Fly Fishing Bonefish Permit Roatan

Fly Fishing Bonefish Permit Roatan

My love for fly fishing started in Colorado. My first experience was in the early 1990s and I fished a very small creek with a guide in the Beavercreek area.

I often say that fly fishing is my passion in the summer. I also love golf, hiking and mountain biking, but I would prefer to be fly fishing.

We became Crested Butte second homeowners in 1999, but it wasn’t until we moved from Dallas to Crested Butte in 2009 that I really got the opportunity to enjoy fly fishing.

When we moved here – I promised my wife Francene and our three daughters that we would go on a Caribbean vacation every year over Spring Break. I sought out great SCUBA diving destinations and our daughters got certified. We really enjoyed getting to dive as a family.

I started researching destinations that offered great SCUBA diving and the opportunity for me to go fly fishing for bonefish, tarpon and permit.

I am thankful that I have had the opportunity to dive and flyfish in many great Caribbean destination including the Florida Keys, Grand Cayman, Belize, Bahamas, Cozumel, and this year in Roatan.

I have caught many bonefish, I have had tarpon on my fly rod, and only had a few shots at the elusive permit.

If you are a fly fish enthusiast and love fishing for trout in the moving water in the beautiful rivers and streams in the Crested Butte Colorado area, then you will like saltwater fly-fishing as well (or already do).

The Grey Ghost

Bonefish are called the grey ghost because they are elusive and they are super hard to see in the water due to their unique silver- and blue-green coloring and they easily blend in with their surroundings.  Typically you cannot see the fish – but on a sunny day you can see their shadow. You may be able to see their fins or tail break the surface of the water.

Bonefish are found in shallow waters in areas that have turtle grass which is a breeding ground for small shrimp and crabs. The bonefish disturb the bottom to get to these shrimp and crabs and this also can give away their position. If there is much wind the small waves also give cover to the bonefish. If you see one, or a school or think you do, they can easily vanish in an instant.

It is not unusual to locate a few isolated bonefish, but typically there will be a school of a dozen or more.

If you have already established a love for “bones” then you know what I mean when I say, pound for pound these fish are unbelievable fighters. When you hook into a bonefish it is not unusual for the fish to run hard and fast, and take our all your fly line. In fact, that is not the exception – but the rule.

Roatan

This year Francene and I went to Roatan, Honduras to get away, and did some great diving, and one day I hired a guide to go fly fishing. Tex Dilbert – a very nice guy and avid fisherman. Tex was born and raised on the island of Roatan, and from the age of 12 has enjoyed flats fishing.

Tex had me picked-up at my hotel (Grand Roatan in West Bay) and a short drive to their family home and beach.

We departed the beach in a small flats boat with Tex and his brother who captained the boat. It was overcast and a bit of a wind and chop on the water which is not great conditions for bone fishing.

With only 20 minute boat ride, we arrived at an area where we had the opportunity to catch both bonefish and permit. There were mangroves and shallow water grass flats. Perfect. There was also an area that had a shelf with deeper water where I was told permit hang-out.  Okay great – go to where the fish are. Now patience, anticipation and readiness was the game…

What Makes Catching a Bonefish So Rewarding

If it were easy it would not be as fun or as rewarding.

I consider myself to be an above average fly fisherman in live water, but still a novice in salt water.  You would think the skills would easily transfer – but saltwater fly fishing is a bit more challenging because you are typically casting 20-30 yards into the wind to fish you cannot see (but the guide does).  The spot you are trying to hit is about the size of a hula-hoop.

Typically, it goes something like this… you wait, and look and every ripple and dark bottom area looks like it could be fish, but not… wait… then the guide sees fish and he will yell: “forty feet, throw NOW!” You will not see “the fish” he sees, you are unclear where exactly ten o’clock is. You pause to look for evidence of the fish. The guide says “they are moving throw now!”  If I am in the boat I may remember to check that I am not standing on the line on the deck, if I am in 3 feet of water I may remember to check that the current has not wrapped the line around your body… (only because I have made this mistake a dozen times already today).

The goal is to place the “fly” (actually either a shrimp or crab imitation about the weight of a small wooly bugger streamer) three feet in front of the bonefish.

Land the fly behind the fish and they won’t see it, if you land it on the fish you will spook the whole school, if you are short, you need to pick your line up a re-cast. False casts are bad because you can easily spook the fish. Picking up 50 feet of line and casting it, especially into the wind with deadly accuracy is very hard – even harder when the guide is yelling “they are moving… now at three o’clock 60 feet cast NOW!!”

 

What Can Go Wrong

Is it okay if I am transparent…? I am so happy that I caught one bonefish on this recent trip, but it was only one. Oh, I did catch a small barracuda also that was pretty cool – but no photo with that guy. Tex and his brother are good – they put me on fish, I had many opportunities and a number of hook-ups. Tex is very patient and was helpful with my casting technique.

Casting can go wrong – I consider myself pretty good at casting my 5-weight fly rod with a dry fly. I can hit a target spot from 20 or 30 yards consistently. But if you have tried the same with a streamer on your rod – you see the difference. The streamer is clunky – and requires more pause, more power, more proper technique. Add the wind, and the sense of urgency with a 9-weight rod to a fish you cannot see, and the fact that false casts can spook the fish. Accurate casting to saltwater fish can be hard, and I had my share of bad casting. Before my next trip I will practice on a soccer field on my knees.

Presentation can go wrong – Assuming you have a good cast and did not spook the fish – now the presentation is key to get the fish to eat your fly. Stripping to fast and you move the fly too far away from the fish and you have to re-cast.  Too slow and the fly is not appearing like a natural shrimp or crab trying to get away… This is very subjective, but I did have some great casts and no take with the assumption I was stripping too fast.

Setting the hook can go wrong – Unlike fresh water trout you don’t raise your rod tip to set the hook – instead you do a “strip set”, meaning when you feel the slightest of tugs as the fish inhales your fly, you keep the rod horizontal pointed at the fish and strip the line with one continuous tug to set the hook.

Playing the bonefish can go wrong – In the shallow water the fish has to run because they cannot dive and they don’t jump, so they run and they run very fast! If the bonefish runs horizontal to the boat the coolest thing happens – the line at the surface will trail five to ten feet behind the fish, but it will create a rooster tail and a zzzzzzzZZZZZ sound as it rips through the water.

I had a perfect cast, great presentation, and proper hook-set – I had a bunch of line on the water, the bonefish took off straight away from me and the line quickly fed through my fingers and off the rod. (Tex said calmly “THAT is a huge bone…”).

The unlikely happened – as the bonefish ran, excess line on the water looped over the reel and got hung-up. When the bonefish got all the slack line out, instead of fighting the fish with the drag on the reel – I heard that terrible sound “ping…”.  The huge bone was gone. The line went slack, the 5 seconds of adrenaline came to a screeching hault. I wish I could go back and watch in slow-motion.

The Big Deal

So, the big deal about bone fishing is going from no action to sighting fish, casting accurately, presenting properly, setting the hook correctly and fighting and landing this unbelievably strong fish skillfully. When you do that, it is a pretty big deal. Pretty cool. No fish is a bummer – but still great to be out there. One fish or a dozen is success.

Permit

I don’t feel qualified (yet) to write about the elusive permit. Bonefish are easy compared with permit. I have had a few opportunities, and on this trip to Roatan we saw permit, I threw to them, and I “might” have had a permit on my line – but literally 2 seconds into the fight the line broke off… was it a Permit, a Jack, a Barracuda or something else we will never know.

I have fished a couple of times in Belize at El Pescador. One night sitting at family style dinner I was talking to a guy who had logged 29 days in his life specifically fishing with guides for permit – and he had not caught one yet. He was not quitting. Whoa that is some dedication there.

I fished with my brother Rick last year in the Keys and our guide pointed as three large permit were coming toward us – my brother Rick hooked up and landed a very nice permit.

Tarpon

I have hooked three tarpon on my fly rod. Two small tarpon and one that was probably close to 100 pounds that came out of the water danced on his tail in a spectacular aerial exhibition before shaking my fly… I have a real estate client who has fished hard three years in a row in the Florida Keys, has had a number of tarpon on his fly rod, but still has not successfully landed a tarpon.

---

Roatan Bone & Permit Fishing
Tex Dilbert
flatfishingroatan@gmail.com

---