Some of my earliest memories as a kid in water starved West Texas, were of watching The American Sportsman with my dad on a black and white tv, in the early 60's. I was only 6 or 7 years old but had already caught the fishing bug. Of all the episodes we watched, the one of Ted Williams fishing the Florida Keys was the one that intrigued me the most. I'm not sure if it was the beauty of seeing so much water or the speed of the bonefish that intrigued me the most. Whatever it was, it has stuck in my mind to this day.

Fast forward 30 years to 1990 and I found myself living in south Florida and admiring my first bonefish... my first four bonefish to be exact. I was on Anglin Pier, in Lauderdale-By-The-Sea, trying to catch live bait with a 6 hook sabiki rig when I nailed my first four bone fish in the surf on that one cast. I laughed to myself, thinking back to what I had imagined a bonefish fight would be like. The four bones wouldn't have totaled 16 inches all together. I will now admit feeling guilty for using one of them for snook bait. It would be about 15 more years before I caught a real bone.

I was a snook fisherman (the closest thing to bass fishing in the salt water) and for 10 years that is what I chased most of the time. I knew bone fish were all around me in that part of south Florida but I was happy just catching snook and sometimes tarpon. Can't remember exactly what year I began to chase bones, but it was definitely by accident. I was fishing Biscayne Bay in Miami, exploring new waters and looking for snook and spotted sea trout when I hooked something good on a jig and Saltwater Assassin. I knew immediately it was a bone fish as my line screamed off my baitcaster like nothing I'd ever hooked before in three feet of water. I swear I thought my reel was about to explode and held it as far away from my face as possible. Luckily I got the fish turned around before nearly getting spooled on 15 lb test. Two more long runs after nearly getting fish to my net and I was hooked.

The rest of that summer I would rarely fish for anything except bones.

My first real bonefish, about 8 or 9 lbs.

I fished the same area for the next two weeks (6 trips) before I even saw my first tailing bone fish. I was so excited I just watched them work back and forth across the flat for over half an hour. I wanted to learn as much as possible by watching rather than rushing in and blowing the whole deal up on my first attempt. And because I had spent so much time even locating them, I'd ditched my artificials and gone to the more guaranteed route of using a live crab and a easier casting spinning rig. Decided my best chance was to paddle up wind to them and then let them come to me as they repeatedly worked back and forth. It was windy and as I waited until they were in casting range, I finally whipped my spinning rod with crab. Believe when I say that crab spun worse than using the Bombshell Turtle plastic bait of bass fishing fame. Luckily between the fish coming directly at me and the chop on the water, I immediately got hit and bone fish number two was in the books. Another big one, about the same as my accidental first.


The bone fish grounds at dusk.

Everything came together after that... I had confidence the fish were in the area, I noted the tide stage and wind direction, I had confidence in the bait. I couldn't tell you how many I caught that year, it wasn't a huge number. What was huge was the average size of them. All about the size of my first. What I learned was that the area I fished had a window of about one hour several times a month. Ideally I was looking for the start of the incoming tide at either first light or near dusk. The fish didn't seem to tail for long in that area after the sun was up and boat traffic increased.


Sometimes I would get out of my kayak and wade, especially on windy days. Late one evening I had a bone fish nearly feeding between my legs as I waited for bigger fish that were coming my way. The fish actually rooted around my feet for several seconds before slowly moving on up current.

The best thrill came later on that summer when I began to only fish at night under the right conditions of tide and cloud cover. On nights when there was low cloud cover, the city lights of downtown Miami would reflect off the clouds and light up the whole flat. I was astonished at all the big bone fish that tailed at night. Never saw any big schools at night just ones and two scattered. Rarely caught more than one a night as when you hooked one the rest would make a fast exit to deeper water. To see the zig zag humps of water speeding off the flat at night was thrilling. Many times you would actually hear the fish coming as they thrashed around before you would see them. That and the constant drone of mosquitoes.

Perfect bonefishing conditions for nightime in Miami



It was on such a night that I caught my biggest bone fish, one that I carefully measured both length and girth.. 33 1/2 inches to fork in tail, and 18.25 girth, estimated between 13 to 14 lbs by most equations for bone fish. I caught it on a live crab, the size most anglers use for tarpon fishing. I never caught a small bone fish using them and they quickly became my bait of choice over a shrimp tipped jig or live jumbo shrimp. If I got a bite it was either a big bone fish or a bonnet head shark which I have seen many times fighting over the same bait. In between catching my first and one of my last and biggest I had some very memorable catches and hook ups. Once hooked a big one that made a long run off ocean side flat that turned around on a dime and I couldn't catch up to it. Saw from a distance a big shark chasing it all the way back, underneath my kayak and then gone as shark was right on its tail. Once passed a big bone headed down current as I was paddling up current. Made an over the shoulder cast with spinning rod using a DOA shrimp, directly behind me as far as I could, counted the number of seconds I thought it would take for bone to get there and made one twitch..Boom. Another big one.

I forget what year we had the big freeze that affected many southern parts of the U.S. but it put a hurting on the bone fishing in south florida for few years in the Miami area. It was back to snook and tarpon for me. For anyone reading this that has never caught a bonefish, read about them, watch some video of them, and then find a good guide that can put you on them. Biscayne Bay in Miami is one of the best fisheries in the WORLD for large bonefish.

Good read!

I'm hoping for my first bone and permit in Bimini next month.

Good luck in Bimini, I always wanted to fish there but never made it over. Hope you'll post a full report when you return.

Great post! Thanks for sharing.



Side Note: Great fighters!

Great read, I love S Florida fishing. I have only done a few trips for
bonefish. The biggest one I ever hooked made the mistake of running completely off
the flat. The water exploded as a BIG shark had bonefish for supper.

MO

Great post. Thanks for sharing.

A few more pics from Biscayne Bay, Miami while looking for bonefish.


School of parrot fish. Not something I had ever seen on the flats. They come in all colors and these were a color I had never seen before or since.


Lobster crawling the sand/grass botton in less than a foot of water.


At night the bonnethead shark would often beat the bones to the live crabs I'd be casting. I've seen them feeding side by side with a big bonefish many times as they were about the same size. I always cussed them whenever they beat the bone to the bait. If I thought I could get my hand around them, I would get the hook out, if I couldn't I would cut them off. Almost got bit by one early on and learned not to screw around with them.


Heading out as the sun was setting. Two mile paddle to the area I fished.


Baby dolphin that followed me for a ways, the rest of its family was fishing the deeper channel nearby. It probably weighed less than 50 lbs. Wished I'd gotten a better picture but it was too fast for me, swimming under and on both sides of me as I tried to get its face in picture.


Biscayne Bay manatee. One of the largest I've ever seen. Hard to say what it would weigh but I've read they can reach 4000 lbs. Had them send me into the air more than once when I ran over their backs at night.

Great read and pics Iconn... I too like the nitelife only abit north around the Venice Inlet -- snook alley --..

Fishin bridges and docklites on a strong incoming is solitude and fast action.. Quite the battle on the 8 wt. throwin small white streamers to match the bait passin thru.

May have to work my way down to bone country.. Sounds exciting.. Tightlinez

Yep, Flydoc, that is some snooky looking waters. I never fished Venice Inlet but drove through there on 41 scouting out waters to fish in two different kayak tournaments in 2003.. one out of Sarasota and one out of Punta Gorda. In both cases Venice was just inside the 50 mile radius we could fish and I opted to stay closer to the tournament headquarters to get more fishing time in and less driving time. I did get to fish Placida, El Jobean, and Punta Gorda. Absolutely beautiful waters on your side of the state. Definitely found out quick the best kayak anglers in the state are from the west coast of Florida.

PS.. I can remember fishing the lights under the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse on the east coast one winter night. It was cold and I filled my waders with hot air from a hand dryer in the public ramp restroom before heading out. Anchored out of the current and was throwing DOA shrimp to snook in the lights when I felt something and set the hook. Felt like I had snagged bottom and I immediately pull up my anchor and paddle towards where I'm stuck. Notice my line is slowly moving sideways as I reel up and set the hook again. I know I've got a monster on as it gradually picks up speed and is dragging me into the outgoing current. I think I must have a giant grouper as it is so big it never gets excited, as if it doesn't even care that it is hooked. It drags me into the main channel as it is headed straight out the inlet when I see the tell-tale sign of big boil of water and the tail end of a huge manatee. My lure pulled out just as it surfaced. What a scare... I wanted no part of anything that big that night.

Oh the memories of Charlotte Harbor. We would load the yaks and mothership from El Jobean ramp down the west wall to the southern tip of Placida to Turtle Bay. Site fishin redfish in 12" of water throwin black crab flys as they muck around with there tails waving. From there it was a short run to Boca Grande pass for happy poons..