Bonefishing - Crooked Isand, Bahamas

Two couples left Conn. early friday morning bound for JFK and an appointment with Jet Blue to Nassau in The Bahamas. Peter and John, hard core fishermen, Eileen and Anne, a fair weather fisherwoman, and the Eileen a why would any one want to do that person. We choose Crooked because we wanted a place where a non-fishing spouse could have a rewarding trip and the fishermen could have a out standing trip. Pittstown Point Lodge fulfilled this desire to a T. Matt at the Kingfisher outfitted us with rods(a Sage 7x9 with rio 8wt. line on a Ross reel for Anne, Peter fished a sage 8x9 and when the wind was really bad a 10x9 on Ross reels, John was armed with a winston bxII 8x9 with a rio outbound on on a Ross reel. An interesting note was that there were six hardcore fishermen staying in the lodge and everyone had ross reels. Good value for the money I guess. We overnighted in Nassau and left early Sat. morning to go to Crooked Island. Crooked Island is about one hour flight south of Nassau, it along with Acklins Island has the largest flats system in the Bahamas.


We all arrived at the lodge along with luggage(thank goodness) unpacked and were served a very good lunch before gearing up to go fish on the one flat that was accessible by car as Sat is the guides day off. Four of us fished for about 3hrs and saw no bones but yours truly did hook up with a barracuda however the hook pulled before I could land it. Breakfast came early the next day and everyone was on time as first day anticipation was running strong in everyones blood. We met the guides about 8:30 for the run to the flats which, I am sad to report was over an hour long one way. I think that this was the main draw back for this fishery. The flats were larger than any that I have ever seen.

They were mostly hard bottomed and light colored making it a good area for a novice bone fisher man to go. Three to four hours to fish across the largest of them and you could have to or three groups on each flat with out bothering each other. I thank my lucky stars that a good friend said that it had been cold and windy in the Bahamas that spring and to bring a rain jacket/wind breaker (Simms In-vest) fit this bill perfectly. The fishing was very tidal dependent. There was to much water on the flats for the bone fish to be happy at high tide. The good thing about this was that is a alternate fishery there. The reefs are quite close and at high tide one can take a boat to the reef and throw a sink tip line and catch all kinds of reef fish, not quite like stalking the silver ghost on the flats but it keeps a bend in the rod.
The rooms were clean and comfortable. the swimming and snorkeling, right in front of the cabanas, as good as any place I have ever been. The bar was a nightly stop where guests and locals gathered to share tails of the days events. Food was good to very good concentrating on the productivity of the local waters. One night we had coconut creme pie made from coconuts on the grounds that was outstanding.

John Potter - Washington, CT.