We are back at it again for the opening month of fishing at Andros South for the 2010/2011 season.
And it started out great. The first week of November we welcomed Carl Gaffaglio and his wily crew of anglers – Rick Swanson, Bill Smith, Dr Mike Marko, Nick Calio, and Glenn Miller. These guys have done a lot of fishing together. A few of them have been fishing together for over 30 years. That made the week quite entertaining with all the stories of past trips made around the world. They had all been on many saltwater trips so they made quick work of the South Andros flats.
Overall the fishing was very good with some pretty large fish brought to hand on an almost daily basis. Carl ended his trip with an 8 pounder, the last fish on the last day, not too bad! We had a good mixed bag of fishing situations with lots of schools running around for guys that wanted to put some numbers up, and lots of singles and doubles that made the guys work for them. For Rick Swanson on his first day on the water, he landed the uncountable number ofbones from some huge schools. He actually targeted permit the next day because he burnt himself out with all the action the first day. Some of the guests targeted cuda and other toothy critters this week with some luck, but really the bones were the standout each day. We had full access to the the West Side, so the guests had quite a bit of action with larger singles and doubles along with getting to mess with the schoolies from the South.
The weather overall was pretty good with some typical wind and bumpy rides, but the good fishing far outweighed the strain of fighting winds while casting! Temps were around 80 degrees each day with a mix of sun and clouds at times, but overall pretty close to perfect weather for our first week of the 2010/2011 season.
Our third week of November welcomed back Captain Bruce Chard from the Florida Keys. Bruce always puts together a fun and interesting group of anglers, and this week was no exception. Bruce also hosts a Bonefish School during the week for anyone interested in getting the full rundown on all things bonefishing.
He spends all the time necessary to get you fully up to speed on catching your first bonefish or he can help fine tune experienced anglers. This year, father and son Harvey and Eli Cohen spent the first day with Bruce in the school to get up to speed on what it is they came to pursue, the wily bonefish! They happened to be in camp when we had a large school of pre-spawn bones massing up near the beach in front of camp. Therefore they were able to put some of that newfound knowledge to the test. Eli prevailed with his first bonefish ever, but not nearly his last. His father hooked one, but had to wait until the next day on the water to get his hands on one. It was pretty cool seeing Eli hold his fish for photos while shaking the whole time – to say he was excited would be an understatement!
The fishing overall this week was pretty consistent with more schools available along with lots of singles and doubles to keep it fair. Once again we were able to visit the the West Side through the week which made it nice for the windy, bumpy days to stay inside. Our guests seemed to be pretty open to all types of fishing for bones so we had a good mix of wading and fishing from the boats while targeting schoolies and singles/ doubles. Some good cuda action was found through the week by anyone that was into playing with the toothy critters.
We had some nice weather this week with temps around 80 degrees the whole week. Winds varied a lot between nothing and maybe 20 mph at times. Skies were kind to us for the most part with some cloud cover, but not enough to hinder the fishing too much. Overall it was typical nice fall weather for the Bahamas.
We had some great fly tying action put on by Bruce Chard along with a few nights of slideshows with lots of fish porn for anyone not getting enough during the day. We are all looking forward to hanging out with Bruce in January while he hosts two more weeks of guests for his “Bonefish School”.
That’s it for November 2010 – now on to December and the rest of the Andros South season!
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