We left Sacramento at 6am on March 12, 2004. After flying to Dallas, then Fort Lauderdale, we arrived in Caracas, Venezuela at 10pm. Our transfer agent, Tony, met us at the airport and took us to our hotel. The Caracas airport isn't actually in Caracas. It's about 30 minutes away. Given the recent political unrest in Caracas, we were glad not to be in the middle of it. Tony picked us up the next morning and took us back to the airport, where we caught a short, 40 minute flight to El Gran Roque, the population center of Los Roques. Upon arrival we were promptly greeted by Ramon, an employee of Sight Cast Outfitters. Ramon showed us to our hotel (a five minute walk down the road). Except for a few golf carts, there are no vehicles on El Gran Roque. You can walk everywhere.

Ramon introduced me to my guide, who helped me rig up my rods and hustled me aboard the boat. We drove almost 30 minutes to our first destination. This would be one of our longest boat rides - most destinations are 15 to 25 minutes from the lodge. We hopped out on a nice flat that surrounded a small island. Many of the places we fished were similar: narrow flats sandwiched between the beach and the reef. This particular flat was anywhere from 50 to 200 yards wide. We stalked the flat, moving counter-clockwise around the island. Within 20 minutes I spotted my first bonefish. Throughout the rest of the trip, it would be rare to go more than 20-30 minutes without seeing a bonefish.

My first bonefish came on a grey & white clouser minnow. This would be the go-to fly for the whole week. Everywere you look, you see minnows, and the Los Roques bonefish feed heavily on them. My guide looked at my box full of beautiful crabs and shrimp patterns with despair after I lost my last clouser!

The average Los Roques bonefish is a short, stocky, 4 lb fish. They are very strong. Some of them are pushovers, but just as many are extremely picky. There were instances when we'd change flies several times on a single fish. I finished my first day with 3 bones, including a great 7 lb fish that ate a brown bitter.

My second day was spent fishing similar areas: flats and beaches surrounding larger islands and one very productive, expansive 'inside' flat. I had done well on the bonefish, but later in the day we came to a cove where my guide said there might be some tarpon. My guide, Ericario, handed me my 10 wt rod and had me cast towards the mangroves. After several casts, a large wake appeared behind my fly and I felt a large tug. I gave it the mean tarpon strip-strike, but my 20 lb test mono failed. I was so excited about wade-fishing for tarpon that I wasn't even upset about missing the opportunity. I'd fished tarpon before, but always from boats. This was rad . After a few minutes we spotted another tarpon about the same size. After a few targeted casts, the big fish chased and swirled on the fly, but didn't eat it. My heart stopped. We waited 20 minutes, but the fish never came back. We polished off the day with 2 more bones.

On my 3rd and 4th days we fished pancake flats - very small islands that only rise above the surface at low tide. The bones on the pancakes are very spooky, selective, and frequently move quickly. We switched to 8 lb test tippet and to a mini-puff. We fished about 10 pancakes. They ranged in size from 100 to 500 yards in length. Some had stupid fish, most had tough fish. One had no fish. Most provided at least a few good opportunities. We fished 2 pancakes that were so loaded with<