Up at sunrise. Logistics had David worried. He had arranged for Jamal to pick up our fishermen from the house at 730 to meet Reno, the fishing guide, at the government dock for a half day bonefishing charter. Then Cathy and David to George Town to pick up the motor boat at 830. Miraculously everything fell into place.
The next section of today’s entry by guest writer Michael Riopel.
The Exumas are a world class destination for anglers looking to chase the elusive bonefish. A week before the group arrived, David found a local guide, Reno, who was willing to take out two first timer bone fishermen. John and I jumped at the opportunity. After a quick boat taxi from Stocking Island to George Town, we met Reno at the dock. As we jumped into his car, it was clear that he had a warm way about him. He mentioned that when David called to set up the trip, he made sure there were realistic expectations, “Yeah, they rarely catch anything, so there’s no pressure really.” Reno found this particularly funny.
Reno grew up in George Town. He learned to fly fish through an after school program during primary school when a local fisherman would come once a week after school for an hour and teach a group casting basics. He has been guiding on the George Town flats for 28 years. His son is now a guide too. As Reno drove us to his boat, we peppered him with bonefish questions. He explained they are a finicky fish as a result of their many predators including, barracuda and lemon sharks, osprey from above and also fly fisherman on vacation. One must be thoughtful when approaching these creatures.
Bonefish prey on small crustaceans: shrimp, crabs, and snails. At high tide, they shelter in the mangroves and can be hard to find. But as the tide goes out, they leave the mangrove. If one is careful and quiet, poling along the shoreline can be productive.
We reached a boat launch and hopped in Reno’s custom built flats boat, powered by an old, grumpy Yamaha. “No smoke, that means we are good” Reno celebrated as he started her up. The twenty-minute drive to the flats was an adventure of its own. Crystal-clear blue water shimmered alongside narrow channels winding through sprawling mangrove jungles. It felt natural to imagine ourselves back home, lost in the marsh aboard my boat, the Green Bastard.
Reno cut the engine and I jumped up on the bow. Reno carefully polled us along the mangroves, directing us to keep our eyes peeled for the silver flash of bonefish.
After a few mediocre casts, one false hook set and 3 fly changes, Reno pointed our attention across the cut. “Do you see the milky water? That happens when bonefish are in a feeding frenzy.” Sure enough, we polled over and spotted a giant school. “Cast now! 10 o clock, 40 feet” Reno directed. The execution was more like 12:30 at 25 feet but it didn’t matter. Fish on! A small one, but mighty, peeling plenty of drag on the way in.
The second fish seemed much bigger. As the fight continued and the bonefish was reeled closer to the boat, a lemon shark attacked it and snapped the line. Reno’s instruction for next time, when a lemon shark is around, let the bonefish run freely once hook is set so that it can evade the lemon shark. “Sometimes this happens.”
After one more cast and successful bonefish landing, we motored to a new location closer to home. On the way, we passed a small rock island with an osprey nest overlooking the bay. A beautiful home!
It was John’s turn. The water was even lighter here which made seeing the bonefish more challenging for the fisherman, but Reno didn’t seem to have any trouble. He directed John on each cast. After only a few minutes, bonefish on.
John was closing in on his second fish when a barracuda lurked into our area. Reno explained that bonefish will hang around if lemon sharks are nearby, but a barracuda is a different story. It was a great stopping point, so we headed back to the landing.
As Reno drove us back to George Town, we asked if he had availability the following week for two conventional fisherman. He agreed and gave us a few business cards. We hope our intrepid sailors can go. However, we made one thing clear to Reno: if Dave catches 4 fish (our total), he must take him to a flat teeming with barracuda.
Now Back to Our Regular Programming with Cathy
After seeing the fishermen off on their journey, David and I took Fat Tuesday across the harbor to pick up the motor boat. We decided to keep the dinghy with us in case people wanted to row or sail so I got to drive the dinghy back across the harbor while David drove the motor boat. We often see women crossing solo in dinghies and I felt very excited to be managing this feat.
We left Fat Tuesday on the beach and went to pick up Austin and Sara. We decided to snorkel in the cove with the cave near their rental. We tied to a buoy and plunged. The opening of the underwater cave was full of fish that came out when we approached. One of them nibbled at my finger (no teeth). We saw some smaller fish in the grass near the dock. I saw a barracuda there as well.
After our dive, we picked up the fishermen in the motor boat and headed to Splash bar and grill on Great Exuma for lunch. There were some rocks on the way in but we managed to navigate through them. We ate grilled mahi sandwiches and cheeseburger outside. One woman was running the bar and the restaurant. We think she was doing everything except cooking the food so it was a leisurely lunch in a beautiful setting.
After lunch, we headed to sand dollar beach and sand bar. We snorkeled the cove and found some sand dollars and sea biscuits, a type of sea urchin that is rounder than its relative, the sand dollar. We saw several live conch there and I saw a live urchin. Austin and Sara saw a barracuda.
We then dropped the young people at the house and John and I crossed in the dinghy, my second crossing, while David rushed to get the motor boat back in time. I steered and John acted as ballast and moral support. John enjoyed the culvert and the crossing.
When we got back to the house, Sara and Austin were watching the sunset and Michael was diving around the cave. They all returned ready to cook a lobster dinner. David had purchased some lobster tails at the beauty parlor fish market. Austin butterflied the lobster tails, seasoned them and placed them on the only small baking tray we had. He and Sara then made roasted potatoes and salad. They made up a dressing recipe that was delicious. I made a key lime pie with vanilla wafers in the bottom of a metal skillet for the crust. There were no graham crackers available at the Exuma market and no pie plates at the house. I was proud of our improv. Many believed vanilla wafers to be the ideal accompaniment to key lime pie filling. We will serve this dish again at the July 4 gathering.
Our dinner was spectacular and was followed by a high scoring game of Chauncey in which Austin was victorious with Sara a close second. I was very sleepy but the family banter was so dear to my heart and cherished. I am sad that this is the last night to be with this group on our adventure. So glad we could share some time with them here.
