A report from Eric for mikescatchreport.com
I went out to fly fish at The Rock today. I arrived at the beach around 6:00am and started the walk out to the spot. The tide was rising fast, from zero to 1.2 feet and peaking at 11:00am, so I did not have much time to fish.
I started to fish but there were no bonefish around and I only caught two Trumpet fish. After I released the last Trumpet fish I decided to change my fly. I made one cast to the left, made three strips, then suddenly I had a huge strike and it was fish on.
The fish started to yank fly line out of my stripping basket. The line was jumping all over the place and I managed to get a hand on it to make sure it would not get tangled and strip off all my rod guides.
The fish ran fast and hard straight for a large coral head so I had to jump off The Rock and chase the fish down. Backing was flying off my Abel reel. Then the fish stopped, or so I thought at the time, and started to make a run back towards me.
I reeled line in quickly to keep the line tight as the fish started to get closer. I reeled and reeled, waiting for the fish to make another run but it didn't turn and just kept coming straight at me. I knew there was a fish on the line but the fight felt different.
I was puzzled but then I saw the fish. There was no bonefish on the line--it was a small papio (Jack or Trevally). I scratched my head. How could that massive pull and screaming run come from a fish that at most weighed 3/4 pounds. Then I put 2 and 2 together.
When the bonefish stopped, the hook must have fallen out and when I started to reel line in, the papio must have hit the fly and continued to swim in towards me. I guess the fishing gods wanted me to have a Father's Day gift. At least I had a massive hit and ended up with a somewhat small papio and a good fishing story to tell.