my last bonefish

i asked lefty kreh what fish, of all he'd fished for, would he most like to pursue.

"in the salt?" he inquired..."with a fly?"

"yeah."

"bonefish.  no doubt about it,"  he replied.

from that moment on i made bonefish my objective - fly fishing for them from andros in the bahamas to the seychelles in the indian ocean.  just a year ago i caught my last one.  sally and i were being guided by a dreadful little thief [he literally stole money from us] who had - until i protested their sophistication - put us on a school of deep water cay [harbor] bonefish, reckoning he could collect his fee with small effort.  after my angry comment he went to work a little harder and we ran a little further - to the north side of grand bahama - where he began to pole the shoreline.

we pushed along on the shallow mangrovey flat until suddenly i saw a large black shape lying on a small white sand bottomed point about fifty yards off the bow.  as i gestured with my rod tip our lad slowed the boat.  when near enough i false cast twice and fired the squimp.  in what was a very good throw for me the fly landed about four feet from the fish's nose.  motionless, we waited.  the bonefish moved forward a couple of feet and - clear as could be against the blinding white bottom - snorted two columns of black dirt from its nostrils.  i twitched the fly once and it pounced.  the battle was on.

shortly, vanquished and unhooked, the fish glared at the camera. lefty was right...they are the best and this one, my last, was one of the very best.

"did you see him snort?" i asked sally.  she nodded, smiling.  "just like an angry bull in the ring...."