By GLADSTONE THURSTON

For years anglers in the Florida cays were wracking their brains trying to seduce the wily bonefish. They were looking on the bottom but the answer was at the surface.

At a remote fishing lodge, the Bang Bang Club, situated on a cay off Bhering Point, Andros, Bahamian Charlie Smith found the answer.

A master fly fishing guide himself, and well-known in international circles, Smith noticed bonefish had a fancy for little minnows.

He took two beads off his key chain, attached them to a hook wrapped in a few strands of chicken feathers and other natural material and...the fly fishing industry was plunged into a revolution.

The 'Crazy Charlie' as he called this novelty, sent fly fishermen into a tizzy. It was their answer to the crafty, hard fighting, Bahamian bonefish.

Business for rod and reel companies and boat manufactures skyrocketed as a result of the opening up of a new frontier in the Bahamas for international fly fishing.

That was almost 24 years ago. Needless to say, Smith gained not a dollar from the billions generated by his invention even though the 'Crazy Charlie' and variants are being produced in factories around the world.

Meek and lowly, like Bonefish Foley, Smith, 68, still spends his days between Charlie's Haven in Bhering Point, and the Bang Bang Club entertaining the rich and famous.

Smith's son, Prescott, who operates the Stafford Creek Lodge, in Stafford Creek, Andros, basked in his father's glory at last weekend's Fly-Fishing Retailer World Trade Expo in Denver, Colorado.

He was one of the nine-member delegation, headed by Financial Services and Investments Minister Allyson Maynard-Gibson and the Hotel Corporation's Managing Director Dr Baltron Bethel that represented the Bahamas at the expo.

"Bahamians have been making contributions to an industry that we have been shut out of and most disturbingly from within our own country," said Smith.

"Bahamians hardly know who Crazy Charlie is although he is the most famous guide in the entire world. Everybody here at the expo knows of him. But they have never seen him to the shows.

"The Ministry of Tourism spends millions of dollars on people from all over the world to promote the country instead of utilizing their own.

"As you saw, there wasn't a single person at the casting ponds who was able to hold a fly rod better than the few of us from the Bahamas.

"And without bragging, we weren't doing the things that we could do with a rod because we didn't want to seem like we were showing off."

Also representing the Bahamas were the Ministry of Tourism's Benjamin Pratt, master fly-fishing guide David Pinder out of McClean's Town, Grand Bahama, Capt Percy Darville out of the Berry Islands, Kendall Williamson of Grey's Point Bonefish Inn, Acklins, and conservationist Eric Carey of the Bahamas National Trust.

The emphasis in the fly fishing industry is on salt water destinations which is great news for Bahamians, he noted. It opens the way for qualified Bahamian fishing guides to earn a comfortable living.

"The average guide, and you have to have good work ethics, can make anywhere from $40,000 to $75,000 a year once he is trained professionally," said Smith.

Whereas traditional tourism puts the emphasis on numbers, attracting as many visitors as possible, fly fishing takes another perspective, he said.

"The average angler comes to my lodge and spends about $5,000 per week. The average tourist comes on the cruise ship and buys a T-shirt for $10 down Bay Street. He goes into stores where the workers earn maybe minimum wages. A guide earns three or four times that in a day," said Smith. "Fly fishing like no other can empower indigenous people.

"Fly fishing gives you an opportunity to earn a decent living without having to compromise, sell out or jeopardize the things we say we, as a country, should be standing for. It is the ultimate form of sustainable tourism."

Due to the changing seasons, most fresh water destinations are comfortable less than half the year, and the game is limited in size and species.

With its consistent water temperature between 70 degrees and 86 degrees, fishing in the Bahamas is comfortable all year round offering Bahamian bone fish, tarpon, permit, snook, and cobia in shallow water game. And for deep water anglers there are yellow and black fin tunas, blue and white marlins, sword fishes, sail fishes, dolphins and wahoos.

"So this could only spell great news for a country that has been blessed with the largest marine resources on the face of the Earth," said Smith.

"If we have the gold mine and if we support this multi billion dollar industry, then clearly we should be beneficiaries of that, and that has not been the case.

"People have been coming in and benefiting from it, fish to their hearts content and all the country gets is a few dollars for a cruising permit.

"Illegal motherships are like floating fishing lodges running all around the country taking millions of dollars out of the country."

Smith was also concerned about the absence of stiff legislation addressing conservation.

"We have over 14,000 people in the commercial fishing industry," he said.

"We need to ask why is it that none of those boats bring back any garbage when they go out to sea.

"And even though the marine resources is next to the people and is the most important, not even 1 per cent of the national budget goes towards something that is bigger than Paradise Island or Cable Beach.

"So I was happy to see Minister Maynard-Gibson attending the expo. That's history - the first time the leader of the country ever took the opportunity to come and see first hand of something that we came so close to losing."

Caption:BUILDING FLIES — Bahamian master fly fishing guides Prescott Smith (right) of the Stafford Creek Lodge, Andros, and David Pinder (center) of McClean's Town, Grand Bahama observe how this industry professional tie a fly.

(BIS photo by Gladstone Thurston)

Posted Thursday 11 September, 2003.