South Andros bonefishing

[SalmoTrutta]

Just back from a week bonefishing at Tiamo resorts ( www.tiamoresorts.com ) and can thoroughly recommend it. Fished for 5 days averaging between 4-6 fish with as many lost on strike and lots of follows. Shoals are massive with several containing a comfortable 200+ fish albeit the average size in these were sub 2lbs. However, the fish were very fussy and were agitated by many barracudas stalking them as well as recent heavy rain having mudded up some of the more silty areas. For the bigger fish which tend to be solitary or in pairs drifitng across the extensive flats in Russell Creek was the crem de la creme. I caught fish of 8 and 10lbs and my collegaue was spooled with a fish that was close to 15lbs! (he had 150m of backing - managed to catch it as it flew out of his rings!)
There are other species there such as jacks and tarpon but they tend to be on the West side which is a 40min boat ride and needs a wind in the right direction which was not in our favour.
Successfull pattern was a gotcha variant with long calf hair and twinkle on a size 4. Thread was orange with a good build up on the head. Most patterns worked but quickly the fish became disinterested whereas this one seemed to keep their focus more.
All in all thoroughly recommend it . Cost including bar bill?...£2800 which is not bad. Fly to Nassau via Virgin and take Western Air to Congo Town on S Island ($120 return).
Beat sworking!

[crabacle]

Dear Trutta

I'm going there for a week in June - any more info would be very useful!

Thanks

Craig

[SalmoTrutta]

We used 2 guides - Ornauld (nickname Smile) and Ephrin. Both are excellent, work hard put you over plenty of fish and have a terrific sense of humour. A boat for up to 2 rods is $375 per day. You can cancel if conditions are poor at no cost with 24hrs notice. Journey time to the main areas is less than 5 min and thus with fishing starting at 8am and finishing post 3pm with a quick 15 min lunch actual fishing time is close to 7hours which is more than enough for a good days sport. There are barracuda about and so it is worth taking a rod kitted up to try for them (wire trace imperative as I was cut off 5 times by them; 3 when I was playing a bone)
. I suggest you spend at least one full day pursuing the bigger fish and this is done by focussing on the giant flats such as Russell Creek and some of the more smaller mangrove lined creeks at high tide. Here the fish tend to patrol singly or in pairs and we saw some real heavyweights with one north of 15lbs. Trick here is to cast with a shrimp like pattern well in advance and wait. Once the fish is percieved to be close commence to slowly strip retrieve ...and bang! The other approach is to focus on the shoals with standard patterns and although the fish are far smaller at circa 2lbs or so there are many in the 3-4lb class. Here , with luck you could pull several out of a shoal before they are totally spooked.
By the way the lodge is populated with honeymoon couples for Tiamo in Italian is "I love you"!
So if you are visiting don't go by yourself!
Finally the most successfull fly had throat hair that was twice the length of the hook. Preffered colur was tan with orange thread and the usual flashabou mixed in.
Tight lines

[crabacle]

Thanks

We are actually staying with Nervous Waters - but I suspect that it will be the same fish with the same flies.

Glad that you had a good time!

Craig

[Haggisboy]

Craig,

Are you staying at Bair's Lodge?

I stayed there a couple years back. Its top notch. Let me know if I can be of help.

Campbell

[crabacle]

Indeed we are - Bair's Lodge.

Any help would be MUCH appreciated.

I will send you a PM with my email address.

Thanks