Gone Fishin' - 3

I suppose the peak of my fishing career - if such it can be called - came during the two years we were in Jamaica. Friends introduced me to beachcasting off Palisadoes, the spit that runs along the front of Kingston harbour. In its surf one could, in theory, catch a wide range of fine fish but in practice even catching tiddlers proved hard work. For a start, the best time to fish was through the dawn and, since the peninsula was home to a varied bunch of Rastafarians, it wasn't considered particularly safe.

This didn't prevent me from getting up in the dark and, alone or with a friend, setting off for the beach. I had some success - this is a snook - but the biggest catch, a small shark, came off the hook just as I was hauling it through the breakers into the welcoming arms of a couple of Rastas.

The Rastafarians never really bothered me, and I used to enjoy the silence of a dawn rising over the still waters of the Caribbean Sea.

The happiest days along Palisadoes were during the weeks that our friends Tony and Hilary Hizzard visited us, when Tony and I would spend many hours thrashing the waters for fish. When he left, Tony bought me....

....a beautiful reel which I kept for many years - it's seen here with a jack fish.

Nothing, however, prepared me for the excitement of deep sea gamefishing, an opportunity which arose when we started going on holiday to Blue Mahoe. There I accompanied Richard and Horace on long expeditions into the Caribbean which, sadly, never produced the huge fighting fish - the marlin, tuna, sailfish and sharks - which were promised. Despite this, I shall never forget the scream of a reel as a 100lb wahoo took the lure. There's an earlier blog about fishing at Blue Mahoe here.