Bonefish Tails

That's not a mirage. Photo by Jim Klug

Sleeps With the Fishes

Bonefish, Daily Drake, Destination travel, Drake Magazine Back Issue Content 2022, Fly Fishing News, Homepage Content, Lodges, Outfitters, and Guides, Saltwater Fly FishingLeave a comment

I was caught between two worlds: human and piscine. I had been welcomed into the school. I moved with them, as they moved. I observed their feeding habits, their societal structures. I was like a salt-crusted, Ichthyological Jane Goodall, except that my silverbacks weren’t gorillas. They were bonefish. Scores of them. Possibly hundreds. All around me, glimmering tails flapped like the banners of their clan—a clan of which I was now an adopted son.

Drake Magazine Summer 2020 Socotra Slider

Photos by Ray Montoya

Stranded on Socotra

Daily Drake, Destination travel, Drake Magazine Back Issue Content Summer 2020, Lifestyle, Saltwater Fly FishingLeave a comment

On March 13, 60-year-old retired schoolteacher Ray Montoya arrived on the Arabian Archipelago of Socotra, intent on landing what is thought to be the first permit on a fly from the war-torn country of Yemen. Three weeks later, the talented fly-tyer, photographer, artist, and angler was still there, grounded like the rest of us. But Montoya is not like the rest of us. A Navy veteran, he grew up in a third-generation military family, bouncing around the U.S. as a kid. He became a teacher after college, and in the late ’90s began teaching internationally with his wife, Kerry.

Baja Bait Ball in Magdalena Bay.

Photo: Nick Price

Mag Bay Magic

Daily Drake, Destination travel, Drake Magazine Back Issue Content Winter 2019, Fly Fishing News, Homepage Content, Saltwater Fly FishingLeave a comment

Survive, is what an angler does the first few minutes after hooking a striped marlin. My friend Nick and I shout with joy, accompanied by excited words in Spanish from our new friends. We watch a reel getting emptied and watch the fish leap, flip, and dive. Thirty minutes later and it’s the post-release chatter,…

Tarpon on the hunt during Palolo worm hatch.

PHOTO BY AUSTIN COIT

Once Upon a Tide

Drake Magazine Back Issue Content Spring 2019, Hatches and Bugs, The Put In, U.S. places4 Comments

Mystique, mayhem, and the palolo worm hatch Late May, Florida Keys. Four in the afternoon. Skiffs buzz back to docks with tired guides and sun-drunk clients. Thoughts of missed shots and cold beer. A dying easterly rustles palm fronds; thunderheads lurk like massive silver anvils. Oceanside, brown bonefish flats sport crisscrossing prop scars. Between the…

Bahamas for a Benjamin Raffle

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Win the Native Fish Society’s “Bahamas for a Benjamin” raffle and bonefish at a luxe lodge on the Marls of Abaco for less than what you spent last week on pizza and beard oil. Lose, and it’s still a win because your hundred buck donation supports the NFS’s work restoring the Pacific Northwest’s wild fish and…

IrmaMap

Irma Advances

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9 lessons from a seasoned storm vet Harvey left its mark on Texas. In its wake, Irma, what’s being called one of the most vicious storms ever recorded in the Atlantic, is passing Puerto Rico and now barreling toward The Bahamas and South Florida, where she could make U.S. landfall in the Keys as early…

Guaranteed Refills for a Thirsty ‘Glades

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After months of negotiations, this week Florida Gov. Rick Scott signed into law a bill that could help reverse the 40-year ecosystem decline occurring in the Florida Everglades. SB10, sponsored by Sen. Rob Bradley, will fund the creation of a 78-billion gallon deep-water reservoir (enough water-holding capacity to fill 120,000 Olympic-size swimming pools) south of Lake…

Borski in his studio

48 Hours with Tim Borski

Destination travel, Drake Magazine Back Issue Content 2010, Drake Magazine Back Issue Content Winter/Spring 2010, Flies, Fly Fishing Art, Lifestyle2 Comments

IT’S 3:00 A.M. IN THE EVERGLADES AND TIM BORSKI IS LOOKING FOR SNAKES. I’m riding along with him as we drive very slowly down State Road 9336—the only four-digit road in Florida. It is 34 miles from Florida City to Flamingo, a distance we are currently covering at about 15 miles per hour. “Right up…