Monster Bonefish

Today I saw the biggest bonefish I have ever seen. He was no more than 40 feet away. Conditions were perfect, standing on the bow of the boat, sun at my back, wind at my back. Easy cast to lead him going right to left. Only one slight problem—-no fly rod in my hand. It was put away in the rod holders on the boat. By the time I got it out, he was gone. This is the sickening truth of what took place. I was by myself and had tied the boat on the lee side of this big mangrove and waded this small flat. There were lots of clouds but the bottom was real light so there was some visibility. First fish I got was with a 20 foot roll cast. Shortly after I got another with a very short cast. These fish were in about 3 feet of water. I was standing on a bar close to this little channel and couldn’t see them until they were real close. Both fish were good sized and took me well into my backing. The clouds got heavier and wind got stronger so I decided to go back to the boat. I untied the boat and let the wind push it across this small flat out to the channel. I jumped up on the bow to have a look-see around and that’s when I saw him. I’m guessing that fish would exceed 15 pounds. Herman had told me of a huge fish in that area. The lesson to be learned from this is always be ready. I must be retarded because I have done this several times. Fishing a lot by myself I quite often let the wind blow the boat across a flat and jump up on the bow with no rod just to have a quick look-see.