A staff report
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Freeport/Lucaya Grand Bahamas is a mix of industrial, commercial, vacation destination and over-development.
[dropcap]W[/dropcap]hen you land at Grand Bahama International Airport (FPO), you’ll have flown less than 60 miles if you left from Palm Beach, Florida, and you’ll land in the same time zone. However, your first take on Grand Bahama coming into Freeport will be OMG, with this level of over-development – there can’t be any bone fish left. It’s why anglers prefer the Abacos and Andros. However, if you stick with it, Grand Bahama will satiate your bone needs and when you hook up with a permit or tarpon, well, you’ll think you’ve come to fly fishing heaven.
Grand Bahama is about 97 miles long and 7 to 17 miles at its widest with narrowest on the way to West End. All of Grand Bahama is low lying country with the highest point only 40-feet above sea level. You can drive from one end to the other in just about an hour and a half. Grand Bahama is the fourth largest island of the Bahamas 700 plus islands and Freeport/Lucaya is the second largest city with a population of approximately 42,000. Add about 10,000 folks and you’ve got the entire 2010 census population of Grand Bahama.
Freeport
Freeport/Lucaya is a world class vacation destination, cruise ship stop and it’s a free trade zone which keeps the city bustling year-round. Here, you can play golf on world class courses; tennis on hard, Har-Tru or red clay courts, shop duty free, do the casino routine, scuba dive, fish; look at turquoise waters from the hotel beach chair, dine elegantly in any number of great restaurants and sleep in the lap of luxury.
The water influences of Grand Bahama
Grand Bahama is located in the midst of an incredibly diverse string of currents. The Straits of Florida are to the west and produce strong, fertile – bait fish rich currents connecting to the western end of Grand Bahama Island. The Grand Bahama Bank runs north and connects at that same point. The Northwest Providence Channel provides anglers with short runs to prime fishing. Here, the channel depths drop quickly from a 1-foot at Mean Low Water, and quickly plummets to around 750-feet.
The black dots are the five fishing lodges on Grand Bahama. There are also several independent guides and independently captained boats to take you offshore.
The fishing lodges
There are five fishing “operations” on Grand Bahama and they all have a different flavor. In addition, Old Bahama Bay Resort & Yacht Harbour now has guide services which includes in the price, stays at the resort.
The most upscale of the lodges with boat dockage is Deep Water Cay Lodge. North Riding Point Club sits on six acres of beach-front property on the southern shore of Grand Bahama. Water Cay Lodge is all alone on the north shore, 25 miles northeast of Freeport, but only accommodates six anglers in comfortable air conditioned digs. H2O is located in Freeport, has an arrangement with Pelican Bay Hotel for angler accommodations. It’s very pleasant and reasonably priced. Grand Bahama Bonefishing is also a North Shore operation.
Tailin’ – Deep Water Cay Lodge photo
Deep Water Cay Lodge
The lodge was the first of it’s kind on Grand Bahama, created in 1958 by Gil Drake and icon A. J. McClane, as a real upscale fishing lodge. Today, although under new management, upscale remains the signature. To get there from the airport in Freeport, a representative of the lodge will meet you and deliver you to the water taxi at McLean’s town. It’s a five minute run to the lodge. You can bring the whole family to Deep Water Cay Lodge, there’s something to entertain everyone. If your wife or kids get bored here – disown them immediately. The fishing here is also first class. You’re fishing for bones over hard, white sand and turtle grass where crab and shrimp patterns will work best. The bights between cays heading south hold a variety of species: snappers, jacks, tarpon, sharks, barracuda and occasionally permit. If the weather is cooperative, you’ll run north to a string of cays that lead to Little Abaco. Here, you’ll fish the best flats on the Little Bahama Bank. Deep Water guides will also fish all the nearby cays, which begets great species variety for anglers. The fishing here also has the best alternatives when the weather turns windy.
A biggin’ – Photo North Riding Point Club
North Riding Point Club
If you head west from Deep Water Cay you arrive at North Riding Point Club’s doorstep, six pristine beachfront acres on the south coast and just 30 minutes from Freeport. The club offers plenty to do beside fishing, including horseback riding. Guides here, like H2O, trailer their boats to favored locations. The club favors the North Shore and the wilderness fishing it affords; several hundred square miles of flats, inlets and mangroves adds enormously to the fishing opportunities and species to be caught. Too, you’re unlikely to see another boat all week. It’s not uncommon to see hundreds of bones per day and they’re less pressured than most venues and thus, more prone to eat a fly quickly.
North Riding Point guides will fish all the way to Mangrove Cay, a long haul just north and west of Water Cay in the Little Bahama Bank and only doable when the weather cooperates. The cay is home to really big bones and permit.
Big ‘cuda’ break up a bone fishing day – Water Cay Lodge photo
Water Cay Lodge
Their motto: On most days, the color of our water closely resembles the color of our sky. You wade hard-packed white sand flats and easily spot bone fish. When you encounter Turtle Grass around the mangroves, the ground is too soft to wade and you’ll fish from the boat. As is the case with most mangroves, the water runs deep into the mangrove root tangles, but here on the North Shore of Grand Bahamas the mangroves open into saltwater lakes with freshwater sources – a virtual bait fish factory.
Water Cay lies on an east-west tack and is situated below an archipelago of moderate-sized cays arranged on a north-south tack. A series of channels connect the southern and northern fisheries, making an angler’s trip a quick run to any of them. At Water Cay you can arrange for offshore fishing. Water Cay has been fished out of by the likes of Joe Brooks, Chico Fernandez, Flip Pallot and currently hosts Buccaneers & Bones TV show. The north coast is home to willing and big bones as well as some huge permit. Also, the north shore has a the diversity of species that can only be found in a dense, tropical shoreline of red mangrove.
Author and bone fish expert Chico Fernandez admires a nice bone. H2O photo
H2O
Greg Vincent, a high energy guy and world traveled fly angler, as well as offshore captain heads up a team of great guides.
They’ve been in business for over eight years.
Each morning your guide will pick you up after breakfast and trailer his boat to a predetermined venue that will be the most productive that day. Greg pow wows with his crew each day and they base their venue decisions on such things as wind speed estimates, wind direction, weather forecasts in general, seasons, tides and sunny or cloudy.
H2O can also offer you a split of a few flats days and a few offshore days – a good combo in the spring and summer.
Your accommodations are at the Pelican Bay Hotel, which is geared to serve H2O’s anglers and they are excellent.
David Pinder with a nice North Shore caught bone. David met Fly Life Magazine.com’s publisher at the 2012 Bonefish & Tarpon Trust Symposium. David provided casting demonstrations and instruction.
Grand Bahama Bonefishing
Grand Bahama Bonefishing opened in 1999, and is run by, some say, the best bone fishing guides in the Bahamas, the Pinder brothers: David Jr., Jeffrey and Joseph. They fish the north shore, which gets little pressure and holds big, willing to eat bones in the 5- to 7-pound class with double digit fish a real possibility on any given day. The North Shore of Grand Bahama Island is where you’ll also find permit and in the spring especially, big tarpon.
The Pinder brothers literally grew up in the guiding business, guiding at the famed Deep Water Cay Club. David Pinder, Jr. has won the All-Bahamian Bonefishing Tournament of Grand Bahama Island. On a single day, David landed 23 bones! If you’re not happy with your game, these Pinder brothers are more than happy to get you casting well in a short amount of time. They’re quite good.
Your accommodations will be at the Breakers Cay – Lighthouse Point at the “Our Lucayan Resort,” located a short 10-minute ride from the airport and dock. There are other options so check with Frontiers (link below) or your booking agent.
The fishing van will pick you up upon arrival and in the morning around 8:00 am in front of the hotel. The fishing day is over at 4:15 pm and you should be back at Lighthouse Point by 5:00 pm. Jeffrey Pinder’s wife, Edith, provides quality lunches.
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Booking: Frontiers International.
NOTE: Using an agent doesn’t add one dime to the cost of your trip, but agents, like Frontiers do save you all the hassles of being Mr. or Mrs. Concierge. Call, book the dates you want and your done – everything is taken care of for you. Back to business in minutes.
Water Cay Lodge does not have its own website
North Riding Point Club website
Old Bahama Bay Resort & Yacht Harbour
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