I did a lot of research about the bonefishing options before our trip.  There are two main outfitters down there, and both have decent reviews.  The American-born/non-local guides seem preferred based on tripadvisor reviews, but when you book with a larger company they don’t guarantee you a specific guide.  The reviews were pretty hit and miss overall depending on guide.  I read about an independent guide/one man operation down in Provo named Darin Bain.  A quick googling of his name provided several articles (found here (written by a fellow Virginian), here, and here) from fly fishing publications that spoke to his skills, qualifications, and reliability.  He even guided for Jimmy Buffett.  I decided to take a chance on a local entrepreneur, and emailed Darin Bain.  He quickly responded with his availability, and I put down a deposit.  I only recently got into fly fishing (last couple years), and definitely did not have the casting skills to guarantee bonefishing success.  Before heading down, I watch hours and hours of casting videos.  Read about bonefishing, and practiced.  When I still didn’t feel confident, I booked a casting lesson with Rob Snowhite.  After the lesson, I’d learned a lot, but still wasn’t quite there.  I watched a Lefty Kreh casting video in which he said to haul (double haul) harder, and not try to cast harder to increase distance.  Armed with this information, I took my cast (in moderate wind) from 40 feet max out to 60.  Now that I could cast plenty far enough, I focused my practice on accuracy and speed.  I finally started feeling like I might be good enough to land a fish.  I let Darin know about my experience and casting ability when I contacted him, but he said he had yet to be skunked on a full day trip.  My dad and I woke up early to meet Darin in our lobby, and were cautiously optimistic…

As you can see, we both caught fish.  I was ecstatic.  We motored out to a few atolls/small islands and were put on bones pretty quickly.  I fished first and managed a scare a bunch away.  I also quickly realized that my biggest weakness was speed.  Bonefish are predators and constantly on the move.  When Darin called out, “11 o’clock, 30 feet”, it would take me too long to get my fly out there.  By the time I did, the fish had moved, and Darin would be yelling, “more left!”, but it was often too late.  When I did cast in the right direction, my cast would often be too short to be noticed by the fish, or so long that the floating line hit the water above the fish and spooked them.  Finally Darin saw some bones near the shore and for once I was able to see them as well.  I cast about 3 feet short of them, and started stripping immediately.  Darin yelled, “strip faster!”, I picked up the pace and felt a strike.  I strip set just by franticly stripping and was on.  The bone took a second to figure out he was hooked, and then he was off like a bullet.  After a run or two I got him close to the boat, and Darin showed me how to land and safely handle a bonefish.  After a quick picture, I put the fish back in the water and watched him swim away.  I was euphoric, but I knew FJ still needed to land a fish for the day to be a success.  FJ had taken the casting lesson with me, and practiced some, but was still having trouble with the double haul and distance.  He fished a few times before lunch to no reward.  At lunch I could tell he was feeling a little down and frustrated despite the interesting political discussion with Darin.  After lunch, he protested when Darin and I said it was his turn to fish, but quickly capitulated and picked up his Orvis 8wt.  At this point in the day we were about 20 miles from Provo in Middle Caicos.  It was a beautiful spot, and things looked fishy.  Darin called a fish about 30 feet off the port side.  FJ casted out, stripped, and was on.  This fish made the reel sound like a circular saw.  It was immediately clear it was a monster.  I was excited, but also apprehensive as I’d lost three hooked fish earlier.  One to a mangrove which snapped the line, and another to my inexperience when I reeled while the fish was still making a run and snapped the line.  The last lost fish was when I had a tangle in the line at my feet.  Darin ran forward to try to clear it as the fish ran, but it was sucked up into the reel and the line popped before the tangled could be fixed.  A comedy of errors, but a great lesson in what not to do…  FJ let the bonefish take off, reeled it in, and repeated as the fish made run after run.  I started videoing halfway through it was so epic (videos below).  FJ brought it in close, I grabbed the leader, and he grabbed the fish.  WE BOTH LANDED BONEFISH ON OUR FIRST TRIP!!!  FJ’s was a monster, probably twice the weight of the 2-3 pounders I caught.  FJ doesn’t wear his heart on his sleeve, but I could tell he was elated.  I think Darin expected us to be more excited to land such a monster for FJ’s first fish ever, but to be honest, neither of us knew how big this thing was until I got home and saw that there were only a couple pictures of bigger fish on Darin’s website.  Our success had a lot to do with our preparation, and certainly some luck, but there is no way we could have done it without Darin’s expert guiding.  I can’t thank or recommend him enough.  If we caught fish with Darin, you can too.  As inexperienced as we were, it was definitely a risk to pay so much for a day of fishing.  I had tried to prepare myself for a nice sunrise cruise, and a learning experience without fish, before I booked the trip.  My dad and I both landing bones our first time out was definitely the highlight of the trip and an experience I’ll never forget.  I’m definitely hooked on bonefishing.  Next time I’m in TCI, I’m calling Darin Bain for sure.

There was something special about the TCI.  I’ve been to a lot of islands, and this one stands out.  I really think we’ll be back soon.

Some videos:

Needless to say, a good time was had by all.  It was a crazy adventure, especially with the weather.  Just to give you an idea how of crazy it got at the end…

That from clear blue skys only an hour earlier…

Our traditional Eastern Shore ride is from Easton through Oxford, over the ferry, to St. Michaels for crabs, and then back to Easton.  Its about a thirty mile loop, and a long day trip.  Not knowing how EF would sleep in the trailer, we decided to spend the night in Oxford, go to get crabs in St. Michaels, and then retrace our steps, riding about fifteen miles.  The riide ebikes did great.  The say the have about about a twenty-five mile range, but thats obviously not while pulling a baby trailer loaded down with a baby and accoutrement.  We did the fifteen miles no problem, and then tooled around Oxford about another five after the ride.  The bikes still felt strong and zippy at the end of the ride.  At this point, I was about sold.

When we got home from Maryland, all three of us really wanted to take the bikes back out.  I charged them (it only takes about three hours for a full charge), and we went out on the W&OD trail, and hit up some parks.  We biked to dinner and brunch.  While we had the bikes, we enjoyed being outside constantly, and the bikes really made it easy and fun to get out there.  In one day, we had brunch at Caboose Brewing right on the trail, and then rode back, hit up a park near our house, and then rode out to El Tio for dinner.  On the way to dinner the bike pulling the trailer died.  It had been fully charged and we had only traveled about ten miles, but all the hills and the trailer took their toll on the battery.  Earlier I had marveled at how I was passing serious road bikers wearing all spandex while in casual clothes and pulling a baby trailer.  Now I was stuck pumping a fixie with a heavy trailer behind it.  Once we made it to the restaurant, I took the other riide (stilll charged because it was not pulling a trailer) and rode it home to get the truck.  The bottom line is that these ebikes can pull a trailer twenty-five miles when its flat, but max out at about ten when its hilly.  My wifes bike did about fifteen with hills not pulling a trailer, which is still pretty impressive.  In Maryland I was sold on the riide, but now I was thinking I should test ride some electronically assisted bikes (you pedal and the bike adds supplementary power) before deciding on the riide (Which is more like a moped with pedals.  You can twist the throttle, or you can pedal, but you really can’t do both except while going up steep hills.)  I haven’t had the chance to test ride another ebike yet, but I still do really like riide and may end up with one.  If I didn’t have to haul a baby trailer, I would own one by now.  I definitely think its worth doing a free demo if you’re interested in an ebike.

Here are some videos from the trip: