Valentine's Day Slaughter

My alarm went off at quarter past four in the morning on Valentine's Day. I had only a few hours of sleep since hitting the sheets a little bit before midnight.

Everybody who knows me, knows that I am not a morning person, but this Saturday was not ordinary. I was going on a Dolphin fishing and camping expedition to the Exuma's.

I gathered my bags that I had packed the night before, loaded them into my car and headed to the Royal Nassau Sailing Club, the location of the transport. The air was fresh and had a crisp chill to it. I knew that it would be a cold trip to the islands.

My brother and his wife arrived at the dock and we all began offloading the cars and loading the boat. I looked up to the sky and I saw the sun peeking through the dark morning clouds. We secured the luggage and headed out to sea.

About an hour later we were in the Exumas. My brother drove us to an area he had fished for dolphin before and put the boat in neutral. As the boat idled we baited up the roads and grabbed an ice cold beer.

The lines were cast as the boat moved forward. We navigated around the area in large circles so as to not cross and potentially tangle the lines. After about thirty minutes of not getting a bite I decided to let the right reel out about ten or fifteen feet more than it already was.

The line on the middle rod appeared to be moving but no sound was heard. I investigated it further by getting close. I noticed that the line was definitely moving - the clicker was not on! I realized that a fish was on the hook so I switched on the clicker and grabbed a hold of the rod. As I did my brother shouted, "Get the belt on!" My sister in-law attached the belt to me and I continued to reel the fish in. He was a fighter.

We were excited that we had hooked one. My bro and sis in-law shouted "Reel him in" as they watched me fighting with the dolphin. Then suddenly, the clicker from the rod on the left started making noise and then the right rod did so as well. We had three fish hooked at once!

I finished reeling in the dolphin I had and attached the fish-belt around my sister in-laws waist. She was holding the rod on the left and my brother had the one on the right. Their arms were winding up as much fishing line they could, as fast as they could.

After battling her fish for a few minutes and reeling it in close to the boat, the dolphin spat out the hook and swam away. "Sonofabitch!"

We were done fishing for the day so we decided that we would go to Highbourns Cay so that we could gut and clean the fish we caught. When we arrived we saw some friends of ours who were also in the area fishing for Dolphins too. They were getting ready to head back to Nassau but we convinced them to camp with us since we had tents and had had such a wonderful day so far.

We arrived at Norman's Cay and learned that there was indeed no room for us in their cottages so we made it back to the beach and set up our campsite. Later that evening we went to McDuff's Bar and Grille for cocktails and dinner. After having our fill of drink, food, and fun we headed back to our campsite to close our eyes and dream of catching the 'BIG ONE'.

The next morning we headed out into the ocean to continue our Dolphin fishing venture. Unfortunately we were not successful, but hey "A bad day fishing beats a good day in the office!"

We made it back to Nassau as the sun was setting and we all mixed another cocktail. It was a great getaway from the hustle and bustle and we shall be fishing again 'reel' soon.