Favorite Place?

Feb 15, 2010

Anyone ever ask you about your favorite fishing spot? We all have to have a secret or two, so I won’t ask you. But be assured I’ve been asked more than once. I’ll happily tell you I don’t have a favorite spot, but like many my favorite has to do with a lot more than catching fish.

As Trav would say, in a distance kingdom far far away, I received an opportunity to take a trip on assignment for a fly fishing magazine. Before FAOL I wrote a weekly column for the Scripps Howard newspapers and then for their website Go West. I wanted to write for magazines as well, but that is a tough business to crack. The way things are done is you send a ‘query’ outlining the article you want to do to the magazine. As it turned out I knew the publisher of the magazine which was a big help - I don’t know if I would have received the assignment otherwise. But I got it. An article by a woman fishing for bonefish for Fly Fishing in Saltwater.

I contacted the place recommended by Lefty Kreh, Deep Water Cay, Grand Bahama Island. The publisher provided the managers there with the facts and they invited me (us) down for a week of fishing. This was to be my first trip out of the country. Well not exactly, I had been to Canada, but at the time that didn’t seem like a foreign country. Living in Michigan, Montana and Washington that was just a quick trip through customs no biggy.

We did ask friends who had been to the Bahamas what we needed to take and the first requirement was a Passport. Neither of us had one, so we found out how to apply and got that in the process. We didn’t need one to go into Canada from Washington state either, but once we had them it was obvious it made coming and going much easier. If you don’t have one and plan on any ‘foreign’ travel, get one now. I’m told the restrictions have tightened up and it takes a little longer, so plan ahead.

The destination was Deep Water Cay, a separate island, part of Grand Bahama Island. We made our plane reservations to Ft. Lauderdale Florida and reserved two seats on a private charter flying directly to the private airstrip on Deep Water. (There was a stop for customs at the airport in Nassau.) When on assignment to do a story for a magazine you do have to pay for your own airfare. I’m told some magazines will reimburse for expenses, but we paid for our flights on this trip and on all others we’ve taken.

My late husband Castwell scoured the bonefish books for flies to take, and tied up Gotchas, Crazy-charley, Mini-puff, Merkin, and a few needlefish-type flies in hopes of maybe seeing a barracuda. We also purchased some flies from the small fly shop at Deep Water, just seemed like the right thing to do.

For the rest of the story, (photos too) here is the excerpt from the article in Fly Fishing in Saltwater.

My favorite place to catch bonefish? Well, that’s another story. But the first one was sure a thrill.

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