McDowell - The Fishing Trip

The Fishing Trip

The Friday that we went saltwater fishing was quite an experience. The two guys that took us out, who we befriended earlier in the week, were named Walter and Michael. Walter was very quiet and always had a smile on his face while Michael was full of energy and had enough confidence to fill a football stadium. We left the dock around 6am and traveled towards a small island cove where we attempted to catch bait fish which we would use to catch the barracuda and needle fish near the mangroves later in the morning. During our bait fish adventure we came upon a private dock that housed a yacht that was easily worth a million dollars. Guarding the yacht was a uniformed man with a 12 gauge, single pump shotgun latched to his side and a pistol tucked neatly in his pants. Needless to say, some of us had an uneasy feeling when Walter drove the boat near the dock so Michael could cast the net out to catch bait fish. In the end, the guard was friendly and we went about our business. When we finally came upon a large school of bait fish and Michael was pulling in the net, Jackie and Dominik started picking the fish out of the net and placing them in the holding container as fast as they could get their hands on them; it was a funny site watching them try and grab the slippery things.

After catching enough bait fish to use for our trolling we stopped off at a fishing village to get much needed fishing supplies. As we entered the village there was much activity going on. All of the houses were poorly constructed and sat on stilts. There were feral dogs and chickens running around everywhere while young children played soccer on one of the dirt roads. We stuck out like a sore thumb, considering we were the only Caucasians in the village. It blew me away to see how primitive these people lived while at the same time updated technology had reached out as far as their village. They all had satellite dishes for their televisions and some people were carrying around cell phones. When we finally picked up our supplies we boarded our boat and headed towards the mangroves to start our fishing. We fished two at a time while standing on the stern of the boat next to the outboard motor. Walter would troll the boat around reefs and the fish would come up to the surface and strike the bait that would be playfully skipping a long the water’s surface. Most people caught needle fish and a few people caught barracuda. Both fish were a mean looking creature and the needle fish had a nasty set of teeth. When I caught mine, Michael grabbed a hold of it and dragged its teeth on a metal pole; it sounded like nails on a chalkboard.

Finishing up our fishing excursion into the early afternoon, we all headed back to Mango Creek Lodge. Everyone was whipped out and starving. We had a delicious Hispanic dish waiting for us when we arrived and the majority of us took a lengthy nap after eating lunch.