SSAC Fly fishing trip on location Grand Cayman, British West Indies.

Breakfast consumed, we spent our first fishing efforts within the Grape St. Tarpon Canals, the closest being located six hundred yards or so from the base camp. The water was lower than at Christmas, but there were fish swirling here and there.

A most unfortunate moment occurred when Luke broke his 8 weight rod. He had tried to free his fly from some branches, yielding a broken rod, slightly under the second joint. He would now be rodless for the rest of the day, and be in need of a replacement.

I continued fishing and eventually caught a nice tarpon that we thought would be good for 8 or so pounds.

I liked the action of my new rod: a 10 weight, 4 piecer, nine foot. I built the rod from an excellent blank, and used a nice reel seat to suit. I have a nine weight forward floater for my line, sitting on top of 200 yards, 30 pound breaking strain backing. This is all stored on my System 2 salmon reel. The reel has a good drag and holds lots of line. For leaders we will be using 30 pound nylon at about 7 feet in length.

After leaving the canals, we decided to take out the new boat. PBR-2 is a 16 feet aluminium patrol craft, with 25 HP motor.

PBR-2 has a Bimini shade, life-vests, flares, radio, anchor plus ropes; so is adequately equipped for patrols around North Sound and even beyond the reef. PBR-2 holds 5 gallons of fuel in main tank, plus 2 times 2 gallon reserve tanks, giving long range mission possibilities.

We motored off to Abank’s Run looked for any fish. We found none, but were really preoccupied upon the task of familiarisation with the new vessel.

Day 2, 23^rd June 1999 "Reefward Ho!"

After breakfast operations meeting, it was decided that PBR-2 would be taken some six miles away to the reef, with the hope of getting a baracuda or a houndfish. For back up, 2 hand-lines with squid for bait were taken on board. The basic idea was to motor up and down the inner reef margins, trolling large flies; large Triple 7’s were tied up especially for the trip. A stop off anchor point was planned to break up the trolling; at this point bait fishing would commence.

Luke has the use of my Dad’s old Shakespeare rod, so for the day would be using that.

We put the plan into action by taking a more or less northerly course up along the Booby Cay to end near the reef at the Rum Point channel. We arrived some 40 mins later and proceeded to take up trolling lures along the reef margins. The engine was shut down to a slow speed and we watched numerous houndfish leap around in the vicinity of our trailing lures.

By 2 o’clock, we decided to stop and do a bit of bait fishing. I got 2 small wrasse-like fish, whilst Luke got 1. Luke had to recover his hook and weight a couple of times; snagged in the coral. PBR-2 is equipped with basic underwater swimming gear to allow for these types of activities.

After a while we set off and explored the Booby Cay area. I knew of a channel that meandered into the mangrove; it just thinned and thinned. We arrived at the mouth of this channel and slowed the boat right down to Engine Speed 1. Some time elapsed and we eventually saw what we’d been looking for; a tarpon rolled in the flat water ahead. Most definitely a tarpon.

Luke took my tarpon rod up onto the foredeck whilst I prepared the engine for stop and readied the oars (quite noisily too, as they’d been stowed right under the seats. I was sure the clanging around would have scared the fish off). After about 10 minutes Luke hooked up and landed a nice 4lb tarpon; not bad for first fish.

Some time after putting the fish back we drank some more Stingray and motored off back to base.

Day 3 24^th June 1999

Morning’s operations meeting sent us of to the Grape St Canals. We had no vehicle, so it was decided to take it up on foot.

The Rackley Boulevard Pack is in these days of June heat, off duty. They are all snoozing under trees, trucks or even just lazing in the comfort of their owners air-conditioned homes. Well, we are English that’s for sure...

We arrived at the mouth of the canals and walk-cast our way up the network of mangroved channels. To say that they are canals is really a little false. They are just channels dug quite deep to drain the mangrove here a little more than there. I have heard that they are flooded with salt water on the high spring tides, so as to throttle the mozzies a little.

We didn’t get a fish until reaching the double water stretch. I finally hooked one up, yelled to Luke for the gafflet, and then he got a fish on! We both landed our fish, mine being around 4-5lb, and Luke’s about 3lb.

Luke is using his 5-6 weight 8 foot trout rod, since he brought it here on back-up. He is therefore quite chuffed with these fish!

We set off on a course back to base, fishing our way. After a few hundred yards, a fish swirled nearby. I cast my fly in and had a lunger at my fly. The hook held and the fish thrashed around the water. It was quite a hefty fish and powered away to some mangrove roots. The fish didn’t make safety though, and was gaffed in quite well. The fish looked good for a 9-10 pounder, and I put it back without much to worry about.

After a long walk through the blazing sun ridden mangrove paths, Luke was reduced to a cast-less heap upon the cool shaded path floor. I fished a little more; since I had not forgotten my sun hat, I was not seriously overheating.

At some time or other, we arrived back at base and took PBR-2 out for a roam in the North Sound. I had thought previously about the area of water that the CUC canals emptied into. Scrutters and I had looked at that water, and decided it looked good for a tarpon lagoon, just need a boat... Well, PBR-2 will get there just as fast as a quick cup of coffee, so let’s go and have a look.

Mmm, looks good. Just north east of the airport, and nice and sheltered. A little boat was fishing nearby, 2 Jamaicans using their beloved hand-lines. We oared into a little lagoon, and Luke hooked and landed a baracuda for some fun on the trout rod. He hooked a larger one, but got chomped through on the leader.

We set off around, looking further into the new lagoon bay. The water got quite murky in the westward extremes, but that’s where the fish soon proved to be. We caught 13 tarpon between ourselves in a couple of hours. I reckon the biggest to be hooked at maybe 5-6lbs, so the size was quite uniformly small. We started off trolling, and then ended up anchored in a good spot. The sport reminded me of fishing English reservoirs for rainbow trout. We had anchored up so as to be just within casting reach of the mangrove margin. The fish appeared to be more or less everywhere, though we had no obvious signs to cast to.

Luke caught 6, whilst I got 7.

Well, what fun. It was just like fishing in a lake full of silver fish.

Day 4, June 25^th ~ "My Birthday"

Since it was my birthday, morning’s operations meeting decided that I had earned the privilege to be rowed around upon the casting platform.

We took off after making appropriate provisions, to the area of water we discovered yesterday. The basic plan was to check out some more of the waters to the north of the CUC canals, motoring into lagoons, looking for feeding fish.

We found a few "tarpy"-looking spots, but failed on any real action. With that we set off to where we knew there were some fish! Within a few minutes Engine Speed 5 cruising, we arrived at where we caught all those fish yesterday. Luke did a bit of rowing, and then we anchored up for a while. The fish were not as enthusiastic as yesterday, but I managed 4 fish. Unfortunately for Luke, it was his second fishless day.

Day 5, June 26^th

Operations Meeting finished, and we prepared PBR-2 for a long distance trip out 8 miles (as the crow flies, but 10 if you stay close to the shore) to Barker’s Point to look at the mangrove channels there. Barker’s Point is the extreme north-westerly area of the Sound and about as far as you can get from base, without leaving the reef. We also had the prospect of some bonefish on the flats near the Cay.

It took about 50 minutes to get there at Engine Speed 5-6. We decided to check out a small still lagoon, and to get prepared for fishing operations. Here we spied countless tarpon, and in still, clear, slightly peaty water. They seemed to occupy the waters under the leeward edge of the perimeter trees. As this water was the calmest and thus least windiest, it was also quite good for stealth operation of PBR-2. We took it in turns casting at the fish from the platform.

On one of Luke’s turn casting, he had 2 fish rise at his fly; both got away though. I decided I wouldn’t mind trying out the fly he was using, because after my previous turns, I reckoned the fish didn’t like my offering. I put the fly on, and some time later had a nice 5-6 pounder beside the boat for release.

Luke put the fly back on his line and hooked up a fish. However, the fish managed to depart with the fly: this was attributed to leader maintenance problems.

We packed the boat for sea and made off back to waters closer to base. There is a canal marked by a red & white post which I have cycled down before. It could be worth a try, especially with the associated mangrove channels. We motored down the still water at ES1, on full alert mode. Luke was manning the platform with the number 6. We saw a tarpon rise, and so shut down the engine and engaged oars for stealth operation. I manoeuvred the boat down the canal, whilst Luke popped off a couple of tarpon; they fought well on the 6 weight trout rod.

We moved the boat to a landing point near to the side track and the channels located nearby. I caught a small tarpon in the pool there. The fish had been up at my fly the previous 3 casts, so to get it 4^th time around was slightly amusing.

Before we set off from the Barker’s Point area, Luke managed to get a nice baracuda of 2-3 lbs. The fish took off pretty fast with the fly in its mouth, the flyline really zipped through the water. Luke was really chuffed with the battle from these baracuda, and this fish was knocked on the head for the kitchen. Luke reckons that he will try to become a ‘cuda specialist!

We were back at base at nightfall.

Day 6, 27^th June ~ "the dog huffs choppy waters"

Operations meeting was mainly to do with cursing the wind that had just got up. Well, we had tied up some special flies to be used at the reef for baracuda. So, we will try to get there and test them out!. We managed as far as the Kai, but the sea was horrible. The Little Sound brews up a nasty chop when the winds come whistling down.

Aside from a couple of large curious baracuda vaguely following our flies, we just manoeuvred around for a while. Not long later we would be finding the nice sheltered water leeward of the Booby Cay. Some time after that we would be on stealth mode, following a pod of tarpon as they marauded the bait filled channel. We caught a fish apiece in a corner pool, and then followed a pod just seaward of us. It was my turn at the platform, and I was using the trout rod. I cast my fly into the nearer fish-holding area of water, and at the strike lifted into a nice fish. The tarpon ran and leapt a few times, cruised a little and was finally beaten; a nice fight indeed.

It was Luke’s turn in the platform after that, and we looked further into the channel. We had been stopped in a thin section of channel, just around a tight corner. All was peaceful; I was just faintly tending the oars, whilst Luke was on full alert, casting at rising fish. The noise of the water lapping at the boat blended into the mangrove insect din. The tarpon swirls amongst the mangrove roots...

Mmm’nm’biminy’bim’mmmm’bnnimnm’bim’getting louder.... "Oah shit!!!! We are in BIG TROUBLE!!!" Lets get the boat the hell away from here – FAST!!!

I shoved the oars back, yanked the engine on, into gear and revved the engine up to ES3-4 and shot the boat off down the straight further down into the channel. I just knew that we had to get away from that blind corner as fast as we could. When I stood up to get the engine on, I happened to glance at Luke; he looked like he was about to abandon ship and jump overboard into the mangrove.

A pair of jet-skis had blasted down the channel at great speed, very obviously in our direction. What had started off as ambient distant boat type noises had slowly developed into a "is that getting closer, or is it just the wind?", until the crafts had rounded a large bend. Then they very positively sounded like there was a James Bond style boat chase heading our way and very fast.

Getting to the end of the straight was heralded as being a lot better than having still been at the hairpin; we were safe. I flagged an oar to make sure that our presence be noted.

Fishing was never the same for the rest of the evening and so we motored off back to base as the night began to fall.

Day 7, 28^th June "Luke’s birthday"

Being Luke’s birthday, Ops meeting decided that he was to stay at the platform and we’d start off at the Booby channel; I’ll be operating the boat on stealth mode all day.

The Booby channel was plagued by a nasty wind, so we trolled off down to the Red & White Post Canal. The channel is orientated south east, same as the wind direction today. We didn’t get anything with trolling, despite using the mother of all Rapalas.

The R&WP canal proved to be good sport, and yielded 5 tarpon upto 4 pounds or so. Luke got a brace, I got one and a half.

Day 8, 29^th June

Ops meeting sent us down to have a look at the monster tarpon at the fish gutting area north of Georgetown. We saw none, as there was no gutting taking place. However, we decided to go AWOL, and visit the caves.

We took PBR-2’s main torch and wandered around bat-filled caves. I got fluffed by a cactus, and then got beaten 2-3 at pool by Luke down in the Nicho Norte bar nearby.

We got back to fish in the GS Canals, and then down in the R&WP Canal. Luke got 2 tarpon 3-4lbs max, I got 4 of similar size.

Day 9, 30^th June

During Ops meeting, the wind was yet again the main item on the agenda. Our only option was to go to the R&WP canal. Since the prevailing winds are currently south-easterly, the canal would remain sheltered.

We fished there with full provisions, nonetheless. There is a pool some 150 yards from the boat mooring which connects the canal to the mangrove channels within. Aside from a few eager tarpon, there is a great feature to this pool: a very tame kingbird. This bird is like a fly catcher, and so likes to snatch airborne insects. It liked my fly a lot, and I was afraid to hook the nice bird. Luke turned up to have a look, and shame he didn’t have his camera with him, because the kingbird rested upon the tip section of my rod for 20 seconds or so.

The fishing here is quite good. I even had a baracuda chomp the tail of the 3-4 lb tarpon that I was playing. I didn’t even notice it happen at all!

It had been threatening to rain for a while; darkening of the sky, black bits, and then the rumble of thunder. I heard the treetop rain-roar come my way and instantly packed in my gear for an urgent sprint back to PBR-2. One-hundred yards to go, and the rains started to get me, pattering around, the thunder now all around. I saw Luke get into the boat in a rather hurried manner, a few seconds later I was urgently stowing my rod to get shelter.

The rain was pelting down for 20 mins or so. We decided to set off back in the slight pause in the storm that we’d just met. We got into the sound at ES3 on shallow draught through the canal. The boat was stern heavy with all the rainwater and was fairly washing the canal banks down; we were in a hurry.

I put the engine into full draft and set off back to base. The rain caught us, and we sought sheltered from the electricity, moving closer to shore. The boat was getting lots of water on board now, and really sat down deep into the water whilst trying to get up onto the plane. The rain really started beating down, driving Luke down the boat under the cover. The rain was difficult to see through, because it beat upon your eyeballs.

I glanced upon some movement above me, to the rear of the boat. It was in fact both of our fly rods falling into the boiling sea from their lofty but incapable perches upon the Bimini shade. Since my left arm was operating the engine, I had only my right arm with which to grab the precious rods. Fate was kind, and both rods were miraculously unscathed. The journey was terrible from thereon: much rain, lightning and a waterlogged boat. It was really impossible to get the boat planing with 2 people at the stern and all that water on board. PBR-2 went stern down, prow high all the way home.

The best treat about getting back to base during maritime thunderstorms is that the swimming pool at 90 degrees Fahrenheit, is not unlike a rather warm bath.

However, the kingbird was destined to become to be quite familiar for the next few days...

Day 10, 1^st July

Wind again. Breakfast Ops meeting is getting quite monotonous at the moment: load up PBR-2 and get down to the Abank’s Run zone.

We checked on the R&WP canal. It is quite a routine now; zoom over at ¾ speed, squaring to the channel 80 yards offshore, come off plane 30 yards out, and then switch to Shallow Draft. Luke mans platform on look-out and we cruise in at ES1-2 through the mini channel on the post side of the opening. Cruising up the canal, we would tie off the vessel at the path junction, quickly unstrapping rods from their holders before leaping ashore to take on the tarpers!

The first inland channel pool is reasonably large in deep surface water. There are a few tarpon here and there as well. In fact, if you want to catch a fish, this seems to be the place.

We fished this area out and then decided to have a look at the waters outside of the canal, out in the sound. We went up to some mini openings, too small to allow PBR-2 access. Here we anchored up the boat and started wading the waist high waters, looking for tarpon.

Luke bagged a really nice fish of maybe over 6lbs. It leapt quite well and made for trout rod fun.

Aside from minor irritating jelly-fish stings, not a lot happened. I caught a cheeky snapper on my red throat fly. The fish could have graced the table, but I let him go.

Luke caught 5 tarpon and 2 baracuda, whilst I got 4 tarpon, a snapper and a baracuda..

Day 11, 2^nd July

Back to the Abank’s Run and R&WP Canal routine; the wind says so.

We did the routine, except that the R&WP canal was quite fishless. We didn’t get anything at all, even in the easy bits.

The kingbird was back. The fascination of our flies was too tempting for the little winged critter; it couldn’t keep away. So funny to see it squinting away, tracking our whisking flies. Now and then the little thing would set forth, intent on snatching the dancing prey, until we chose to hurry it away.

PBR-2 was re-manned and we set off out into the sound. We were after fishing the canal-lets some 200 yards away. The boat was anchored 20 yards off shore, and we started wade-casting. After 20 minutes, Luke returned to the boat. He had broken his wading sandals and was loathed to bare-foot it on all those dying jelly-fish. Shortly after announcing his cessation of angling operations, he assumed exile from water.

I continued my casting, and damn right too. I caught 2 baracuda within half an hour. An hour or so later on, that tally had been boosted by a brace of tarpon. The first looking good for a 5-6 pounder or so. An hour after that, chuck in 2 more tarpon and another baracuda! What a turn around!

On the way back to base, Luke was pretty glum. "A waste of a day’s fishing"; "from bad-temper, I nearly broke my rod". Luke could have done without this fishless day, especially so since only 2 days ago, that spared rod was to be written about, to the manufacturers in commendation!

Day 12, 3^rd July

Today was to be Pop’s day out on PBR-2. Luke and I acted as sort of ghillies, trying to get Pops a tarpon.

We visited the R&WP canal, to be greeted by no fish again. Back to the canal-lets, and Pops tried the Fenwick out.

The Fenwick was broken at Christmas, but was repaired very well earlier this year. I have given the refurbished rod to Pops; he can use it for light tarpon, sea-trout and bonefish. I loaded a Cortland 8 weight onto his Battenkill, and added 200 yards of backing for him. That should be ok for most flyfishing here.

Pops caught a 3 pounder in the larger of the 2 canal-lets, so we were successful in our aim for the outing.

Later that day, we decided that the wind had got down, so we might as well do a bit of night-lining off PBR in the sound.

We took the necessary provisions for a night’s fishing, and motored off into the sound. We anchored up 300 yards west of the outer channel marker and started to fish.

The air was quite still, there were stars out, and also some distant lightning; pretty fantastic really. Now and then an approaching boat would distract our attention from the natural sky.

I caught a snapper which went to the table.

We decided after about 5 stingrays each, that we should move in closer to shore, and look for tarpon. The real decision was related to the sudden wind that had sprung up. The looming clouds and increasing lightning were a little alarming to say the least. When we got to the mangrove margins, the wind had stilled at little. We rowed around for a while looking for any tarpon; we saw none, yet heard many.

After a while, the best thing to do was drift around staring at the stars, occasionally motoring windward to recover drift water. For my efforts, I got another snapper, this one was too small, so he went back home into the sound.

The Duck Pond channel was fun to drive the boat though on ES4-5. I couldn’t see a lot of the water, but could build up the darkest bits from memory.

Day 13, July 4^th

We spent the whole day fishing in the GS canals. We found our way in the jeep up to the extreme N-S running canals. Here we found a lot of big fish.

I was casting away in some rooty bits, when I heard Luke start frantically bellowing away. He’d hooked into a fish bigger than he’d expected. In fact it was a very large fish; I could tell from the ferocious splashing. I ran back to the jeep and grabbed the gafflet and a camera. When I approached Luke still sprinting, I noticed that he was literally stuck. He was about 10 feet from the water’s surface, rod pointing towards the waters surface, line angling over the canal bank. He was literally leaning back into the fish, trying to pull it out of the water, tug-of-war style. He also looked quite distressed, huffing and panting away, and with very wide eyes.

I zapped off a photo, and then leapt down to the waters edge to try to get the fish out. Alas, the beast managed to flip up, and then fall down, twanging the leader, and with that becoming free. I stepped forward knee-deep into the canal, in an attempt to gaff the fish, but missed my mark. Luke was very annoyed about loosing this big fish. I pointed out that to land that fish in there with that rod would be a far-off chance.

Thirty minutes later and Luke got another large fish on. This one was lost within seconds of its first leap. I still had not even had a decent hook-up.

Some time later Luke announced that he’d got a 3 pounder a hundred yards away. Although they were around, I could not seem to get the tarpon at all.

An hour later still, Luke started the big fish hook up routine again. This time the fish stayed on, and I jumped down to gaff it out for a photo. Luke was really chuffed indeed. His biggest fish. I still hadn’t got a thing, and was getting a long way down the road towards Fishless Day. We weighed in the fish at 8lbs; very good indeed.

Day 14, 5^th July

Still windy, so down to the R&WP canal. This time, the barbie-rack came along, and we had some chicken, a small joint of beef, and whatever else we could find.

Luke got a snapper whilst the barbie was cooking, so that went on the roaster as well. He then got a nice 4lb tarpon. I still had nothing. I couldn’t believe that another fishless day was forming so I really had a go at all the fish waters. At the first main drain, I got a small tarpon; they all count. I was fishing some more here, Luke turned up and asked me if I was "feeling better?" Not knowing exactly to what he was referring to, I assumed that he’d seen me get my fish. I replied " what, getting that fish?", still casting. Amazingly, as I uttered those words, a tarpon zoomed out of the mangrove darkness and grabbed my fly! I landed this small fish with little difficulty.

Day 15, 6^th July

Today we went to have a look at the monster tarpon. They were gutting the fish, and the biggies were there.

South Sound was the next stop-off; we were looking for bonefish. We actually saw some, maybe 15 fish less than 8 yards from the shore. We both had the brutes casually follow our flies; obvious fakes, as they showed little interest.

The next stop was Prospect Point, but no bones.

Frank Sound deserved a visit, just for the trip there. We didn’t even cast our lines, there was nothing to cast at.

We ended up at the GS canals, fruitlessly looking for fish.

Although no fish were caught for the day, we did have some fun blasting PBR-2 through the glassy waters; the Duck Pond was flat calm, and with no boats.

Zooming through the DP channel at engine speeds 5-9 is good fun indeed!

Day 16, 7^th July

Last day in Cayman. PBR-2 was decommissioned and we prepared for the airlift out of the islands.

However, a last stint down in the GS canals would be good. We got there in a little rain, and found fish straight away.

Luke hooked and lost a fish first cast, I hooked and lost one 3^rd cast. About 5 minutes later I hooked up a Goliath fish that motored away. I think it was the biggest fish I’ve ever hooked. Luke legged it to the jeep to get the gaff and the camera, but I lost the beast soon after.

Later, we arrived at the area where Luke got his big fish. Despite the mozzies, I was intent on getting a fish. I did get a decent 7-8 pounder before we decided to set off.

Tarpon Bonefish Jack Baracuda Snapper Misc.

Luke 23 0 0 4 1 1 wrasse

Mike 37 0 0 4 3 2 wrasse

Totals 60 0 0 8 4 3

Grand Total 75 fish