French West Indies Video

This fish tale starts with Jonathan from Brooklyn and his girlfriend who were coming to the French West Indies for vacation in February and requested 3 days of fly fishing from a flats boat. Unfortunately my flats boat, which was supposed to be here, was not. Anyway, he wanted to do some wade fishing for Bonefish. We spent 2 days on the flats. On the first day he was a bit rusty because his last Bonefishing trip was 6 years ago in Belize or Mexico. We had a bunch of opportunities the first day with no success. On the second day he already felt better and so did I. He landed his first Bonefish in many years and missed 3 or 4 others because of leader breaking and other common things. He even had a great shot at casting to Permit and finally hooked one but the tippet broke when setting the hook. They really enjoyed their little fly fishing trip and Jessica, my girlfriend, and I enjoyed having them. Jessica surprised me and them too with her cooking skills. After they left the island, I had several daily guiding opportunities to prove myself. Most of these fly fishers had never fished in saltwater, so double hauling or cross casting were techniques that that rarely use on the freshwater rivers they typically fish. I can say that I love fly fishing myself, so when guiding I view it as sharing a common passion and living through each others intensity. When they caught a fish it’s was also a big victory for me and I feel as happy as they do. Sometimes, I would like to have a fly rod in hand and try to catch fish too, it’s just a secret wish (it’s no more a secret for you). Well I’m getting far away from the boat story. Finally, on the 9th of March after many months of waiting I could pick up the boat at customs. I knew there were Tarpon and Snook in mangroves. I also knew some bonefish flats because prior to owning my own boat I rented a bay boat for a day to scope out some new water that I could not access by wading. So here I was, very happy at last with my Mitzi flats boat searching for spots; but first I had to learn how to pole. I was afraid of going in circle and zig zagging from point to point but this boat is really easy to pole and light. Only a few days later I already had fly fishermen asking for trips with a boat. I was a bit stressed. Will it be ok? Will the spot I found produce what I had seen before? Luckily, the answer was yes. Plus, because the fly fishermen were casting into mangroves it improved my poling skills quickly. I had to be able to make a half-turn and go back close to the mangroves with side wind to unhooked the flies from roots (they don’t like to loose their flies) and go back in straight in a straight line. The fly fishermen took many baby Tarpon and many Snook and I started to learn the rhythm of the mangroves just like I had to do on the flats. What excited me most was the opportunity for new species that the flats boast made possible. Just when I was starting to feel confident, Philippe and Patrice came in from France. These were some very experienced fly anglers and my first time guiding very good fly fishers for a full trip. They had done a lot of fly fishing travel in their lives including such trips as: Bijagos, Africa (fly fishing for giant Jack Crevalle), Baja California and Cuba at Cayo largo. I had a lot of pressure like “if you mess up it won’t be good.” I asked myself, “will they enjoy Guadeloupe flats after being to Cuba?” “Will they consider me too young for their purpose?” (I’m 24 years old)We had the 3 first days with bad weather and fish bite. They broke a lot “getting the fish on reel” or simply loosing them. The first boat day was hard, fish were shy and hard to find. Only one 2 lb. baby brought to the boat and some 20-30 centimeters snooks. Not really what I expected and I don’t have to tell you about their expectations. The first days of their fly fishing was mainly on bonefish flats. During lunch time on the beach under trees shadow, we saw a pod of three huge permits in the 30-40 pounds range tailing in the deepest part of the flat. We stopped eating lunch and went to find them. We were 27 feet from them and Philippe had a mantis shrimp pattern on his 10 lbs. tippet. He started to cast and was casting well even with his knees shaking and heart pumping at full range. Three casts later, one permit started following the fly as though it were interested, but decided not to eat it and at 18 feet the Permit saw us and exploded off the flat to the outer reef. It took them 3 seconds to cross the 110 yards from reef. We were all astonished. I had seen such big permit but never on this flat and never in a pod. Anyway, with his 8 weight rod it would have been a suicide for the rod and his mid arbor reel. The next three days were better with a bunch of luck at tailing bones and one day found us on a permit flat and we saw around 35 of them. The Permit stayed tricky and never wanted to eat flies. They started to feel a curse on them so many fish lost or tippet broke. Last day by boat, we had several babies around 10 lbs but here again luck wasn’t on their side. However, a 12 lbs. Snook took a small popper fly that I had tied while sight casting. What a fun and joy to bring that fish to boat. They had broken the curse that started with the first bonefish who tangled the fly line in the reel and a big Barracuda missed because of trying to rod-set the hook. On the last day wading Philippe caught his biggest bone of 7 lbs and and other 4 pound bonefish. Patrice took a Barracuda without wire leader and missed 3 bonefish when setting the hook. All in all it was a good week for them and for me. Without “the curse” they would have landed at least a dozen bones each, some tarpon and more snook.They intend to come back next year. They saw and took shots at a lot of fish landed some. Jessica stress and mine is gone because each day when I come back at home with them and telling her “only one or two fish landed” or “none, all broke or unhooked”. She was feeling bad for them and me. Thanks to Jessica’s cooking during the first three days of bad weather (very cloudy) and the curse being broken; the field test was a success.