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Ragged Island's Ragged Edge
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05-24-2008
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Editor’s note: Some of the place names in this report have been changed to protect the
location's secrecy!
After arriving on the rock they call Ragged Island, I wandered over to a
simple, little red roofed shack. Nobody was there to greet me. I asked my
pilot if “Phenol” was coming to pick me up, and he replied, “Ya Mon, I saw
his truck while we was flying in, he knows we’re 'ear mon, don' worry.”
And sure enough, before I had all my bags out of the plane, his blue truck
pulled into the airport . I quickly learned his name is Phicol, (pronounced
Phi-co), he is native to the island and he is one of Ragged’s most important
men. An employee of the Bahamian Electric Company, Phicol is solely
responsible for the island's two diesel generators that supply all electrical
power. If Phicol has a bad day at the office, everyone on the island knows
about it!
Tiny Ragged Island sits at the southern end of the Jumentos Cays, a 100-plus mile string
of small rocky cays dotting the western edge of the Bahamas. Ragged is 62 miles east of
Cuba and has a landmass of approximately five square miles. Duncan Town is the only
“settlement” in this string of cays and home to a population of roughly sixty brave souls.
They are a tight-knit community that spans generations of island life, passing down
colonial names like Maycock and Lockhart. The relatives of the current population can
be traced back for almost two hundred years! They love sharing stories of working the
salt flats and fishing. On Ragged, almost everyone plays a mean game of dominos. The
people of Ragged Island are some of the nicest, most trustworthy people I have met in
the entire Bahamas. These folks are full of life and their smiles are genuinely contagious.
Being on this island is like stepping back in time. Ragged Island existence is a paradox
in that the island has received many of the comforts of modern living, such as cell
phones, internet service, diesel powered electricity, and reverse osmosis systems for
fresh water, yet the people still live a subsistence lifestyle, fueled by the ocean’s bounty.
I was on a 12-day mission to fish this pristine, untouched area in the Southern Bahamas
and by day two I was in awe. Phicol and I started by fishing an area known as Billy Ray’s
Flat on the north west side of the island. Billy’s is a big white sand flat. In spite of the
moguls along the mangroves, this flat offers surprisingly easy wading. I was shocked at
the number of bonefish on this small flat! During the last hour of the ebbing tide, we
probably saw four different schools of 40+ fish all milling about within easy casting
distance. The bones on this particular flat were smaller fish, one to four pound critters,
but I was certainly not complaining. We also saw a few bigger singles and doubles in the
four to six pound range. The bonefish’s reaction to my flies was absolutely amazing with
several of them peeling off to chase my bonefish scampi fly from over six feet away.
Clearly these fish had not seen many fishermen! I caught twenty-some fish and was
broken off by six or seven more. After three hours of hot and heavy action and in
desperate need of sweet water (as I had left the guest house without any), I reeled up my
line and we made our way back to Duncan Town.
Wanting to fish more, I asked Phicol if he knew of anyone heading out to the flats that
evening that I could tag along with. After making a few calls, it was down to the dock to
meet Myron. Myron has lived on the island for most of his life and is the island’s “handy
man”. He also maintains the reverse osmosis system that keeps fresh water available to
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man”. He also maintains the reverse osmosis system that keeps fresh water available to
the island’s residents. Myron suggested we go catch some jacks just north of Dick’s Cay.
Dick’s Cay lies close to Ragged so after a short run, we anchored up. I had no idea what I
was in for.
Myron chopped-up some fresh lobster heads and began throwing them overboard. This
chum line attracted jacks, groupers, sharks, and even bonefish. After only two casts, I
hooked a nice jack. The third jack I hooked gave a typical fight until a six-foot shark
made a meal of it. I then grabbed the big rod, rigged some wire, and tied on the biggest
fly I had. On my second cast, the fly stopped and all hell broke loose. Fortunately, after a
few jumps and crazy runs, the shark broke me off. Being the “slow learner” that I am, I
re-rigged and cast again. This time it was a spinner shark that ate my offering and
proceeded to jump six to eight feet out of the water like a twisting and turning black
trident missile. I had always heard stories of the acrobatics these spinner sharks were
capable of, but until you see it in person, you never fully understand! This spinner was a
smaller specimen at five to six feet and definitely “landable". After thirty minutes, I had
my fly line back in the last guide and was in good shape to land this toothy critter. With
his gloves on and pliers out, Myron was ready. As we got the shark’s head up, Myron
pulled the fly out. After releasing our captive, it was high-fives all around. Now I
understand why they call ‘em spinner sharks!
The next day I explored the flat that is found on the other side of the island's small
runway. This flat lies between Ragged Island and Little Ragged Island. This was a
tougher flat to fish on this day due to the dark color of the turtle grass and the high
morning tide. Phicol and I walked the azure edges and saw a fair number of bigger
bones traveling in packs of four to six. There were a lot of bones feeding out in the
middle of the flat creating a mud, but this section proved to be a bit too deep to wade, so
we headed south. As we walked around the southern side of Ragged, we spotted a big
barracuda that was laid up. Motionless, he was on the hunt. With an ambush position
perfectly established, I couldn't help but offer this big fish a meal. After handing my fly
rod to Phicol, I grabbed the spinning gear and fired out a 20 foot or so cast beyond the
'cuda. I Turned the crank snapping the bail closed and burned the bright green tube lure
right under the 'cudas nose. With murder on its mind, the cuda closed a twenty-foot gap
in milliseconds and hammered my fake needlefish lure. After a hearty battle and some
lofty acrobatics, I released the predator back into the channel a bit worse for the wear,
but certainly healthy and ready to again take up her ambush position.
The next day dawned bright and windless and I headed back out to Billy’s Flat. On this
day, there were fish everywhere and on all stages of the tide. So plentiful were the
bonefish that I began experimenting with flies. I was able to try new patterns that I
hadn’t fished before. I tried new color schemes, big vs. small and heavy vs. light. My
research showed that these fish ate just about everything. The day flew by and the
fishing was intoxicating. All alone, hundreds of miles from anything that resembled
civilization, I talked to myself and laughed out loud at my good fortune for I was
surrounded by bonefish in one of the Bahamas’ last untouched frontiers.
For the next several days, I eagerly did more exploring. By this point, I knew where the
fish were to be found around Billy Ray’s Flat and had a feeling there might be bigger fish
further out along the edges of the yet to be explored Rock Creek Channel. So, I blew up
my kayak, found an anchor and paddled out. On each side of the channel, I found
extremely fishy habitat. As I paddled along, I knew it was just a matter of time before I
struck silver. After finding a few fish, I got out of the kayak and began to slowly wade.
My wake faded behind me into the afternoon sun. This particular area was loaded with
fish and I was happy to discover that the size of the fish were notably bigger than those
on neighboring Billy Ray’s Flat. While I stood like a statue, the fish swarmed around me
lazily tailing and eating fleeing prey. There were several big schools around, but by this
point, I was head-hunting, and was soon seduced by some of the huge silver tails that
sparkled in the late day sun. I changed my fly to a smaller, lighter pattern and
lengthened my leader. After an hour or so, I had landed several nice sized bones that
were tailing on the edges of the channel. With tails still in sight, I decided it best to head
back to tiny Duncan Town and leave the remaining fish untouched. Paddling back to
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back to tiny Duncan Town and leave the remaining fish untouched. Paddling back to
town, I found myself smiling and giddy as I remembered every detail of the amazing day
that I had just experienced.
Over the next several days, I continued to fish the Rock Creek Channel because of the
proximity and the larger size of the bonefish. Each day I paddled a little farther out and
walked a different section of this huge area. I never did see the elusive permit, but big
bonefish were plentiful. One bonezilla hit the nine-pound mark on my boga-grip!
Towards the end of my two week trip, I was able to procure a boat manned by a local
boatman. The owner, Alvin, took me over to Chinook and Rainbow Cay. The flats that lie
between these two cays are drop-dead beautiful and quite large. This area has a terrific
outer flat along with what’s called the “creek” which is an area that cuts back into the
interior of Rainbow Cay. The creek has a hard bottom lined with mangroves on both
sides and is a very productive spot during the right tide.
While on the outside flat, Alvin and I were hunting a cruising, four-foot barracuda, when
from somewhere behind us, we heard water splashing. We turned around to see a happy,
tailing “turkey platter” sized permit milling up the current within one hundred feet of us.
Unfortunately, the fish would require a long cast into a fairly stiff breeze, which left me
with little to no chance of hooking him. We watched this fish tail-up two more times
before he slid back down into the channel from which he first appeared. While the
Bahamas may never rival Belize for permit fishing, Ragged Island, with it’s tremendous
exposure to classic patch reefs, clearly has huge potential for these legendary fish.
Growing tired of battling the wind and with Alvin determined to show me a “blue hole",
we jumped into the boat. We ran along the north side of Chinook Cay towards the west
all the while cutting through various channels. Suddenly Alvin's blue hole appeared like a
sapphire blue siren. Alvin handed me a homemade five-gallon bucket from which he had
cut out the bottom and replaced it with plexiglas. With this device, it was unbelievable
how far you could see into the water! At the bottom of this blue cavern, we saw a truly
amazing spectacle. For nearly two minutes we drifted over this hole and watched while a
constant stream of bones, from one to ten pounds, passed underneath. Thousands of
bonefish milled about seemingly unconcerned about the nearby sharks, jacks, ladyfish,
barracuda, and numerous other species. I never did fish the flats surrounding this blue
hole, but I am absolutely certain that, on the right tide, they would have magnificent
fishing.
With just a couple days of my exploratory trip remaining, I planned to kayak from
Ragged Island to Little Ragged Island for an afternoon of permit hunting. I loaded up
my kayak, paddled over to the island, and tied off the kayak to my belt. I began walking
the shoreline towards a small point. On the way, I caught some smaller bones up to
three pounds. I was on a neap tide and it was ebbing out fast. Soon it got so low, I could
have walked back to Ragged Island, but I would have had to drag my kayak across the
beautiful sand. There are some sexy looking flats on Little Ragged, but since I was there
during slack low, I had timed my journey poorly. I presume that like in other areas of the
Bahamas, on Ragged Island, May through November is the best time to fish for permit.
On this trip, I found the morning tide to be the best time of day for permit. In spite of
my poor tide timing, the flats here on Little Ragged are perfect and I know that the
bonefish and permit swarm into this area on the right tide.
On the last day of my trip, Phicol was able to set up an afternoon out in the blue water.
The east side of Ragged drops off fast and the pristine reef edges create currents, which
cause the fish to feed on low incoming tides. This unexplored edge is home to marlin,
sailfish, wahoo, dorado, numerous species of tuna and lots of other great gamefish. As
we turned the corner, we thought we might be in for a bonanza as huge groups of birds
were working bait in five different locations. In the middle of these melees, fish were
breaking everywhere. It reminded me of the famous fall blitz that occurs every year in
Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut. We powered out through the 4 to 6 foot
seas and took an upwind position. We cut the motor and drifted into a frenzied bird
pile. The outcome was never really in question. I think I made two casts and at midhttp://www.anglingdestinations.com/Recent.php?action=adv&RECADV_ID=131
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pile. The outcome was never really in question. I think I made two casts and at midstrip on the second cast, the fly line snapped tight in my hand. The line ripped off the
boat deck and spun crazy circles in the air like some rodeo cowboy’s lariat. Finally, the
line came tight on the reel as an atomic blue and green torpedo rocketed off pulling one
hundred yards of my backing with it in the blink of an eye. Birds were going crazy, fish
were busting everywhere and the bait was in full panic. In all this, I was trying to
manage the fight while rocking and rolling on a wildly pitching sea. When I finally got
the fish close to the boat, I saw a 30+ pound kingfish spin death spirals 20 feet under
the boat. We gently leadered the beast and were pulling him up towards us when
inexplicably, the fly popped out! Crazy! Since I was not using a wire leader, it was just
dumb luck that the fish got hooked on the outside of it’s mouth. Oh well... that’s fishing!
Although we did not get a photo of the fish, the memory of that “Mack” will remain with
me. Soon we got over the lost photo-op and soldiered on. We landed five other species of
blue water bruisers including good sized false albacore, voracious spanish mackerel and
a “grand daddy” ‘cuda. We were throwing flies and casting Yozuri’s on light spinning
gear with almost automatic results. It went on like this for hours until in the waning
light, we finally fired up the Yamaha 200 and headed southwest back to our tiny refuge
on Ragged Island. It was an experience I will always remember and I was pleased to see
such an amazing bounty in the ocean that surrounds this bonefish paradise.
The only real concern on my trip was the gas situation throughout the Bahamas at the
time. During a scheduled trip from Fort Lauderdale to Nassau, a tanker that supplies the
islands with fuel had run aground on a reef. Reserves in Nassau had quickly become
depleted. The ship had to be pulled off the reef and the fuel offloaded. As a result of this
grounding, mail boats out of Nassau were frozen in port due to the lack of diesel. On
Ragged Island, the locals hung out hoping their full traps would be OK after these extra
days of soaking. This situation brought into bold relief how isolated and dependent the
settlement of Duncan Town is on the 'outside". No question... this remote island really is
the “ragged edge” of civilization.
I came away from my experience on Ragged Island thinking this fishery has something
to offer every angler. Here, you can flats fish to your heart’s content. You can hunt
double-digit bonefish on the edges, smaller fish on the more protected flats and stalk
elusive permit on any one of the abundant reef-flats. You can use your fly rod to catch
huge (20+ pound) ‘cuda that are laid up on just about every rocky point and finally, if
that’s not enough for you, you can chase birds and try your hand angling in the big blue
for ocean speedsters! This fishery is pristine, eclectic and rugged. As such, it offers one
of the last great opportunities to get completely “lost” in the Bahamas. I can’t wait to
replace all my broken gear and get back down on the "rock" as soon as possible!
Written by: Jason Owens
Photos by: Eric Berger
151 Powder Horn Road • Sheridan, Wyoming 82801 • (P) 800- 211- 8530 • (F) 307- 672- 3920
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