Postcards From Pokey: Fishing Day 2- So many clams, and a few bones

We were tempted to cancel our second day of fishing after the poor conditions we had on day one, but we decided to see it through.We wokr up at 6am and after an hour and a half drive in the shuttle, an hour and a half boat ride south of the inlet (Wilberth was determined to find calmer flats), we were ready to fish. It had only ben an hour before Wilberth said “Did you bring raincoats? Going to rain, put on raincoats”. Our reply, “Seems about right”.

Bucky had been stocking up for a bonefish trip since he was 8 years old, tying flies for the past 3 months, researching and practicing casting in a nearby park, and looking forward to this trip for about 20 years. With the wind making it impossible to sight cast and the cold rain coming down in sheets as we sat in the anchored boat on a flat that was an hour away from the resort, we were more than disappointed. Wilberth knew it was an uphill battle with the uncooperative weather and he could also see we were in need of a moral boost, so after the storm passed, he drove us to a mangrove sheltered inlet where he instructed to cast and strip... Jackpot. Bucky caught his first bonefish and his second, third, fourth and fifth.

On my second cast, I set the hook on a strong fish. Wilberth saw me buckling down on the reel and shouted “Let-him-play-let-him-play-let-him-play”. He ran as my reel spun, zzzzzzzzzzz. I fought him for a few minutes and wished I had been bench pressing as my arms quickly tired and shook as I tried to keep the tension on him. He made a 70 yard run and then the line went dead. Wilberth said “uh oh, he on a branch now. He gone”. The clever fish went deeper, wrapped himself up in a branch and broke the line. Wilberth said he saw him and he was 5 pounds... and all I wanted was to hold him.

Wilberth also drove us passed these isolated mangrove trees where hundreds of frigate birds nested. They reminded us of “How to Train Your Dragon” as these enormous pterodactyl-like birds hovered, circled, and landed in the trees.