By Kevin

The Exumas stretch for about a hundred miles in a northwest to southeast direction. On the west side of the island chain is the Great Bahama Bank, which has an average water depth of only 15-20 feet and lots of coral heads and reefs. Unfortunately, there are not many different kinds of sportfish on the bank. The best eating fish will be grouper, snapper, triggerfish, and a few others. Mostly though, if you are trolling a line, you’ll catch barracuda, which the locals eat but I am not interested in (see ciguatera).

The best fishing is on the east side of The Exuma islands. This body of water is the Exuma Sound and is an extension of the Atlantic Ocean. The charts show that the water depth drops off from 30-60 feet to several thousand feet within a few miles of shore. Most of the sportfishermen fish “the dropoff,’ which I understand is the area where the depth goes to about 100 feet or so. This is an area with a wealth of sportfish, including tuna, mahi-mahi, wahoo and shark, to just name a few.

So, Zach and I decided to take our dinghy out in the Exuma Sound and troll with a line at around 30-40 feet to see what we could come up with. The sea state was a bit too rough for us to go out any deeper.

After 30 minutes we had a strong bite but lost it in the struggle.