Going bonefishing in Bahamas a wild experience.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

DEEP WATER CAY, BAHAMAS _ When you are called into battle, it's a good idea to get combat ready.

So, when I received an invitation to go bonefishing at Deep Water Cay Club on Grand Bahama Island, I joined a class at Sandy Moret's Florida Keys Fly Fishing School in Islamorada the week before I was to leave.

I already had fly-fished for bones, releasing about a dozen in the Bahamas and Mexico over the last eight years. But a refresher in surface warfare tactics never hurt any angler.

As any fly fisherman will tell you, the moment you are standing on the bow of a skiff in 15-knot winds facing an oncoming school of bonefish is NOT the time to practice getting the fly out of the boat.

With four of the world's greatest fly-fishing instructors _ Moret, Chico Fernandez, Steve Huff and Tim Klein _ Florida Keys Flyf Fishing School is the Harvard University of fishing education.

In two eight-hour sessions, the instructors cover everything from how to choose a fly rod to match your quarry to what to do when you see a bonefish. I made them demonstrate that last part a couple of times from a flats boat parked on the beach at the Cheeca Lodge, with Klein manipulating a stuffed bonefish.

I'd like to say that everything they taught me sank in and that I caught and released 20 bonefish in 2-{ days of fly fishing at Deep Water Cay. But I can't. I only released four bonefish, but one was my proudest fly-fishing achievement in eight years of flailing away with the long rod.