Hello fellow anglers. It’s my pleasure to be providing you with an inshore forecast from beautiful South Abaco, Bahamas.
Our team at South Abaco Adventures has spent the last week coordinating with Bonefish and Tarpon Trust to track and film the spawning bonefish around the full moon in November. It was a great experience and we were able to witness schools of over 10,000 fish heading offshore to spawn. These fish have traveled from all over Abaco to congregate and perform their annual spawning ritual. The winter season is rapidly approaching and cold fronts will be starting to pass on a regular basis. As the water temperatures cool, the flats will become less active with single permit and bonefish, however the fish are still around in fair numbers. The cooler winter time water will force these single fish into schools and the bonefish will begin to move to deeper channels of the flats and work inshore as the flood tides bring in warmer ocean water.
We like to target these species with 10 lbs. spinning gear and 8 or 9 weight fly rods. My favorite fly pattern for this time of year is the “Gotcha” fly. It will make a bonefish turn its head on a dime.
We hope to see an influx of other fish such as mutton snapper, barracuda and sharks to inhabit the flats during the wintertime. We will target these larger species with 15 to 20 lbs. spinning gear or 9/10 weight fly rods. The mutton snapper love to eat some conch slop or pilchards and will provide an action packed fight on light tackle, just don’t let them wrap you around a sea fan! The mutton snapper will pounce on a red streamer fly when presented properly.
December will typically lead to larger schools of bonefish with regularity and anglers can expect to see less of the larger single fish roaming the flats.
We hope that you will take the time to come visit us in Sandy Point to enjoy what we have to offer!