Travel Talk

Fishing From Dawn Till Dusk in the Caribbean Sea

Greetings,

I sit here in an early morning breeze at the bright and early time of 6:30am, just finished a run and almost forgot how good it feels. What started yesterday as an overzealous early morning attack on the local fisheries turned into a full day of fishing. We’re talking you’re a kid fishing all day here as there was literally nothing else. I caught little, got seriously sun burned and had a great day…

I was fishing from shore with my small rig, turns out I took out the “heavy duty toys” and got carried away. I caught these branches with near first cast and figured my setup could pull them in, crane style. I was mistaken and the rod broke. That said, I’ve only ever broken one other rod in my life so I’m thinking it was defective, or I’m just criminally careless, either way… Fast forward a day; it’s dawn and I’ve caught a small jack when suddenly I hear a local fisherman saying “hey man, get in…”

Turns out the captains anchor man didn’t show so I jumped on board and out to sea we went. We hit up a few spots and I caught two grunts. If you’re from North America, grunts are like rock bass aka not so cool. The fisherman I was with landed a large barracuda and the Swedish gent pulled in a king fish. Using live bait seems to be the way to play it. Oh yeah, I’m a horrible anchor man. Pulling two anchors from 60M deep on the sea floor is not fun or easy whatsoever.

Upon returning to the island I joined some other friends just going out. We caught near nothing on this trip, I mean almost nothing but we came back with a boat filled with fish! Approximately 2.5 miles out to sea this vessel comes up to us with a somewhat concerned looking Captain. As it happens, they stayed out too long and used too much fuel. They used so much fuel they didn’t even have enough to get back to shore or even in the reef, problem.

So we sold them 2 gallons of fuel, served at sea for pounds and pounds of fresh fish including two massive snappers, indeed. I helped with the gasoline transfer and nothing says reckless and “don’t light a smoke” like someone pouring gas into a small water bottle funnel on top of a gallon water jug while the sea sways and stirs, knocking both of you about with the gas is spilling and soaking into your sleeves. I was covered in gas and buzzed off the fumes but it was quite the experience.

We fished until it was dark and the Caribbean gave us a great sunset. Once back on land, I ran into this friend who had a kitchen filled with fish. A 20lbs barracuda, a massive mahi mahi and a king fish that was so big, the center steak was like 5-10 lbs. I went out afterwards and kept casting awkwardly until I finally caught the rocks I was trying to avoid; that was that.

In other news, it’s been a full month here on Little Corn Island…  Where did February, 2013 go!?

Tips hat,

P.S: The longer you spend at sea, the less you feel sick…

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