Bahamas Bonefish Trip!

Greetings from Antarctica. At least that’s what it feels like especially for Jon and me. We just returned from a bonefishing trip to Andros Island, so these cold temperatures are a little hard to take.  We had a wonderful time and got into quite a few bones with the expert guidance of our fly fishing guide Ornald “Shine” Greene. Jon’s kid sister Barb, her husband Jim and their two daughters were with us on the trip too.  We all had a blast!

We stayed at Swain’s Cay Lodge, in Mangrove Cay on Andros, which was such a wonderful change from the cold and snow in Pittsburg. The lodge sits right on the water with a beautiful beach that Jon’s nieces really enjoyed, and there’s even a great bonefish flat right in front of the lodge too. One of the guests actually hooked 6 bonefish in a matter of a few hours. Our cottage was beautiful, very comfortable, and we had great meals such as Cracked Lobster, fresh Grouper, Conch Fritters and a Bahamian staple Beans & Rice. The staff was very friendly and they took good care of us. They’d have appetizers and cold Kaliks ready for us when we’d returned from fishing.  Pure paradise!

We got short changed on this trip when our plane from Manchester got cancelled due to bad weather. The airline couldn’t get us on another flight until the next day and we had to fly out of Boston. In Miami, we were on standby, which meant we had to take separate flights to Nassau. Somehow we managed to make our connecting flight to Andros.  Air travel for OMR and I seems to never go as planned.  I’m going to carry a Rabbits Foot with me next time.

Bonefishing can be very challenging, as many of you that have tried it before know. Wind, clouds and spooky fish can make conditions really tough. On our first day, we each only got a couple of fish. We had clouds and the bonefish seemed to be on the move and Shine even said they were skittish. Our second day, Shine brought us to the West Side which is known to have phenomenal fishing.  Jon’s very first cast he got this big bone on a Gotcha.

By the way, if you ever fish on Andros, the Gotcha is THE fly. We fished it most of the time. Our fish totals that day were in the double digits. It was a great day. Our third day was also pretty good with Jon getting another big fish.

This was Jon’s first trip to the Bahamas and I think he’s hooked. We’re already talking about going again but maybe a little longer next time. I would like to bike around Mangrove Cay and do some snorkeling.