First boat trip Sunday 5th April

George our guide for the day picked us up atthe dock at about 6.45am and off we went towards the reef, first stop for a spot of trolling was a bank half a mile mile inside the reef, George said there were normally some spanish mackerel there, so out went some shallow running lures, mine a mackerel lookalike and Billys was light blue top with silver sides. After about 5 minutes my uptider bent over and line started to peel off the reel, after a spirited fight the first spaniard was in the boat, followed 10 minutes later with its twin again on my rod.

George decided to head outside the reef after another 15 minutes with no take so we trolled the same lures through a deep cut in the reef, just as we neared the reef my rod bent over again this time with a nice red snapper (its cooking now for tea).

Once we got outside the reef it was time for a change to slightly deeper diving lures, I chose one that had a dark back and flashy silver sides, Billy went through a few in quick succesion as he was having trouble finding one that would run right. We trolled about for about an hour with no sign then my rod went again but this time the line kept going and going, when in eventually got the fish near the boat it took off again for about 80 yards, i felt something grate then it all went slack, once in the boat the wire trace was frayed and the snap that attached to the lure had been snapped, I was gutted ! George said it looked like it was a big king fish.

we trolled around outside the reef for another hour or so with nothing to show for it then headed inside further south, I stuck with the shallow mackerel imitation while george sorted Billy a bait rig to try for a cuda using a fillet from the tail end of one of the mackerel. We saw no end of cuda and some big ones but they just didn't seem interested. Eventually Billy got his first take of the day on the bait and landed a nice cuda.

We set off towards one of the cayes still trolling for lunch, i had 2 good pulls that did nothing more than leave me with tooth holes in my lure and billy had another cuda take the bait but it managed to throw the hook. We edged up over a flat into very shallow water heading for a narrow cut between the islands to have lunch in the shade surrounded by fish fry that were being attacked by jacks and snapper, lunch over and it was decided wewould try for some bone fish on the fly, we went through the cut onto a large flat and started searching, after 10 minutes we found some bones but they were in a hole in the flat that went down to about 8 foot. It was my turn to have the first crack at them and on about the 3rd cast manged my first bone fish on the fly, only a small one about 2lb but they pull harder than any trout ! I managed another a few minutes later slightly bigger at 3lb then it was Billys turn but the fish had moved so we headed accross to a very shallow flat and soon found some fish in 2 foot of water, these were very spooky and after a few attempts billy got a take but never managed to hook it so back we went to the first flat and found some more fish in about 6 foot of water where Billy managed 2 quite quickly we stayed a little longer and i managed 3 very small bones then it was back to the trolling.

we started out again with me on the shallow lure and Billy on the bait, it wasn't long before Billy got a take but when it stopped the first run the line was in a tangle by the reel so as Billy untangled it the fish took off again burning his thumb and snapping thw 30lb line like cotton. After the that we went back to the trolling lures, Billy had one of my shallow mackerel ones and I tried a red head going a little deeper, Billy was in quickly with a nice grouper and a spanish mackerel then it was my turn again for a spanish mackerel then a nice cuda.

We moved down the the southern most point of the reef, me with a black backed silver sided diver and billy with the shallow mackerel pattern, It never took long for a small bonito to hit my lure (its in the fridge for tomorrows bait). then we set off trolling inside the reef towards home after about 30 minutes I had another good take that really pulled line off the reel at speed, this was to be the last fish and turned out to be a nice king mackerel.

the wind had got up whilst we were out and there was quite a swell making it wet and bumpy on the way back in, but nothing as bad as a calm day in the north sea, we were glad of the spray to cool us down.

now its an eary night ready for tomorrow out in the boat with George again, he is thinking about taking us north to try some new water I report when we get back tomorrow night.