How we fared...........

What a great trip! Unquestionably the best fishing trip we have ever had. And the weather, well we just couldn't ask for any better. Aside from the rough last day, we only lost 2 1/2 days to weather during the 38 days we were in the Bahamas.

We fished 25 of the 38 days and were only skunked twice. A couple days we only caught Cudas, but we weren't skunked. I have read fishing articles and watched fishing shows when they said the Dolphin bite was so good it was actually a nuisance when Marlin fishing around Cat Island. Well I believe them now. We have very little freezer space on FF III so we pretty much only kept enough fish to eat. Many times the reels would start singing only to find out we had caught "another slammer" Dolphin which interfered with our precious Marlin fishing time. We only caught one Blue, about 400 pounds. We hooked at least 3 others, had several hits we were pretty sure were billfish and saw a few others. In addition, we caught 2 big Sailfish, YF Tuna up to 42 pounds, Dolphin to 30 pounds, Grouper to 20 and some of the biggest YT Snappers ever. I almost forgot...Sharks up to about 200 pounds. Wow!

We used some new rigging techniques for Ballyhoo which worked really good. We also learned a lesson about checking drags and knots and leaders. You become complacent fishing with large tackle for smaller fish. Big fish will test your skills and equipment. As Freddie always says, "You need bigger tackle." Not only bigger, but you have to be on your toes and try to minimize the equipment failures.

We added several new islands to our list....San Salvador, Rum Cay, Emerald Bay, Farmer's Cay and Compass Cay. We found a great fishing guide and reef spot at Eleuthera. But, without a doubt, the best fishing spot is still Cat Island.

We put 149 hours on FF III and ran a total of 1447 nautical miles which equates to about 1700 statute miles. We had over 20 cases of beer loaded on board when we left and bought another 15 or so along the way. When we left Islamorada for home we loaded the last 2 cans of beer in our cooler. We now have over 10,000 nautical miles on our boat. With the difficulty of leaving Lola and with Baby Wade #2 on the way, I'm not sure there will be any extended trips in our near future.

I will miss visiting those quaint little islands and harbors and sampling the local cuisine in some of those tiny little holes in the wall. I think I heard CJM say she might consider a shorter trip. Let's see now...a short trip...say...a couple of weeks, little islands and harbors, and holes in the wall. I'm thinking Little Harbour, Abaco, Harbour Island (actually Spanish Wells), Eleuthera and fishing Hole in the Wall the first two weeks of May or June, 2013, which just happens to coincide with the dark of the moon. Anyone interested?

CTM