Bonefish

Bonefish are streamlined, bright silver flats fish with a slightly downturned mouth and a forked tail, built entirely for speed. Their mirror-like flanks reflect the bottom, which makes them maddeningly hard to spot until they move.

They cruise the tropical shallow flats of the Caribbean, the Bahamas, and south Florida, working over sand, marl, and turtle grass, sliding onto the thinnest water as the tide allows.

Targeting bonefish

With the rising tide bonefish push onto skinny water to root for crabs, shrimp, and small crustaceans, often tailing as they feed head-down. They are a premier fly-rod quarry, stalked by sight and met with a lightly weighted shrimp or crab fly led ahead of the cruising fish; light spinning gear with small jigs or live shrimp also works. Once hooked, a bonefish tears off blistering, reel-emptying runs across the flat.