Amy admires a schoolie bonefish on the the flats with Docky, our guide. This guy showed a lot of poise, and we found 22 different pods or schools of fish on a windy day.

Hang on to your hat: Finding bonefish in winds gusting to 30 knots.
The island fortunately provided about 80 miles of solid rock as a wind break, on the flats.

Resting back at the boat after a long wade. Behind the boat, the tide is pouring up the channel, straight into the howling wind, resulting in the only waves of the day.

Poling along a protected rocky shoreline. Amy scans the
water, her sun-protective clothes flapping in the wind. Bigger bonefish were lurking in the rocks, looking for crabs, and we missed several shots.

Band member performs in the lodge, while we devoured pineapple- marinated steaks, washed down with huge flagons of rum punch. These guys seemed to be well-aquainted with Bob Marley and his many tunes…

Fat yellowtail snapper ready for a trip to the lodge’s restaurant.
We anchored off the rocky point and tried a little chumming.

Deckhand lands a Caribbean reef shark. Time to toss that
puppy overboard.

Amy strolls a secluded beach on our way to the reef. Not
another soul in sight.

Swiss nationals Rico (left) and his son Silvio, often wade for bonefish down by the airport, and other parts of the island, using a rented car. One night we closed the bar down with them, drinking these strange, licorice-flavored aperitifs that Rico was fond of. I later took this picture as they waded off the flats together, on our last morning there, before boarding the plane. It was literally their last fishing morning. Rico felt too weak to wade much, so he took it easy around the lodge, before they flew home. He soon had heart surgery, but didn’t survive long. So this was his last fishing day, his last time to clutch a flyrod on a sun-washed tidal flat. They buried Rico back in Switzerland, wearing his favorite Stella Maris t-shirt.

International flags were flapping that week, in a brisk
wind. Stella Maris Lodge has been there for something like
40 years, and most of the guests in May were from Europe,
no doubt enjoying some abundant sunshine.