In the words of George Castanza, "The seas were rough that day, my friends!"
Man, was I ever choked! Our swimming with the stingrays excursion got cancelled the previous day in the Caymans because of high winds and it sure didn't look any better for my guided outing in Cozumel fishing the flats for bonefish the next day. Sure enough, much to my chagrin, it was even worse! None the less, I met up with my guide, Nacho, at 8:30 on the dock and we drove off up island to where he keeps his skiff. I could tell he was skeptical about the outing because he asked me if I wanted to cancel...not a good sign.
I was "in". I'd been looking forward to this outing for over 3 months now so if nothing else I wanted to see the area, try something new, and hopefully with a little luck the wind might die down a bit. Not a chance! If anything, it got worse but at least it was sunny and hot out which helped to warm my soul. We motored up the island for the better part of an hour in his handmade 18 ' skiff which surprisingly sliced through the waves quite well. We ducked into an area of mangrove islands but they offered very little shelter because they were very short, sticking up out of the water anywhere from one to five feet. The water was quite rippled which made the fish much more difficult to sight. it was 10 o'clock at this point in our adventure, several hours past prime fishing. Nacho says he likes to have his clients fishing by 6:30 and finish at noon. To make matters worse the tide was dropping meaning the sun was high overhead during the low tide which makes the bones even more skittish.
We ducked into several bays before spotting our first bone and to be honest being the first time doing this I felt I was in a little over my head. It's one thing to cast into a wall of wind which I'm capable of doing....it's an entirely different matter dropping the presentation gently to the water right in front of the fish in one foot of water without spooking him. It was even more difficult casting broadside into the wind because you never knew exactly how far the wind would carry the line before it touched down. Nacho said a side arm cast was needed in these situations which I confess I don't do a lot of. I wqs thinking it would be nice to be out in these conditions for about a week so you could really get in the practice to learn the ropes.
All in all, we didn't see a lot of fish. There were times when I'd go 30 minutes or more without getting to make a cast. The fish we did see were really moving quickly and none appeared to be feeding. I was hoping to see the bones tailing which is a sure fire sigh that they are nosing the bottom looking for shrimp but there was none of that. We only got out of the boat once to wade so my lower legs took more of a beating from the sun than I'd expected. I thought that was what we would be doing most of the time but there wasn't much point with so few fish around.
However, on the one time we were out of the boat I had several decent chances at fish and hooked up. It was a smaller bone and didn't fight as well as I had been led to believe but I was happy finally to have some action. When Nacho took the fish to hand I would have liked to have a pic but my camera was back in the boat some 50 yards away and Nacho talked me out of it saying it might be my only chance for another hookup. He was right because the same school of small fish circled around again and I hooked another. It came unbutton on a run and that was basically it. We only saw a couple more fish after cruising around the area for hour and a half which were moving so quickly it was almost pointless to make a cast at them.
It was 2:30 by then, my enthusiasm had started to wane, and I'd had enough sun so we agreed to call it a day. I wish at the beginning of our day when we were wondering if we should have gone or not, I should have said let's go for a half a day and then see what happens. We only ended up being out there for half the day but I ended up paying for the whole day so I could have saved myself a 100 bucks. Oh well, it was a new experience. I'd sure like to go on a trip where the focus is on fishing for bones, permit, or tarpon. There's no question that you'd need to get in several days to get into the rhythm of this type of fishing.....and last but not least....a whole lot less wind!!
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Topic: Got Boned in Cozumel, late March 2008 (Read 2082 times)