A report from SteveL
Return to Rat Island, where both rodents and bonefish are large.
Last week SteveT and I went to this area that he has been trying to get me to go to for months. This was the first time the weather cooperated, somewhat, and over two days we hooked and landed at least five oio and saw quite a few on the flats, fishing during a fairly extreme rising tide.
This morning my son Alan and I did more "research" on this area that we fished last week with SteveT. It was a zero tide from 6am with a slight bump to a 1/4 foot and then back down sometime after lunch. We planned to go early, but both of us slept in until 8am before we dragged ourselves out of our beds to go.
Going late didn't seem to matter. Within the first hour I had six strikes and lost every one (and lost six flies too). These fish would find a way to break my 20-pound leader. Even my son lost one screamer as it broke his 40-pound leader.
I moved to a different area and managed to land a five pounder. Considering the number of hookups, we did pretty good. We quit and went to lunch at Ethel's Grill. And we ate fish of course, ahi belly, mahi mahi and Tataki sashimi.
The flies I lost was a shrimp pattern I tied the night before, using a #4 live bait hook. It has a very short shank and stout enough not to bend. I noticed my hooks bent when fighting big fish so this was the best solution without using a big heavy hook. I guess these flies work. I had to go back to J&E Fishing Supply to buy more hooks (no one else sells them).
