After yesterday we’re used to torrential rain so the drizzle this morning wasn’t bad. The weather sort of faked us out like it would be ok today. That’s because the wind was howling straight from the west and at Turneffe Flats Lodge your protected. But when we left the lodge with our new guide, Erwin, and ventured from the protection of the atoll, we felt the first 30 mph gust. Yikes!
Let’s just say, Granny, Erwin and I fished as hard as you can under these challenging conditions. From 7:30 AM till 4 PM. The one and only fish we got was this tiny mangrove snapper.
Somehow it was fun though. It takes good company to make a day like today fun but Erwin is a champ and my wife is bad ***. They remained confident and worked hard all day. Best of all Erwin runs a flats skiff over big waves so gently its like you’re on a waterbed.
We returned to Turneffe tonight to learn everyone struggled. Conditions are just flat out as difficult as they can be. There was one unique fish caught however, Capt. Bill Drewry, owner of Peninsula Outfitters in Washington, landed the hard to catch spotted trunkfish.
There are fishing days where the highlight is dinner and cocktail hour. Tonight was one. Luckily Turneffe and every angler in this week’s group understands that and we had a chicken barbecue dinner to die for.
Dinner was so invigorating that several of us headed to the Turneffe dock to fish under the lights afterwards. It was no less than a gale out there. It was so bad we had to laugh. However, I had to stop laughing when the spool of my Bauer Reel popped out then bounced off the dock and into the ocean.
During the day I loosened the spool nut to get the Bauer label upright for a photo. I never re-tightened it and now I had a huge dilemma. I couldn’t just lift it up because the line unraveled.
I had two choices: hand over hand all my line and backing till I got to the Arbor knot or dive in. As much as I didn’t want to dive into the black ocean under stormy conditions, I didn’t want to make a tangled mess with the first option. Without allowing myself a minute to chicken out – I was in and after two blind dives where I felt around the bottom, I got my spool back.
I even stayed out there and fished and in fact when all was said and done it was only me and my new friend Dave Boyd. We both left at 9 PM. And the only fish caught was by me and it was another little mangrove snapper.
Tomorrow is the last day. How nice it would be to stick another permit under some sunshine. . . . . .
Christmas is around the corner. DON’T FORGET my Online Store has gifts for the angler that has everything! I have painted over 60 species of fish now available on my coffee mugs and frosted beer steins. There’re also my new Solar Flex shirts in both men’s and women’s. AND my growing collection of fish decals can be purchased on Amazon.
Be sure to keep track of my upcoming travels around the world!
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The two of you are “one-of-a-kind”, never failing to always “tell it like it is” and making us wish we were there , until you jumped in! Granny, did you ever dream years ago that the journey with Jeff would be this exciting?
Happy Thanksgiving, Jack & Suzanne
Happy TG Jack and Suzanne – we miss you guys! And I’ll speak for Granny; she had no idea what she was getting into!