14 Jan, Sat

Sat, 14 Jan so, i've been here 10 days already ! Wilbur was here in the morning. we were going to start at 8am .. but i guess that means 9 Belizan time. it sprinkled last night and was kinda cloudy this morning. i had planned on a really hot day; so i ran back in my room and grabbed a jacket and my dive jacket and we took off north towards Ambergris Caye. the day Wilber collected those 35 Conch, it was really calm; today it was not; but it wasn't too bad, just a little choppy. first we had to get some bait. here is Wilbur casting his net to collect sardines. he's really good at it. i have a video, and again, i will let you know when i can get it uploaded. the net is huge and has weights at the bottom and weighs about 20 pounds. we ... well, he got a lot of sardines, and they were larger than the ones in the can :) then we headed out again and stopped at our first fishing spot. Wilbur has been navigating these waters all his life; but i still cannot comprehend how he can know a precise spot where he wants to fish. it all looks the same to me you all know, i am not a fisher-person ... but I CAUGHT THE FIRST FISH ! it was a Mutton Snapper, distinquished by that black spot on it's back just below the dorsel fin. after fishing a bit, we got in the water and snorkeled the area looking for conch. right out of the boat i spotted this almost buried Southern Stingray. (it reminded me of my month at Glovers 2 years ago when i tracked and recorded their behavior.) he took me to a catamaran that had sunk during one of the hurricanes many years ago. we investigated and there were 2 HUGE Nurse Sharks inside. i've seen a lot of Nurse Sharks, but these guys were very very fat and large! also spotted this Cushion Sea Star during my journey. and i found my first Conch the rest of the day we alternated between fishing and jumping in the water snorkeling and looking for conch; then back in the boat and off to another of Wilbur's secret spots. while snorkeling we saw lots of fish. there were quite a few Gray Angelfish swimming together at several of our stops i don't know what the next two photos are of, but i liked them. unfortunately internet service is expensive here, so i can't do much research to find out what they are. while we were Conch searching, Wilbur had his spear gun with him. and speared several fish. one of them was this Hog Fish one particular area we were searching in had lots of Cushion Sea Stars. a couple of them were huge. here they are compared to me and my hand. even Wilbur said these were huge; and they were so fat too. i also spotted these Christmas Tree Worms. they look just like Christmas trees; but if you get too close to them, they vanish into the coral. if you wait a little while, they will come back out again ... and the game goes on this is what a lobster trap looks like; and Wilbur checking it. the lobster goes in there, and it can't get out. there was no lobster in this one. i found lots of smaller Conch, and put them in a pile. but decided to leave them to get bigger because i started to feel a bit 'greedy' since we already had quite a few.... this is a larger one that was so covered with plant life, i almost didn't see it. Wilbur pointed out this Green Moray Eel that i never would have seen and another Gray Angelfish passed close enough to me to get this photo. i dove down to take a photo of a HogFish; but when i got down there, i CowFish was right in front of me. you can't tell very well from this photo, but they have little horns over their eyes, like cows ... they are really cute, and i have only seen one other one 2 years ago out at Glovers; and it wasn't this pretty green color. we continued to fish; but only Wilbur was catching fish. i just don't seem to have the touch. Mostly he was catching Mutton Snapper, but this was a Spanish Mackerel. he is amazing. he hooked it several times but it kept getting away. he would bring in the line, rebait it, and throw it back. he told me it was a Mackerel before he even caught it. he knew just by the way it was taking the bait. it was getting late in the afternoon, and a big black cloud was covering the sun; and i was getting cold. i put on my dive jacket and tried not to whine. we tried several more spots with no luck. he asked me if i wanted to get back in the water to see a school of Spade fish that he knew were down there. i really would have like to see them, but i couldn't get back in the water at that point. we finally headed for home. ... well, i thought we were, but instead we went West to another secret spot. i tried fishing again; but when i lost my hook, again, on something on the bottom, i told him i was finished. i also told him a story about my sister fishing in the Rocky Mountains that i won't go into here. (Pammy, you know the one). Anyway, the fish started really biting. he literally was tossing his bait in the water, pulling a fish out, putting more bait on, tossing it again, and pulling in another one. i feared we would be there for hours; until he yelled and his line took off. something BIG had hit it and was taking all the line off his reel .... honest, he was down to holding the end of the line ! he said it was a Stingray. i had visions of this Stingray in our boat, and us trying to get the hook out of it's mouth, with that barb on it's tail flying around; and eventually having to kill it. i prayed and prayed that the line would break, i really didn't want that experience! finally, the line did break... thankfully! .... and that was the end of our day ! we got back just before dark, put the fish on ice in the cooler, the conch in a trap in the water and called it a night. i took a shower and realized i should have used more sunscreen. my back was sunburned a bit, an unusual experience for me. the day was partly cloudy and windy, and i should have known i was getting more sun than i thought :( i went to the Happy Lobster for dinner and had the grilled barracuda since we didn't get one of those today. a great day on the island of Caye Caulker !