I watched with fascination and admiration as my beautiful partner stalked her first ever bonefish in the crystal-clear flats not more than 200 yards from the Southern Cross Club on Little Cayman Island. Her tiny, soft plastic jig made a subtle splash to the right of an average “bone”, and his protruding tail seemed to make a quick pirouette toward the lure. The almost invisible fluorocarbon leader twitched, she deftly set the hook, and the bonefish streaked across the white sand at breakneck speed. The battle that followed included a number of powerful runs testing the light tackle drag and her muscles to the limit, but she and the reel endured…and won! She beamed with satisfaction from seeing and feeling the speed and power of such a gorgeous creature and knowing that she had finally conquered one of the elusive, streaking “grey ghosts of the flats!”
During a good part of the year, the fertile flats around Little Cayman Island offers one of the best chances in the world to catch a one-day, Flats Grand Slam that consists of a tarpon, bonefish and permit. The prime reason for this exceptional possibility is the great number of permit that feed on the flats bordering the nearby reef. As most inshore anglers know, the permit is always the hardest part of any Grand Slam. Several days of stalking the flats near the resort revealed a good number of opportunities to catch permit, but we failed in our attempts to land one. Because of a unique geographical phenomenon, tarpon are plentiful.
According to local residents, a long forgotten hurricane carved out a freshwater lagoon inside Little Cayman Island that is known as Tarpon Pond. It is the ideal nursery for these fish. Therefore, the entire body of water is teeming with smaller tarpon weighing up to more than 60 pounds. For beginning fly fishermen, it is the perfect opportunity to marvel at the aerial antics of a Silver King on the end of a fly or jig. http://www.examiner.com/article/winter-fishing-escape?CID=examiner_alerts_article