The Bonefish Flat: Shark Catch & Release Tournament

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, May 26, 2010

Shark Catch & Release Tournament

I ran across this article last week in The Washington Post about shark tournaments. For some reason, I've never really been that interested in fishing for sharks. I look at sharks as one of us. They're out there looking for fish too, so I just can't get jazzed about fishing for them.

Here's a shark I saw on the flat in the Bahamas.

You may remember a few years back there was a shark tournament of TV. It was on Versus or ESPN2, and it was just disgusting. Guys would "catch" sharks and then hall them in and kill them in order to be weighed in. That's just ridiculous.

It looks like Guy Harvey has put together a catch and release shark tournament that will give anglers a chance to go after sharks and then let them go.

Hopefully this will lead to an increased awareness about shark finning and by-catch issues with sharks.