Last night of the trip and I’ve dragged my girlfriend out to the windy flats during every sunset. We still haven’t seen a bonefish since day 1, but I’m starting to realize how lucky I really am...

On our walk to the flats from the parking lot, we struck up conversation with another fly angler named Brett who happened to be rigging up a matte grey Hatch 5 with on a 6wt Sage Method. He said he stopped using eight weight a couple months ago since he’s looking for a challenge. Turned out he lives right across the street and fishes this flat every night after work.

After sharing a few stories about our close encounters on Day 1, Brett clipped off his fly and gave it to me - said it was magic. He guided us around and pointed to spots that are good in the summer and explained how the Bonefish move into certain areas at different tides.

With better knowledge of the area and new found confidence in the magic fly, we split up from Brett to let him fish alone. After walking along to edge of the coral for 10 minutes, I could hear Brett yelling to me to cast in a certain directly. No knowing where exactly he was telling me to cast, I took a blind cast toward a deep pocket in the coral and let the fly hit bottom. With one switch of the fly, I felt a gentle nibble followed by a screaming pull of line out of my fingertips and into my back - FISH ON!

50 yards into my backing, my gut dropped as soon as I could feel my line gradually tighten on itself after every rotation. A knot was forming. Frantically running after the fish, while trying to pull through the knot, I felt my connection to the fish go limp. The flight was over I was left with a disastrous knot

With Capt Hogan Brown and Capt Darrin Deel

Lessons learned on the water and in the vets office

Words & Photos by David Dines