Acklins Island, Bahamas 2009
I'm finally getting around to writing my report for our Acklins Island DIY bonefishing trip.I was joined on Acklins by Tom Lucas from San Diego, Hans Rackow and Rob Hardie from Calgary, Alberta, and Chris Miller and his wife Heather from Boston.They were a great group to spend a week with in a remote island paradise fishing long days.As is typical of our DIY adventures, we explored beautiful flats and creeks in search of bonefish and anything else that swims and could be tempted by feathers on a hook. One day exploring a beautiful creek system we caught at least twelve different species of fish. Bonefish, boxfish, mangrove, schoolmaster and mutton snapper, wrasse, cero mackeral, flounder, shad, grouper, palometa, bar jacks, plus I lost a huge cuda on the fly. I did land a beauty on another day.We got into some nice tailing fish on several occasions too. I even saw three 20-30 lb tarpon and had some shots, but none wanted to play.I was surprised we did not see any permit, but that's was likely due to the tides our week, which were funny. The high tide on most days did not get very high at all-in fact it was as low as I have ever seen it on Acklins island in the areas we fish. This was bad for permit, as they generally like higher, stronger tides to come in and feed on Acklins. It was good for bonefishing, since the areas the bones had access to were limited and they could not spread out as much, and get lost in the mangroves.Chris Miller ended up fishing with a guide for four of the six days, and he was not disappointed, having dozens of quality shots each day wading the flats between Crooked and Acklins islands. When he was with the guide, we never saw him while we fished on our own.Overall the trip was great and I look forward to next year.Enjoy the pictures!
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