Aruba Fishing Stories

If you have been fly fishing on Aruba and you have a nice story to share please send us an email. Your fishing stories are very welcome and appreciated. After review your story will be placed on this page.

Hooked on fly-fishing.

Fishing has always been a big part of my life. Growing up in the east part of Holland(the Netherlands), fishing was the family thing to do. Every Sunday the whole family would get together and go to riverside where the men would fish and the women would read, gossip and prepare the BBQ.

As soon as I was able to hold a rod I was fishing. In those days we where fishing for carp and pike. At the age of 18, I moved to Amsterdam and fishing became only part of my holidays and because of my work in the nightlife, I forgot about fishing for a while.

At the age of 29, I fell in love (again) with my now wife. After 3 months of dating we started traveling; we started off with 3 months in Thailand, where I had my first encounter with fly fishing. I was sitting on the beach Phuket island and saw a Japanese man fly-fishing and he looked so relaxed. He explained to me that it’s not only about catching the fish, for him it was a form of meditating. That to me was new and got me thinking about maybe one day if I get the chance, I should try it.

After Thailand we moved to Southern Europe, to the south of Spain and I picked up fishing again (in mountain lakes). Two years later we moved to Belize(Central America) and there the fishing was also great. With a group of friends we used to do a 2 day fishing trip once a month (trolling and spinning). One night a drunken tour guide of a local resort wanted to sell his fly rod to pay his bar bill, but nobody was interested, so this was my change; I owned my first rod, a 9 weight St. Croix purchased for $60,- real and line included. I paid another 10 dollars for his fly collection.

Once I got my rod, I could not stop practicing. With no one to teach me, it took a while before I could get the line out far enough. Before we left Belize to move to Aruba, I spent a week on a beautiful island http://www.glovers.com.bz/ because it was out of season and I was the only guest there, there was nothing else to do then fishing, so I brought all my fishing gear including the fly rod.

One day I was watching the sea and saw a school of jacks attacking bait fish, but every time I got my rod I was to late, so at some point I just stood there for 3 hours waiting in the burning sun and then it happened: the school of jacks came and I cast right in front of the school and they got hit by a jack, that took most of my line and I managed to land it.

I lift him out of the water, like I was lifting “the Super Bowl” Trophy.

At that moment I realized that there was no audience and I learned 2 things:

I was hooked on fly fishing.
I fish for pleasure and I don’t care for competition, like I used to do with trolling.

I found that fly fishing relaxed me much more than other kinds of fishing. After 2 years of Belize it was time to move and we (my wife) choose Aruba.

Before we moved I checked the internet about fly fishing in Aruba and could not find much information. But pictures of the island gave me hope. If there are flats, there has to be fish!

As soon as we moved I got a job as a bartender and my wife found a job as a sales agent at a Real Estate company. Every spare day, I spend fly fishing and caught some nice jacks and barracuda’s.

One late afternoon with a beautiful sunset, I was fishing and then it happened; I got a hit on a small fly and my line started running like if never experienced before; adrenaline was pumping through my body and without seeing the fish I already knew what it had to be. I read and heard so much about it that for me it was clear, I was catching my first bonefish!

It took me a long time to land it, 5 runs it did and a good fight, but I was not going to take any risk. Managed to land it and it made me smile for 2 days! Ever since I have been chasing them and with good results!

Through my work in the bar, I keep meeting people, mostly from the United States, with the same passion in fishing. I take them with me fishing, pure for fun and to learn from each other. I also met some Dutch and local people, who where interested to learn fly fishing, so I also started teaching them and with success. They picked up really well and I made some good friends.

Still when the fish are not biting and I am standing in the water and there is not a sound; I remember the strange Japanese man and his words.

So if you ever come to Aruba, send me an e-mail and maybe we can go fishing together!

Laurenz.

A picture

A picture says more than ......................
A while ago I got a mail from Thibaut, a Frenchman who lives in Canada. In the mail he told me that he is an very experienced fly fisherman and also a photographer for fishing magazines . To make a short story long; I invited him to go and fish with me and maybe he could make some pictures for my site. So when we went fishing last week, he told me that he caught a nice bonefish at Malmok, but didn’t take a picture. The morning we left, the weather was really bad and we couldn't find many bone's . Late in the morning I did hook one, but because I fished with 8 pound test (wanted to show off ) I lost the fish! A little disappointed we went home and decided that we had to go one more time. With some help from my colleagues at work I was able to change my working schedule to fish one more day. Again the weather wasn't helping and after trying almost every spot on the island we went and found a place with a beautiful Grass flat. So I can tell you what happened or I can just show you!

Congratulations and welcome to my Club!
Thibaut has his own website on fishing.

After the rain comes...........

After the rain comes ..........
It has been a few weeks since my last update. The reason for this was that the fishing was not so good and my busy schedule. The weather was really bad lots of rain and cloudy day's witch make believe that there could be a connection? Am I wrong to think that bonefish might not like to come on the flats when the weather is bad? Maybe they use the sunlight to find food on the bottom just like we do to spot them? If you have any answers on these questions please let me know! So after a few bad day's of fishing the sun came out! The last few day's the weather was getting better and the fish start coming back! Yesterday I went fishing with John and his friend. The morning started slow (cloudy sky) and we only saw 2/3 bones but could not get close to them. After a few hours we decided to chance location and went to a turtle grass flat. the same cloud followed us an we went to another place more north where the sun was shining. In the late morning we went to a small flat as a last chance and we couldn't see any bone's, so we decided to do a little blind casting with different flies and ..........................bang ! There it was a beautiful bonefish caught on an big clouser! John was smiling and we had a few more bites (lost them) . The whole thing makes me think about the weather conection.The raining season should be over now and I am looking forward to the better fishing day's!

Greetings and tight lines.
Laurenz

Thanks Mike

Two day's ago Mike and I went fishing again looking for bone or snook.
The whole morning we fished and it was not the best day on the water, we did catch a flounder and a big needle fish. Mike caught a fish of which we are not sure what it was and released it fast. The scenery was beautiful but we were determent to catch something cool. Because of the weather it was difficult to do sight fishing and we went to the edge off a little reef and tried some blind casting. And boy's will be boy's; we ended up trying to cast as far as possible and did succeed in casting the whole line of the reel! After a few cast off the reef, Mike got a hit and hooked a beautiful and very strong rainbow runner! First I thought he was stuck to the bottom because his rod was bent completely and than I heard his reel screaming and realized he's smiling like a young boy. It took a while to land the fish and it made our day. Fishing with light materials make catching rainbow runners a lot of fun. Mike who is a very good fly tier, left me some beautiful flies that I cannot wait to use! Thanks Mike and see you next year!

That's why they call it fishing.............

Yesterday morning I picked up James and Mike , both from New York. We went fishing on 3 of the best spots but could not score a bone , the weather was bad and luck was not on or side. A little disappointed we went back to drop off James at his hotel and on our way to Mike's hotel. When I decided to stop for a second to look at this small flat next to one of the hotels. We walked to the flat and saw this 10 pound bonefish and our rods where still in the car. Mike was very impressed with the size of the bone and I was running to the car and broke the record for setting up a rod! When I came back to the flat, Mike was still looking at the fish. I give him the rod and told him to go for it and he did! Because he was a little nervous he hit the bone straight on the head and spooked him. It took like four beers before we could talk about anything else! Due to my busy schedule I asked Mike to come fishing with me again the next morning at this spot, but he had no time . I got up this morning at 6.30 and the only thing on my mind was that little flat . Two minutes later I went to that spot and as soon as I got there I saw 4 bones tailing in different directions! Making sure that the wind was in my back, I cast to the one bone 20 ft in front of me with a shrimp imitation that Mike had made .....................twitch twitch bang! It was not the big bone from yesterday but it was a beautiful fish ! So you can never tell one day you fish for hours and can't catch them and the next day you do one cast and you land a great fish. Leaving the flat with mixed emotions I was happy to catch that fish but would have been more happy if Mike or James would have caught it !

(James left the Island and promised to come back next year and Mike who I like to thank for the great flies he made for me will be here for one more week to score his trophy!) .

A good start of the new year!

After reading his stories for the last few years on the net and mailing eachother we finally met. Sander (Arubaman) came back to the island! The first week he was here, I had no time due to shortage of staff at my work. Sander went fishing every morning at Malmok and with succes. He caught some beautiful bones on the flats. When I had my day off, we finally had time to fish together and I asked him what he had in mind. We decided it would be great to go after baby tarpon, which he was a virgin to.

So last Friday I called my buddie Ben, who is crazy about flyfishing and a good kayaker and we made a plan! The three of us took 2 kayaks and went to the mangrove's. One of us stayed on land and we would be taking turns and so we went! It was a beautiful setting and we saw several tarpons. After a few misses I heard Sander call my name in the distance (very calm). After a few minutes I heard him calling again and decidet to go and look for him. When I came around the corner, there he was holding his trophy in the air!

His first tarpon and it was a beauty!

Tarpon

It must have been 6 weeks ago that I got an email from Adrian through our website. He told us that he had caught a baby Tarpon on Aruba on a previous visit.

Benny and I mostly chase Bonefish, Jack and Barracuda and I could not help getting a bit curious. Having lived in Belize before, I have had a few encounters with Tarpons before! For my friend Benny this was all quite new and after briefing him on the subject we had a new mission; Tarpon needs to be on our trophy list!

Adrian (who we would like to thank for his patience with us) mailed that he was coming to Aruba and would love to come fishing with us. As soon as we could, we met up with him and went where Adrian was successful before in the hunt for Tarpon.

The spot; where the lagoon comes out by the sea, (Benny and I could not believe that we didn't find this spot ourselves and we had to learn about it from an Englishman who lives in Kansas!) is beautiful but hard to cast from. We decided to take turns. By arrival it was still daylight and we saw no disturbance or signs of any fish. This all changed after darkness and tarpons started jumping all over the place! We where amazed that this was happing on "our island" and we never knew.

Everyone of us had a few hits on the fly, some very spectacular but we could not land them! It felt like they knew how to unhook themselves (any information on how to solve this problem is welcome). After leaving frustrated that night, we had to drink a few beers and talked; knots, flies and tactics.

The next week the 3 of us went back and had the same experience and we became even more frustrated than the first time, even the fraise "the one that got a way" turned up. The next day when Adrian left, I thanked him for helping us and promised him we would not give up and as soon we would catch one, we'll put the picture on our website. www.flyfishingaruba.com

So last night the 2 of us went out again and after a few hits and jumps, Benny managed to land this beautiful tarpon. This was by far his biggest fish on the fly rod so far and he was jumping for joy! Standing next to him I can remember some mixed feelings .I was excited / a little jealous but most of all; very proud that the man who I thought how to fly-fish over the last 6 months now is beating me in the race to catch the first Tarpon!

Greeting s Laurenz

Fly to Aruba, Aruba on the fly

Ask most people about Aruba and they typically think of white sandy beaches, warm tropical seas, balmy trade winds, excellent restaurants, casino nightlife and all the features one might expect of a tropical vacation island. They may even know that it has some of the best kite boarding and water-sports in the world. But there’s another hidden gem on Aruba that is less well known and that’s its fishing. Visitors may go on fishing trips for various bill-fish but they can also go fly-fishing. Aruba does not have the extent of fly-fishing locations as the Bahamas or near-by Los Roques but it certainly has plenty of opportunity for the traveling fly-fisherman.

The “big three” of saltwater fly-fishing; bonefish, permit and tarpon are found here and can offer lots of fun for the avid fly fisherman or someone who wants to try something different. Several fly-fishing “flats” exist along the south coast and the usual ‘crazy Charlie’, ‘gotcha’ or crab pattern flies will readily attract their attention. A small but growing number of local fishermen are finding that fly-fishing the flats “is the way to go”. Even the constant 16 knot (7.5m/s, 17 miles/hour) winds are less of a problem here as the south shore locations mean that the north-easterly winds are at your back. As elsewhere, fishing is best early morning or late in the day which means you can get out early, catch your fish, and then enjoy the beaches and the other island attractions with the rest of the family.

The opportunity to explore a new fly-fishing location with the knowledge that there will be few people around is always exciting. Aruba offers this possibility combined with many other attractions so that when that bonefish hits and you hear that ‘singing line’ or you see that jumping tarpon you’ll know why you and your family came to this “One Happy Island”.

Adrian del Nevo

Greetings,

My name is Rob Kramarz. I am a fly fisherman from the US (New Jersey) and have been vacationing in Aruba for the last 3 years now and have always had my fly rod with me. I am the type of fisherman that studies maps, charts, tide tables, and such before venturing out to fish a location I am not familiar with. By far Aruba has been the most difficult in my travels but with average success until this year. Like you stated on the site larger rods aren't needed. I travel with a 7 wt Mancini rod (custom built) with a Loomis reel and an 8 wt floating line.

Over the last 2 vacations my success has been limited to Jacks, cuda and other species mentioned with the elusive bonefish not brought to land. Let me go back a bit and let you know that I have fished with a fly rod for over 10 years, and also tie my own flies and have traveled a lot to pursue bones, permit and tarpon. I have been training this past year to acquire my fly-casting instructors certificate in the states and am a seasoned caster. My wife thinks I am crazy but I try to "build" fly boxes for all of the destinations that I have fished with the most successful flies.

I have used and caught fish in Aruba this year (Dec 15-22) and was by far the best year. Starting out at pre-dawn and walking from the Occidental to "The Ship" I always had the vision of a big school of Jacks busting bait to the left of the ship and had my fair share of reality with it. So that mid-morning coming off of the flats heading off the beach to go make my lunch date with my wife what appears out of no where, the "silver ghost". It was cruising happily and my presence didn't seem to bother him at all. He actually got within 6 feet of me before mildly changing his direction and started to tail just 15 feet away. The thoughts started crossing my mind about what flies I had, what would work and what wouldn't, where was he going, where he had been, where could I cut him off, where could he cut me off & "oh S@%t" my lunch date with my wife. So I let him go on his merry way. I watched him tail happily as if to say "ha ha can't catch me".

Well this cat and mouse game continued for 3 days with numerous shots and other bones but that first one was the only fish that I really wanted. That one had some "shoulders" on him, so the hunt was on. Two days, four other bones but no sight of the "ONE". With just one day left to fish, bad weather the previous day, and a promise of spending the day with my wife I figured that I would pack the rod up for the trip home without catching the "ONE". After a healthy breakfast, we picked some lounge chairs next to the pool, positioned them for optimum sun, and settled in for a post breakfast nap. Well that lasted for about 4 hours but not an ounce of rest. More like a pound of restlessness! Thoughts of how it would all go down, the positioning, the fly, the cast, the blistering runs, and the release of the "ONE" causing this restlessness! The next question was "wanna" go to lunch?" and the answer from wifey was "Just go' you know you want to ..." Standing there a little confused I couldn't help but wonder what question I had just asked. So before I could ask again my wife said "you'll be miserable of you do..." and before she could finish her sentence I was up to the room and back at the pool ready to go..." ...n't.

Well the walk that would normally take 30 minutes seemed to take the rest of the vacation but I had arrived at my destination. I remember that the wind was out of the East at 20-25 kts. pretty much my max, but it was my last shot until next year. So I figured "give er hell" wading out to knee deep water that seemed just right I started the "scanning" process. The sun was at my back to optimize my polarized vision first up beach, then down beach, a little further out, what's that...oh just a cowfish... move oh baby cuda .... Move on. Well this went on for about an hour or so and I started thinking it just wasn't meant to be and out of the corner of my eye up the beach" was that a fin? Hard scanning pursued and damn it there he is "THE ONE" 90 ft and quartering toward me slightly. My position was about 80 ft from beach, wind was dead in my face, not the most optimum for a precision cast but when its the bottom of the 9th and 2 outs and runner is cruising position you have to choke up and take a crack at him. Stripping out line and judging where he's going to be in time for a cast while keeping another eye on him the wind started to drop some. Conditions started to improve to my ability and the warm up cast started in sync with the increase of cloud cover. You've got to be F****in Kidding me!!! Where'd he go. Not even a tail. Figures??? Just as I started to strip my line in defeat a glint of sun had peeked through enough to show big boy had closed to 60 ft @ 12 o'clock. One shot was all I got at the fish; wind switched to the Northeast and my perfect cast was blown 15ft off target. Standing dejected with my rod tucked under my arm he decided to change course.... toward the direction of my fly. WOW maybe I still have a chance. At this point sun or no sun I was locked on him like a teenaged boy seeing his first thong bikini. I couldn't see my fly and there was a generous bow in the line that needed to be taken in and as I was in the process of doing this the fish tipped up......strip strike and nobody was home. He was right on top of the fly & I pulled it out from underneath him. Well that irritated him enough to the point of where he would have chased that fly right up may pant leg because in about 1/2 second he had tipped again and was off to the races before I could even strip strike and the race was on. Two blistering runs into 100 yds of my backing I was thinking I didn't have a chance to land this fish. The third run I just couldn't believe that he would have found the only tree branch probably in the entire Caribbean but luck was on my side with this fish and the "ONE" had started to tire and he was finally brought to land. I knew he was bigger than the others but I wasn't expecting this. When the only way to grab a bonefish is by the tail you know he's big 9.5 lb big in Aruba? No guide? Unheard of ??? NOPE the picture will be sent as soon as possible.

Thanks and have a great new year.

Rob Kramarz <')))))))<