SWFF – catch the adrenaline waves

A couple of months ago I got struck by an inexplicable urge to leave everything behind and take a serious holiday in a SWFF destination.

Where the SWFF abbreviation stands for Salt Water Fly Fishing. In short, the most action-packed style of GAME FISHING I’ve ever seen to date.

I guess the fact that I didn’t get a proper vacation this year also contributed to the call of the wild… or not so wilderness, since my first thoughts were „I should go fish for bonefish in the Bahamas at least one time before I die”.

I think fly fishing makes you go further, explore more, discover not only the fish of that remote region, but the places, and the people too. It truly is a journey of discovery – of others and sometimes of yourselves.

This was the beginning or better put the „resurrection” of the half-dead fly fisherman in me (or should I call it the „undead fly angler”?). I quit fly fishing more than 10 years ago from various reasons… and I wouldn’t come back to stalking 10-inch chubs or trouts in our fish-depleted mountain streams. Thus, a brand new dream, shiny and chrome, was born in my mind: my own Salt Water Fly Fishing Adventure.

I began documented everything I could find on bonefishing, the Bahamas islands, I downloaded literally 60 GB of YouTube movies about fly fishing for bonefish to watch it on my big screen TV at nights… I also contacted the no. 1 authority in the Do It Yourself Bonefishing world, Rod Hamilton, the author of the book with the same title and the owner of the website http://diybonefishing.com/. I bought his book and read it in less than 3 days just to find out a suitable place for my SWFF madness. For those unfamiliar with bonefish, let’s just say these are some of the toughest to see and hardest to catch saltwater fish species. Their scales are like tiny mirrors that perfectly reflect the surroundings so spotting these fish even under the best condition is as tough as it gets. This is sight-fishing at its finest. And then, presenting the fly with a gentle cast as to not spook them is the next challenge. If one bonefish decides to take the offering and engulfs the shrimp-imitator the pattern you just cast in front of it, you better hold it to your reel because these fish are known to take out line with blistering speeds of up to 40 miles per hour – so they’ll frequently spool you and make you recover around 100 meters of line at least one time during the fight, if the fish is a little bit bigger.

For those who don’t know, bonefishing is mostly done from a flats skiff boat, with a local guide who will take you to the best producing waters in the region, who’ll pole the boat in the super shallow flats, locate the fish for you and yell at you where to cast. Unfortunately, a guide’s usual fee for a day of fishing is somewhere around $500 to $600, something I couldn’t afford for 8 or 9 days of fishing. The heck, the accommodation was about to cost me around $100 and some change for the night… so, the other alternative came to mind: DIY Bonefishing.

Already picked a 9 wt. fly rod from a custom rod builder from eBay, it’s a Sage Method blank 990-4, which means it’s 9′ long and can cast a 9 weight fly line. Upon reading the book by Rod Hamilton and condulting the very detailed maps inside, I decided on the Abaco Island for my bonefishing-trip destination come spring 2017. One must be also aware of the Moon phases and the tides, since a neap tide is much better for steadier fishing than a spring tide.

Little did I know not so long ago that this trip was about to be postponed… because other destination with much bigger and meaner SW fish appeared on the horizon. Two initials for you for now: GT!

We’ll talk more in the future. I’ll keep you updated with my fly casting sessions, because I’ll have to seriously practice fly casting this winter… and will do so while filming the sessions with action cameras. Funny thing is, now I’ll also need a 12 weight fly rod… For the Bahamian flats I was OK with an 8, a 9 and some heavier 11 wt. for barracudas.

Since I found my perfect heavy SWFF tropical destination, I’ll have to trade that illusory 8 wt. rod for a real 12 class fly rod.

Where I’m going, the leader used for GT is usually a 6 feet long piece of mono or fluorocarbon in the 1.2 mm diameter range. Nothing finesse in that. Neither in the heart pounding action of a monster crushing the fly 10 feet from you nor in the harsh language when a 1-meter torpedo cuts you down in the reef’s edge and gets away.

To simply put it: HOLLY MACKEREL!

Stay tuned because more will come! And don’t forget the SW flies – I’ll have to tie some of those for my incoming SWFF trip. No, I didn’t abandoned the DIY Bonefishing trip, I just postponed the trip to Bahamas with one year, I guess. However, check diybonefishing.com if you’re considering bonefishing as a future SWFF game fish – that website is jam-packed with tons of useful inof and should you decide on trying some self-wading for the „ghosts of the flats”, get that book, it’s well worth the read.