You don’t have to go to the Keys for large bonefish — but don’t tell anyone

For commercial fisherman Trever Flathman, there are still surprises for him as he covers waters worldwide in search of fish for market.

“I see a lot of cool things people don’t normally get to see,” the Bradenton native Flathman said. “Commercial fishing I’m on the water so much there’s always stuff that surprises me.”

Over the past 10 years, Flathman has spent his summers traveling to Alaska fishing for salmon. “I like the people, the weather and the fishing. The season is usually June and July and we go non-stop.”

When he’s back in his hometown, Flathman spends his days in the deep water in search of grouper, snapper and swordfish or on the flats targeting ladyfish, a fairly valuable target sold to east Asian markets.

“On the deep-water trips we get a lot of queen and blackfin snapper or grouper like yellow eye, hambone, and more. On the flats the peak of my season is in the colder months for ladyfish. I basically work non-stop for six months out of the year and six months off between Alaska and Florida,” Flathman explained.

Chasing ladyfish around the flats he covers water from upper Tampa Bay south to Sarasota Bay. What he sees would surprise even the saltiest of west coast anglers, evidenced by a recent ladyfish haul that had a few unique visitors. Flathman targets the ladyfish with a sein, allowing him to entrap the target fish without doing harm to by-catch.

“We were fishing just inside New Pass in Sarasota Bay. As I was bringing in the net I started taking out bonefish and releasing them. After about a dozen or so I couldn’t believe how big they were and saw more. That’s when I started putting them in my canoe filled with water to see just how many we caught. I think there were probably 100 in the bigger school and we caught maybe 40 that we let go. They were mixed in with the ladyfish.

“I catch a few a year that are usually pretty small. I think the ladyfish are related to bonefish so it makes sense to see them together. But these were bigger bonefish than the ones we normally get. They could have easily been mistaken for the size people target in the Florida Keys, which was pretty crazy.”

Flathman finished the set and released the bonefish back to their seemingly out-of-place home. When asked whether it’s something consistent enough to target fishing, he thinks people might already be doing just that in secret.

“There’s one place up by Tampa where I always seem to run into a few. And there is a group of fly fisherman up there consistently, one of the only places I see people fly fish around here. I think they might be out there for bonefish but not letting anyone else know except their friends.”

Normally associated with crystal clear tropical waters like the Florida Keys and Bahamas, bonefish are occasionally found around the beaches and shelly flats of the bay. A school that large is a rare sight.

Jon Chapman writes a weekly fishing and outdoors column for The Bradenton Herald.

This story was originally published October 15, 2021 at 12:34 PM.