Caribbean Odyssey...

Caribbean Odyssey
(As seen in November/December 2006 Issue of Florida Sport Fishing Magazine)
by

Jan Stephen Maizler

Photography
by
Jan Stephen Maizler




Entry to a new angling destination often involves anticipation and adventure. Yet, when a sense of magic enters the mix, the experience becomes especially memorable. Little Cayman Island’s Southern Cross Club embodies all these qualities and more.

I’d taken a quick two-leg flight on Cayman Airways from Miami to Grand Cayman to Little Cayman. Upon arrival at the island’s compact airport, I was whisked away by van to the Club-mere minutes away.

My midday arrival was on May fifth and I was informed by the Club’s friendly intake staff that a double soiree would be underway later that day: the Club was having a traditional ”Cinco De Mayo” celebration. The prospect of a Latin bash would be fun, but platformed on top of that was a concurrent party celebrating the eleventh anniversary of owner Peter Hillenbrand’s purchase of Southern Cross Club. Come sunset along this resort’s beach and pier, feasting, festivities, and fireworks would begin.

This would leave an afternoon free for some creative angling and exploring on my own. As I gazed around at the sugar-white beach, sunny bungalows, and blue sea, I felt my stay at this resort was going to be a great experience. The good choices that create great experiences often rest on thorough research, something traveling anglers should always keep in mind.

Although many anglers are familiar with Grand Cayman Island with its posh resorts and striking beaches, fewer are familiar with its sister islands of Little Cayman and Cayman Brac. Both of these latter islands lay south of Cuba in line with Miami along the famed Cayman Trench and its fish-filled waters. Though these islands are known to offer world-class diving and snorkeling, they offer fine fishing as well. Little Cayman has the smallest population of the Cayman Islands and the real possibility of the least fishing pressure. In addition, Little Cayman has a unique combination of island-ringing sand flats, reef flats, and an inland lake that offers fine chances for a flats grand slam.

The proximity of the Cayman Trench’s deep drop right outside of the barrier reef makes blue water fishing a ten-minutes-from-port proposition. All of these marvelous features are topped off with peaceful and safe social conditions that make unlocked doors the norm. This made Little Cayman and Southern Cross Club my odds-on choice to visit one of the most well rounded islands in the entire Caribbean!

I decided I’d spend the afternoon exploring and fishing around Owens Island, which was alluringly situated perhaps a mile offshore of Southern Cross Club. I took one of the Club’s complementary kayaks and loaded it with three bottles of water, a fly rod, a spinner, and a small box of terminal tackle. I eased the vessel off the beach into the clear water, got it to a floatable depth and climbed in. The flats began right off the beach and were topped with a lush turtle grass carpet. Later, the shallows would transition to sugar-white flats surrounding the island.

I did see a few bonefish on that paddling expedition, but “’yakking and jacking” came closer to describing the fishing as I reeled in countless bar jacks and yellow jacks. Leading these fast moving fish a good distance with a rapidly retrieved jig or fly was the recipe for success. In what seemed like an hour, four hours had passed and it was time to paddle back to the Club: the afternoon was nearing an end.

As dusk arrived, the yellow and white tones of the beach transitioned to a soft orange. As I watched from my porch, a slow trickle of people headed towards the Club’s dive boat pier where the party was starting to take shape. As the sun dropped notch by notch over Little Cayman, the more the moving figures became silhouettes.

The growing laughter and enticing aromas of a festive Mexican buffet lured me up to the pier as well. As I waited for a rum and coke at the thatched pier bar, my peripheral vision picked up what seemed to be two tails that popped up out of the flats not thirty feet away. Somewhat amazed, I rescanned the area with my Double Bird Dog Power Gaze. Sure enough, the tails were still there…and they were long, blackish, and scepter-like.

A voice from behind me said, “ yeah, they’re permit and they tail right along this beach every dusk when conditions are right.” That’s how I met Buck Buchenroth, who was to be my fishing guide for the next three days.

The evening became a merry-go-round of angling dreams and personal sensations: talks with Buck about early tuna bites, getting a flats grand slam, spicy enchiladas, frijoles, and tamales, and overhead, multi-colored astral bursts of fireworks that would light up the Little Cayman sky and give way to the purple star-studded dome above us. It was a night to remember.

FISHING DAY #1- An Introduction To The Deep And The Flats-

Five-thirty a.m. came quickly. I could hear Buck firing up the engine on his twenty-five foot center console. Since he’d made it clear that the tuna “bite” was early and short, I dashed from my front door to his boat, a distance of only one hundred feet. When I hopped aboard, all the rods and rigs were in place. In moments, we cast off. The run to the blue water would be quite short: a quick shot from the dock through a break in the barrier reef and into the deep blue water took only ten minutes.

As soon as we were riding sapphire seas, he pointed to some wheeling gulls and diving frigate birds two hundred yards away. “ There’s our tuna “, he said. As we reached the halfway mark to the action, Buck let out blue plastic squids rigged below large drail sinkers on fifty-pound conventional tackle. He instructed me to troll these baits well astern at least fifty yards. Within moments, there were strikes on both rods. Double hookups were the norm until the action slowed down about twenty blackfin tuna later. As the low light action abated, I could feel the warmth of the early morning sun on my shoulder. Buck said, “ that’s it for now.” He gunned the throttles and we were back at the dock at 7:15 a.m. for an early breakfast of fresh fruit, yogurt, eggs benedict, and plenty of hot coffee.

Our next plans were to meet after breakfast and a short rest about two hours later and wade-fish the flats that lace the island. The method was to truck over the roads and stop at the roadside to park and walk through the many secret trails that Buck had cut through the scrub to the breathtaking beaches. Our target fish were bonefish, permit, and large barracuda cruising the sand and rubble flats. After a few hours of ocean flat hunting, Buck wanted me to sample and experience Little Cayman’s famous landlocked lake for tarpon.

Exactly two hours later, Buck’s pickup appeared through my bungalow window: I was to learn that Buck’s exactitude was one of the characteristics that made him one of the best guides around. I brought two nine and one-half foot, eight-pound test spinners rigged with shrimp I’d taken from Miami. Buck brought a heavy spinner rigged with wire-leadered tuna belly strips from the earlier trip. In the next few hours, I caught one bonefish, two barracuda of fifteen and twenty pounds, six bar jacks, and five yellow jacks. I also lost two more bonefish to some rocky points despite the length of my rods.

Buck then drove us to the inland tarpon lake where Southern Cross Club keeps its own aluminum rowboat. As we walked on the pier through the primitive mangrove jungle and mud flats below, I thought I was in Jurassic Park. As we eased into the boat, there were fish rolling everywhere around us. I switched my bait to a one-eighth ounce yellow/orange Spro baby bucktail and a twelve-inch piece of twenty-pound fluorocarbon leader. My results for that excursion were three fish jumped and three fish averaging ten pounds leadered and released.

Although Buck said that marked the end of our fishing for the day, he advised me to walk the beach at dusk slightly west of the club and look for bonefish tailing right in the surf’s edge. I followed his instructions and caught two more bonefish that evening less than one hundred yards from my bungalow.

Fishing Day #2- Grand Slam Day-

Easterly winds of 10 knots and a 9 a.m. high tide created a perfect permit morning for our second day of guided fishing. Within ten minutes of leaving the Club with Buck’s pickup truck, we were walking through some sea grape scrub onto a long beach flat comprised of sandy strips with multiple grass patches.

We saw some disturbed water headed our way and I lined myself up with what I hoped was a good intercept point to make my presentation. As the fish got closer, a bunch of black sickle tails popped through the wind-burnished surface- they were permit! When the fish got within casting range, they slowed and milled around the bottom. Since they were in a meandering pattern, it took three ultra quiet casts to hook up. Within minutes, I’d released a permit…small, but still a permit.

At that point, Buck insisted that we leave the flats and head for the tarpon lake. He said I could be sure this was to be a grand slam day. We arrived at the lake, where there were less rolling fish than the day before. In addition, the baby silver kings seemed slower to strike. In the ensuing hour, there was only one soft bump. Then we both saw a tarpon strike aggressively at a minnow near a tree stump. Within seconds, my bucktail landed in the remaining boil and I had an immediate strike. Ten minutes later, we released a fifteen-pound tarpon at the side of the boat. That made two of the three species I needed.

Buck and I met up four hours later at the low tide. We took his whaler style-skiff across the Sound and found a large school of mudding bonefish. In two minutes, I completed my Grand Slam. I released 6 more bonefish for good measure, and we called it quits with high-fives and big smiles.


Fishing Day #3- A Day of Inshore Diversity-

On our last day, we spent the day poling the Sound in Buck’s flats boat. We started the day with catching and releasing a seven-pound tailing bonefish. As we poled the mud flats and sugar-sand flats we tallied another ten bonefish releases, three large yellow jacks, one large boxfish that we ate later, and a bunch of mutton snapper.

We topped off the afternoon snorkeling the beautiful reefs off Little Cayman’s west side. The blue clarity of the water was so striking that the only place you’d swear you could find that color was in a dream. A bit later, we caught a few yellow-green and blue queen triggerfish, simply to enjoy their beauty close at hand and release them.


THE DESTINATION

In retrospect, I cannot recall a Caribbean fish and dive resort with such a diversity of gamefish. Southern Cross Club is a safe, stable, well-appointed destination that is so easy for traveling anglers to reach. The Club has a venerable history of habitat management by rotating all of its fishing areas.

The facility itself has approximately ten oceanfront bungalows with breathtaking views. Each unit is decorated in tasteful Caribbean motifs in air-conditioned comfort. Their meals are absolutely outstanding. One day, lunch consisted of pepper-dusted boxfish chunks, smoked turkey and Swiss cheese on just-baked baguettes, fresh French fries, lobster bisque, and topped off with chocolate cake with coffee or tea.

Amenities include complementary bicycles and kayaks for land and sea exploration. The beachcombing potential, exquisite reefs, and huge bird colonies make this an island paradise for do-it-yourselfers. The Club has two excellent and uncrowded dive and snorkel boats- ideal for anglers that enjoy this as well as non-angling family or friends. For a taste of the relaxed island beat, snooze in the shade of a palm tree, wade the crystal clear lagoon, have a float in the freshwater pool, or walk the beach under star-studded sky.

Southern Cross Club has an extremely high staff to guest ratio. This gives rise to a level of service quality that keeps guests returning again and again. If you want to bring children, you’ll be pleased to know that the Club has designated family dates- just contact them for these exact times. All of these marvelous features make Southern Cross Club a must-visit destination for first-time or seasoned traveling anglers alike.


WHEN YOU GO:

Many different carriers fly to the Cayman Islands. I personally was extremely pleased with Cayman Airways, but your research will turn up multiple and satisfactory alternatives.


CONTACT DATA:

Southern Cross Club
P.O.Box 44
Little Cayman Island
Cayman Islands, BWI
Website: http://www.southerncrossclub.com/
Email: scc@candw.ky
Telephone: 1-345-948-1099
Fax: 1-345-948-1098

Reservations:
Craig Buck, Southern Cross Club
Email: socrossclub@cox.net
Telephone: 1-800-899-2582

Captain Buck Buchenroth can be reached through the above contact data.