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flyphoto · #1 07-07-2005, 01:54 PM

Got back from a great trip to LI. We stayed in the Turnbull area south of Dead Man's Cay and fished from Dead Man's Cay south to end of Island.

Right up front, the fishing is tough as there is almost too much of a good thing; lots and lots of large flats! We did hook up with a guide for a few days and that increased our sighting and hooking of fish significantly. As with most places that one has never visited before, it takes a few days to learn the tides and patterns of a flat. By end of week we began to understand a couple of flats better.

The Island and the people are the charming part of the Island. They are all friendly, all business and resteraunt establishments are clean and hospitable. Travel is easy on the main road and the traffic is all most nonexistant.

DIY on this Island is hit or miss. Within 30 minutes of our first day on our first flat we had a school cruise past us and the first guy to get a fly in front of them hooked up. We thought "this is going to be easy!" action slowed after the first groups went by. In retrospect we should have followed them as the tide was flooding (glacial speed) and they were moving to a feeding area. This was true on the 3 or 4 flats we fished and we started to get the rythym.

Most places the fish were spookier than we imagined and they prefered small to tiny flies. If you lead a fish by 15-20' a big crab works well. Otherwise it was all small tan and brown crabs, shrimp and charley like patterns with little flash.

The guide we hooked up with ran a family lodge/resteraunt/bar operation. He worked his a$# off for 12 hours on the flats then put in time serving drinks and food with his wife. We ate their for the week, one hint though, unless your regular diet consists of fried food, take a break from the cranked conch once in a while as good as it is there. Our regular diet of conch and Kaliks had us scurrying to the woods on more than one occasion.

I'll expand and add info to this thread as interest pours in. I still have enough brain cells left to give decent directions and ideas on specific areas. Best thing though is to stop in at almost any bar on the island and start talking with the people, they are very forth coming with info and directions.

John

uncle4 · #2 07-07-2005, 02:31 PM

FABULOUS pix... great report.

how about the guide's name and contact #####?

is this a "do again" for you (or your group)?

Thanks,

Uncle 4

Count · #3 07-07-2005, 03:51 PM

Thanks for the report, John. Great photos!

Count

flyphoto · #4 07-07-2005, 04:41 PM

Definately a do again for our group in fact we would stay at our Guide's lodge right in Cartwright settlement and use him 50% of the time and eat and drink there. His name is Colin Cartwright and can be reached at 242-357-1067 and emailed at colin@batelnet.bs and has a site at www.wadingforbones.com that is either under construction or gone as I couldn't connect.

His lodge can sleep 6 and he charges $150/night for the whole thing, includes small kitchen, air conditioning etc. His fee for guiding is $300/day for 2 anglers. In the heat of summer he prefers fishing 7:30-12:00 then back out at 4:00 till dusk although he will kill time with you in hte heat of the day if you want.

Their resteraunt is excellant and is also the local watering hole with very colorful and friendly locals that will let you in on anything you want to know.

We stayed at a private house in Turnbull that was very nice and had a great beach for relaxing on those rare occaions we let ouselves relax. If you are traveling with alot of people with various levels of enthusiasm then this is the palce. Colins place is right on the edge of Dead man's cay and is more of a fishing lodge. Let me know if anyone needs info for the Turnbull house, it is owned by a flyfishing shop/guide from Oregon and he provides the "Top Secret Map".

Nassau Frank · #5 07-08-2005, 09:43 AM

Great shots - made the homepage, too

Mark Cahill · #6 07-08-2005, 02:28 PM

I'm a sucker for a good pic...and with that batch it was hard to choose...

rlbgfish173 · #7 07-09-2005, 07:36 AM

Nice report, Thanks
I also have fished LI and found the Bones to be a challenge, I think they are related to FL bones.

flyphoto · #8 07-09-2005, 08:24 AM

Thanks for the cudos guys, here are a few more to whet the appetite. When the conditions are right (little wind) the guides will take you out to what they call the oceanside flats which is basically the estuary of dead man's to the west. They palce is beautiful and desolate. The fish are easy and aggressive. The last day there we got those conditions and the only pod we found were holed up in a pool sized area in the mangroves with us on one side and a 6ft. lemon shark on the other that was going crazy trying to get to the bones. The only way to catch one was to cut our leaders back to 20lb. cast over the mangroves, strip strip strip then yank the fish out. It was the quickest bonefish fight on record. It got the job done and got the fish back in the water quickly to go back with his school and avoid the shark. It was something out of bassmasters.

The other spot we had a great time on that morning was an area inside the dead man's maze that we knicknamed 'bonefish alley' as there were large pods coming through for 2 hours. I was busy photographing my 2 buddies as they hooked up on after the other. The shot RT used on the home page is one of my buddies fishing to a pod just after he released a fish. You can't see it very well but in the original you can just make out the lead group of fish in the upper left corner of the flat.

I though Monomoy was a maze, this place is expotentialy more complex and would take a lifetime to figure out. The ease of the fishing the last day made up for all the tough fish we encountered through out the week.

John

dbutcher · #9 07-17-2005, 10:39 PM

I would like to hear more. When you were on your own I assume you didn't have a boat. In Feb, we found no boats to be rented. And the maze of channels and flats would have stymied me in a boat anyway. Did you do well on your own far south on the island? Or just around Mangrove Cay?
Thanks

dbutcher · #10 07-17-2005, 10:42 PM

I would be interested in the Turnbull House. We found a lovely small rental in Lochabar.
Thanks

Quote:

Originally Posted by flyphoto

Definately a do again for our group in fact we would stay at our Guide's lodge right in Cartwright settlement and use him 50% of the time and eat and drink there. His name is Colin Cartwright and can be reached at 242-357-1067 and emailed at colin@batelnet.bs and has a site at www.wadingforbones.com that is either under construction or gone as I couldn't connect.

His lodge can sleep 6 and he charges $150/night for the whole thing, includes small kitchen, air conditioning etc. His fee for guiding is $300/day for 2 anglers. In the heat of summer he prefers fishing 7:30-12:00 then back out at 4:00 till dusk although he will kill time with you in hte heat of the day if you want.

Their resteraunt is excellant and is also the local watering hole with very colorful and friendly locals that will let you in on anything you want to know.

We stayed at a private house in Turnbull that was very nice and had a great beach for relaxing on those rare occaions we let ouselves relax. If you are traveling with alot of people with various levels of enthusiasm then this is the palce. Colins place is right on the edge of Dead man's cay and is more of a fishing lodge. Let me know if anyone needs info for the Turnbull house, it is owned by a flyfishing shop/guide from Oregon and he provides the "Top Secret Map".

flyphoto · #11 07-21-2005, 02:23 PM

Been away a few days... the house in Turnbull is http://www.vrbo.com/45912
and the owner contact info is in there. He is an outfitter from Oregon and knows a thing or two about fishing. Also a great guy.

We started off with DIY plans in mind but with guide contact info with us just in case and were glad we hooked up with a guide as it increased our sighting and catching significantly. We did DIY in the south near Galloway, the turn is south of Clarence Town, look for the Bahama Moods sign and follow to water go over bridges and on left is a small pull in by a channel and foot bridge, cross over, go over foot bridge and go upstream to flat on left.

We also fished at the location of the (proposed...defunct...?!) Flamingo Bay Bonefish club. The sign is broken, but it is on the right if heading south between Hard Bargin and Mortimers. Drive to end of road and you can't miss the flat.

We also fished the south end of Dead Mans near our house in Turnbull. If you stay there you will be able to find the roads down.

All places in DIY territory were much harder than we imagined and had to do with all things fishy: time of day, tides, temps, etc. You very well could stumble into pods of fish, more likely the opportunities will be spread out. One word of advice is to stay in an area you see fish and try to determine their pattern. When they peter out follow then to the areas they were traveling/feeding to instead of moving around the huge flats.

markm · #12 07-22-2005, 08:44 AM

Has anyone here ever stayed at Turnbull House? I've considered it for next year.I've stayed at other homes for rent in the Bahamas for a DIY trip and have been more than satisfied with the results.Kirwins place in Abaco's Little Harbour.AWESOME PLACE !!! Robinson's Bight right behind the house has some hugh Bones.Not to mention Cherokee Sound about a half hour away.More first hand info if anyone wants. Any other great places ???? I'm a sucker for planning a vaca. Don't need much proding to get me going !
THANX,
Mark

flyphoto · #13 07-22-2005, 08:58 AM

Yes, I stayed at the Turnbull house as described in the above posts. Beautiful, restful place perfect for families as well as fisher folk. Right on a beautiful, swimmable beach and close enough to town and ammenitites. They have a separate bath for each of the 3 bedrooms with an additional bath just off the kitchen/living room. Four people could be taking showers at the same time.

Only problem while we were there was mosquitoes and other little bugs as they had rain the week before we got there and had not had any for over a year, hence the onslaught of bugs. If going in summer you will need to plan for that.