Recollections of Mango Creek fishing

(some time back in July 2005)

Peter Williams

Nelson

New Zealand 

Bear in mind dear reader, that although I have fly-fished for trout on a total of 4 continents for over 45 years, I had never chased bonefish before Mango Creek. I have caught a few things on a fly in the sea though, in the Solomon Islands and Cook islands. but only recently had even heard of permit! So it was all very new! Of course I had seen videos of bones, in the Bahamas, Caribbean, and Christmas Island, and I ideas of what I thought bone fishing was all about. Miles of azure sea over soft while sand, and grey ghostly shapes was my impression. 

So, it was a bit of a shock when the first morning at Mango creek the guide Perry and I headed out to the reef and jumped overboard onto a dull green surface of knobbly coral and sea grass. I never did see a sand flat! Plenty of bones around though, but with few exceptions, neither Perry nor I could catch them. Why? Several reasons I reckon. First, we were basically very close to human habitations on that morning and the human pressure was quite great. The fish were correspondingly scary. Like those browns I chase back home in N.Z., after 2-3 months of being hassled! Second, all my flies were weighted, even with just chain eyes. These were hopeless because they caught on the bottom. More commonly, even after chopping off the chain eyes, they caught in the eelgrass. Because it was mid summer, much of the eelgrass was yellow and dead. Touch it and it broke off, and the flies came in with an eelgrass tail. So, none of this classic businesses of chucking a fly out to an oncoming fish, letting it sit, then lifting as he came up to it. If the coral didn’t get it, the eelgrass did! The idea was to combine soup plate accuracy with split second timing and eventually I more or less got the hang of it. That’s what one should expect, eh, fishing a new area. (Note: next time, just bring a few small un-weighted olive-green or tan Woolly buggers).

Over the next few days Perry and I covered a heap of water, much it to the north east of the lodge. This was semi wilderness, miles from nowhere, magic. I loved every minute of just being out there. Perry and I walked for miles all over the place searching for fish. I caught a few, not a great many, but enough to make me happy. Nothing prepares one for the first couple of runs of a 3 pound bonefish with nothing between it and the horizon!

There was variety too. We fished in the channels between the islands. I had put in a fast sinking shooting head and with a weighted fly, this was deadly on the small bones in the channels. Not sight fishing, just chuck and chance it, but it gave the eyes a rest from searching the horizon. Incidentally, I reckon Perry could see a single bonefish tail 500m away while looking into the setting sun. The man was amazing!

Ah yes, permit. One evening (late, Perry was unstoppable) we were separated out on the reef, and I just turned around to see about a dozen fin-tail combinations sticking out of the water coming straight for me. One of my most memorable fishing moments. My God, imagine hooking one of them! Well on a couple more occasions over the next few days I dammed nearly did, like they chased the fly to within a rod tip or so from me. Nervousness got the better of me and the most likely situation was miffed. Too bad, been there hundreds of times!