Recovery...

Marooned for three days... 

After a long week of relentless bonefish angling on Long Island in the southern Bahamas--and that's an accurate adjective--we thought it would be worthwhile to spend a few days in Nassau to let the trip sink in and to relax with a few glasses of rum punch.

And my miles ticket to the Bahamas took some alchemy to accomplish--flying out on a Wednesday was really my only option. So here we are, steps from the beach and steps from the outdoor tiki bar.

Chillin'.


I did spend a day here on New Providence with "Bonefish" Simon Bain, the only official bonefish guide in Nassau and the keeper some of bonefishing's best-kept secrets. In the eight hours or so I spent with Simon, I saw some of the biggest bonefish I'd ever laid eyes on, and I hooked a behemoth that would have come to hand if not for a faulty tippet knot. I'm guessing 10 pounds. Seriously. Without taking a flight some distant island.

But my buddy Mike Sepelak and I also ventured up and down the beach in front of the Coral Harbour Beach House and Villas (we were lucky enough to be afforded the beach house, where the deck literally touches the surf at high tide. Not too shabby). We cast flies from a rock spit just down the beach, and Mike hooked and brought a massive bonefish to the bank in a nearby navigation channel (it came unhooked and escaped into the deep before we could get a picture).

The Bahamas... Where everybody is happy to see you! Some residents
just express their pleasure in different ways. 

We did exactly what we wanted to do. No schedule. No (for the most part) internet. No phones. We had sketchy Bahamian cable TV, and I nearly squished a terrified tree frog that apparently found its way into the beach house and then into the toilet through an open window. We ate conch burgers and ordered in a pizza. We had a few beers, but not too many. And we engaged some of the friendliest people (and four-legged critters) I've ever had the pleasure to meet.

It was a vacation to recover from the previous vacation, the details of which you'll read in the coming days.

But today, as we await Otis, our trusty cabdriver and his $30 fare to the airport (I know, right?), we've both commented on how it's time to head back, to get home to reality. And I'm looking forward to being back in Idaho, with my family and at my desk where the focus will shift back from bonefish and their awesome power and speed to trout and the cold, clear waters they need to survive and thrive.

Here we come. Back to reality. But stay tuned... I think you'll see much more from both of us about this amazing adventure we both experienced in the tropics.