On This Water

Doctrine · not a honey-hole list

Seasonal fundamentals

When a coast, a type of water, and a fish actually line up. If you elected Texas on the list, this page opens on Texas — Seychelles stays off the board until you ask for it. Filter by region, method or habitat, and species. The year bar is peak versus present. Limits cite TPWD and FWC — verify before you keep one.

Bahamas

Bahamas — bonefish country

Winter singles. Summer schools. Permit on the west sides when it lays down.

Andros is the capital — west-side white sand, schools by the acre, double-digit singles in the creeks, tarpon in the bights, permit May through October on the west side and outer cays. Abaco is Marls and ocean cays; verify what is actually running after Dorian. Grand Bahama is the thinking wade, a town to sleep in, big singles on foot. Eleuthera and the Exuma edge take more weather and give you more permit. Tides here are a modeled lunar clock, labeled as such — there is no NOAA gauge on these islands. Flats licensing has been tightening; verify before you wade. Jacks will find you. They are not why you booked the week.

July. Schoolie bones and resident tarpon. The lodge week is a heat-management problem as much as a fish problem.

July · peak

What is actually on

    TarponPermitHogfishYellowtail snapperMangrove / gray snapperMutton snapperBlack grouper
Peak Present Off

Closures

No coast-wide harvest closure on the board. Still verify before you keep a fish.

Great barracuda

Sphyraena barracuda

Peak JulyBahamas

J

F

M

A

M

J

J

A

S

O

N

D

Thermal window

66°92°

70–88°F · best 74–84°F

Flats and wrecks will find you. Keys, Bahamas, Yucatan, Puerto Rico. Noise. They do not own the headline.

Fly. 9 wt. A big needle. Fun. Not why you booked the week.

Spin. A tube lure if you came for him. Wire. Ciguatera is a real reason not to keep a big one.

Bahamas. Treat big cuda as catch-and-release. Not why you booked the flat.

Official source

Want this week’s weather on top of the doctrine? Read the Saturday Letter.