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Our first trip of the summer was to Rum Cay, a small island
50 miles due east of
 Georgetown,
Exuma. This area of the Bahamas is well know for its Wahoo
fishing. In fact, San Salvador is directly northeast of Rum.
There are two ways to get to Rum, charter a plane or take
your boat. I have done both, and neither is easy. Last
summer, while living in Exuma, I took a fishing trip to Rum.
From Georgetown it is around 50 nm.
This trip was supposed to be easy. The boat was already
there and we chartered a single engine Cherokee VI to take
us from Ft. Lauderdale to Rum, with a stop in Georgetown to
clear customs. We left Ft. Lauderdale at 7:30 and three
hours later we were in Exuma. Once we cleared customs, we
took off again. A short 30 minute flight later we had landed on Rum's 2,000 ft. dirt strip. We had arrived.
The weekend before, Art had gotten into the Yellowfin and managed the land a bunch, including a 55 lb.
tuna. This weekend we are going back out on Art's 31' Ocean
Master, the Battle Wagon, to try and get back into the fish.
After fishing for an hour, we had our first tuna in the
boat. In the next hour we land a 42 lb. Wahoo.
 There were
some very nice weed lines, and we stopped on all of them,
but there were no Dolphin. On one patch I looked down and
saw a Wahoo. I ran to get my mask, fins, and spear, but the
fish was gone by the time I was ready. We trolled for a few
more hours and managed to land another wahoo, a small
dolphin, and some cudas that we cut up for bait. Back at the
dock we cleaned the fish and loads of sharks came into the
marina to feed. Mostly lemons and nurse sharks. Bobby, the
owner of Sumner Point, feeds the sharks by hand. I don,t
agree with this, but hardly anyone dives in the water around
Rum. Unlike
Walker's Cay, which has a new problem with sharks due to
feedings, Rum has always had a problem. Bobby was kiteboarding one day last year when he had a 17 foot
hammerhead chased him around. And many of the Tuna that are
not brought up in time are lost to sharks.
 Rum
is surrounded by deep water, very deep water. There are no
banks or flats around the island, just walls. Big deep water
sharks can come 100 yards from their home and be in 30 feet
of water. A very frightening thought that kept crossing my
mind when I was spearfishing. Anyway, after cleaning up, we
went up to the resturant and sat for dinner. There is no
menu. If you are going to be eating, then you tell them ahead of time
and they make enough for you. The food is out of this world.
Every meal they cook up is five star. Hard to imagine for a
little rock in the middle of nowhere. All the meals are seved in the resturant/bar.
The newer bar and restaurant, The Green Flash, was closed
while we were there.
After dinner we went to our room. The rooms were great. They
go for $150 and include towels, cold
a/c, coffee maker with Starbuck's coffee, a little fridge,
and the water was RO, so you could drink it. Every thing you
need in a room. And the rooms are beach front.
The following two day were just as productive.
We went deep dropping with the cuda strips and we killed the
fish. After only 2 hours we had to call it quits because the
cooler was full. The only problem we had with Rum was trying
to take off with two full coolers. Can't complain about
that. I can't wait to go back in November, when the Wahoo
roll around.
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