fishing exploration only a few
months earlier, proved to be about a five or six pounder,
perhaps on the large size of the dozens that we would
catch on the remaining week on the island.
Bonefishermen are basically adventurers. With
bonefish found only in tropical waters, bonefish can be
found in the U. S. only in Florida and Hawaii (in Hawaii
where they are a deep water fish and thus not typically
fished for by traditional shallow water bonefishing
methods). Thus, bonefish are sought for in other
countries, principally in the Caribbean and in Central
and South America. One of the most promising places to
fish now is Islas Los Roques.
 
|
