Something about fishing in the deep blue sea where you just never know what you are going to encounter is absolutely exhilarating. The size and vastness of the ocean brings a dynamic like no other in fishing: a high probability of failure and a chance of triumph off the charts. I’ve been fortunate enough to sample a lot of big blue fisheries all over the world, Spanish Wells, Bahamas is numero uno in my book. There is one major reason, you can do it yourself. Pack your gear, do your research, rig your baits, reasonably rent a worthy boat, and 4 miles from the harbor you are on a drop-off that goes out to 10,000+ feet of water and gives you an opportunity at just about anything you can gear-for and imagine. You fail on your own, you triumph on your own. Maybe that’s why I like tournament walleye fishing so much, especially the pro-am formate.
Day 1 we struck out on the troll after a couple hours so we decided to do some bottom fishing. I got a hot tip from my buddy Eric Hirzel to rip huge 8-12oz bucktails off the bottom for big groupers along the drop-off. It was amazing, first or second drift, by brothers and nephew had good action on nice pan size bottom fish and my jig just stopped. It was almost like I just snagged bottom and then I felt the thump-thump. After a good battle, we boxed a beautiful 25-30lb black grouper. I had a couple modest goals going into this trip…. Number 1, catch something edible that would require a gaff shot to land. Check.
The next couple days were a little slower. Struck out again on the troll. We bottomed fished and got a few pan sized fish. The highlight was after we caught a small fish and hooked it in the lip on one of the wire ballyhoo trolling rigs, then let it swim around while drifting and declaring my nephew and 11 year old fishing prodigy Colin was up on the rod. ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzz not long after and Colin got a nice shark to the boat. It’s super fun to see a screaming drag with a kid on the rod.
Day 4, we had a window of weather and wind where we could get out to the blue water before we would be shut down for several days because of a significant blow that was coming. My other goal going into this trip was to catch a pelagic. We got a tip from a local that there was a tuna and wahoo on the tips on some of these bars in 300-600 feet of water. Anything less you’ll catch cudas and the sharks will likely tax you on anything you happen to hookup. Anything more than that 600 or so was pretty desolate at the time. Its amazing how just that tip took the huge blue ocean and narrowed down our target area to tiny little spots. The 300-600’ drop might not even be a quarter mile wide. It’s crazy, and it actually made a ton of sense as to a place to target. Bang! Not long after we got out there at sunrise, a rod goes screaming!!! This is different, it was no king salmon, steelhead, any thing else that us mid-westerner’s think of as big hitting screaming fish. Colin and my brother Kevin were up on the rod and tag-teamed a beautiful king mackerel. WE. WERE. PUMPED. We kept on trolling and then the mahi decided they wanted to play. Myself, brother Greg, Colin, and nephew Josh all did our best keeping the boat in order and getting the baits back out, while Kevin tactfully kept the boat in the key area where we were getting bit. We we had a window of chaos where we went 3/6 on beautiful gaffer mahi. The crew was awesome, it was awesome, goal number 2 check.
The next several days our fishing was hampered by the wind, but our fun level continued to soar with games of ‘monkey in the middle’ on the beach, posting up the boat on uninhabited island beaches, kids rocking the playground, easter egg hunts on the beach, goombay smashes, manatee and mermaid hunts, etc…. Thanks to American Airlines for canceling our flight home, we got to stay 2 more days and get one more crack at the blue water on our last full day there.
We had a problem though. The Bahamians take their Easter seriously, and absolutely rightful so. In some sense it was refreshing that NOTHING is open and everyone was celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus, the problem was that our boat was low on fuel and we weren’t too comfortable heading out to the blue water without a little extra ‘get-home-insurance-fuel’. I vividly remember having the discussion with Greg “I think we’d be alright, but the scenario is just so bad if we weren’t.” So thankfully, I buzzed our amazing VRBO host Rachel, and asked her if by chance she had a 5 gallon jerry can of fuel we could bum off her. She came through. That’s the other thing about this place, everyone we encountered was so nice and so willing to help each other out at this place, I love it. I asked her what I could pay her, “Fish” was her answer. Say no more, we’re on it.
I felt like we learned so much early in the week, had a nice break from the serious fishing, and were ready to rock for one last crack at it. We got another tip from another local that the other side of the bar that we were fishing was more likely to have tuna on it. The mahi were fantastic, but hell if we could diversify our catch, why the heck not give it a crack. Well guess what, we started on that other side, encountered some beautiful weed patches and it turned out this is where the mahi were on this day. Chaos x 2 commenced over the next few hours. 7/11 on gaffer mahi. Unreal do it yourself trip. A day I will never forget. Rachel got her fish for fuel.
I learned a couple things later in the trip about shark fishing and I think that’s why we failed at getting Nora something that I thought would be so easy. Sharks aren’t dumb. We went to a nice corner of an island with a perfect ripping current and set up a chunk of cuda. Seemingly perfect shark spot. Not long after sitting there, an 8-10’ hammerhead swam right up to the boat and said “Screw you’, I’m not eating this 2 day old iced cuda.” Actually, I think we might have been more screwed if that size fish bit, hahaha. OK, we’ll try a fresh one tomorrow (the last day). The girls were a little boated out, so we took a fresh cuda chunk to a deep hole near the beach after dark. Perfect I thought. The problem was it was a slack tide and 4-7 year old ‘sharker’s’ weren’t willing to wait out the tide and let the scent get flowing. My bad judgement, I guess we have to go back, and we won’t make the same mistakes again.
We’ll be back. Next trips goals I’m putting out there now… 1. Wahoo 2. Nora getting a shark 3. A flats bonefish.