Hey guys headin to the Abacos for a week of fishing, we leave on 06/20 and are there till 06/27 all of a sudden the weather forcast shows some rain days in the middle of that week? Never chased bones, can you bonefish during the rain or does it shut the flats down? Thanks
not even worth trying in the rain. not really worth trying when it’s cloudy. must have bright sunlight to sightfish the flats. just got back from belize yesterday. when the few sparse clouds did blow over you couldn’t see jack. i guess if they are tailing you could throw at them but if the rain clouds up the flats bones settle in the bottoms of deep holes. hope the weather holds out for you.
Take me fishing
just a question and dont wanna hijack a thread of this importance…i’ve heard of people catching them antifly…apparently MG is gonna be there regarless of weather…anyone got any tips for bonefishing when the weather is sub par…it prolly would help him out and also i am just a sucker for fishing knowledge.
Keep casting.
I’ve fished bones in rain and clouds. Even if they aren’t tailing, a good guide should still be able to locate fish. If the water is shallow enough, you can locate them by watching for nervous water and head wakes. You can also blind cast around muds, if you care to. If you wait on perfect weather, you might not get to fish much.
check out www.hookuplures.com for jigs to fish with if the flats get clouded up by the rain and wind. if the water is still clear you can locate fish with a really keen eye (read: a good guide). however, on really shallow flats rain will cloud up the water. check out these light jigs especially the flathead ones. tip with a piece of shrimp. toss in sand holes and troughs. the guide i fished with in belize says he always tips his jigs with shrimp when fishing for bones and permit in cloudy water. good luck mg.
also, take stuff to fish deeper. plan b, you know. take a spin setup and some jigs to fish deeper for snapper and grouper and the like. i know, it may not be ideal but don’t frustrate yourself into no fish at all. take what the weather gives you. there are fish biting somewhere. just got through watching the spanish fly. jose went all the way out to the seychelles and got rained on for half his trip. instead of force fishing the flats for bones he couldn’t see; he fished the edge of a reef and busted the snapper, grouper, etc. i just don’t want you to force the issue on the bones and miss an opportunity to clean up on other species.
wish i was going back out. have a blast and tell us all about it.
Take me fishing
i have had my best day ever of tails on a 25-30kt wind a clouds. ol trueblue and i just had to go and wearnt expecting much…but they were tailing recklessly and there was at least 3x the fish than we had ever seen on this flat. we finally concluded after several beers that the fish new predators could see them as well (us and Ospreys) and the bait was not able to stay still due to waves/current. This was reds, granted, but i think the principle still applies. A sandy light colored bonefish flat under full sun might hold bones, but they will be too spooky; deeper edges, grass edges, or generally any mottled camo’d bottom is a better bet. but on cloudy, dreary days just bf or after a rain. the fish feel more comfortable in the extremly shallow areas and are easier to see (more feeding fish) and catch. Del Brown say’s that the main thing that rain can do, is change temp in the skinny
Thanks everyone, I am taking a spin rod and jogs to be sure to catch some dinner in the deep water trenches, I think I was looking at a poor weather site cuz it had like sunny everyday until we are there and then solid rain for three days, got me worried, looked at other sites and it is gonna rain a bit everyday like Fla as SC so I am not as worried now, Just wanna flyfish as much as possible of course but not afraid to chuck jigs in da rain!
If it swims throw a fly at it!
When I fished with a guide in Biscayne Bay and it was cloudy, he would automatically stake out and then start to chum with shrimp and crabs. Worked pretty good. We had several bones move into the chum. You would also get “trash fish” which he wanted you to try and scare away. We caught a nice box fish, which was pretty cool.
We did it on our own also with good success. I did not have 30 flats to go to and look for active fish, so we just anchored up and chumed for several hours. We saw about 20-30 bones a day doing that. Our guide had advised to try that.
Good luck.