Flats and skinny water

Bonefish

Albula vulpes

The grey ghost of the flats: fast, spooky, and the reason people come to the Keys and the Bahamas with a fly rod.

What they like

  • 0.3–1.5 musual depth (they tolerate 0.15–4 m)
  • 24–30 °Cwater temperature they feed in
  • clear waterwater clarity
  • shallow flats, sloping edges, the shorelinebottom they hunt, in order
  • the incoming (rising) tidetide
  • daylightlight

Tails on the flats on a rising tide, pushes off at dead low. Early and late light is kindest for spotting fish; midday sun helps you see them on white sand.

Season by region

Peak months, shaded. Outside them the species may still be around, just less reliably.

Florida and the Gulf
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Caribbean and Bahamas
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Hawaii
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec

Bait and technique

Methods: fly, spinning / casting.

Bait and lures: Shrimp, small crabs; gotcha and crab fly patterns, 1/8 oz jigs.

Technique: Wade or pole quietly along the up-tide edge of a flat, cast 2 m ahead of a moving fish, strip slowly.

Rules

Florida: Catch and release only in Florida.

Bahamas: Catch and release, foreign anglers need a flats fishing licence.

Seasons, sizes and bag limits change every year and differ by zone. Check the current regulations before you keep anything.

Depth maps where bonefish live

Depth map preview of Bimini, Bahamas±0.67 m

Bahamas

Bimini, Bahamas

  • ±0.67 mtypical error
  • 1,990laser soundings checked
  • 74 km²of shallows

Updated 5 h ago

Preferences are expert estimates from the fisheries literature and angling practice, not measurements at your spot. The likelihoods on the maps are a planning aid, not a catch prediction.