Vacation Report

[Hookmanski]

I recently left my regularly scheduled NJ freshwater programming for a Caribbean cruise with my family. We flew down to Ft. Lauderdale and hopped on the Celebrity Equinox. We visited Puerto Rico, St.Thomas, St.Maarten, Tortola, and Nassau, Bahamas.

Prior to leaving, I did a bunch of research on fishing laws and regulations, and unfortunately only 2/5 of the stops allow for recreational fishing by tourists (without a permit or some other type of documentation I wasn't going to have time to get). I probably could've gotten away with it in most places, but I figured since I was with my whole family anyways I'd play it safe and just fish in the stops I knew I wouldn't have any trouble in.

The first stop I fished was St.Thomas, where we took an open-air taxi to a gorgeous white sand beach. I walked along the surf, sight casting at groups of fish I saw along the way. I ended up catching 4 new species here; A bunch of lizardfish, a couple of jacks, and a ladyfish. I ended up walking all the way down to the cliffs on the end of the beach, where I hooked into and lost 2 huge fish. One was a tarpon that jumped and tossed my hook, and the other I never saw. As I walked back, I caught a bunch more lizardfish and then saw something larger following my lure. It followed all the way to the sand and chomped it at the very last second, and as it turns out it was a Black Tip Reef Shark. I landed it and realized I had stupidly left my pliers on the ship While trying to get the lure out of the shark's mouth, he ended up just barely nicking my thumb and I was bleeding all over the place (hence the bad picture ), but I got the lure out really quickly after that and sent him on his way.







The next stop I fished was the last stop, in Nassau, Bahamas. I had done some research on this stop, cause I knew I'd be fishing in and around the port, so I had some spots flagged on google maps. I went to them all and saw tons of fish, but couldn't get any to bite lures for the life of me. Ended up casting around for 3 hours with no luck. I decided to go even further away from the ship to a spot I thought looked good, and when I got there I found 2 fisherman already there. I was thinking, "Man I hope these guys don't mind me fishing near them..." and when I walked over to them my fears melted away. I met Don and Fitzgerald, two of the nicest guys I had met on the trip thus far. They shared bait with me and showed me their techniques, and in no time I had caught 2 more new species; A Blue Tang and a Grass Porgy! I ended up hanging out with them for 3 hours, fishing, telling stories and just asking them about life in Nassau. They ended up buying me some beers as well. We exchanged information and I have heard from them since being home, and now have some new friends down there who are ready to fish whenever I return. It was a really cool experience and I am so fortunate to have met them.





It was a fantastic trip and I'd reccommend it to anyone looking to get away. I would've liked to do a bit more fishing than I did, but can't really complain with the amount of success I had. Tight lines!