Bonaire 2016

Bonaire 2016

On August 19th, we arrived on Bonaire, Caribbean island of the Dutch Antilles, just above Venezuela in the beautiful Caribbean sea. The island is known for its diving and snorkel spots because of a reef along the entire coastline. Just behind the reef it drops of to 300 meters and the reef inhabits an enormous variety of fish. There is a great preservation policy, it's not allowed to anchor and it's not allowed to fish with nets.
The capital is called Kralendijk.

The wind hits the north coast, not possible to fish from the shore up there. The east, west and south coast are much more suitable. There are almost no beaches on this island because the coast has coral beaches or cliffs. The wind is almost every day in your favour because it comes from behind you and makes the sea quite ideal for long casts and sailing a boat. The information I got up front didn´t contain stories about catching big fish from the shore. According to the fishermen I know who have been there, you need a boat as much as you need a car.

We stayed in the Hamlet Oasis Resort, simple but great accommodation with everything you need in it. Like I said, you´re going out by car each day so the accommodation is of less importance anyway. I tried some lure fishing on different spots, and like people said, little fish only in the most beautiful colours. Somehow I only got strikes on white lures, Rapala ghost or Owner white. After a couple of days, we decided to fish the flats in the south and east. Just near a canal to open sea, there are some great flats. Though I saw bonefish, I didn´t manage to catch one because my line twirled up with every cast in the strong wind. I used the shrimp fly that I used in Mexico before. We had a great time anyway and caught some little tropical fish and small barracudas on small poppers.

Next morning we drove to Lac Bay, mangrove like surroundings and millions of little minnows everywhere. Below the wooden scaffolding lay small barracudas that only followed my lures and I tried about 30 different kinds. I caught me a live bait on a mackerel rig and presented this in front of them. Still they only stayed curious but no attacks, bummer!!!

On Friday we rented a boat at Le Grand Bleu, a company owned by Roos and Rijk, nice people from Holland who live there for about 5 years. Simone and I had a really great day on the water, fishing with the one big game rod that Rijk provided. He made us some lures for wahoo and said that in some months of the year, he can guarantee you a marlin. After a really exciting day on the waters fishing around the small island called "Klein Bonaire" till the salt pier, we counted one strike but no fish. In a boat with a 115 hp outboard engine, tropical ambiance en freedom, we got hooked right away and booked it again a couple of days later. Rijk would give us the local hero called Theo along so we also could go outside the area you´re supposed to fish in when you rent it.

A few days later we caught ourselves another crocodile needle fish on one of the cliffs, shorter than the one we caught in Costa Rica, but nice size anyway! We gave it to some of locals who were fishing up there with hand lines. The second boat session was about trolling for wahoo and tuna again, unfortunately no strikes. But an hour before time Theo took us to one of his spots and we caught some barracudas, great fun! Thanx Rijk, Roos and Theo!!!

The day before we left we decided to do some guerrilla fishing! Though it's not allowed to fish in this harbour, I saw some meter+ tarpons there earlier. We decided to do this for an hour in the hope we got some great pics and videos for the website. This turned out to be one of the best happy hours in my life! Almost every cast a strike, we caught some great ladyfish, jacks and snook! After this session my triangle hooks were bent out and my adrenaline pumped for another 24 hours! We recommend to watch the video of this session, Simone filmed some of the drills and catches!
All catch and release of course!!! We love Bonaire, great holiday and we'll probably go again some time!

Greetings Leon and Simone