Fishing Trip to Abaco

I wanted to create one more slideshow with sound before I head overseas. It took me less than an hour from start to finish using the program: Picasa3. May God have mercy on the soul of anyone who tries to do this using Windows Movie Maker. I've seen viruses that are more user friendly...

American Airlines was running a special on airfare to Treasure Cay, Abaco, The Bahamas and I convinced some friends to go fishing with me. John Ruddock (my business partner), David Sconyers (my coworker at A.G. Edwards for 10 years), and Will Sconyers (Dave's son)were the attendees.

David had been to Abaco in the late 80's, but the other two had never been. We set it up to leave on Thursday, fish Friday, island hop and dive on Saturday, and return Sunday.

Everything but John's luggage arrived in Treasure Cay intact. I was secretly glad to see his luggage lost because I get sick pleasure from watching him freak out. We left the airport in a piece of crap car that I rented from a man named OC for $55 (cash) per day, no contract.

First stop was Terrance's conch stand in Dundas Town. Conch salad is a bahamian version of ceviche. Terrance makes his own hot sauce, Little Dog. Little Dog is the only sauce so hot it needs 2 slogans. 1. As you are wiping tears out of your eyes and sweat off your brow, Terrance taunts, "The little dog be barkin!" (insert thick bahamian accent). 2. When you begin to beg for water, with the same accent, "Little dog make you take off so fast you pass the space shuttle like she's STOPPED!". We all enjoyed, although the gastric effect it had on John ensured he'd had his last conch salad on this trip. The remainder of Thursday was uneventful.

Friday morning I dropped Dave and Will off to bonefish with Terrance, and took John to 2 airports and multiple clothing stores. His bags still hadn't arrived,he doubled the cost of his trip in the gift shops and we met back up with the other 2 around lunch.

Now I'd only ever been bonefishing once before. I caught so many fish before lunch that we quit fishing and spent the afternoon diving conchs and lobster. So I assumed that Dave and Will had wore themselves out reeling in fish. Alas, it seems I was lucky the first time, because they came home skunked. $250 is kind of expensive for a boat ride.

We sent them back to the house to lick their wounds and John and I spent the afternoon fishing. Let me rephrase, I spent the afternoon watching John have epileptic convulsions trying to cast a fly rod in 20 MPH wind. Finally after a couple hours, he landed a bonefish. I never made a cast! I didn't really care as I'd rather talk to Terrance then just about anyone else I know, so I had a big afternoon. To recap, 4 fisherman, $500 guide, 1 bonefish.

That night we went to an annual Bahamian festival: Junkanoo. Think: Tribal version of Marti Gras without the debauchery. The local kids dress up in wild costumes and march through the streets parade style playing the most unusual music I've ever heard. The streets were lined with onlookers and vendors selling Bahamian food. Sadly, we left the cameras at home so no photgraphic evidince exists. There are some pictures here: http://www.abaconian.com/mar1b1~1.pdf (see pages 12-14)

Saturday we planned to rent a boat in Marsh Harbour, head north to Guana Cay for lunch, then stop off in Hope Town to check out the lighthouse, finishing the day by diving for conch and lobster just off Cornish Cay. Since the fishing was a complete bust, the pressure was on for Saturday to salvage the trip. You can see in the embeded slideshow that everything went perfect on Guana Cay and Hope Town. We ate lunch at Nippers, walked the beach a bit, hit Hope Town, climbed the Lighthouse, and headed south.

TO THE READER: THE REMAINDER OF THIS POST IS A ROMANTICIZED VERSION OF THE VARIOUS MISHAPS WE EXPERIENCED WHILE TRYING TO DIVE LOBSTERS AND CONCHS. IF YOU'D LIKE, YOU CAN PROCEED DIRECTLY TO THE SLIDE SHOW.

Now I'd been telling these guys for months that I knew where the lobsters were and diving them would not be a problem. I was a bit concerned about the water temperature, but beyond that I couldn't think of anything that could go wrong. After a 30 minute boat ride, we came to the spot where I thought the lobster habitats (plywood anchored to the ocean floor) should be. The lobsters hide under the habitats for protection from predators. I could tell these dudes were pretty skeptical that I could find a piece of plywood, in the middle of the ocean, with nothing to go on but my memory. I'm pleased to report that my 20-20 memory is still in perfect order and we found a habitat almost immediately.

You must free dive for the lobsters, no scuba. The water is 12-15 feet deep. So the first one in the water swims down and flips the trap (it's not a real trap, they can come and go as they wish). Then you shoot the lobsters with a hawaiian sling or a spear pole. No spearguns allowed. In 2002 Terrance and I killed 51 lobsters in a single afternoon. He is an underwater machine!

So here is the plan: Dave mans the boat, John, Will, and I are in the water. I'm to flip the trap, John is waiting at the surface with the spear, and he and Will are going to shuttle the lobsters back to the boat. At some point I'll give Will the flippers and he can go shoot a couple. The plan fell apart the second we hit the water. After nearly hyperventilating, I swim down flip the trap, and return to the surface way more exhausted then I should've been. Grab the spear from John and prepare to head back down. However, the ocean current was not a big fan of having the trap flipped so it saw fit to return it to its original position. #$%^&@!!!

I'm way too tired to try fliping that thing again, John has lost his snorkel, and Will is being swept out to see by the same current that de-flipped my trap. So Dave brings the boat around and we all climb in: cold, exhausted, and half drowned.

As I lay on the floor of the boat trying desperately to thaw out and catch my breath, I could only think one thing: "I didn't come all the way to the Bahamas to not catch fish and not dive lobsters. I could've done that at home."

Plan B: We are going to anchor the boat directly on top of the trap. I'm gonna swim down, flip the trap and use the ocean current to keep it flipped. Really all I'd have to do is stand it up, and let the current do the rest. So we get the boat positioned perfectly, I dive in, panic from the cold, and flip it the wrong way, AGAIN! Of course, the ocean deposits it right back where it started. @#$%^!!!

Thankfully, this time a couple lobsters reacted to the commotion and swam out of the trap. They hand me the spear and I'm off. I identify the larger of the two, grab a breath, and head down. Finally something goes right. I shoot this lobster perfectly. Too perfectly in fact. I have to return the spear w/lobster to the boat so they can remove it. In the meantime lobster #2 returns to the trap. @#$%^!!!

They drag me in the boat, and I'm wore out! They taunt me for being an idiot. I agree.

Next we put Will in the water. He decides to swim down without flipping the trap and take a couple blind shots into the habitat. No dice. Next we decide to swim down and tie a piece of rope to the trap so it can be lifted from the boat. So John Ruddock dives in, and using his momemtum reaches a maximum depth of 3 feet. I'm serious, I don't think his knees even got wet! If I were his wife, I'd be afraid to let him take baths. This dude is no swimmer. Finally, David (born 12/18/1954) enters the water, dives to the trap, ties the rope on, and surfaces with a somewhat smug look on his face. (I'll teach these whipersnappers how to dive.)

So I'm back in the water for the third time. I've sinced realized it takes a lot of your energy flipping that trap. With them lifting it with the rope, I was able to kill 2 more lobsters. So after 2+ hours, we had three lobsters. Not bad for fellas from Alabama. If things would've gone more smoothly, I think we probably could've got 10 or more. We scared off several of them with all the commotion. Oh well.

While I was chasing those last couple lobsters, I spotted some big conchs. Dave dives in a grabs the first one. I was proud of that guy. 15 feet is no easy dive when the water is 70 degrees. Will refuses to be out classed by his father, gets back in the water and grabs 5 conchs in less than 10 minutes.

Despite the various setbacks, we all agreed that this was the highlight of trip. We've got an hour till sunset, time to head in. We took a slight wrong turn heading back to Marsh Harbour, but on the whole, Saturday was nearly perfect. That night we cooked the conch/lobster and had a big feast.

Sunday we returned home uneventfully.

Here are photos:




Hope you enjoyed!!

Adam