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Flyfishing Guides in Marsh Harbour, Abaco

7K views 3 replies 2 participants last post by  bill 
#1 ·
Would greatly appreciate any references to good bonefish guides in Marsh Harbour, Abaco. Want to fish the Marls, etc., while staying in Marsh Harbour. On my only time to fish the flats there, I had a terrible experience with a totally incompetent guide, who not only couldn't find fish in this terrific fishery, but who had us hung up on the bottom the whole day. Looking to avoid a repeat of that experience.
Thank you kindly!
 
#2 ·
Rick (06-14-2001 04:52 p.m.):
Would greatly appreciate any references to good bonefish guides in Marsh Harbour, Abaco. Want to fish the Marls, etc., while staying in Marsh Harbour. On my only time to fish the flats there, I had a terrible experience with a totally incompetent guide, who not only couldn't find fish in this terrific fishery, but who had us hung up on the bottom the whole day. Looking to avoid a repeat of that experience.
Thank you kindly!
Cherokee Sound (nearby) is a broad beach flat expanse, large groups of smaller fish, nearby to Marsh Harbor but seriously consider Sandy Pt, lots of marls - 40 min drive, hook up with Patrick Roberts who is considered by many to be the best guide on the island. You can book him out of Pete and Gays resort in Sandy Pt, better yet call Brad Wolfe of Angling Destinations 508 634-3199.

Information courtesy of Capt.Gil Berke of Outermost Excursions (our sponsor). BTW - Gil is finding some of the best fishing he's seen anywhere anytime as a well traveled angler, that's saying a lot!
 
G
#3 ·
Rick,

Let me look in my notes - i did some bonefishing on Abaco without a guide, and found a great spot for someone to fish without a boat. If you want to fish the marls (smaller but more numerous fish) then you have to either take a very long trip around the island by boat, or you need to find a guide who already has a boat on the west side.

Also, there are lots of boat rentals available in Marsh Harbour, though it would be a significant expedition to get to the west side of the island from there.

For a nice, inexpensive place to stay, perhaps on your first or last night going through Marsh Harbour, try the "Lofty Fig" - very nice people that run the joint.

i'll get back to you with the location as soon as i find it.

bill
 
G
#4 ·
Hi Rick,

This doesn't answer your guide recommendation question, but for what it's worth, here's an excerpt from a letter i sent someone shortly after visiting Abaco:

It's easier to find good flats/sight fishing structure on the west sides of the north-south running islands. The west, lee-ward sides are typically marls and have calmer, shallower water, but are often pretty much uninhabited (Abaco and Andros at least) - getting to good water on the west sides will usually require a boat because the access points are few and the bottom is often soft. Unfortunately, my experience was that all the boat rentals were on the east side, and trailering to a west side launch was not an option. The consolation prize is that the bones supposedly run bigger on the east side :) Guides often either leave their boats over on the west side, or trailer them to ramps on the west side.

If anyone is specifically interested in Abaco Island, and in fishing without a guide, there's a good place you can get to by rental car, as well as by rental boat. It's on the east side about 20 miles south of Marsh Harbor near a settlement called Cherokee, and called Casuarina Point. There's a road out to the point and along the way it looks like a residential street and you'll be thinking "this can't be the right road". Keep going a little past the house with the budweiser women posters plastered up on the outside walls until you get to the end of the road where there will be a small gravel drive leading into the trees toward the water. Apparently nobody cares if you park there, and you can be casting to bones 100 ft from your car.

I quickly ran out of wadable flats water once the tide came in, but there's plenty there at low tide, so your best bet would be to get there around a falling half tide, or very shortly thereafter. According to "Junior" who i met on the beach, the bones run in toward the mangroves next to the settlement on the incoming, and sure enough, i saw a lot of them making tracks along the beach in that direction when the tide came in. At that point, however, they just seemed to be very focused on just trucking along, so you might not want to try targeting them then. BTW, Junior told me that he guides, and that anyone could find him by asking around the laundromat in Marsh Harbor for him. Junior's recommendations were for very small flies with a tiny touch of orange.

North of Green Turtle Cay, including Manjack Cay, looked like fish heaven. I wish i could tell you how good the fishing there was, but almost the whole time we were at Green Turtle Cay we were getting blasted by thunderstorms and 20-30 knot winds, so i never got to try. BTW, if you have any plans for running up the Sea of Abaco from Marsh Harbor to Green Turtle Cay (about 25 miles), do your very best to avoid Don't Rock Passage at low tide, especially when it is getting dark, and don't even think of doing Whale Cay Passage in a rage sea with a 21 foot outboard! :)

Like Juro said, Sandy Point is probably a very good destination idea - i was sorry that it didn't make it into the itinerary.

good luck,
bill
 
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