Welcome to The Bonefish Flat

There's a stiff wind in your face as you squint in the sun trying to see what the guide sees. "Bonefish at 12 o'clock about 90 feet, do you see it, mon?" You don't and keep squinting, your hat pulled low to keep the sun out of your eyes. "Bonefish at 11 o'clock 70 feet out. Come on man, do you see it?" As the guide is calmly shifting the skiff into position, this time you spot the fish, "I got, it," you reply.

"OK, Mon, Bonefish 50 feet at 10 o'clock. Cast when you're ready."

Cast when you're ready. And with that you drop your fly, roll out a cast, false cast once, and then...

Welcome to the bonefish flat.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Bonefish Travel Series: Clothes Make the Man

One key piece of gear that is a must have when flats fishing are long sleeve shirts and flats style pants. Yes, there are a lot of things marketed to us fly fishers that we really don't need. And yes, I'm just as guilty as the next gear hog, but the one thing that can really do some damage when you're fishing in the ocean, or on a river for that matter, is the sun.

I'm a big fan of shirts made by Columbia. My current favorite is the Skiff Guide II shirt, although they have the new Freezer II which is supposed to keep you cooler. I wore the skiff guide on my last trip to the Bahamas and bought another one for my upcoming trip. My guide was also wearing one.




The bottom line is that you need a shirt with at least an SPF 30 rating to make sure that you don't get burned. The Columbia shirt is really lightweight and very comfortable. Its great for fishing anywhere, really, where sun is an issue. It works in the kayak, on a boat fishing for rockfish or for redfish.



In terms of flats pants, they are equally as important. I'm not as picky with these but I have a pair made by Ex Officio that I like and I have a pair that were pretty inexpensive that I bought at Bass Pro Shops that work fine. You really just want flats pants to be light weight and to be able to zip off at the knee to become shorts

This feature will allow you you to wade and to become shorts if its just too hot. Another thing I do like on flats pants are cargo pockets so I can keep my camera handy.

Posted by at 7:03 AM

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