The boat was a promising flats skiff with a casting deck fore and aft, and a pole. The wind WAS howling at about 30 knots, but he motored us past the golf course to a partly sheltered maze of shallow channels. I tied a tarpon fly on the 9 wt., but it would not push the fly into the wind for either a forward or backcast, so we rigged the 11 wt. That was enough but it was a struggle, blisters and all. I could tell Carlos has never fished a fly fisherman before. He had total confidence I would not hook him with a backcast, whereas I ducked with each forward delivery when casting directly downwind. Carlos poled us through to a specific spot and pointed. I got a pull on the first cast, and that was it. We did see some swirls that indicated fish, about 5 lbs estimated size. After about 20 minutes of working the spot Carlos said we would move. We motored south along the windward edge of the laguna, tight up against the hotel strip to stay out of the waves. We came to another shallow mangrove peninsula sheltered by the Marriot Hotel that was teeming with birds. "Put on fly for snook," Carlos said was we motored down. "Cast into the mangroves". I tied on a skipping bug, and remounted the bow. Immediately two fish I did not immediately recognize scooted away from the boat. Carlos did not see them. I decided, on the basis of pictures I had seen, that they were snook about 8 lbs apiece. Hmmm...... Bass bugging, casting tight to structure at every little cove and break, is something I once used to do a lot. In the wind shadow of the hotel and mangroves, I could get the rod working right and be quite accurate. Though the water had some muddy color to it from the waves washing onto the shallower bar, I could see the bottom clearly. It looked too shallow for fish of any size under the mangroves themselves with the low tide, but the flats themselves looked to be about a foot deep. The mangroves were a nesting rookery for a variety of wading birds. Seeing many new species, I had a hard time concentrating on the casting and stripping. Matt kept pointing out the unusual, red- faced ibises, roseate spoonbills, parrots. A small barracuda brought me back to the water, then another. The sounds from the rookery were hilarious, one unidentified bird sounded like a gargle with a rolling tongue thrown in. This was getting kind of neat. Just as the mangroves petered out onto a shallow weedy flat, I looked back to the skipping bug to see a large bow wave peel in behind it in pursuit. "Hit it", I yelled, stripping hard, but there was no take. I couldn't locate the unknown fish, but it was out there, so I kept casting, then working out to both sides. On about the 15th cast the bug stopped in a swirl, and I could clearly see the fish as a snook. It jumped twice and made short circling runs, much
								More Text =>
		<= Back
			Table of Contents			Fishtales Start		Order/Contact