My Best Salt Day to Date

We had an epic trip down to Honduras this past week.10 of us tuffed out lobster tail, Francisco the bar keep, Bonefish, tropical weather, our own private island, fresh Wahoo, and&hellip' sand flies.Yes the sand flies were rough but were a small price to pay for a week in paradise.For me, one day made my trip pretty amazing&hellip'

November 5th, 2011
I woke up early to cloudy skies and 2 Bonefish cruising unbothered 10 feet from my cabin door.I shook my girlfriend Christie to start getting ready to go fishing, stepped outside and got my rods ready, walked back in, and shook Christie to start getting ready&hellip' this time with success.About 50 steps from the cabin is the bar/restaurant which sits on stilts over the water.Francisco the bar tender brought the coffee and some peach juice and a Bonefish cruised up next to the dock, and so I casted for it but I believe that Bonefish has seen feathers before because it shrugged its shoulders at me lazily, laughed, and peaced out down the shoreline.Graham, the 74 year old owner of the lodge, who stayed up as late as me the night before couldn't believe I was tired and told me to have some water, and I did.Christie arrived down the path to the bar as well and we met our guides for the day, Walter and Carlos, two local fishing guides that lived at the bay across from Graham's Key.We asked for breakfast and they pointed that we would go fish a flat near Graham's while breakfast was being prepared, scratched my head, asked''really?,&rdquo'''yep,&rdquo' and we were off.Christie stepped up on the bow of the boat and realized we weren't back home on the Missouri anymore, although unsure of herself, she impressed the guides with some pretty good casts.The early cloud cover made it near impossible to spot fish for us gringos.I did lose 2 fish on that flat however, 0/2.We motored down to the town on stilts, Guanaja, and stopped at a key not far from town.We were looking for Permit but ran in to a school of Bonefish, I hooked one on a crab pattern, lost it, 0/3.Decided the tailing Trigger fish was more interesting to me, casting at the Trigger I landed a Parrot fish, I was stoked, the guide rolled his eyes (I think).I finally hooked the Trigger fish and it immediately broke me off on the reef.Christie wasn't feeling great so we went back for breakfast about 9 am.Reggie our chef for the week cooked us a big American breakfast, Christie went for a nap, and I explained my plan to the guides and chef for the day.We went out fishing while Christie was napping and waded a flat east of Graham's Key, broke 2 fish off on the coral on an extremely shallow flat.Although I lost those 2 fish I was pretty excited because their backs were half way out of the water when they ate, and not only were tails out of the water but have you ever seen half a Bonefish wagging in the air to eat your fly?I hadn't, and these aren't small Bonefish, average size in the area is about 4-6lbs. We went in to get Christie, have lunch, prepare a toast, grab a ring that Paul had smuggled in to Honduras for me, and prepare for the afternoon.I was 0/5 on Bonefish.This was my best day remember&hellip' it gets better.
Christie was much better.She had ate/slept/ate/slept and was smiling so we got back in the guide boat with Carlos and Walter.We motored up to the farthest key on the flats near Graham's and got out.I let Christie know there was a lagoon in the middle of the island and that we were going to go swimming, pretty odd.So we walked in to the middle of the island, I got nervous (surprised me), forgot everything I meant to say, got down on one knee and asked my girlfriend to marry me.She said yes (amen).We walked out of the island and back to the boat to have a toast with our guides, a bottle of Malbec, and&hellip' sunshine!
We motored across the bay near where Carlos and Walter live and saw two Bonefish cruising over a patch of white sand.Fish on.We moved spot to spot over patches of white sand and we went 4/5 on Bonefish in the afternoon.That evening, back at the restaurant we celebrated a great day.Reggie our chef had made us a cake, our good friend Steve (La Manzana) showed up just in time for the first toast of the evening (first of &hellip' a few), and we got to spend a great evening with some of our best friends KK, Alisha, Paul, Dan, Steve, as well as some new friends Dirk, Lou, Monte and the staff at Graham's Place in Guanaja, Honduras.
4/10 on Bonefish but an amazing day.