Mayaguana Bonefishing

A New and Original Way to Fish the Flats

THE MOST INTENSE, "one-on-one" and "up close and personal" bonefishing you'll ever experience.

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onefishing usually means flats boats, big, booming casts and hyper-spooky fish. But now, John Pinto and Gary Borger have changed all that and raised bonefishing to a new level of intensity with a totally unique, "one-on-one" experience in the wilderness back country of the Bahamas. Well made Canadian canoes are used to reach the flats and are used on certain tides in the creeks, but primarily this is a wade fishery. The fish are not spooky because no motor boats are allowed on the flats during the season.

This is truly up-close and personal fishing. Big bones sliding cautiously over sparking white sands or tailing quietly at the mangrove edges. Wild fish, following the food cycle induced by the ebb and flow of the tidal wash. Bones tailing at the mangrove edges of Front Door or First Night flats or sweeping relentlessly across the white sands of Valhalla, Big South, Sheet Iron, the South 40 and others. Bones so close you can see their eyes, or watch in fascination at the puff of silt when they pick up your fly.

Come wade with us in a place where curious bones may follow the fly right to the rod tip, where casts of 40 feet are the norm and where six-pound bones are common. Travel with us for intense, "up close and personal" bonefishing in the pristine mangrove flats of yesteryear. In this true wilderness back country of the Bahamas there are no signs of human habitation and no sounds except the wind, the waves and the call of the gull. Where there is only you, the sea and the fish. This is the way bonefishing was meant to be.

It all started in 1982 when John caught his first bonefish. From that moment he has pursued them with an intensity that borders on the fanatical. John quickly became a protege of Bonefish Joe Cleare, one of the last great Bahamian bonefish guides from Harbour Island and spent almost twenty years intensely exploring hundreds of flats, sand bars and creek systems throughout the Bahamian island

History of Our Mayaguana Fishery

John has lead groups of anglers to Eleuthera and the Berry Islands, provided guide training on Cat Island, researched lodge potential for investors on the Ragged Islands and assisted in developing a bonefish camp on Acklins Islands. His enthusiastic promotion of bonefishing in the Bahamas was so helpful to the Bahamas Tourist Office in Detroit that the Bahamian Government awarded him the title of "Honorary Fly Fisherman of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas" in 1990. If there were bones to be caught, John was there. But during his three years on Acklins, bonefishing began to change for John. He constantly worked with his guides, teaching them the necessary ingredients of bonefishing; quiet poling of the flats boat, encouraging longer casts from the clients, spotting the fish at long distances, keeping the sun and wind to the clients back.

And then one day, it hit him: the guides, the boats, the experiences were no different than those provided by any other bonefishing operation throughout the Bahamas. It all seemed so redundant. Fishing from a flats boat was clumsy and noisy and forced the client to make extra long casts. And the best water, that nearest the mangrove edges, couldn't be covered with any degree of efficiency. It was then that John stepped out of the flats boat and out of the customary bonefishing experience forever. Drawing on his Michigan trout fishing experience, John began stalking bones on foot, using canoe to quietly position him in the best locales. It was the bonefishing experience he had been searching for. It was not only up-close and personal, but it was more intense than anything he had ever experienced. John knew he had found his Valhalla.

It was then that John called his long-time friend Gary Borger. As John described his new concepts of bonefishing, Gary could immediately see the parallels to stalking big browns in the lake edges of New Zealand, Tasmania, England, British Columbia and throughout the American West. It's the kind of fishing that he loves the most and it wasn't long before he was stalking the flats with John. The fishing was so good, so unique and so intense, that they knew others would love it as much as they did. Thus was born "Mayaguana Bonefishing."

In order to minimize their presence to the fish, anglers will quietly access the wilderness flats by specially designed bayou boats and then stalk the bones individually, one-on-one, by careful and quiet wading. During the typical ten-hour fishing day, the fly fisher will have the opportunity to carefully study bonefish habits up close, in an undisturbed environment, putting the angler into position to routinely make short casts to tailing and cruising bones.

Mayaguana is a crown jewel of Bahamas out islands. Bonefish are plentiful with a good supply of fish 7 pounds and larger. These wilderness trips will host six (6) anglers for a week-long Monday to Monday adventure of quietly stalking pristine flats for big bones.
Anglers will stay in sparkling clean, comfortable accommodations with three meals per day provided.
Lunch is taken to the flats each day with plenty of water, snacks and assorted beverages.
Dinner is a diverse sampling of American and Bahamian cuisine.

Mayaguana is the true angler's dream.
It is recommended that every angler be physically prepared for intense, ten-hour days of up-close and personal, one on one, wade fishing for big bones.

Cost is inclusive of lodging, meals, airport transfers at the destination and 6-1/2 days of fishing.
(not included are airline tickets, hotels, meals and taxis while in Nassau, and Bahamian departure tax.)