Day 2 was Karen's day first on the water and it was incredible. If Doug, Karen and I had any idea what was in store for the day fly fishing the flats, well, we would have hoped the next 8 hours would have never ended.
The day included a big, blue sky and the trade winds were not our usual nemesis. Hilian decided we would start our day at 6:30 am and that was just fine with us. As usual, Hilian was 20 minutes early. We were well organized and after our pick up at the dock at The Landings at Tres Cocos, we were off!
Our first stop was a sand bar. We had been there before and it was a great chance for all three of us to fly fish all at the same time. Karen had a chance to work out the kinks in her casting. Doug and I were a day ahead in that department. We all caught bonefish.
Once the sun was high enough, we motored out to an island. As we slowly approached, there were flashes along the shore in a bit of a hole that bonefish liked. Hilian cut the motor and poled his guide boat, affectionately called the Joyce Marie, to within casting distance. Karen was up first. We warned Karen that back hand casts were going to be necessary to get the fly in the right spot based on how the wind was blowing! Luckily, Karen had practiced back hand casts at home just before we left for San Pedro. Hilian helped Karen smooth out her cast and she was consistently hooking up with the grey ghost. The hard fighting bonefish were so scrappy, even the smaller ones. Both Doug and I had a turn, too. When Karen got back to the casting deck, a pod of bones moved in at her 11 o'clock position with a light wind at her back. That made the casting straight forward. Almost every cast she connected with bones. Just before lunch, Doug was casting and out of the corner of his eye, three tarpon were heading towards him. Hilian said to cast his size 6 Gotcha at the tarpon. My brain said no way a tarpon will eat a size 6 Gotcha. Doug dropped his fly right in front of the three tarpon and a tarpon in the 25 pound range immediately engulfed his fly but the tiny hook did not penetrate. Well, that got all of our attention along with a good laugh!
Soon after, Hilian sensed a changed in the tide and he repositioned the boat. That was when things got really interesting. We set up in 6 feet of water and there were bonefish everywhere. In the distance I could see two pods of tarpon moving on the edge of the flats. As the tide started to come in, hundreds of bonefish moved in, as did a small pod of permit and the tarpon became quite active too!
As we took a short break, I cast a size 6 Bonefish Junk that was heavily weighted onto the flats. I let it sink then retrieved it. Bang! A decent bonefish hammered my fly. Doug was eating his lunch but he quickly ate his sandwich and he grabbed his fly rod. In the blink of an eye, Doug hooked up too! Doug was standing in the middle of the boat! Karen did not think it was a good idea to also cast. She changed that thought and she caught a bonefish too! All three of our reels were singing! This continued for the next several hours. It was essentially a bonefish a cast.
After a while, I set up my tarpon rod. I was patiently waiting for the mob of tarpon to come close enough for a few casts. I got several shots and a few follows but no takers. There was also a pod of permit that got close enough for some shots. No hooks up with them either.
Everytime I turned to look at Doug, he was hooked up. Bonefish were aggressively hammering our flies. A heavily weighted size 6 Gotcha quickly sunk to the depth of the bonefish. We all watched the tip of our fly lines for an aggressive grab. Karen shared the casting deck with me. I was spotting the tarpon and Karen was hooking up with bonefish.
The action was incredible. After a while Doug and Karen reeled up so Hilian could pole towards the tarpon. I got several casts into the pods of silver kings but not hook ups. Several of the tarpon were in the 60-80 pound category, too!
The flats still had bonefish everywhere. We had double headers, triple headers and the number of landed grey ghosts was off the charts. It was approaching 3 pm. We had our fill of fly fishing the flats.
Hilian fired up his Suzuki 90 horse motor and he pointed the Joyce Marie toward San Pedro and our condo. Doug pulled out his flask of scotch. We all had a celebratory drink. Today was the best flats fly fishing we had ever encountered.
I asked Hilian, how often he has encountered what happened today. He replied maybe 2 or 3 times a year. We all smiled that we had the opportunity to share in an incredible day that we may never repeat. It doesn't get much better than today.
