Sea Flats Safari
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SEEKING THE FLATS SLAM IN THE FLORIDA KEYS
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BY CHESTER MOORE, JR. t’s all fun and games until someone goes and misses a bonefish!” My friend Todd Jurasek and I stood in disbelief as Capt. Mo Estevez shouted that from the back of his 16-foot Hewe’s flats boat. We had a double hookup on big bonefish near the end of a day-long expedition into Biscayne Bay near Miami, Fl. And both of the fish, after several minutes of intense, long runs, just let go. We both missed fish the same way earlier in the day, so this was shocking. I can’t remember losing two hooked fish in a day ever, and I have caught everything from giant white sturgeon to wahoo around the world. But there’s something different about bonefish. Everything you’ve heard about their pound-for-pound power is true-plus some. These fish just don’t want to come to the boat. If redfish are bulldogs, bonefish are pit bulls crossed with greyhounds. Their power and speed are simply stunning. I started dreaming of catching bonefish as a little boy, sitting on my dad’s lap, cutting out photos from fishing and hunting magazines, and placing them in scrapbooks. We would take old copies of Sports Afield, Field & Stream, Saltwater Sportsman, and many other publications and cut out our dream fish and animals and talk for hours on end about them.
82 HUNTER'S HORN™ FALL 2021
The author caught this massive barracuda while fishing for permit on a recent expedition. (Photo by Lisa Moore)
