{"id":4922,"date":"2019-07-27T10:59:33","date_gmt":"2019-07-27T14:59:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tailflyfishing.com\/?p=4922"},"modified":"2019-07-28T02:25:53","modified_gmt":"2019-07-28T06:25:53","slug":"caught-first-bonefish-fly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tailflyfishing.com\/caught-first-bonefish-fly\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Caught the First Bonefish on a Fly?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Who Caught the First Bonefish on a Fly?<\/span><\/h1>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/h1>\n

by Pete Barrett<\/span><\/p>\n

Florida Keys guide and fly fishing pioneer Bill Smith is popularly credited with catching the first bonefish on a fly in 1939. There\u2019s a photograph and witnesses to prove it. I\u2019ll tell you the full story of Bill\u2019s catch in a moment, but first we need to acknowledge several other fly anglers who accidentally beat Bill to the punch\u2014but because they weren\u2019t specifically targeting bonefish, their catches didn\u2019t qualify as numero uno.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/h2>\n

It seems all of the earliest on-the-fly bonefish catches were made by accident when anglers were fishing for snapper, snook, or baby tarpon. Because of their low-slung mouths, fly fishers of the 1920s and 1930s thought of bonefish as bottom feeders (true) that would only respond to bait (untrue), and so no fly anglers fished specifically for bonefish. It took about 20 years for the bonefish\u2019s keen eyesight to be recognized and appreciated.<\/span><\/p>\n

“LaBranche looked
\n<\/em><\/strong>incredulously at the
\npork rind fly and
\n<\/em><\/strong>went into a tirade…”<\/em><\/strong><\/h1>\n

According to George X. Sand in his book <\/span>Salt-Water Fly Fishing<\/span><\/i>,<\/span> Holmes Allen of Miami caught a bonefish on the fly in 1924 in Card Sound, Key Largo. Allen said he was wading with a friend for snook about 100 yards from shore when \u201c\u2026this crazy fish shot out of nowhere, grabbed my fly and took off!\u201d The fly was a crippled minnow feather streamer with a white head and red hackles, tied on a size-2 hook. Allen caught another bonefish in 1926.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

George Reiger in [italics] <\/span>The Bonefish<\/span><\/i>,<\/span> [italics] his wonderful historical tribute to the gray ghost, documents that in 1926, Colonel L.S. Thompson of Red Bank, New Jersey, caught bonefish while casting a Royal Coachman streamer for baby tarpon on the flats near the Long Key Fishing Club. Other club members apparently did, too, but always as an incidental catch.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Noted naturalist and South Florida fly fishing trailblazer Homer Rhode Jr. wrote to angling author J. Edson Leonard in 1949 that he had been catching bonefish for 15 years. That would put Rhode\u2019s first fly-caught bonefish at about 1935. Rhode even created a special fly about which Lee Wulff would write, \u201cThe best fly I know for bonefish is the Homer Rhode Shrimp Fly.\u201d It\u2019s not known whether Rhode was sight-casting to bonefish or simply catching them by accident while he cast to other fish.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s get back to Bill Smith\u2019s bonefish and a humorous confrontation with George LaBranche, one of the premier anglers of the 1930s and a resident of Islamorada. In 1938, while guiding George Crawford, an accomplished fly angler from Alaska, Smith struck out on baby tarpon. Feeling bad for his client, Smith asked a fellow guide, Leo Johnson, what he used to catch tarpon. Johnson\u2019s \u201cflies\u201d were nothing more than a strip of pork rind wired to a hook, but this got Bill Smith to thinking. That night, in preparation for the next morning\u2019s charter, Smith tied a simple white bucktail with a piece of wire attached to the hook to hold the pork strip. Hoping to catch a tarpon, George Crawford cast Smith\u2019s fly, with a trace of pork added, and proceeded to catch two bonefish!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The elated men placed the bonefish in a gunny sack and weighed them at the local Islamorada grocery store; the fish weighed 5 and 6 pounds. While the men were congratulating themselves, George LaBranche entered the store and asked about the fish in the sack. Smith proudly told him that they had caught a pair of bonefish on flies. LaBranche inspected the fish and then asked to see the fly, which Smith promptly showed him. LaBranche looked incredulously at the pork rind fly and went into a tirade, thoroughly upbraiding Smith because it wasn\u2019t a \u201creal\u201d fly of hair and feathers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"first<\/span><\/p>\n

Bill Smith\u2019s legendary catch proved that bonefish could be cast-to and caught with the proper fly and retrieve\u2014not simply by accident as was previously believed through the 1920s and \u201830s. Notice his fly, tackle, and boat\u2014a far cry from what\u2019s popular today. Thanks to Gail Morchower at the International Game Fish Association library for providing the photo.<\/span><\/em><\/h6>\n

Several months went by. Smith, still stinging from LaBranche\u2019s reprimand, proceeded to tie some flies and went out alone in his outboard skiff to a favorite spot known as Little Basin, behind Islamorada. He cast to several fish, hooked one, played and netted it just as another guide, Bert Pinder, was heading to a nearby dock. Anxious to have someone witness the catch, Smith quickly followed Pinder to the dock to have him inspect the still-breathing bonefish and the regulation fly as evidence. A photo was taken of Smith holding the 8-pound bonefish, along with the fly rod and single-action fly reel he had used. Days later the photo appeared in a Miami newspaper, and this fish became acknowledged as the first bonefish specifically caught on a fly\u2014not by accident, but by casting directly to the fish.<\/span><\/p>\n

Years later, in an interview with Bill Sargent, a noted Florida outdoor writer, Smith said he \u201c\u2026remembers that the fly had a yellow hackle, was tied on about a 1-0 hook.\u201d\u00a0 He named it the fly Salt-Us after one of his regular clients, a Mr. Saltus. The tying recipe included white bucktail and brown squirrel tail for the wing and a palmered yellow saddle hackle secured with red thread. Smith\u2019s tackle was an 8-1\/2-foot Orvis Battenkill rod, a Shakespeare model 1891 Russell reel, and an Ashaway GAF tapered fly line.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sand\u2019s <\/span>Salt-Water Fly Fishing<\/span><\/i> relates another interesting fly-caught- bonefish story that took place in 1942, just after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Clarence \u201cBarrel\u201d Bowen, a good friend of Bill Smith\u2019s, was about to be shipped overseas, and he asked Bonnie Smith, Bill\u2019s wife, if she\u2019d take him out to catch a bonefish on a fly, as Bill had. Bonnie had assumed her husband\u2019s guiding duties while he was away supporting the war effort, and she took Bowen to a good bonefish spot. She later recalled, \u201cWe were back at the dock within two hours and Barrel Bowen had taken his first bonefish with a fly rod.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe were back at the dock <\/strong><\/em>
\nwithin two hours and Barrel Bowen <\/strong><\/em>
\nhad taken his first bonefish <\/strong><\/em>
\nwith a fly rod.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/h1>\n

During the war, Bonnie Smith guided another young soldier, Jimmie Albright, and made it possible for him, too, to catch his first bonefish. Bonnie introduced Jimmie to her sister, Frankee, whom he married. With Bill Smith\u2019s help, Jimmie became a legendary Florida Keys guide, and it was Albright who guided Joe Brooks to what is believed to be the first fly-caught tailing bonefish. That was in 1949. The following year, while fishing with Frankee Albright, the great George LaBranche chalked up his first official fly-caught bonefish (with Joe Brooks in the skiff as a witness). In 1950, Bonnie Smith guided Joe Brooks to his first permit on the fly.<\/span><\/p>\n

Accidentally or on purpose, these early bonefish catches are all remarkable, and they helped to usher in the \u2018bonefish age\u201d of the Florida Keys. By 1950, new faces like Ted Williams, Stu Apte, George Hommel, and J. Lee Cuddy brought increasing fame to this astonishing gamefish, which continues to this day.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Writer’s Bio: <\/span><\/p>\n

Pete Barrett has been fly fishing in salt water since the 1960s. He was a charter boat skipper for 30 years, and he was on <\/span>The Fisherman<\/span><\/i> magazine\u2019s editorial staff from 1973 until his retirement. Pete has published over 1100 magazine articles and is the author of five popular books on angling. Pete is a Florida representative for the International Game Fish Association, and he\u2019s currently an active member of the Atlantic Salt Water Flyrodders and the West Palm Beach Fishing Club. Pete lives in Jupiter, Florida.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Days later the photo appeared in a Miami newspaper, and this fish became acknowledged as the first bonefish specifically caught on a fly\u2014not by accident, but by casting directly to the fish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4927,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,2693,2417,252,29],"tags":[121,33,1961,2880,2881,2878,2879,30],"yst_prominent_words":[1454,2866,397,2130,2862,2868,2859,410,2860,314,315,2869,2865,2863,2864,2858,2877,2875,2861,2867],"class_list":{"0":"post-4922","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fly-tying","8":"category-historical-figures","9":"category-personalities","10":"category-saltwater-species","11":"category-tail-fly-fishing-magazine","12":"tag-bonefish","13":"tag-bonefish-on-the-fly","14":"tag-bonefishing","15":"tag-first-bonefish","16":"tag-first-bonefish-on-the-fly","17":"tag-igfa","18":"tag-igfarecords","19":"tag-tail-fly-fishing-magazine"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tailflyfishing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/first-bonefish-on-the-fly.jpg?fit=1200%2C1516&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tailflyfishing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tailflyfishing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tailflyfishing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tailflyfishing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tailflyfishing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tailflyfishing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tailflyfishing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tailflyfishing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tailflyfishing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tailflyfishing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4922"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tailflyfishing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=4922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}