It sucks to be me, but somebody has to research these tropical places. This is the reason why I'm not in Thailand right now. I'll have another couple weeks of this before I return to Chiang Mai. It's actually a lot similar to the Thai penninsula... but without the cheap prices. Accommodation and dining in the Cayman Islands would be 4 to 5 times what it costs in the land of smiles... or more.

Tonight's sunset in George Town, Grand Cayman Island (south of Cuba)...

Barkers north west beach and bonefish flats

Beach in front of our condo...

Cheryl, our friendly bar maid

Some snorkling...

And some fishing...

Yeah, it sucks to be you Ian....publisher paying for your "research".

Next book will be a story based in.....hmmmmm..... Tonga?

Get a life !! Write about Bradford..................

Bonefish in those last couple of photos?

Supposed to be great fishing on a fly.

wow. I'd much rather be me right now, at 05.00 waking up to rain and wind, with a gf who's just stumbled in, stumbled on the toilet and is farting me out of the bedroom and into my den awith a bourbon having gone to bed at 02.00.

Bonefish in those last couple of photos?

Supposed to be great fishing on a fly.

Look like bonefish. I was first made aware of bonefish from a Brit doco series called the Beuna Vista...xxx something or other... sounded like the Beuna Vista Social Club (the band). Pommy guy using light gear to catch bonefish in the shallows in Cuba.

Looked like fun.

Yeah, it sucks to be you Ian....publisher paying for your "research".

Next book will be a story based in.....hmmmmm..... Tonga?

Tanga?

Interesting Aussie bonefishing site.

Link

Is it immature of me to giggle at the fish called: "Gulf blue bastard"?

what do I have to do to get a job as Ian's PA?

Interesting Aussie bonefishing site.

Link

Great link, thanks for that. I can thoroughly recommend the services provided by Brett and Simone - good fishing and hospitality.

what do I have to do to get a job as Ian's PA?

Crawl over my dead rotting corpse.

The fish in the bottom two pictures is a tarpon. It was about 5 feet long and took a dark, purple and blue baitfish pattern. Unfortunately, I was fishing by myself and couldn't get any photos of me actually playing the fish or landing it. I was too busy with the rod and reel at the time. We fished for bonefish today, but I blew my chances by casting too close to the main school while I was trying for a different fish. The line landed too close and the whole school spooked in the shallow water. It was fun though.

Tarpon. That's right, I remember now.. I still can't remember the program...Buena Vista Fishing Club?? Ian Somebody....usually he coarse fishes in Britain.

5 foot. Impressive. Catch and release?

From what I've heard of Tarpon and Bonefish they're practically inedible and even Thais would throw them back.

what do I have to do to get a job as Ian's PA?

Crawl over my dead rotting corpse.

That can be arranged

what do I have to do to get a job as Ian's PA?

So you wanna be one of Ians gurls do ya miggy??

I must warn you, he seems to go thru a few

PS: Thanks for the great pics Ian, as usual you seem to find some really crappy parts of the world to fish in

I had a mate years ago and he wanted to get a biggish boat and go down to Heard Island.

Said no one ever fished there and there should be millions just waiting to be caught.

I had to explain to him why no one ever fished there.

I had a mate years ago and he wanted to get a biggish boat and go down to Heard Island.

Said no one ever fished there and there should be millions just waiting to be caught.

I had to explain to him why no one ever fished there.

There has been a lot of fishing there, mainly illegal.

Several large fishing boats have been arrested there.

From memory an Australian Customs vessel chased one for thousands of Kilometres across the Southern Ocean before it was arrested with the help of the South Africans and brought back to Fremantle.

The Patagonian Tooth Fish from those waters are much prized.

I had a mate years ago and he wanted to get a biggish boat and go down to Heard Island.

Said no one ever fished there and there should be millions just waiting to be caught.

I had to explain to him why no one ever fished there.

Did he listen, or did your advice land on deaf ears?

Most Australians would be unaware that Heard and McDonald Islands, close to Antarctica, are Australian territory.

And that Australia's highest peak and only two active volcanoes are there.

I always wanted to visit there, but the closest I've come is just north of the Kerguelen Islands on a cruise ship eons ago.

I had a mate years ago and he wanted to get a biggish boat and go down to Heard Island.

Said no one ever fished there and there should be millions just waiting to be caught.

I had to explain to him why no one ever fished there.

Did he listen, or did your advice land on deaf ears?

He was notoriously short on funds, he tended to do his best thinking in the pub which used up said funds for dreamed up projects.

Just to set thing straight...

This is a bonefish...

And this is me doing what I usually do best...

Nice pair...

In the last two photos.

This is the view from my deck on Little Cayman Island where the population is under 200 people.

I've gone out with a local conch diver in his boat and we collected our limit of 5 conch each... which the diver promptly sold when we got back to shore. Today I was playing a nice bone fish and had it almost to my feet when a two meter shark came racing in and grabbed it. Needless to say it broke off my favorite fly that was working so well. It also spooked all other bonefish from their feeding.

These are the typical conch

Sorry, Ian. I'm going to stop reading this thread........it's just too much of a tease to me.

This morning I nearly blew my emergency savings on a boat for sale.....all because I have been looking at your photos.

No more. No...I won't come back to this thread.

Bugger it!

Sorry, Ian. I'm going to stop reading this thread........it's just too much of a tease to me.

This morning I nearly blew my emergency savings on a boat for sale.....all because I have been looking at your photos.

No more. No...I won't come back to this thread.

Bugger it!

A boat is ALWAYS a good purchase, Harcourt... even if it's just to take the ladies on a cruise. I've got all sorts of floatation craft: aluminum skiffs with jet motor and prop, rafts suitable for white water, belly boats suitable for carrying into small ponds, pontoon boats for drifting rivers or tossing flies on lakes, a canoe for wilderness trips and a row boat for small lakes where I don't want to put on waders.

Without a boat here on Little Cayman Islands the fishing would not have been nearly as good. The flats here are too deep for wading and the bonefish tend to move around a lot in water over my head. I also wouldn't have caught this nice barracuda...

The Cayman guide used strips off the barracuda to catch a bunch of these small, spotted grouper.

I bought a 5 meter tinny when I was about 23. It had a 25hp outboard on it, not overly powerful but light enough so it could be easily handled.

It was the ideal craft for my area, the South Eastern corner of South Australia which has some of the most treacherous, rocky, reef lined coast in the world.

Boat ramps were few and far between and it could be easily launched from remote beaches and handled by two men while being roomy enough for four to fish in comfort.

I never regretted buying it and it was a rare weekend that it never hit the water.

I remember it was made by DeHavilland, one of the most famous names in the aircraft industry.

I bought a 5 meter tinny when I was about 23. It had a 25hp outboard on it, not overly powerful but light enough so it could be easily handled.

It was the ideal craft for my area, the South Eastern corner of South Australia which has some of the most treacherous, rocky, reef lined coast in the world.

Boat ramps were few and far between and it could be easily launched from remote beaches and handled by two men while being roomy enough for four to fish in comfort.

I never regretted buying it and it was a rare weekend that it never hit the water.

I remember it was made by DeHavilland, one of the most famous names in the aircraft industry.

I had an almost identical craft for about 30 years. I could carry it on top of my Jeep stationwagon and took it everywhere. I ran it into places that others said were impossible to go in such a craft. They didn't believe me until they saw the photos. My present 14 foot skiff is much heavier and far tougher, but I have to carry it on a trailer, and I can't carry it on my back like the original craft. I ran it up the Fraser River in the winter to hunt mule deer on the mountain tops above the one in the picture below.

My present boat gets me into no less interesting places, and especially with a jet motor pushing it.

I owned a couple of boats (including a tinnie) before getting this Swiftcraft Dominator.

Had it for years, great fishing boat in big seas.

Fibreglass, deep Vee, very heavy to tow, but brilliant in the rough seas off Western Australia where the weather comes straight off the Southern Ocean.

Once had the experience of seeing a trailor wheel overtake the car in a romote area of north/west WA. The tow bar was bent, hub fractured and studs broken. The boat jumped sideways off the trailor twisting the whole thing.

Took about 5 hours in 105 degree heat before we could get moving again. A very slow trip from there with the trailor crabbing badly (blew 2 tyres) before we could float it off at Coral Bay.

Upgraded the trailor with duel axels and light truck tyres after that trip. Never again had to so much as change a wheel.

Used to catch many of these about this size near Exmouth.

Only used 60lb handlines in those days