My brother and I hit the flats at 5:30am, catching a fast-rising tide. My brother was new to this fly fishing thing but he was working on his skills and could get the line far out enough to catch a fish.
The first thing a lot of fishers do is walk out to deep water. The closer to the reef edge, the better. But the bonefish aren't always way out there and I told my brother to be very careful when walking out because you will often find fish feeding just yards from shore. I told him to gear up, strip out line and be ready to cast BEFORE stepping into the water. And when he does enter the water to do it slowly and always look before you walk.
I moved down the beach around 50 yards and stepped out. I moved slowly out to mid-reef and began to cast but when I looked to see how my brother was doing, he was standing just 30 yards from the beach and was casting at something.
I continued to fish and 20 minutes later I heard my name being screamed by my brother. I looked over and he was rapidly walking into deeper water, his rod bent as something pulled line off his reel as it rocketed towards the breakers at the reef edge. I reeled up and moved towards him but when I got about half way there the rod wasn't bent anymore. The fish had broken him off.
My brother said he saw several bonefish just yards from the beach and had casted to several of them. Suddenly there was a jolt and the rod was bent and the drag on his reel was screaming. He saw his line disappear and soon over three-fourths of his backing was gone, so he began to follow the fish but even as he put line back onto the reel the fish would pull it all off. He was wondering what to do when the leader cut. He said he had felt a bit tired when we arrived to fish but after all that commotion he was wide awake.
I left him as he was tying on a new leader and fly and went to fish a deep cut in the reef. The tide was rising and bigger fish should be moving through this area as they came onto the flats to feed. About 30 minutes later I had a huge strike and saw all of my fly line disappear followed by a bunch of backing. I yelled at my brother that I had a fish on but as soon as I got the words out, the fish was off. I reeled in the line and the leader was shredded.
We continued to fish for another hour, but that was about it for us today.
EQUIPMENT: I used a 9 weight rod and floating line and my brother used an 8 weight 8 foot 6 inch custom rod he built and an 8 weight floating line. We both used hand-tied leaders and flies from size 4 to 8, weighted and very little to no weight depending on the depth of the water we were fishing.