I can see why people come back to Water Cay Lodge. Talking to Sidney, the head guide and owner of Water Cay Lodge, he says 90% of his guest are return visitors. You get the feeling of one of the “Family Islands,” but you get the convenience of flying into Freeport.
Sindey and his wife met us in Freeport and we followed them out to the boat launch. He was ferrying supplies out to the lodge in preparation for some guest who were arriving that day. My daughter Anna and I got on the skiff and headed out in some wildly blowing winds. We may have actually hit a shark on the way out. With the visibility poor from the wind Sidney couldn’t avoid it in time. We didn’t see it, but we did feel it.
The ride isn’t long, but you do feel like you are out in the bights of Andros or some other remote Bahamian place. There just isn’t much out there. I don’t think we encountered water deeper than 3 feet the whole run to the lodge, which may have been 20-30 minutes.
A good sign.
Simple comfort for people who come to fish.
Once there Anna and I got to poke around a bit while Sidney unloaded supplies and then we headed back out. The Lodge only fishes 6 people at a time, so it is a rather intimate kind of place. There are only 25 people living on Water Cay, so you won’t run into any Spring Breakers on the flats although there are other outfits that put in on the North Side and fish those same waters.
In terms of what the day was from a fishing perspective, Sidney fished us a little bit on his way back to pick up guests, so there wasn’t much fishing. It was more an adventure with my girl, and it felt like an adventure. When we left the lodge to go find some fish, it was my daughter who was up first. We headed to a blue-hole about 300 yards from the lodge and got my daughter into some jacks, quickly. First cast, first fish. That was pretty much the highlight of the short trip.
The spinning rig was a really good call and the little Albright travel rod I picked up just before we left has left a favorable impression on me thus far.
After three fish from the bluehole we headed back towards the boat launch with the idea being we would look for some fish on the way in.
Did I mention how windy it was? It was howling. The wind was pushing the water off the flats and at one point Sidney had to get down and push the boat. We were scraping.
Sidney saw one bone about 15 feet from the boat. I never saw it. later, while he was out pushing we both saw a bone about 50 feet away pop a tail up, but it seemed to see us at the moment and took off before a cast was made.
There just wasn’t time to really get after the bones as we could see the clients waiting to be picked up. I reeled in and we went back to the launch. It was really good to see WCL and I really hope to get back out there. Out Island remoteness, Grand Bahama convenience. I can understand why people who go there, go back. I don’t know if my next trip there would count as return business or not, but Water Cay Lodge is on my list of places I’d like to spend some time.
And all is well with the world.
Dinner was in Lucaya with my folks, wife, daughter and brother. I was happy to have my first (and second) Kaliks of the trip.
