After my quick casting lesson we were off. Off quietly walking in calf to knee deep water watching for the glint of bone fish fins. The surroundings were spectacular. Large rock outcroppings into the water. Little cul-de-sacs where water would slowly and gently wash in and out. Gorgeous crystal clear water, through which the brilliant sun beamed to the sand floor.
The setting was incredible, the experience? Well….
We hadn’t been walking, well sleuthing quietly is more like what we were doing, for no more than 15 minutes when Clint held his hand up. You know a kind of military navy seals, “stop, silence, enemy ahead, prepare yourself.” Quietly he turned to me and semi-whispered, “do you see those fins over there, those thin silvery fins just above the water line reflecting the sun?” Squinting, like it would help me see better, I began scanning the water line about the area Clint was pointing. “uhhhh….” before I could say yes or no Clint said, “right over there…see them…right there!” Well what apparently wasn’t obvious to Clint was that I WAS NOT seeing these fish fins. He cast got a nibble but nothing more.
Clint took the opportunity to point out that was what we were looking for, fins like that, piercing the water and reflecting the sun. Of course that is helpful to point out if in fact you saw the darn fins in the first place, since I hadn’t… well…I was still blind, or asleep at the switch.
We hadn’t walked quietly another 10 minutes before we saw…well it wasn’t “we” I mean before Clint saw, a supposedly large school of bone fish as evidenced of course by the glinting fins. I say supposedly because scenario number 1 just played itself out in re-run form. I hadn’t seen those fins this time either. Clint cast, and I thought I would too though seeing nothing, Clint hit gold and yanked a fish out of the water that came dancing on the line right at us. It was my first look at a bone fish. Clint was smiling and triumphant. Unhooked the little guy and let him swim free. I received instruction again that that you have to watch carefully…uh..duh…you think? For what? Yes that is right, bone fish fins glinting above the surface of the water.
Four hours for round one of bone fishing. What fun…yes that was said tongue in cheek. How many glinting fins had I seen? Well up close in Clint’s hand of the several bone fish he caught, I saw all of them. How many out on the water line ahead of us? NONE…ZERO…NADA…NOPE.
We started to head back toward the shore line of his house not far away. I didn’t know what to think. The surroundings were incredible but the experience frustrating. Little did I know I was minutes away from one of the most life altering moments of my life….and all because of a four hour experience with what appeared to me to be invisible bone fish. And it is this experience I am about to tell you about that is the reason for the forming of the Transformational Trek Tribe and the writing of the ttTribe-Manifesto we released just one month ago.
