Today was one of those days when they take the photos for the brochures and advertising stuff. Bright blue sky with no wind this morning and just a slight breeze this afternoon.
I gassed up the boat this morning and headed out to the ocean and south to some of the outside flats. On a day like this you take advantage of the calm seas and do some traveling. I was by myself so when I got to the flat I anchored the boat in what I thought was a great spot. At least it was when I was there a year ago. For almost a half hour there was nothing and I was just about ready to move when a few bones showed up. In just a few minutes they all around the boat. I got my first hookup on a nice 5+ pounder and while I had him on I was looking around for sharks as always and I noticed the boat was literally surrounded with bonefish. They were on every side of me. For the next hour the fishing was about as good as it can get. The tide was falling and they were heading for deeper water and I was in the perfect spot. On the way out I stopped at a place that I never fished before. It was at the end of a long sand bar that half way to the reef. It looked like a spot for some big fish. I didn’t wade more than 50 feet from the boat when these 2 huge bones showed up. First cast was short and the second was almost too close but they didn’t spook. Two strips and I was hooked up. This thing took a good portion of my backing and he was way out in the ocean. I started to lean on him pretty heavy, apparently a bit too heavy as all of sudden the rod tip shattered. This is my favorite rod especially for windy conditions, Scott STS 9ft, 9wt. Oh well it was a hell of a fish any way and I did get him all the way in by hand lining.
The weather last weekend was cloudy and windy so Linda and I decided to do a road trip north. We went to Morgans Bluff and crawled into the cave where the pirate, Captain Morgan hid out from the British. The water tanker was at the dock filling up with Andros water destined for Nassau. We watched this operation for awhile and as it was leaving the dock the captain got on his loud speaker and invited us on board next time in. Pretty nice of him I thought. There was a 250 foot freighter that was waiting out in the ocean a ways for the tanker to leave so he could get in. He tried once before but the NE almost blew hm into shallow water. We decided to wait around and watch this deal. He came down the channel toward the dock and as soon as he turned in and broad side the wind got him again. He was in full reverse and barely holding ground. The dock hands were all screaming and waving and warning him he was close to running aground. He started to inch just a little closer to the dock but was at an angle to it. The deck hand was winding up his tag line with the little ball on the end to attempt to reach the dock. With the angle of the ship and the way he was winding up I told Linda if it made it to the dock it would be way down the other end away from the dock workers who were waiting for it. So her and I headed down that way and no sooner got there when the deck hand made his throw. It just barely made the dock but was right in front of us so we grabbed it and started to haul up the hawser line to secure it on the bollard. There were whistles, cheers and thumbs up from the hands on the ship. After they got the ship secured to the dock we headed toward the truck and there were yells of thank you coming from the bridge of the freighter. I think if we had waited around the Captain would have surely invited us for dinner that evening. We gave each other a high five and congrats on docking a freight ship—never done that before.