Andros South Trip Report from Capt. Rick Grassett

Capt. Rick Grassett, owner of Snook Fin-Addict Guide Service, Inc., is a full-time fishing guide and outdoor writer based in Sarasota, FL.  He’s a great host and a super guy, and as luck would have it he hosts a group at Andros South each year. Here’s Capt. Grassett’s report from last week.  Thanks Rick!

—
I spent the last week from Saturday, May 2nd through Saturday, May 9th, hosting a group of friends and customers at Andros South bonefish lodge on South Andros in the Bahamas.  Nick Reding, Bob Harness and Bob Reynolds, all from St. Louis, MO, Frank Rhodes, from Auburndale, FL, Hal Lutz, from Parrish, FL and Jon Yenari and I, from Sarasota, met in Ft. Lauderdale on Saturday afternoon, May 2nd.  We had a smooth, one hour flight over on a Lynx Air twin engine Cessna 402 and were greeted by managers Rick Sisler and Kateri Clay.

The weather and fishing were near perfect!  I had an opportunity to fish with each member of the group and fish a variety of areas.  Some days were better than others and some days were fantastic!  Anglers fishing the vast sand flats to the south fished near Jackfish Channel, the Water Cays, Curly Cut Cays, Fish Key and the “airport flat”.  Some of these flats are so big they go all the way to the horizon.  Frank and Jon had a great day at the “airport flat” one day catching and releasing more than 50 bones.  Hal and I fished the south end one day and had a great morning wading along a mangrove shoreline on a flood tide.  We caught 15 or 20 fish before noon.  Frank, Jon, Hal and Kateri went offshore one day and landed more than 30 mahi mahi (dolphin) to 12-pounds on flies and conventional tackle.  Their first mahis on fly!Several creeks – Deep Creek, Little Creek and Grassy Creek all cut through to the west side, crossing the ”Devil’s Backbone” ridge and open up into large flats and salt ponds with smaller creeks feeding into them.  We caught lots and lots of bonefish to 6-pounds with most of them in the 2 to 3-pound class.  Some were smaller and a few were even bigger.  Another angler at the lodge, John from British Columbia, landed an 8-pounder one day.  Bob Reynolds and I had a great day on a huge school over on the west side one day with guide, Fredlon.  We waded and doubled and tripled for more than an hour.  I also landed a 30-pound ‘cuda that day!  Nick and I fished with Torrie one day and learned a lot about targeting big bonefish.

Even though catching lots of fish out of a big school is a lot of fun, the most rewarding to me is stalking singles, doubles and smaller schools.  A couple of the most rewarding fish I caught were tailing on a slick, calm morning when we had to wade like a “heron” and make a perfect cast to catch them!  Top flies were Gotchas, Peterson’s Spawning Shrimp and variations of them.  We also encountered lots of sharks and ‘cudas.  Several ‘cudas, up to 30-pounds, were landed on flies and conventional tackle.