You’re at the bottom of a small bay, where the water is too deep for spotting any bones. However, where the bay ends, a little channel connects the bay with a shallow lagoon the size of three or four football fields – a place with a hard, light and sandy bottom. There is no one else in sight… your friends went in the other direction and you’ll meet them back at the point in a few hours.
The water is still low, too low for any bones to enter the lagoon. For now, that is. Casting a glance at the stick you planted at the water’s edge before sitting down for a drink, your hopes are discretely affirmed; the tide is coming in. With it, the bones will be coming too, and they’ll pass through right here.
Suddenly your heart skips a beat. There it is; the first bone; slowly cruising along the edges of the bay, impatiently waiting for the rising tide and for access to all the crabs, worms and shrimps of the lagoon. You sneak into position and make the cast. An easy one – fifteen meters, maybe less, but you still manage to almost hit the fish on the head. Bones hate that. Damn! Better chances don’t come along very often. The only consolation is that more fish are bound to come in soon.
You don’t quite know how the fish got there; unnoticed, passing you at the entrance of the channel, but that’s what bonefish do. Sneaky invisible bastards… Anyway, now it’s tailing in the shallows. You creep closer. Now you’re the sneaky one. This time the cast is right on the money. A few strips and the fish is on the fly – fish on!
The line cuts through the surface and the bone is into the backing in seconds. You are supposed to enjoy the moment, but halfway into the fight you just want to close the deal: Another fish is tailing in the lagoon now… no there’s two! Now you’re in a bubble, closing out everything else. You’re in bonefish heaven and you plan on taking full advantage of it.
Eventually, the tide gets too high, and in some mystical way only known to the bonefish themselves, they disappear as quietly and quickly as they had arrived two hours earlier – perhaps via the mangroves? God, how time flies! It’s probably time to meet up with the other guys again…