Sunday Bonefish with Sandy

[Hennessy]

Stan from Montana managed to stop this big bugger on sunday. 8.6lbs smoked out 150yds into the backing and luckily stayed on the surface without hanging on a coral head. Tailers everywhere but with no wind they were neurotic as a redheaded step child and required the utmost care and placement of your fly. The big ugly deer hair shrimp patterns were the call as they land softest and sink slow in skinny water. killer fun!!


keep'em tight,
Capt. MIke
Hawaii Fly Fishing- Best Fishing in the Islands

[gottaflylee]

Nice big Bone...congrats to Stan and you. Where are you fishing out of?

[Captain Fred Archer]

Nice bone, Henny!

Did ya ever eat one? Heresy to a bug chucker, but in the Caribbean they beat the crap out of them with a rolling pin, then cut a slit in their skin and squeeze out the boneless meat and make fish cakes out of them that are wonderful eating.

I know, I know, that's a terrible thing to do to a bonefish. I agree.

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Especially when you can do this with them and make real world-beater, long-lasting troll baits out of them. This was the secret bait of Joe Judge of Irish Rover when he won consecutive Bahamas Billfish Championships.

Knock-knock. Who dat? The Fly Fishin' Poleece?! Run, Fred, run! Neener, neener, neener! Hey, you funny lookin' hat wit dat big bill an them ear flaps fell off! Ha, ha! You fergot yer chin straps! Come on, Labbies, let's head for the hills! They'll never take us alive! Hey Bart, nice hat! It's a Fly Fishin' Poleece hat? Ah, jeez, boy, now we're really in for it...molesting dem holy gamefishes and now Grand Theft, Bugchucker hat! Come on, boy! They'll hunt us down now for sure.

If'n we gets away, I'll get you and Little Shadow somma them bonefish burgers you like so much.

[Skipjack1]

Nice Bone! The Honolulu Airport lagoon had TONS of bones when I lived there. Trick is, you cant fish in there.

I filleted one once, biggest pile of mush I ever pulled from the side of a fish.

[Captain Fred Archer]

Skipjack,

Roger on the mushy fillets. And they are bony as heck too. That's why the Caribbean folk do that trick of beating them up with a rolling pin or whatever, then cutting that slit in the skin and squeezing the meat out, then making among the best fish cakes that I have ever tasted. Remember, their diet is mostly shrimp and crabs and that makes their flesh delicious.

Bonefish are great fighters, eaters and absolutely wonderful natural baits for blue marlin and humongous wahoo. And as I noted in my first post, they are tough as hell and will literally stay together and swim great all day long.

Here's another long lasting bait that often isn't when rigged the usual way. I use the Quick Rig Bait Bridles with circle hooks on these. I don't show it here, but the bridles are also available with "chin weights" mounted on one arm of the Bridle itself. There is a full discussion on this on my website in the "Ballyhoo!" article. The mackerel can be either the Pacific or Atlantic variety, or Spanish.

Website htt://www.FredArcher'sWorldofFishing.com

[Phat Mann]

Did you know Joe Judge? If so how well? That man could tell some tall ones. He and I won the Palm Beach Gold Cup team sailfish tourney on the Irish Rover. He and Capt Mike trolled Bob Schneider Lures almost exclusively which is what Joe and I trolled to win the Orange beach Blue Marlin Tournament.

If Joe told you Bonefish was his secret bait, you could count on it! (Maybe NOT)

Great fisherman who has gone to those great blue marlin grounds way up high.I sure miss that man.

[Captain Fred Archer]

Phat,

Hey, you really get around! I sure did know Joe and quite well, too. Bigger than life, that guy. Fished with him, made bonefish baits with him, went to his place in Maryland (or Delaware, forget which), know what he did for a living (ya know?), the whole shootin' match. Joe was a unique, driven, results-oriented hard core of the first degree and a helluva lot of fun if you were of the same ilk.

And yes, I not only believe the bonefish thing, like I said, I did it with him and then adopted the same thing myself. Since you are familiar with the boat, I thought it was pretty cool that Joe beat up those big battlewagons that were the norm for The Classic Championship...like "the little mouse that roared", and man, that guy could roar and a mouse, he was not!

I too miss him. He was one of a kind.

[Phat Mann]

That's great to know. Did you get my pm?

The farm was in Centreville Md. He married Donna before he passed. Donna passed away from cancer as well just a few years ago.

That topaz could raise billfish. When we went to Orange Beach and caught a 511 lb BM to win, we really felt good amongst those huge boats from Texas. Back to Pompano we went.

I would give anything to have had him fishing on the Phat Mann but it wouldn't suprise me if the luck of the Irish Rover is riding along every time we sail.

Great to know another friend of a friend who could never be duplicated.

I bet he got a kick out of the Bonefish thing. Was Mike Fitzpatrick still runnin the Rover then?

[lawaia]

Capt. Fred is right on in saying that the bonefish (oio out here in Paradise) makes the best fish cakes. Back in my youth - a long time ago - we used to cut the tail ends of them off, then roll a Coke bottle over 'em to squoosh the meat out. I know, crude and barbaric, but oh so tasty. The folks in the Caribbean ain't the only ones in on the secret. I know where Hennessy is catching 'em, but won't mess with his livelihood. 'Sides, we got our own secret spots for oio when we're not out on the boat. Tight lines, all.

[Captain Fred Archer]

Lawaia,

I figured there'd be at least one other person who'd know about mashin' and muchin' those saltwater suckers! And I like that cutting off the tail and coke bottle trick. If I ever get my hands on one again I'll give it a try. Dang, they really are some great eating, aren't they?

You probably know where I caught the ones I caught over there. It was many years ago on Kona while I was fishing with Jeff Fay on Humdinger and of course Freddy on Ihu Nui. One day I was walking by that beach by the pier in town where they weighed fish and I saw this kid walking along with the biggest damned bonefish that I had ever seen, and as a Florida native, I had seen and caught plenty, including some big ones. I don't know what that fish weighed, but he sure as shootin' was over fifteen pounds!

I asked the kid where he caught it and he pointed to the beach right there in town. I asked him what he caught it on and I forget what he told me (it was in the native tongue anyway), but it was a local bait. And he caught it on a big, old El Cheapo surf spinning outfit with heavy line.

I fished for them several times after that and always caught a few, all big ones, but none as big as that one the kid caught. I released them because I had nowhere to cook them and knew damned well that I wouldn't be able to talk anyone into running natural bait over there in Plastic City.

Between the fine eating and being primo troll bait, those flats wading bug chuckers better hope that the word doesn't get out, or there might be a lot less of those babies tailing away and eating crabs!

Hmm, permit? I wonder? Nah!