Fly fishing Aruba

A picture

2009-03-29T07:23:00.000-07:00

A picture says more than ......................
Six weeks ago I got a mail from Thibaut, a Frenchman who lives in Canada.
In the mail he told me that he is an very experienced fly fisherman and also a photographer for fishing magazines .
To make a short story long; I invited him to go and fish with me and maybe he could make some pictures for my site.
So when we went fishing last week, he told me that he caught a nice bonefish at Malmok, but didn’t take a picture.
The morning we left, the weather was really bad and we couldn't find many bone's .
Late in the morning I did hook one, but because I fished with 8 pound test (wanted to show off ) I lost the fish!
A little disappointed we went home and decided that we had to go one more time.
With some help from my colleagues at work I was able to change my working schedule to fish one more day.
Again the weather wasn't helping and after trying almost every spot on the island we went and found a place with a beautiful Grass flat.
So I can tell you what happened or I can just show you!

Congratulations and welcome to my Club!
Thibaut has his own website on fishing.
http://www.thibautmillet.com/

After the rain comes...........

2009-03-19T07:29:00.000-07:00

After the rain comes ..........
It has been a few weeks since my last update.
The reason for this was that the fishing was not so good and my busy schedule.
The weather was really bad lots of rain and cloudy day's witch make believe that there could be a connection?
Am I wrong to think that bonefish might not like to come on the flats when the weather is bad?
Maybe they use the sunlight to find food on the bottom just like we do to spot them?
If you have any answers on these questions please let me know!
So after a few bad day's of fishing the sun came out!
The last few day's the weather was getting better and the fish start coming back!
Yesterday I went fishing with John and his friend .
The morning started slow (cloudy sky) and we only saw 2/3 bones but could not get close to them.
After a few hours we decided to chance location and went to a turtle grass flat.
the same cloud followed us an we went to another place more north where the sun was shining.
In the late morning we went to a small flat as a last chance and we couldn't see any bone's,
so we decided to do a little blind casting with different flies and ..........................bang !
There it was a beautiful bonefish caught on an big clouser!
John was smiling and we had a few more bites (lost them) .
The whole thing makes me think about the weather conection.
The raining season should be over now and I am looking forward to the better fishing day's!
Greetings and tight lines .
Laurenz

Thanks Mike

2009-01-31T10:31:00.000-08:00

Two day's ago Mike and I went fishing again looking for bone or snook.
The whole morning we fished and it was not the best day on the water, we did catch a flounder and a big needle fish.
Mike caught a fish of which we are not sure what it was and released it fast. The scenery was beautiful but we were determent to catch something cool.
Because of the weather it was difficult to do sight fishing and we went to the edge off a little reef and tried some blind casting.
And boy's will be boy's; we ended up trying to cast as far as possible and did succeed in casting the whole line of the reel!
After a few cast off the reef, Mike got a hit and hooked a beautiful and very strong rainbow runner!
First I thought he was stuck to the bottom because his rod was bent completely and than I heard his reel screaming and realized he's smiling like a young boy.
It took a while to land the fish and it made our day. Fishing with light materials make catching rainbow runners a lot of fun.
Mike who is a very good fly tier, left me some beautiful flies that I cannot wait to use!
Thanks Mike and see you next year!

That's why they call it fishing.............

2009-01-22T06:42:00.000-08:00

Yesterday morning I picked up James and Mike , both from New York .
We went fishing on 3 of the best spots but could not score a bone , the weather was bad and
luck was not on or side.
A little disappointed we went back to drop off James at his hotel and on our way to Mike's hotel. When I decided to stop for a second to look at this small flat next to one of the hotels.
We walked to the flat and saw this 10 pound bonefish and our rods where still in the car. Mike was very impressed with the size of the bone and I was running to the car and broke the record for setting up a rod!
When I came back to the flat, Mike was still looking at the fish .
I give him the rod and told him to go for it and he did!
Because he was a little nervous he hit the bone straight on the head and spooked him.
It took like four beers before we could talk about anything else!
Due to my busy schedule I asked Mike to come fishing with me again the next morning at this spot, but he had no time .
I got up this morning at 6.30 and the only thing on my mind was that little flat .
Two minutes later I went to that spot and as soon as I got there I saw 4 bones tailing in different directions!
Making sure that the wind was in my back, I cast to the one bone 20 ft in front of me with a shrimp imitation that Mike had made .....................twitch twitch bang!
It was not the big bone from yesterday but it was a beautiful fish !
So you can never tell one day you fish for hours and can't catch them and the next day you do one cast and you land a great fish.
Leaving the flat with mixed emotions I was happy to catch that fish but would have been more happy if Mike or James would have caught it !

(James left the Island and promised to come back next year and Mike who I like to thank for the great flies he made for me will be here for one more week to score his trophy!) .
Posted by fly fishing Aruba at 6:42 AM 1

A good start of the new year!

2009-01-04T18:01:00.000-08:00

After reading his stories for the last few years on the net and mailing eachother we finally met.

Sander (Arubaman) came back to the island!

The first week he was here, I had no time due to shortage of staff at my work.

Sander went fishing every morning at Malmok and with succes. He caught some beautiful bones on the flats.

When I had my day off, we finally had time to fish together and I asked him what he had in mind. We decided it would be great to go after baby tarpon, which he was a virgin to.

So last Friday I called my buddie Ben, who is crazy about flyfishing and a good kayaker and we made a plan! The three of us took 2 kayaks and went to the mangrove's. One of us stayed on land and we would be taking turns and so we went!

It was a beautiful setting and we saw several tarpons. After a few misses I heard Sander call my name in the distance (very calm). After a few minutes I heard him calling again and decidet to go and look for him. When I came around the corner, there he was holding his trophy in the air!

His first tarpon and it was a beauty!

He will be here for one more week and hopefully I will have to write another story!

Greetings Laurenz

Welcome to my new web blog!

2009-01-04T11:49:00.000-08:00

Hello, welcome to my new blog.
My name is Laurenz van Mook and my blog is to inform you on my latest fishing trips.
You might know my website www.flyfishingaruba.com where you can find all the information
you need to go fly fishing in Aruba (guided or by yourself).
This blog will be functioning as a weekly newsletter and may convince you to bring a fly rod next
time you go to Aruba!

http://www.flyfishingaruba.com