GoPro ordering and excitement - it arrived a day later on Thursday afternoon
This is me cracking coconut and we were making coconut milk. I don't know it did not work out that great:) It is certainly not my favorite drink:)
Lovely, fresh fruit platter: mango, grapefruit, coconut, plum, apple and peach
Celebrating the new fins and snorkels - getting closer to the date
With my new fishing gears - i wish i knew beforehand how strong those sharks are
I would have bought the biggest reel with the strongest line on it. We had little chance to catch any of those.
The bottom line is 100 pound test line (50 kg) with a steel leader and cast iron hook. I had non of them:)
This is my new a great gopro camera! At the airport i have bought a head mount for it as well. It is just a wonderful device. Works great. I shot 300+ footage and now it is time to cut a nice video. You have to wait for it though.
Thursday - preparing for the trip
Friday - going to Lagardia at 3:30 AM, arriving to Miami at 09:00 AM, flying to Nassau at 10:40AM, arriving to the Great Exumas at 11:55AM, cruising to the island before that hanging out in Georgetown, fishing for barracudas and spearfishing (my first two barracudas trolling), having dinner at the house, huge dinner and then night fishing for a huge lemon shark
Checking-in
It was supposed to be a surprise for Flora, however before we left she wrote down her guess and sealed it into an envelope. Of course she figured it out somehow. But she was really surprised because even though she guessed it just could not believe it.
Above Miami
Getting on the plane to Nassau, The Bahamas
First glimpse of the small islands and the incredible color sea.
Arriving to Nassau International Airport, The Bahamas
Just arrived:)
Angela, Harold, Taylor came to the airport to pick up us with a truck.
Here is from the right to the left: Tim, Jeffrey, Taylor and me
Traveling home:)
This was the first stop at a local bar and hotel. We were amazed and just could not believe our eyes.
I tasted something really bad:) in a general store.
This is jerk chicken and pork.
To me it looked like rotten meat, but it tasted really good and soft.
Taylor - the Fish
Forrest - the Sailor
at the bar we were sampling conch balls
there are thousands and thousands of it in the surrounding waters
it was delicious
and sipping pina collada
getting on the boat to cruise to the island
Forrest and me
Embarking:)
welcome drink
Going out on the boat in the afternoon to swim, free dive and fish
Flora with Angela
Flora with a huge craw-fish that Forrest speared
Fish on hooked to my first barracuda - i was recording the whole time with my gopro, it came out awesome!
With my first barracuda
With my second barracuda, Jeffrey got the first fish and then I got two
On the way back standing on the boat
With Taylor and catch
:)
Getting ready for the dinner: salad, steamed crawfish tail in shell and breaded barracuda fillet with rice or french fries
After dinner we were fishing, on this picture you see Forrest and I fishing from a small cuff, catching nothing.
It was very exciting.
Here you see me running after Forrest who is swimming through the channel trying to stop the big lemon shark he hooked. He run out of line and lost the fish. It happened on heavy gear and had no chance to stop or even slow down the fish. First time I realized wow, we need something much stronger.
Saturday - breakfast, swimming, fishing, boat riding, beaching, sun bathing, free diving, spear fishing, reef diving, pool hanging, having dinner and the shark night (hooked 13 sharks, plus 1 giant grupper by Flora)
Here is Flora on a beautiful sandy beach. It was simply breathtaking. I hardly find the words to describe the scene, but you can imagine.
Huge conch on the sand
Sun bathing in the shallow and crystal clean water
beach-time!
After the dinner which was again from barracuda and crawfish and other fish (i got another barracuda around trolling an island) we went fishing. Here is Flora with a huge grupper! It could have been a nice meal, because of its delicious meat but it ended as shark bait, because we just run out of baits.
There are three kinds of sharks living in the Bahamian sea.
Lemon shark: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemon_shark
Blacktip shark: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blacktip_shark
Nurse shark: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nurse_shark
On these pictures you can see a 7-8 ft long lemon that we tried to hook with a towing rope and 4x folded steel leader attached to a quad. When it hooked three of us tried to slow it down, finally it moved the quad on the wall half way and tore the iron leader. It has just incredible power!!!
Here is Forrest fly-casting for tarpon
After everybody left around midnight and we were after the unsuccessful shark catch Jeffrey came to me and said: "I know how we can catch a lot of them. Let me show you." So we went to the shed and found a couple of strong rods with 100 lbs tested line and went back to make leaders and place the hooks into the water. Flora was catching bait fish.
In the upcoming 3.5 hours we hooked into 13 sharks, Flora alone got 5 on her hook. One shark on the heaviest gear almost pulled Jeffrey into the water after Flora screamingly set the rod and held onto it. I run to help Jeffrey and suddenly the line broke. We lost every shark battle and run out hooks and leaders. Basically we lost everything to catch fish with. They ate like crazy. We spent the most time preparing the next hook.
It was just a true unforgettable night. This was the best night on the trip and probably the most exciting night in my life whatsoever. Here is Jeffrey paddling to free a hook from the rocks. This kayak had a glass bottom and when Jeffrey freed the hook a big 7-8 ft lemon was attached to it as he saw it dropped the line and shout careful Bence! In the next 5 seconds I lost the shark on a fishing spool that you hold in your bare hands. As the fish was pulling down the line it spin so fast and finally before it broke cut my four fingers.
Summary of the night:
- lost 13 leaders with hooks
- lost additional 5 hooks from the baitfish catching section lead by Flora
- lost one entire rod with reel, the shark simply pulled into the water, we had no chance to grab it
- lost hundreds of yards of strong fishing line
- one broken paddle
Three full-of-adrenalin people
One unforgettable night
Sunday - breakfast, swimming, fishing, bait fishing, sand beach and the great sand beach, Iguana island, picnic on the island at the beach, free diving, camp fire, big dinner, catching two sharks, one before dinner and one after dinner and hooked two other big ones, preparing for flying Nicaragua
Free diving on the longest white sand beach on the entire Bahamas
Bence <3 Flora - true
and Flora <3 Bence - true
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wow4 - with a little snail from the mangrove
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It was amazing!
Then we went on the Iguana Island where we fed iguanas. Only black iguanas live on that island and only Jeffrey's family feeds them sometimes. They became very friendly and as they hear the boat they immediately run to the shore from the trees. Flora is feeding an iguana with a piece of banana.
Here it comes
You can even catch them. Very powerful animal
After we lost everything we got new gear and heavier equipment. I was about to catch baitfish before dinner and pulled the hook into something that I lost. I supposed it was another shark. I decided to put a leader on the hook and cast with a piece of squid. Then it was fish on! Flora was with me and only she saw the fish and the whole action. It was very very exciting I was afraid of losing this fish too. But finally i managed to the shore and grabbed with my hand. It almost escaped but I got it eventually. This is a smaller size blacktip shark. Average is 1.5 meters - 6 ft the longest ever caught was around 2.5 meters. This is a nice 90-100 cm, 3-3.5 ft. It was full of muscle.
Incredible animal with a very cool skin.
Flora released the fish.
On the Bahamas we weather is very nice but you can get a thunderstorm real quick that lasts only for couple hours and they move fast.
After dinner when everybody was on the shore and preparing for the big shark night I caught another blacktip.
I think it was bigger from nose to the end of the tail it was over 1 meter.
Wonderful feeling to catch a shark even it is not 2 meters.
After this we got nothing on the hooks, however, we were prepared. I even made a nice, nasty, bloody chum for the sharks. We saw a couple but didnt come on the hooks. We left the towing cable with another 4x folded steel leader in the water for the night and in the morning it was ripped apart. It must have been something huge.
This is how the main building looked like.
This is the cliff where you can jump into the water
The harbor and the quad at the fishing point where everything happened.
One of the last minute sea breams. I caught so many different species.
Here we are standing at the map of the Nassau Int'l Airport flying Nicaragua and leaving the wonderful island and wonderful friends.
Getting on board
The plane with the flag
The last glimpse on the Bahamas.
Monday - breakfast, boating to Nassau, driving around the city, checking-in, 12:35PM to 1:50PM Miami, 6:25PM Miami to 7:00PM Managua, Nicaragua, checking-out, fine dining with Oscar and Aida, checking-in to the hotel, scorpion story, blood infection story
I want to thank Jeffrey, Alley and the entire Bernhard family to host us on the Bahamas!
Catching the first shark
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