We took a much-needed break over the Easter holiday and headed south to some smaller, neighboring islands. Our first stop was “where billionaires go to escape millionaires.” Our AirBnb, however, was only about seventy bucks a night.
We had some decent fishing. The water was pretty packed with garfish, which are challenging to hook because of their bony mouths, and fun to fight when they decide to jump.
The real highlights though, were our in-water wildlife encounters. Two days in a row we found a large manta ray feeding in the area around a rocky island. Tara happened to have her underwater camera and jumped overboard to capture some video.
At another spot we snorkeled around a rocky point with a deep drop-off nearby. As we turned towards shore I spotted a medium sized mackerel cruising by. I got Tara’s attention and pointed at the fish, tracking as it swam, right past a large sunfish! The sunfish did not linger to get its picture taken, but we got a good look as it made its way over the rocks and back out into the deep blue.
Our next stop was a bit further south. I got up early the first morning and fished along a rocky shoreline where I hooked a few small jacks and some really nice looking little groupers.
This island has a bit of a flatter profile than most of the other nearby islands and so it has some some flats and a substantial number of mangroves. Where you have mangroves, you’ll often find barracuda. In fact, we found the barracuda last time we visited, but I neglected to bring heavy leader and so we lost several fish. This time we were better prepared.
The Fishing Dojo 