Sat Fishing

We went out with a local fishing outside the reef. Was a very slow day, fishing wise, or I should say landing the fishing wise. I had what the locals thought must have been a huge grouper, as it bent the pole I had in to a "J". It went into the coral, where my 17 pound line was no match.

Speaking of poles, Arlen, another guy from Wichita went out with us. He jumped on at the last minute, and didn't have a pole. The locals here rarely use a pole, most use a hand reel.

By hand reel, we are talking about anything that you can line fishing line around. From a Belikin (beer) bottle, up to a spool that you would by fishing line on, all the way up to a bigger reel that you can slip over your arm.

No more broken tips of fishing poles if you fish like the locals!



Arlen caught this on a hand line, he had quite the fight.

Arlen stood back and let the locals land this guy, a black tipped reef shark, I believe.

A quick shot for the camera, then back in the water.

Overall, fishing here wasn't very good, but I did do better doing some reef fishing later on. Reef fishing is were you wade out in the water, as deep as you feel you want to.

My first exposure to this was water just above the waist, now I have been in water that was up to my shoulders, and you had to hold your arms above your shoulders to keep your pole out of water.

I was pretty innovative with holding the pole in my mouth to bait, and placing the butt of the pole in my shirt pocket to remove fish. No place for a camera when fishing like this.

Tues Update, Early!!

Was up about 4 am, did a little slingbox video, then a short 30 min nap, back up at 645. Off snorkeling by 715. Was feeling pretty brave with my skills, until... I was on a tour underwater and was snooping under the coral gardens looking for lobster when I came face to face with a big shark! Totally unexpected, and really didn't plan on my face being about 1 foot away from HIS face... glad he was sleeping and decided not to be aggressive, in fact I pointed him out to Dave a few minutes later.

Later, I saw yet another shark, this one a little bigger, estimated about 5 feet long. Assuming it like the other was a nurse shark, sleeping in the strong current flow through the cut.

Like the first one, didn't seem to mind me invading its territory, which is a good thing, because I am sure I can't out swim a shark, regardless how much weight I have lost!

Back to the beach, re-geared up with fishing gear, replacing our masks and snorkels.

Ohh, we also picked up a local, Antonio who lives in the area, and is our source for sardines. Here, sardines are king for bait. Now time to cut bait or fish!

Fish we did, well after walking a about 500 yards out to a small coral patch.

This coral patch was pretty productive, me and Dave holding our reels and poles above the water as we waded out, Antonio with his gear on his wrist. His gear was a roll of line, a hook and a weight. Plus the all important sardines.

The water we were standing in was so deep that we'd have to reach up to cast, only to be put to shame by Antonio doing a lasso type movement that landed his rig much further than our expensive setups.

I'm not sure who caught the most or the biggest fish, mostly snapper, but if you know Dave, you'll have to ask him about him dropping his pole in the water and his inability to easily retrieve it.

I made the comment that I normally had to pay for a comedy show, but this one was free and I was catching fish at the same time! We were all laughing so hard.

Ended up the trip about 5 hours later, way to much sun, but glad that I was in my long sleeve shirt and jungle hat. My cheeks and nose were about all that got a little to much sun.

Returned to home base and cleaned the fish, has fresh snapper tacos and salad. Now relaxing, and getting ready for the rest of the week.

Scorecard: 3 miles of riding, 1 hour of snorkeling and several hours of fishing.

Scuba!

Ok, after being on the island for way to long, I finally had an opportunity to go diving the last couple of days.

Those that really know me, know it s true passion of mine. I have been diving since 1976... yea, I'm giving hints about my age, but I was really young when I started.

With life always changing, and the lack of opportunity to do much diving around Kansas, it has been way to long since I have been active in the scuba world.

That has changed. I have only been out of the water a few hours now, and already wondering if I will have an opportunity to dive here in 2009. We can always hope that its works out.

Please send your Charlie Diving fund to....

Over the last 2 days I have made 4 different dives. Two each day both days from the Tranquility Bay dive boat.

They range from a depth of 40 - 120 feet, with a maximum bottom time of 43 minutes.

One could never explain the experience in full detail, especially to a non diver. The colors, the current, the fish, the sea life, its all over powering.

My first dive of the trip was to some of the coral canons, not really coral heads, as these are more like coral ridges and bluffs.

You will have a big stretch of coral, inter mixed with what appear to be sand paved roads in between these ridges and bluffs.

If these bluffs were out of water and you stood on the edge of them and dropped down the bottom of the crevices would be 30-40 feet. And this is in water that is 80 plus feet already.

These crevasses are like super hiways for the marine life., all with little ledges, pockets, etc along both sides.

Because these are "open" i.e. no coral in them, the current flows more intensely between them. I dropped over a ledge and looked below me, only to see a seven foot shark, "sleeping."

I don't believe that they can really sleep, but it is my understanding that they like these places, as they can let the water free flow over the gills and get oxygen while not moving.

The dives have all been really amazing, not a lot of big fish, but lots of coral. I few big grey angels and one queen angel, one of my favorite fish.

We also dropped right about 3 huge lobster. I believe that one of the others on the dive got a picture, I'll try to get a copy and post here.

Saw a couple of big manta rays, one I was right above, and he took off behind me, before I could get turned around, he was outta sight... talk about fast!

I have more dives scheduled for Thanksgiving day, so look for another report.