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| Gamefisher...or Zoro? |
Date: 10/16 through 10/24 2009
Location : Grand Bahamas ….then Water Cay Lodge….then Great Sale Cay : Flew on U.S. air through Phoenix to Fort Lauderdale….Continental from Ft L…to Freeport…stayed at the Bell Channel Inn at Freeport (80 dollars per night) Bar and restaurant on site. Basically ok…would stay again….15 minutes from airport..right on one of the bays that go to the sea
Weather: A cold front hit us on Saturday the 17th…first one of the year. Temps dropped from the high 80’s to the mid to low 70’s and so there is no guessing at this…a cold front does significantly affect subtropical fish/fishing. The fish leave the flats and seek deeper, must be, warmer water.
Trip Objectives & General Observations: This is my fourth time trying to get to the Bahamas….long way across the U.S. but pretty short hop from Lauderdale once you are there….the logistics worked well and the fishery around Water Cay is really good as were 2 out of the 3 guides…Sidney Thomas and Ezera Thomas….really good. I had a great time and would recommend the location.
Day 1: Found me meeting up with Brad Wolfe and Mike Swartz outside the Channel Bell Inn located in Freeport Grand Bahamas. We loaded my gear into a used but functional mini van and took off to the North….taking us to the boat for the quick trip across the Bay to Water Cay lodge. Thirty minutes or less across the bay and we pulled up to the boat dock ( build by Sidney’s son Casey. Once there I found myself looking at a new lodge on the SE point of Water Cay…6 rooms, nice working kitchen and a great room, dining room bar….very nice quaint lodge. Not fancy but very comfortable….Verizon phone worked and we had U.S. power outlets.
Later Mike and I took a quick boat ride with Greg the third and least experienced guide….Mike landed 2 nice bones and I broke 2 off…unfortunately that became one of the dominants themes for me….nice cast, nice hook set…then break them off any and every way imaginable. …buy new tippit….and really how bad was it anywayJ
Day 2: We found ourselves loading up a “well used” Bahamian lobster boat with food ,gear , the cook , guides and the adventurers themselves. Off we go…28 mile channel crossing with the lobster boat making a quick 5 knots J slightly encumbered by the 2 flats boats and spare run about in tow. Actually quite a site….I felt like we were on the poor mans version of the African Queen….not sure who in our group was Bogart but pretty sure it wasn’t me.
Days 3-6: The days evolved into a very nice routine…up at 7, hot water (meaning coffee) boated over from the mother ship (Bahamian lobster boat), cereal which I spiced up with peanuts, then off with the guides for a very full day of fishing. This was punctuated with a Spartan lunch normally composed of a sandwich and a small bag of chips, perfect really , especially if you had any sort of weight loss objective. As an aside, I was surprised by how little food the Bahamian men actually ate during the course of the day. This must be a good thing as all of these guys looked like NFL flankers. Our days were full of fishing and long….these guides did not even think about wrapping it up until 6pm. There were several days where we fished even later.
So what did I Learn:
1.First and foremost, take fresh tippet. I broke fish off every way imaginable. My tippet was old and could not handle the explosive pull of theses medium sized Bahamian bone’s. God only knows what would happen if a big boy hit. Tippet should be 0x-4x and new ( at the current year).
2.Take plenty of tip money, I ended up tipping the guides 50 per day , the cooks 50 total and the camp kid another 50. They all worked very hard and earned it…but it does relate to bring enough cash.
3.U.S. air seemed to be the right airline. I am going to get into their frequent flier program and a credit card that earns miles with them…they are an alliance partner for United
4.Don’t over pack…when you go into the field simpler is better. I had too much gear that I packed onto the plane and had to deal with overall. Having said that my system actually worked…checked bag with wheels, green boat bag , and back pack…the trick is to get it sized to mission critical stuff with a few extra’s.
The fly selection can be very simple…some pinkish gotcha’s and well designed clousers plus something that looks really plain “Hawaiian fly”. However the key is various sizes and the weight…need both chain eye and lead eye. The Guides had us on lead eye flies most of the time which seemed to get the fly down much quicker than the chain eye one. I will need to restock the lead eye stuff as I blew through my inventory quickly.
5.
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