This article was published in the Anglers Journal Summer 2015 Issue. Coach Bob Knight died on November 1, 2023, at the age 83.
Bob Knight’s directness is excessive. The legendary basketball player is casting flies too fast and too hard on the morning before the first of three days of fishing in Bimini. The proverbially skittish bonefish — the favorite meal of every toothy, scary thing that lurks beneath these paradisal waters — hunker together in small groups in the gin-clear flats, maddeningly close to the boat. Knight’s line hits the water every time he casts and his fly makes a big splash.
Knight’s nickname in college was Dragon, and right now, standing tall on the bow of the boat in the bright, hot sun, his leader licking fiercely at the water’s surface like a flame, he looks the part. Fish are fleeing. The gray ghosts skitter around in all directions as fast as they can, earning themselves the moniker. Their fear of death is palpable. I wouldn’t wish being a bonefish on my worst enemy.
Bonefish Tom, our guide, is preaching to Knight, high on the pulpit in his skiff. His voice is thick with concern and the musical lilt that the islands have. “You’ve got to…
