Today’s Update from Andros South

The home flats are even beautiful on a cloudy day.

[Karen Wilken is part of the Sage/Rio/Redington crew at Andros South this week. She’s got one more day on South Andros before heading home to the snow in Seattle. Here’s her report from yesterday.]

The knock on the door came at 6:00am as usual. After blowing my load on Tuesday night on “Rum Drink”, I was in the bed early last night, so plenty rested to tackle the day ahead. As I stepped outside my room to go grab my morning cup, I noticed above me and to the horizon clouds and very little wind.

We decided to run South again, realizing that if the clouds did blow over, that’s where we’d want to be. Plus, we had seen school after school of bonefish the day before and we needed to all catch more fish for our assignment. We arrived to a lovely flat about an hour later. And, by God, the sun was breaking through! Paul broke off wading the flat with Charlie and Simon and I hung with Sparkles, going the opposite direction (I did ask where he got his name – he said it’s because of the bling he wears, and that he kills it with the ladies…). Well, the man put me on a fish almost instantly. Sparkles indeed! I see glistening silver! After a quick release after some photos by Cam, I see Paul in the distance hooked up on what looks like a nice one. Sweet, I thought, something tells me this is going to be a good day…

Usually after wading a fair distance, the guides break off and retrieve our boats. They do this after an hour, while we continue to hang on the flat, at the point of an island, waiting for cruising bones. At this time the wind has really kicked up and the clouds took over the sun. While we are all getting better at seeing the fish, choppy water and zero sun make it particularly difficult to the untrained eye. So we took the time to take some snaps, chat, and I took the time to practice some casting with the wind.

Our next spot was the same place we had lunch the day before, a pristine white sand island with unique vegetation and a quaint washed up sailboat half way buried in the sand. Everywhere you look, the Bahamas has so much character, so I was glad to be back here. Instead of eating lunch right away, we circumnavigated the island together hunting bones. Right after setting out, the sky opened up beautifully and we were directly under a huge swath of blue flanked by grey. Our evening toast is working!

Charlie was with us, and almost instantly caught on the some nervous water. Simon took the far outside, Paul hung on the inside with Charlie, and I positioned myself in the middle of them, where I thought the wind would work in my favor. We worked the flat, and the school(s) over, catching a total of 8 bonefish in a matter of 45 minutes. Cam was busy as hell capturing all the fish shots, using every second of the hour and a half of sun we had at that time. He had said the night before that we needed more fish, and well, we were just delivering!

The day was all and all a success, as we got on many, many fish and were once again charmed by this place. At the dock, we were, of course, greeted by the South Andros Lodge crew, L.D. (AKA STD) and Lynden, the local polished conch shell vendor. After just 5 days, a certain routine takes over and you dread ever leaving. You feel this sadness, but not for too, too long. Good friends and the coldest Kalik I have ever had is across the street, no more than 8 steps away. The memories will last a long time. I feel this experience has absolutely taught me boatloads. And, deep down, I know I will be back.