Big Hole River 2430 cfs
By now most of the ice from the upper river should have broken up. It looks like the river is leveling off and it will probably drop a little tonight with these cold temps. Once the banks start to get a foot and a half to 2 feet of visibility it will start to fish again. It might be as early as this weekend.
I got a report from Jim where he and Sandee are on Andros Island with all their kids and spouses for the past week. The following is a day by day report on their activity there.
Sun. JP, Tommy and I went to Young Sound to plot the channel. They bonefished a bit, but fish were spooky. Everyone else went to Goat Cay snorkeling with Linda and Audry. They had a great time.
Monday. Ted, Jp, and Tommy went up to the Joulters but wind was horrendous. Not much happened for them. Everyone else scattered around Fresh Cr. swimming, snorkeling while Chris bonefished (no luck) and some of us went trolling. (no luck)
Tuesday. Two boats went trolling for cuda and we hooked 9 and landed three. Cuda for dinner that night. I dropped the gaff in the creek but it floated and we were able to get it back. First cuda for Noah, Tyler and Lynette though.
Wed. 6 people went to Somerset to picnic, fish and swim. Ted and JP hooked several bones and Ted landed a couple in the 5 to 7 pound range. Sandee, Noah, Darci and I went up the creek and trolled for cuda but didn’t have much luck. I got about a 3 pound bonefish off Labowski flat..
Thursday. Herman took Chris and Tyler to Bowen and Young Sound and Tommy took JP and Ted to Young Sound and everybody smacked bones. Thousands of fish everywhere. Sandee and I bottom fished out on the reef with Gogie and caught some smaller grunts, grays and muttons in the morning. The only one that wasn’t small yanked your ugly stick in the water but I immediately marked the spot with the GPS and we were able to retrieve it with the anchor. Fish must have broke off because it was only about 100 feet from where it went in. That night we all went down to Herman’s for a great dinner. He has a nice place down there.
Fri. Was the day of all days. Ted, JP and Tommy went to the west side to the spot where the egrit stands in a mangrove and a school of bonefish hang out by the “water rock” and got into the tarpon. JP hooked up on about a 70 pounder and the line broke on the 3rd tail walking exhibition. After hooking that tarpon JP says screw those bones.
I took Chris and Lynette out for one last shot at bones on Fri. morning but the clouds screwed that up so we went cuda trolling. Hooked 4 and landed 2 which we gave to Tommy when they got in. We also lost the gaff on a Lynette to Jim exchange. This time it didn’t float. After Lynette and Chris hopped on a plane, Sandee, Noah, Darci and I went up the creek and Noah hooked a really big cuda. He had it up to the boat and since I have no gaff I slid my thumb in his gill plate and was going to wrap my fingers around his head like I do with smaller ones and my fingers would only reach up to the top of this head. He shook once and I lost my grip. Biggest barracuda I have ever seen caught here was gone.
Today we were shuttling kids all day to the airport but did manage to get up the creek for a couple of hours to troll for cuda. No luck on cuda but had clear sky and saw a number of bones off Cargill Cut, Beef Cay and Labowski. Didn’t have time to try for them, but they wil have to deal with JP, Sandee and me tomorrow. Raining when we got back to Hank’s.
That’s it for now. You have a new gaff now for around $300 by Hank’s estimate. I told him you would settle up for it when you are down next time????
That is all for now.
Jim and Sandee
Now just to rub it in a little more they called last night where they were dining out on Audrey’s sailboat in the harbor. To rub it in even deeper they were dining on the ham I had bought when I was there but never got a chance to cook and eat it. Each one had to get on the phone and tell me it was the best damn ham they had ever eaten. And there I was, looking out the window, watching it snow and munching on my somewhat stale tasting tv dinner.