MARATHON, Florida Keys — I am just catching back up from my week and half in the Bahamas. We traveled all night, putting along to conserve fuel and at first light we were on the Bahamian Bank. We ran high speed over the bank and through the pocket to Chub Cay. We checked in and went out to fish. We trolled the pocket for a while with no strikes, what a bummer, I was hoping for a late afternoon bite. So we headed to a reef where we caught red hinds (Strawberry grouper) for that evenings dinner. We had an amazingly fresh grouper dinner with garlic and oil over our pasta and salad. I went over there on my clients boat, the Cara Mia, a 38 foot Blackfin Express.
The following day we went out of Chub Cay and ran to east end of the Berry Islands and trolled for a few hours. Not much there either so we decided to make the final run to Harbor Island. On the way there we encountered some birds, but not much. We trolled around and through the birds and caught a small yellowfin tuna. Since it was getting late we needed to check in to our slip before the dock master went home for the evening. That evening we jumped on the golf cart and drove around till we came across Ma Ruby’s, an incredible little joint with excellent food. I had a conch burger that was out of this world; everyone else ordered their cheeseburger in paradise, which was recommended by Jimmy Buffet. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, the rum seems to flow from the faucets here. It seems that happy hour starts when you hit the dock and it doesn’t end till bedtime.
The following day we had a slow start due to the empty beer cans all over the deck and few empty rum bottles on the live well. After getting some fresh coffee in our systems we geared up for the unexpected. I have never been to Harbor Island before but after spending a little over a week there I highly recommend it. Heading south to get out of the cut we encountered some big swells in the cut. Some of which were fifteen feet or better. Once out of the cut, it was a short ride, which seem like forever to James Point. This point sticks out five miles from the edge of the beach and sticks out into the current. 3,000-4,000 feet on one side, 50 feet of water on top and 3,000-4,000 feet on the other side. Harbor Island has five points like all within range of a day trip.
The first couple of days the seas were angry, ten to twelve footers with a fifteen-foot ground swell. It was still very fishable though. Being that it is at the edge of the North Atlantic, the ground swells were neat to fish in. Once the wind subsided the seas were flat with 15-20 foot ground swells, and again that was really neat to see, kind of reminds me of the rolling hills of Kentucky. The first couple of days we caught some big dolphin averaging from 25-40 pounds. We actually had a blue come up and seize up one of the dolphin we were reeling in. It was a little big for the blue to eat and he refused to eat any of our pitch baits we put back for him.
We went out a couple of other days and got some barracudas and one white marlin weighing in at 90 pounds. That was impressive to watch unfold from the tower. The water temp kept rising and it seemed to drive away the marlins. Even the dolphin were absent, but we did catch eight yellowfin tunas one afternoon live baiting off of one of those points. We kept trolling for marlin but had no luck, that how it goes sometimes, even in the Bahamas. On one of our last days fishing we sucked in an injector, which destroyed our turbo. We had to limp home, which took 41 hours of driving. We did stop and make two legs out of it. Be held up over night at the Berry islands and then the following morning we trolled all along the Berry’s catching some more yellowfin tuna and blackfins. Once we got home, I started back fishing on Sweet E’Nuf. Boy what a change.
