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dchurbuck · #1 02-26-2001, 12:08 AM

I just returned from six days on Eleuthera, one of the Bahamas Out Islands, and thought I would post this report.I stayed on Harbour Island, site of the original British capital of the Bahamas, Dunmore Town. It's a ten minute water taxi ride from North Eleuthera, just a couple miles away from the N. Eleuthera airport. I didn't fish with a guide this year, my fifth consecutive year fishing this part of the Bahamas. I waded the flats to the north of the town -- Ladyfish Flats, or the Dump Flats -- and saw a good deal of singles, pairs, and trios of cruising fish. VERY picky fish. These fish see up to half a dozen fly fishers simultaneously during the season, so they are not fooled by anything but perfect presentations, the perfect fly (if anyone knows it, please let me know), and totally stealthy approaches. It's a great place to fish, a firm, white, long flat with northern exposure and a small bank of mangroves at its eastern end.The second day there it was blowing pretty hard due to a cold front, so my friend and I went looking for a lee over on Eleuthera. We rented a car for the day for $75 and a very nice taxi driver at the water taxi docks told us to fish Savannah Sound, handed us a map, and sent us on our way.Beautiful drive through Upper and Lower Bogue, over the Glass Window bridge with the Atlantic on the left and the Carribean on the right, Gregory Town, James Cistern, North Palmetto, Governor Harbor, to Tarpum Bay. There was a lot of great, deserted wadable water on the western shore, particulary up north starting around the Glass Window, down past the Rainbow Inn (they were out of the legendary Bonefish Graham's Guide to Do-It-Yourself Bonefishing in Eleuthera), but there were sections with coral shore and no sand that looked deep and not too wadable.We turned around in Tarpum Bay and headed back to the north in search of Savannah Bay. We found it, totally by chance, north of Windemere Island (ultra-exclusive resort on an island on the Atantic shore -- where Charles and Di honeymooned), when we asked a guy walking along where it was. He told us, we found it, and man, am I glad we did.Savannah Sound is the inlet behind Windemere Island and is the most beautiful spot I've ever bonefished. Not a single sign of the 20th century, not another fisherman, just me and my friend and a mile of flooding flat all to ourselves. The 30 knot wind didn't help, but hey, I learned to fish on Cape Cod where wind is wind and you learn to deal with it. We waded in at the northern end of the flat, and walked back to the sound along the drop off, facing into the beach with the wind at our backs. Almost immediately we starting seeing schools of bones swimming into the wind and current. I must of had 50 shots, two pickups, and one blistering run that ended in a bad knot!To be brief.Savannah Sound is the best. Check it out.Here's a link to a map:<A href="http://uk2.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?client=M4&lon=-76.1358&lat=25.0837&scale=500000&title =Savannah+Sound,+Eleuthera+Island,+The+Bahamas">ht tp://uk2.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?client=M4&lon=-76.1358&lat=25.0837&scale=500000&title =Savannah+Sound,+Eleuthera+Island,+The+Bahamas</A>Here's a picture:<A href="http://www.rainbowinn.com/p5.htm">http://www.rainbowinn.com/p5.htm</A><IMG align=top height=480 src="http://www.rainbowinn.com/psn00012.jpg" width=640>Back to Harbour Island. Name of the game: rent a 13 foot whaler with a bannister pole for a push pole, and off we went, usually to Man Cay to the northeast where we fished the ocean inlet and inside flats (lots of fish, smart fish, fished hard), or Nurse Cay to the northwest of Dunmore, where we cast to three schools of tailing fish.In all, I've never had more shots with a guide, and chalk it up to finally getting my "bonefish eyes", knowing the general pattern, and being persistent. I made sure not to get in the way of the guides. If they were on a flat with a sport, I went elsewhere. If they arrived on a flat. I left. I simply wanted to see if bones could be fished solo, and indeed they can.Sidenote, I fished the new Rio monocore bonefish taper line and it is the best I've fished, including the Scientific Anglers Mastery series, the Orvis Bonefish line and the new Cortland 444 Lazer Lines.Patterns that worked: pink, pink, and more pink. Pink gotchas and charlies in 4's and 2's. #4 pink clousers and chartreuse clousers also worked. Crabs: nope.Email me for more details: <A href="mailto:churbuck@cape.com">churbuck@cape.com</A>David Churbuck

BobG · #2 02-26-2001, 09:14 AM

dave, GREAT REPORT!

shhhhh....about savannak sound.:-);
savannah sound is incredible isn't it!
i spent several weeks there last march, and you're photo brought me right back there, at least in my mind's eye.
one evening, last march. i'm on those turtle grass flats which extend way out into savannah, sort of at the mouth.
it's 1/2 hour before dusk, with a warm, yellowish, orange light,of a bahamian sunset, warming everything. suddenly, as if on cue, dozens of tailing bones. all the fish were pushing their way onto flats covered with 3" of water.
i managed two that night. the second , about 8 pounds, which i landed in total darkness after about a 1/2 battle.

what a place!
bobG

AFISHN · #3 03-08-2005, 06:11 PM

David:Outstanding report on Eleuthera.Amazing ,but when I fished there (January 2,3,4 2001)I fished many of the same places you fished and had very similar experiences.

One minor point;on January 4,2001.I fished -near the town of Waterford,a place called Davis Harbor.Not a soul in sight.In about 3 hours of incoming water I caught 6 bones---2 of them in the 10# range AND brought to hand a very big Permit

.The bones caught on a Pink Gottcha--the Permit on a McCrab(tan and gren)

The Permit caught blind casting into the deeper water---I didn't measure it,but conservatively it was 20# plus(judging by the permit I caught in Islamorada in 2001 with guide Harp Heffernan @Alleycat Charters).

To all those prospecting in the south,this area is a good place to try.

Tom Conigliaro
AFISHN
West Chester,PA