October 2006
Greeting from Vieques.
One
of my favorite things about living in Vieques is being able to
walk or take a short drive to a nearby beach and catch a decent
fish just by wading from shore. Down here you can hook up with
something as simple as a small bar jack off Mosquito Pier or as
exciting as a four-foot tarpon in Puerto Ferro. For many
anglers, myself included, the best wade fishing target of all is
a tailing bonefish. These are a rarer commodity in Puerto Rico
when compared to a place like the Bahamas, but do-it-yourself
bonefishing is a year round possibility here in Vieques.
For anglers coming to the island who’ve never chased this
species before, the first thing to do is a bit of research. The
internet is full of articles detailing the ins and outs of
bonefishing. There have also been several great books written on
the subject. The two most notable authors are Dick Brown and
Chico Fernandez. And believe it or not, many of the saltwater
fishing shows on ESPN or OLN have bits of great information
sprinkled throughout each episode. Just keep in mind that a LOT
of editing goes into each of these half hour shows. I learned
this firsthand a few years ago in Key West after spending four
mostly fishless days with an ESPN crew, helping them film an
American Sportsman episode. In other words, you won’t be
catching ten bonefish in your first hour on the flats,
especially if someone is pointing a camera at you. But they can
be caught, even by a novice. So here a few suggestions.
Bonefish were built for fly fishing and in really shallow water,
this is the most effective way to catch them. The best
all-around outfit to use is an 8 weight fly rod with a large
arbor reel, floating line, and 200 yards of 20 pound backing.
Fluorocarbon leaders at least 10 feet long and tapered to a 12
pound tippet are my favorite choice for this species. If you’re
like the majority of Stateside anglers and have limited
saltwater gear, you’ll find that a lot of freshwater outfits
will work down here just as well. I’ve caught bonefish on very
calm days using my 5 weight Sage rod, which is a common size on
many trout streams. The weakest link during a bonefish fight
using light freshwater gear is the amount of backing on the
reel. Bones are famous for their 100 yard sprints as soon as
they feel the hook and they can easily spool a small trout rig.
If you’re going to try bonefishing with a freshwater reel, get
as much backing on it as possible, even if it means sacrificing
some fly line. I do the same thing with my saltwater reels, and
even go as far as cutting my new 100 foot fly lines back to 80
feet, which allows for an extra 20 to 30 yards of backing.
Fly selection, at least for Vieques, is not that complicated.
Unlike the fish in the Keys and Bahamas, our bones have
practically no angling pressure as there are probably only a
half dozen people on this island who own a fly rod, myself
included. Vieques bonefish tend to eat anything that is well
presented and somewhat shrimp-looking. As I’ve mentioned in
previous articles, a brown and white Clouser Minnow will catch
almost everything that swims on our flats. Another fly to have
on hand would be a Merkin Crab, in case a permit shows up, a
somewhat common occurrence when looking for bones. Since I tie
all my own flies, I’ve managed to catch bonefish on dozens of
patterns I’ve come up with at random, but they’ve all had one
thing in common, they were either brown, gray, or dark green. In
other words, shrimp and crab colors.
Once you and your gear arrive on Vieques it’s a simple matter of
jumping in your rental car and driving to the most likely
beaches, looking for the tell-tale signs of a good bonefish
flat. Anywhere with clear, shallow water, turtle grass, and a
nice crunchy bottom will eventually host a bonefish or two.
Tide, water temperature, and time of day also have a lot to do
with finding them down here. Two of the best areas that have all
of these ingredients are located at the end of the road to Blue
Beach on the south side of the island and just before Purple
Beach on the north side. Early mornings with a low incoming tide
are the best times to find tailing (which also means feeding)
bonefish at these spots.
Just last week I hiked down to the flat before Purple Beach with
my friend Gary Lowe, a former trout guide from Colorado who was
looking for his first bonefish. Everything was right with the
world that morning because we saw two nice tails sticking up
through the surf before I even got into my wading booties. Gary
was quickly stripping out line from his 7 weight rod while
walking toward the pair of bones tailing less than 30 feet from
shore. His first cast landed right on target and one of the fish
ate the size 6 shrimp pattern immediately. After two or three
typical runs, the 4 pound bone was at Gary’s feet getting its
picture taken. By the time the fish swam off, we had been on the
flat less than 5 minutes. Where were the ESPN cameras when you
need them?
Capt. Gregg McKee,
WildFly Charters
