Why bonefishing in the Bahamas is a must-do winter adventure

Poling the flats for fast-draw shots at the grey ghost

Poling the vast flats of the North and Middle Bights on Andros can bring on the adrenalin rush. Why? It’s the thrill of trying to land a fly softly in front of heavy-bodied, wide-shouldered bonefish in the six- to eight-pound range, as they feed in small pods at close range in water only inches deep.

One of my most memorable near-misses on the trip came on one of these occasions. While poling along an exposed bar on a fast falling tide, I spotted two large bonefish feeding in plain sight about a 60-foot cast away. I tracked their movement and got off a good cast. One of them chased the fly down and took off. Although I did my best to keep the fish off the scattered mangrove stems, just as it was about to come off the ledge into the deeper flat, a last mangrove branch caught the leader, and it was game over.

“That was about a seven pound fish,’ said my guide Carlton Mackey. “The other one was even bigger.”