Minutes after touching down at Andros Town International Airport it hits you...This is my kind of place. No lines, no TSA pat downs, just the casual comings and goings of locals and a handful of starry-eyed fly fishers. The departing anglers look to those arriving in jealous nods, while the newly initiated b-line it to the parking lot to get the adventure started.
After swerving around the 40th pothole on the short 28 kilometer stretch to Andros Island Bonefish Club, our driver, Peter remarks, "If you want to put a car through hell, send it to Andros!" The potholes and the roads are just the price one has to pay to get to paradise.
If you're hoping that the wind will let up, or that a bonefish will forgive a sloppy cast and take your fly without inspection, think again. You're owed nothing on the flats. There is only opportunity, persistence, and reward...and the reward fights like hell!
The fisherman aren't the only ones eying these "gray ghosts of the flats." Lemon sharks periodically patrol the shallows looking for an easy meal, and a bonefish on the end of the line is like ringing the dinner bell. Lucky for us, Danny is skilled as a push-pole spearman.
When the day is done and everyone is spent, you have two choices: go back to the lodge to rest and have a few drinks, or put on your flats boots and get back out there. Chances are, you won't be disappointed either way.
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Editor of Gray's Sporting Journal, Russ Lumpkin and The Angling Report's editor, Seth Fields spent 5 days at Andros Island Bonefish Club courtesy of Go Fish Bahamas. More on AIBC can be found at www.androsbonefishing.com. To read a full report and review of AIBC's operations check out The Angling Report's December issue. To book travel at participating bahamian lodges contact Robert Ulrich.
Credits:
Photos and story by Russ Lumpkin and Seth Fields