Is the summer passing you by as quickly as it is for me? June was a crazy month with threats of flash floods on the Pine River where I was living, a fly-fishing trip to the Bahamas, and a trip to the annual conference of the American Library Association in San Francisco. I’m finally settled for a couple of weeks and want to share my incredible fly-fishing excursion to the Bahamas.
I spent a week on Abaco Island at the Blackfly Lodge to try my hand at salt water fishing for the first time. As with all fishing, I found it challenging, alluring and rejuvenating. I actually took two lessons from Jonathan Walter, an IFFF certified Instructor before I left and thank goodness for that!
I bid on this trip during the annual Casting for Recovery “Cast One for Hope” fundraiser in Hamilton, Montana last fall. I had wanted to go salt water fishing and what a great way to support my favorite organization and take a vacation. I’m hoping the same opportunity is up for auction at this year’s event on October 3rd. The Blackfly Lodge’s owners are totally supportive of CfR and their mission to enrich the lives of women with breast cancer. In fact, I fished in their pink boat with the CfR logo and pink ribbon on it!
Fishing on Abaco is mostly about bonefish and permit. And, they are not easy to catch – especially for someone like me, who still needs to work on my casting skills. Bonefish can weigh up to 19 pounds and grow to 35 inches long! They are very skittish, so if you don’t get your cast right on the first try – you can pretty much say adieu to that fish. In addition, once you catch them, they are one of the strongest fish to bring in – so you need to prepare yourself for a struggle. Well, struggle I did, and as you can see from my post photo, I did catch one, but I’ll leave that story for my next blog post:-)
