Acklins DIY Report

Budget Bonefishing

The bonefish urge recently was too much to resist scratching so we decided to hit the remote island of Acklins Bahamas for a low budget "bonefish bum" DIY trip. Unfortunately, most of the east coast, and a good chunk of the Caribbean, had been getting hit with cold fronts and winds, not favorable for bonefishing. Bonefish don't come into the flats as much when temps are not as warm. Acklins being the furthest southern Island in the Bahamas chain we thought would dodge most of the that, but unfortunately not completely. When we booked the lodging my crystal ball did not work like I thought.

Despite colder than average conditions, and a bit more wind and clouds than normal, there were still bonefish to be found and opportunities to be had. Acklins certainly does not have a lack of flats to fish, and quite frankly it can be a little overwhelming as one could get into analysis-paralysis pretty quickly. On DIY trips there is always some level of "figuring shit out" as you go so 6 days of fishing is only beginning to scratch the surface of exploring this bonefish mecca.

While we did not "crush fish", based off what we say and compared to previous DIY bonefish trips I would certainly go back and give Acklins another go. We stayed at nice B&B called Ivel's (www.ivelsbedandbreakfast.com) which can provide you with clean rooms, nice rental vehicles, breakfast, pack lunch, and very good dinners. All for a pretty reasonable price. They also have connections to local guides, two of which we met and hind site we wish we would have saved a few extra bucks before hand and brought more cash to get connected with one of them to speed up the learning curve on Acklins.

Overall though, it was a beautiful island with lots of bonefishing opportunity, great people, and quality fish. I would not recommend this location to non fishing spousing though... this is a fishing destination for sure with not much else to do! And that's exactly why we had to go check it out!