Have to thank my good friend and fishing buddy Davin Ebanks of FlatsWalker for bringing the subject of sunscreen and the handling of bonefish to my attention. I remember in the early days guides telling me they hated sunscreen and some wouldn’t even let me tie on my own fly if I had applied sunscreen to my face. To this day I wash my hands after applying sunscreen and only use a “no touch” applicator when re-applying. Of course my buddy applies it moments before hitting the flats and catches just as many fish as I do. And I talked with Aaron Schultz of the Eleuthera Institute about this exact subject several years ago and even then he was convinced it makes no difference to a bonefish. Now it looks like there is some scientific evidence which concludes sunscreen does not negatively affect a bonefishes desire to eat a Gotcha. So having sunscreen on your hands may not impact whether a fish bites, it certainly appears to have tragic results when handling a fish. The article that Davin brought to my attention in FlyLife magazine seems to clearly show that not only do we have to be really careful when handling fish our hands should be clean, wet and devoid of sunscreen. So, I haven’t put sunscreen on my hands for fifteen years. Turns out it was the right thing to do, just for the wrong reason. Let’s handle and protect the fish in the manner they deserve.
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