Luyen’s Reel-Time FLog

We returned to Deep Crack on Saturday evening, this time parking further north and wading in near the mouth of the creek that filled the flat. The tide was dead low, and we staked out hoping to see fish come up onto the shallows out of the creek. I made the big mistake of wading further inshore thinking I might find fish back where we had seen them in the morning. As I crossed the channel towards the mangrove island, I saw a big push of fish move by me at high speed. I pointed them out to the rest of the gang and headed further inshore. Big mistake. While I wasted precious minutes stalking some small, local snapper, which I mistook for bonedogs, the mother of all bonefish pods had settled in around Thorne, Alex and Sumin for an evening bight. They bagged a bunch of big bones before I made my way back fishless.

Sumin creeps up on a pod of Eleuthera bones.

Our "secret" flat at the southern tip of Eleuthera.

Thorne had to pick up Alex by 9AM at Rock Sound airport, so we boogied down to our newly-discovered Deep Creek flat in the early morning. After driving out to the point and walking along the creek inshore towards the flat, we decided to drive back along the dirt road, park, and check out the flat on the ocean side of the road. Almost instantly, as we waded the warm incoming tide, we began to see wakes and other tell-tale signs of pisctorial activity. Thorne chased some fish into the mangroves on the far bank. Sumin headed towards nervous water on the opposite shoreline. I poked around the mangroves with Thorne, but decided to go fish with Sumin after a few minutes. As I waded his way, I nearly anxious and restless minutes of indecision. Sure enough, I walked over a pod of five or six fish. Backing up, I stuck a ten foot cast to these fish, and a small bone-dog pounced on the fly (a #6 Bonefish Scampi).

Thorne reluctantly left the flat to pick Alex up at the airport. Sumin hooked and lost a fish. Almost as soon as Thorne left, the bite was off and the tide turned around. Sumin and I waded for the next two hours spotting few fish.

After a few frustrating hours, we worked our way back from the ocean and spied Thorne and Alex wading the waters around the mangrove island. They hadn’t seen many fish either, but Alex managed this nice bonefish just north of the mangroves.

An exhausted moment of solace for four weary anglers on a secluded Eleuthera bonefish flat.

Alex caught and snapped this Eleuthera native.

Dusk at Deep Creek, Eleuthera.

Early AM, back to Savannah Sound.

We see almost no fish, despite beautiful conditions. After heading back to the shack, Sumin decides to rest until the evening tide. Thorne and I decide to do some prospecting.

We hit Winding Bay, then drive south towards Bannerman and explore an ocean side point where a creek fills a flat bisected by a narrow dirt road. Making a note to come back with the rest of the gang the next morning, we pick up some Kaliks and head home.

Because of a foul-up involving Sumin’s flight to Nassau, Thorne and I ended up making the puddle jump to Eleuthera without him on a chartered Cessna flown by the aptly-named chater company, "Million-Air". The weather wasn’t encouraging — a steady rain and gray skies ushered us into do-it-yourself bonefish paradise. Thorne pointed out some flats around the Governor’s Harbor airport on the way in.

As we waited for Sumin’s plane to arrive, Thorne and I broke out the rods and fished the Airport Flat (ocean side, due to strong west wind). We saw a single fish cruising the shallows, but little else of note. As we left, we chatted up another angler who shook his head discouragingly, and complained of tough fishing all week.

Still waiting for Sumin’s Bahamas Air flight to arrive, we headed down and fished the Governour’s Harbor flats (again, on the ocean side) on our way down to our rented bungalow. We see a couple of fish, but the conditions are tough, and the fish are super wary.

After meeting Sumin at Cartwright’s Cottage, we headed to Savannah Sound, where Thorne had had consistent success on his previous visit, for a final look see at dusk. The flat was completely protected from the wind, and we did see a few fish, but failed to hook any before night fell.