Fishing

On Wednesday Ryan and I went fishing! Now, this wasn't just any fishing trip. We contacted a spouse who hires local fishermen to take people out for a day of fishing, Dominica style! Our guide was Roy and his friend, Alpha. It was an absolutely incredible day! We really enjoyed it, it was such a nice break from our traditional island activities.

We met Roy and Alpha at the dock at the mouth of the Indian River. They had a little wooden boat, like a bit rowboat with an outboard motor on the boat. We hopped in the boat and headed toward the beach to Roy's shack to pick up our equipment for the day. Now, the local fishermen here don't fish with poles and reels. They do something called 'hand reel' fishing. I'm sure everyone has seen fishing line for sale. It's sold on those plastic spools. Well, those plastic spools are what we used to fish! Actually, Ryan's first spool was just fishing line wrapped around an empty plastic water bottle. But we eventually 'graduated' to using the plastic spools of line. Our weight was just a pebble, and we baited the two hooks on our line with pieces of fish Roy caught the day before. Roy and Alpha both used lines with four hooks!

We were fishing for red snapper at depths of about 200 feet, and we just tossed our line overboard and waited for the bite, holding the line in our hands. When you felt a tug on the line, you'd set the hook by jerking back on the line- just like you would with a reel, just using our hands rather than a reel. If you caught a fish, you'd pull the line in hand over hand, and worry about coiling your line AFTER you landed the fish. Ryan and I were actually the first ones to catch a fish- although his first fish was the 'one that got away'! It hit the line so hard that by the time he pulled it in, the hook and lure were gone.

The first fish we landed was a little red snapper, and he was quickly followed by many others. The first fish I caught was a decent sized red, spotted fish. I can't remember the name of it, but Ryan ate it that night and LOVED it! After we were done fishing, we stopped at Roy's fish traps. The traps are a lot like lobster traps, and Roy baits them with coconut and pieces of fish. Ryan and I steered the boat while Roy and Alpha hauled up the traps. There were about four traps, and one was filled with about ten eels! They were nasty things that kept trying to bite while Roy was emptying the traps. They weren't very happy with the idea of being caught! The ones that were too little to eat Roy and Alpha would toss overboard. The birds have learned this and would try to snatch the fish before they could swim away. Two birds got into an argument and dropped a fish about ten feet away from the boat. He fell with a big splash and swam away very quickly!

That night we had Neil and Jen up to enjoy some of our fish. We kept all the fish we caught, and Roy gave us some of his as well. The red snapper was absolutely amazing and we loved it! If you enjoy fishing, Dominica is certainly a great place to do this. Come visit- you can go spear fishing and hand reel fishing, and I know of at least one place that takes out deep sea fishing expeditions!

The last few days we've been working with the Welcoming Committee and around our apartment, reorganizing things and cleaning behind furniture and such.