Thanks to Dan Kozel from Missoula, Montana for his guest blog detailing his recent trip to Eleuthera. The trip had an unusual start to be sure and is well worth the read. I have stated this before in blogs and articles about DIY fishing on Eleuthera. Of all of the places I have fished, I’ve had more 0 – 1 fish days there than anywhere else. And in theory I know what I’m doing. Here’s Dan’s report: “I wanted to thank you for all the advice you shared with Taylor and I. I also wanted to provide you with a summary of our trip to the island of Eleuthera. Eight hours prior to our departure from Missoula Airport, my fiance’ and I discovered that our 8 year old yellow lab had consumed the $1200 in cash we had saved over the past year. We had to rush her to the emergency vet in order to again “withdrawl” our funds.Long story short we got the money back but had leave it in Missoula to dry out while we were gone. Quick FYI, if your dog eats your money and you’re able to retrieve it, it is returnable as long as you have 51% of the bill and the serial numbers are legible. We were thrilled to land in Rock Sound Airport after multiple layovers and spending a night in Nassau.We had found lodging through VRBO and settled on a carribean house in Rock Sound. The house was perfect and had all the necessities. We were very comfortable, however the weather the week before our arrival had sparked a massive sandflea and noseeum population explosion. These unwanted pests made our seaside backdeck useless. Nothing seemed to deter the little bastards and they made a feast of us on more than one occasion. None of us had any experience pursuing tropical salwater species on the fly. However, we had spent countless hours reading “DIY Bonefishing”, listening to saltwater related podcasts, and gaining insight from some seasoned veterans. So we felt pretty confident. Seeing that two of us brought our significant others with us on the trip, we were obligated to split our time on the flats with fun spousal activities. It was often difficult to the leave the flats and creeks, but we managed to pull ourselves away in order to go on beach excursions and travel the island from top to bottom with the ladies. Our only full day of fishing was spent with a local guide. Our success was limited as we weren’t seeing fish. I’m not saying we couldn’t “see” the fish (which we did struggle with because the damn things are basically invisible, especially on windy days), I’m saying the fish were few in numbers, so our shots were limited. Two of us were lucky enough to hook and land our first bonefish. They were small but we were ecstatic. We spent the next 11 days waking up before dawn to explore areas like Deep Creek, Plum Creek, Hatchet Bay, Winding Bay, and Savannah Sound. Despite our efforts, we were each getting about 1 shot at bones per day with occasional jack crevalle and baraccuda mixed in. We’d then return to headquarters, cook breakfast, and pack the car to take off for the remainder of the day to probe the many unnamed dirt roads and small communities. After a week of unsuccessful mornings on the flats and late evenings spent pouring over Google Earth, we decided to make a trip to the Cape Eleuthera Institute. There we met some leading flats and bonefish ecologists. It was here we were informed that during full moons in the months of November to March, the majority of bonefish travel offshore to spawn in 60+’ of water.Something we had unfortunately not come across in our research. According to these experts, the likelihood of locating schools of bonefish during this time were slim… Still, we pressed on morning after morning. As the days passed further from the full moon and closer to our departure date back to frigid Montana, we began to see more fish. Before we knew what happened our last morning on the flats was upon us. While sipping on my morning coffee I began flipping the pages of our DIY Bonefishing book and reread the “Walking the Flats” and “Seeing Bonefish” one last time to see if there was anything we had forgotten to do. We arrived to the flats at around 7:30am and were greeted with 30mph winds. As a trio, we decided to follow Rod’s advice to find a sandy point and wait for fish like a heron. This tactic proved to be the most productive. We were rewarded with our largest bones of the trip and an unexpected hookup with a 4 ft lemon shark, which eventually cut the 18.5 Seagaur tippet after a 5 minute battle. Our vacation on the island of Eleuthera served as a wonderful getaway for everyone in our group. We experienced beautiful beaches, stunning sunsets, hours of walking the flats, and interactions with the friendliess population of people on the planet. Our trip was everything we had hoped for (minus the noseeums/sandfleas) and we’ve already begun to discuss the location of our next DIY adventure.” Thanks Dan for a great report. Hardly wait to hear about your next trip.
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