Jason, our fly fishing writer and in-the-water reporter shares another unusual catch during the “winter off-season” . There’s fish to be caught, just might not be your normal target species.

Jason:

My car’s dashboard read 72 degrees on the drive down around 9:30 am.  Winds were light and variable.  Not ideal conditions for bonefish, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to try.  I hit my usual spot, and started blind casting.

No more than 30 minutes in, I snagged a suspiciously bonefish-like object which immediately took off running.  I was pleasantly surprised. It didn’t feel that big but fought very hard for its size, making 4-5 runs before I finally got it in the net.  It was a nice fish, I would guess 4ish maybe 5 lbs.   
I was thinking I got pretty lucky, but then I hit another one about an hour later.  This one unfortunately spit the hook before I could subdue it.  Felt almost like a large papio the way it ran laterally with some head shake, before taking off, but smaller oio often fight like this.  Odds are it was smaller rat-sized bone.

The day was rounded out by a mixed bag of random stuff – a nunu, a flounder (my 2nd ever on the fly) and a micro omilu – all hooked on the same fly.  

I headed back to the lot at about 12:30, feeling pretty pleased with myself.  There is nothing more satisfying than a productive and efficient morning, especially when you weren’t expecting to hook anything.