ROLLERS

We had great plans of leaving Bimini and heading for Port Lucaya for a night or two and fish the rich waters of the Northwest Providence Channel east and maybe even get to fish Hole in the Wall (now Gap in the Wall). Kind of fish and cruise our way to Harbour Island. Well, old "Mariah" would not stand for it. The wind continues to blow like crazy. We had what looked like 3 days of calm seas to make our way rather quickly to Eleuthera so we pulled out of Bimini a day early and headed across the Grand Bahama Bank.

The wind had supposedly layed down so we took off. Well, very shortly we figured out it had not. You wouldn't think if the water is only 15 feet deep for 86 miles that the waves could build that high. Well they weren't 10 feet but they were big enough and right on the nose. We backed off to about 10 knots and trudged across the bank for about the worst 8 hours spent on our boat. Great Harbour was a wonderful sight. So now we were 107 miles from Harbour Island and had two days to get there. So, we went fishing. Of course, we were exhausted from the previous day, so we didn't get out until 9 or 10. And, with another long day ahead of us tomorrow, we came in early as well. We had a little excitement following a Frigate bird around but couldn't get what he was following to bite.

Ok, so now we were heading across some new territory. We had traveled from Great Abaco to Great Harbour before, but the run on to North Eleuthera was new. You travel along the Great Bahama Canyon. The depth in meters is more than 5000 which is about 3 miles deep. Well let me tell you, even if the wind is zero, there are BIG swells. ROLLERS. They had to be 8 to 10 feet but the wavelength was such that we could run 20 to 22 knots. Occasionally we would face one that looked like those in the Perfect Storm. I don't think Six Flags has anything on them. About half way there we were about 7 or 8 miles from Hole in the Wall. There's a light house on the tip of the land. I think I could barely make it out as we passed by. All I could think of was that once again I was cruising past some of the most fertile fishing waters in the Bahamas and no time to fish. About 15 miles from Eleuthera we picked up some birds working on our radar ( I've been working on that for a while now). We got our spread out similar to what we used in Bimini fishing for marlin with of course a Billy Bait out as well. We made a few passes through and got a double hook up. Both seemed to be pretty good fish. By the time CJM got down one was off (the biggest one of course) so she took the pole and I reeled in the other baits and handled the boat. A few minutes later we landed a very nice Yellowfin Tuna. A couple more passes produced a nice Blackfin Tuna. One YF in the box and we became tuna snobs. We threw the BF back and reeled up.

We were still 15 miles from Eleuthera so we decided to run in to the edge and fish around a couple points that jutt out from the shore. There was a lot of bird and baitfish action. The waters looked just right for the catching, but the only obliger was a pretty big Cuda. With an unfamiliar entrance and not very well marked path to the marina, we reeled up and headed in. The passage was uneventful. We were soon tied up and rinsed off and having a cold one. A guy walked by and said we had a nice LITTLE boat. "That little boat is just right for two people". He was right, once again we are about the smallest boat in the marina. Oh well, the same size fish will look bigger laying on a smaller boat.

Three large fishing boats came in after us. One had a Wahoo and two really nice Dolphin. Another had a couple smaller Dolphin and a couple ok Blackfin Tuna. The other had a mess of Yellowtail Snappers. It seemed the best catches of the day were around Hole in the Wall, but on some floating debris near there. The wind is going to blow for a few days now, so time to rest up and be ready when our crew gets here.

CTM