Text and photos by Mary L. Peachin
May, 2010, Vol. 14, No. 8
As our panga motored toward Boca Paila Lagoon, the sun was rising over Ascension Bay. Speeding past a school of bottled nose dolphin, we slowed to observe a pair protectively corralling their young calf. Overhead, a flock of Roseate spoonbills displayed their pink curvy, spatulated bills. Eagle nests were scattered among limbs of the mangroves.
Ascencion Bay offers hundreds of square miles of crystal clear flats surrounded by sandy mangroves. While we were targeting fast action bones, my daughter Suzie and I kept our eyes peeled for a tarpon roll, the wavy fin of a permit, or nervous water stirred by a snook.
Bonefish, sometimes referred to as a “grey ghost”, are a coastal species found in intertidal flats, mangrove areas, and river mouths. Noted for their distinctive characteristic of having an inferior mouth with a conical nose and slender round body, they are built for speed in order to flee shark and barracuda predators. Their initial run on a hookup pumps anglers’ adrenaline.