PPS Destinations Report 

Crooked Island, Bahamas

  Date:        March 6  to 13,  2010

Reported by Dr. Ernst 'Ernie' Schmidt.

After a day's stay in Nassau and Atlantis Marine Park, the 'gang' boarded the BahamsAir flight down to Crooked Island.  When we first got to Nassau, the weather was an amazing 59F (they don't give us Celsius here) and I needed my Simms Windstopper in order to keep me warm.  We spent a full day on Friday taking in the sights of Nassau and, luckily, the weather had improved into the lower 70sF.  Very pleasant and nice walking into this Colonial town.  Make no mistake, there were at least 4 cruise ships nearby and the shops reflected the usual consumer driven needs of today's cruisers.  Lots of jewellery and other clothing stores.  Still, the streets retained their colonial charm, complete with architecture as well as Traffic Cops dressed in their classic pith helmets and ultra-white uniforms.

On arrival, we 'chilled-out' for the first day (Saturday) as the Island's residents were mainly Seventh Day Adventists.  Most of us did our own thing ranging from reading, walking along the beach, doing some fishing or whatever.  I took a Kayak and cruised the large inland Lagoon just beyond the edge of the lodge.  I was impressed by the densely 'jungled' hills rising from the lagoon's edge and the presence of large cactus up to 8 feet high.    Back at the lodge, we had a pleasant dinner and turned in, with anticipation of next day's fishing.

I should point out that the lodge exceeded expectations as far as neatness, location and amenities.  When they say you have an ocean view, it means exactly that.  It is probably the closest accommodations to the ocean that I have yet seen.  No problem sleeping with the waves gently rolling in.  The cabins were very pleasantly appointed and many of them had a spectacular view with the ocean front only 50 feet away.  Although the rooms were retro-fitted with Air conditioning, it was a rare day when you needed to turn it on as the temperature always remained below 80F.

On our first full day, it looked somewhat better, however, we spent the morning feeling cold and being rained on.  After a 40 minute boat ride to Fish Cay, one of the furthest most places, we felt we were in fairly remote regions.  This is one of the first places in the Caribbean that I have seen the ground littered with live Conch - as opposed to the discarded shells.  There are only about 350 people living on Crooked Island, making it one of the least inhabited areas of the country.

We started out wading the flats and, after about 1 hour, we came upon a large patch of nervous water.  We made several casts to several of these large schools and by noon, we managed to catch 9 bonefish between us.  Many times, the schools would pass by without touching the fly.  The bones we did catch, ranged from 2 to 3 1/2 pounds.  Once the tide was running, I did find a location where singles, doubles and triples were constantly passing me by but not giving my fly (flies) any notice at all. Still, given the conditions, this was a fairly good day since some of the other groups did  not fair as well as we did.  After lunch, Stefan got tired of bonefishing and made a sport of catching the many lemon sharks as well as some barracudas.  These prey were much more willing to take the 'bait' as were the bonefish. 

Looking back and given the recent cold weather - we were told that last week was a terrible week for fishing - we optimistically sense much better weather around the corner.  Due to Crooked Island's southerly location, this island is somewhat warmer than the more-northern Islands such as Andros, Abaco, Eleuthra, Exuma, etc.  Let's hope that those reports are right!  Stay tuned and I'll let you all know how the next day or two turns out. 

Days 2 and 3 were much better weather than Day 1.  Interestingly, although day 2 was much nicer and warmer, the fishing was a lot tougher.  Water temperatures were still below 70C which is not conducive to bones being on the flats.  Most of us found it tougher than yesterday, although I was happy to catch one 4 pound+ bone in the late afternoon on Stick Flats.  I was fishing alone, the light quality and wind made for tough fishing but I was able to sight the fish and catch him.  This is what I came for!

On Day 3, by special request of Stefan, we fished with Kenny who had a much nicer boat complete with live well.  After catching a 100+ Pilchard bait fish, we headed out to deeper water and 'chummed' the area.  While Kenny and Stefan fished with live bait and caught Mutton Snapper, I cast several minnow flies and caught a load of Spanish Mackerel in the 2 to 3 pound range.  I quickly got bored of this and had Kenny drop me off at nearby Fish Cay where I spent the next 3 hours catching 7 bonefish.  Nothing huge but still gratifying.  One of the interesting aspects of my fishing day was having a Lemon Shark take the back-half of my bonefish off while the fish was still on the line.  I have never seen so many Lemon Sharks cruising around and out in the open water.  Some of the sharks we've seen here are over 7 feet long.  Other highlights of the day included sighting two Bottlenose Dolphins up close as well as a flock of Flamingos.

Overall, so far, the food and service has been above average. The staff are very friendly and accommodating and the cook has got some extra savvy.  I particularly like the breakfasts.  Lunches are packed for you, consist of one sandwich and few cookies.  A bit Spartan but it does leave you hungry for dinner when you get back. The Lodge also provides plentiful vegetables as well as salad.  A real bonus in this remote destination.

On day 4, we had another cool and windy day.  This is probably the first day that I got blanked on flats wading. Still, we spent the day out with the Derick.  Derick and Stefan spent a fair bit of time in the French Wells area fishing the deeper channels for bonefish and Jacks.  They had a ball, hooking quite a few fish. The problem here was that many of the fish were taken off the line by 4 to 6 foot lemon sharks!.  When I got picked up, had lunch and then fished with the boys, I was amazed to experience a large lemon shark taking the fish right out from under the boat.  Even though I found flats fishing touch, Stefan had a great time catching a whole variety of species. 

On Day 5, we went out with Randy.  As per Stefan's request, we spent the first hour catching Pilchards in order to chum the inshore fish.  We set up in French Wells channel and it didn't take long to have groups of Mutton Snapper crashing the bait on the surface.  Stefan hooked several of these  very powerful fish.  I did my best to cast my 10 wt. rod but even with 100 foot casts, I didn't always get close enough to the fish.  Even so, they were quite discerning and probably not as easily hooked on bait.  If I had been fortunate enough to hook one of these muscular fish, I doubt very much it would have been easy to land a 10 pounder on a 10 wt. rod.  These are amazingly strong fish with a penchant for going back to their coral heads.  In the afternoon, I had Randy drop me off on a few flats and, much to my delight, I had several good shots at cruising bone fish.  Again, my greatest satisfaction was wading the flats, spotting, casting, hooking and landing the fish on my own.  Although I had the same access to my guide as Stefan did, I still enjoyed the challenge of doing it on my own.  In the afternoon, I hooked four bones and landed three.

On day 6, the weather took a turn for the worse.  The day was largely overcast as well as windy.  Not much happened today but I did get a few shots while Jeff poled the boat down one of the flats.  I considered myself lucky to catch the one fish that I did.  Visibility of this white marl flat was poor due to heavy wind and overcast skies.  I don't think we had more than a half-dozen 10 second glances with the sun out.  In the last half of the day, we hung around French Wells and cast to structure and managed to catch several Snappers as well as Schoolmasters.  It was a fun way to end the day and the week. 

While us guys were fishing the flats with guide, I should point out that my wife Debbie and daughter Hannah also enjoyed their stay at the lodge.  In addition to beachcombing, kayaking and cycling to some of the other historical sights, they did accompany some of the lodge personnel on fishing expeditions (intent was to feed the other hungry fishermen).  The highlight of their stay was an option to visit Long Cay for the day.  At this time, there is a small settlement of about a dozen people on the village of Albert Town.  There are historical sights and buildings  which tell of a past, some two hundred years ago, when this small island was home to some five thousand people and was once the capitol of the Bahamas.  In addition to visiting historical sights of the old town and fortification, there was also a beach lunch and fishing excursion arranged for the day.  For guests not normally tuned into the fishing, they found the day to be highly entertaining and something they would recommend to others and would certainly do again.  Fortunately they did pick one of the better weather days for this outing.

During our stay, we met with several well-travelled anglers who have found this to be one of their favourite destinations.  They indicated to us that the conditions and fishing were truly not characteristic of the area.  While travelling back home, we followed the news and weather on the mainland of the SE and NE United States and realized how good our weather was in comparison to what was experienced on the mainland.  Certainly, winter 2010 from January to present will go down as one of the worst weather periods in recent memory.    In retrospect, I feel we have to be grateful for the 'pleasant' weather we did have.  A bit cool but otherwise, still a nice break from winter back home.

Crooked Island Lodge is on Pittstown Point near the small village of Landrail Point.  The entire Island is home to approximately 300 people and is relatively lightly developed.  You will not see many 'off-islanders' beach houses on this island and most of the ones that you do see are very modest compared to the more northerly islands such as Abaco or Long Island.  This is a great get away and lives up to its motto of 'Clean, Green and Pristine'.  Overall, I found this island to be very clean and neat with little garbage strewn about.  Islanders were extremely friendly and helpful.  Our trip was booked through Yellowdog Flyfishing Adventures and Ian and Jim oversaw our logistics for the trip.

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