It has been a while since I have had to use my passport to go fly fishing. My friend and fly-fishing partner, John, and I put a stop to that dilemma this past February. Usually, John and I choose a location that has non-fly-fishing activities that our wives enjoy. However, this trip was somewhat different. Just the guys went to Lost Key Lodge, located on Ragged Island in the Bahamas. Ragged Island is located as far south as one can go and still be in the Bahamas. The lodge hosts four guests at a time. Plus, Ragged Island has a full-time population of only forty- five people. This is a remote fly-fishing-only location. Even being remote, the rooms were nice, the food good, the staff attentive, and the guides competent. And the fly fishing was great. 

The fly-fishing package at Lost Key has their guests on the water for six days. The fishing was from flats boats or walking the flats areas. The walking was all on sand, no coral. It made life easier for old guys with bad knees and hips. While the weather was good enough to fish all six days, we did get a late start on two of the days due to high winds. The group the week before couldn’t get on the water for two days due to high winds. We did feel lucky. Even with some high winds the guides did a good job of finding areas protected from the wind that allowed for easier casting. 

When casting, either walking or from the deck of the boat, we found numerous species of fish to cast flies at. We were able to cast to, and catch, yellow jacks, blue jacks, runner jacks, snapper, and big bonefish. The bonefish were some of the largest I have caught. In fact, I had several bonefish break my sixteen-pound-test leader. The bonefish were found on the flats and in deep pools. When we waded on the flats, the bonefish would stay fairly close allowing for easy casting. When our guides poled us to the schools, they were able to move close to the fish and not spook them. Again, easier casting. 

One of the six days had John and me casting our flies into a deep pool, that we nicknamed the honey hole. We ended up there because our guide wasn’t able to find any schooling bonefish. At this deep pool, not a mud flat, we managed to catch thirty fish between the two of us. We actually had our guide take us back there on the last day for an hour of fishing. We thought it would be a great way to end the trip. 

When we weren’t able to find schooling fish we trolled using our fly rods. We pulled out our 10-weight rods, added wire tippet to our leader, tied on a big streamer, and trolled for barracuda. Not little ones, but some of the biggest and hardest hitting barracuda I have ever caught. The guides liked it when we caught the big barracudas because they kept them for their dinner. When trolling we also had numerous strikes from needlefish. We never could find a fly they could take, but it was fun to try. 

John and I didn’t see any permit or tarpon. However, the other two guests did, but were not able to get them interested in their flies. They did have similar experiences, as John and I, with barracudas and needlefish. 

We also saw a large number of sharks, big and small ones. Our guides said they were lemon and bull sharks. This brings me to a question in closing. At the honey hole I had a lemon shark eat an entire bonefish that I was reeling in. When the shark ate my fish, he was on my line for a while, and even made a run. Once he felt the tug of my line, he promptly broke me off. The question then arose, would I be credited with two fish or scored a zero, since John thought I used live bait to hook the shark? What do you think?