My wife and I took a trip to the Bahamas, specifically to the Governor’s Harbour area on Eleuthera.
The trip started out in New York City, visiting family. I had a lot of solo time, so I decided to take in some of the usual sites.
This is the exact spot where, on December 16, 1985, John Carneglia and his crew carried out a mob hit on mafia don “Big Paul” Castellano. Sammy “The Bull” Gravano and John Gotti coordinated the hit, which helped Gotti take over the Gambini Crime Family. I guess the steaks are quite good, too spendy for me.
This is the Greenwood Cemetery. Quite a collection of ornate tombs and gravestones. Surprisingly, there is a colony of Argentinian Green Parrots that have established residency here. They likely escaped from shipping crates at JFK airport in the 1960’s. The entrance to the cemetery is an impressive structure, and the parrots have built nests at the top. There are other places that the parrots have thrived in the Big Apple, not just at the cemetery.
This is the Queensboro, or 59th street bridge, which was the inspiration for Simon and Garfunkel’s “Feelin’ Groovy”.
In the subway with a couple of New York’s Finest.
OK, on to the Bahamas. It is a pretty easy shot to travel from NYC to Governor’s Harbour, via Miami. The trip back to PDX was a long travel day, however.
On the first day, my nonfishing wife looked in the water and said “Hey, look at those fish”. My jaw drops as I look at a large school of bonefish, just outside of a huge colony of bait. Had no rod of course. I was worried that this was the closest I’d ever get to one.
A couple days later I fished with a guide, Paul Petty, and he was great. We fished protected water on the Atlantic side, at the edge of mangroves and on sandy beaches.
We were on bonefish pretty quickly and I got my first one right away. After that, we probably snuck up on 10 sets of fish over the next few hours, and I repeatedly did everything I could to drive them off. I missed a few hits and cast right into a few other pods. The fact that I got a fish right off allowed me to enjoy the learning curve and not get frustrated at my ineptitude.
A bit later I got the command: “9 o’clock, thirty feet”. A backhand flip to the left side of the boat, a few strips, game on. This was a very nice fish and made for a great memory. After I caught it, I said, “Paul I’m done”. He laughed and said “Good, cuz the dock is right over there”. He pointed across a small channel. I had no idea we had looped around to the starting point.
We saw tons of turtles and several stingrays, barracuda and a bunch of other types of fish.
The next day I went back to the spot where my wife had seen the bonefish. There was still a sizable pod hanging around. I had my rod this time and a few casts later I was hooked up. This was another memorable fish.
That afternoon I took a kayak out on the reefs next to our cottage. My plan was to try and position myself where I could cast a shrimp fly onto the coral and pull it off the edge, letting it sink. This was quite effective- I caught four jacks, maybe Yellow Jacks, each one bigger than the last. I didn’t take any pics out there, but it was great fun. I think your average fly fisherperson could get all the action they needed on these reefs.
The weather blew in after that and fishing was done.
Shrimp flies were the order of the day, most of my action was on Gotchas and Squimps.
A flats fishing license is required to fish for bonefish but not for fishing on the reefs. My only significant advice is, get your license before you go. Getting the license down there turned out to be a challenge.
Regarding on-island travel: we used taxis to get around and it worked fine, but I bet most people would have rather rented a car. I wasn’t interested in figuring out the “drive on the left” thing.
On our last day, once again my wife’s eagle eyes spotted this 5-foot bad boy, in a foot of water.
I am so grateful to Northern for the generous delivery of a bonefish line, plus a set of very nice flies! I also appreciate the advice I got from others on the site.
And as some of you suggested, I will probably be back. We enjoyed all aspects of the trip.
The trip started out in New York City, visiting family. I had a lot of solo time, so I decided to take in some of the usual sites.
This is the exact spot where, on December 16, 1985, John Carneglia and his crew carried out a mob hit on mafia don “Big Paul” Castellano. Sammy “The Bull” Gravano and John Gotti coordinated the hit, which helped Gotti take over the Gambini Crime Family. I guess the steaks are quite good, too spendy for me.
This is the Greenwood Cemetery. Quite a collection of ornate tombs and gravestones. Surprisingly, there is a colony of Argentinian Green Parrots that have established residency here. They likely escaped from shipping crates at JFK airport in the 1960’s. The entrance to the cemetery is an impressive structure, and the parrots have built nests at the top. There are other places that the parrots have thrived in the Big Apple, not just at the cemetery.
This is the Queensboro, or 59th street bridge, which was the inspiration for Simon and Garfunkel’s “Feelin’ Groovy”.
In the subway with a couple of New York’s Finest.
OK, on to the Bahamas. It is a pretty easy shot to travel from NYC to Governor’s Harbour, via Miami. The trip back to PDX was a long travel day, however.
On the first day, my nonfishing wife looked in the water and said “Hey, look at those fish”. My jaw drops as I look at a large school of bonefish, just outside of a huge colony of bait. Had no rod of course. I was worried that this was the closest I’d ever get to one.
A couple days later I fished with a guide, Paul Petty, and he was great. We fished protected water on the Atlantic side, at the edge of mangroves and on sandy beaches.
We were on bonefish pretty quickly and I got my first one right away. After that, we probably snuck up on 10 sets of fish over the next few hours, and I repeatedly did everything I could to drive them off. I missed a few hits and cast right into a few other pods. The fact that I got a fish right off allowed me to enjoy the learning curve and not get frustrated at my ineptitude.
A bit later I got the command: “9 o’clock, thirty feet”. A backhand flip to the left side of the boat, a few strips, game on. This was a very nice fish and made for a great memory. After I caught it, I said, “Paul I’m done”. He laughed and said “Good, cuz the dock is right over there”. He pointed across a small channel. I had no idea we had looped around to the starting point.
We saw tons of turtles and several stingrays, barracuda and a bunch of other types of fish.
The next day I went back to the spot where my wife had seen the bonefish. There was still a sizable pod hanging around. I had my rod this time and a few casts later I was hooked up. This was another memorable fish.
That afternoon I took a kayak out on the reefs next to our cottage. My plan was to try and position myself where I could cast a shrimp fly onto the coral and pull it off the edge, letting it sink. This was quite effective- I caught four jacks, maybe Yellow Jacks, each one bigger than the last. I didn’t take any pics out there, but it was great fun. I think your average fly fisherperson could get all the action they needed on these reefs.
The weather blew in after that and fishing was done.
Shrimp flies were the order of the day, most of my action was on Gotchas and Squimps.
A flats fishing license is required to fish for bonefish but not for fishing on the reefs. My only significant advice is, get your license before you go. Getting the license down there turned out to be a challenge.
Regarding on-island travel: we used taxis to get around and it worked fine, but I bet most people would have rather rented a car. I wasn’t interested in figuring out the “drive on the left” thing.
On our last day, once again my wife’s eagle eyes spotted this 5-foot bad boy, in a foot of water.
I am so grateful to Northern for the generous delivery of a bonefish line, plus a set of very nice flies! I also appreciate the advice I got from others on the site.
And as some of you suggested, I will probably be back. We enjoyed all aspects of the trip.
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