It’s 6:30 a.m., and my photographer and I are following a black Ford F-150 from Georgetown to Rolle Town in Exuma, Bahamas. The sun is slowly making its journey upwards, and the landscape seems to be glowing because of it.
We make our way to a little dock below a hill, park our rental car and board the boat. Off we go dashing across the still water in the dim early morning. The sun and its bright orange rays are barely above the horizon.
Exuma is an interesting place to bonefish. Known more for the swimming pigs and its dozens of beautiful cays, the island has become a popular hub for tourists in search of authentic Bahamian island life. Boasting top resorts like Sandals Emerald Bay, February Point and Grand Isles, Exuma is not short on gorgeous properties overlooking its turquoise and electric blue waters.
My guide, Reno Rolle, explains that Exuma has never been known as the fishing capital of The Bahamas; that title is held by Andros, Eleuthera, Bimini or Abaco. But Rolle said his clientele includes people from Germany, Paris, the Unites States and lately, Canada. And Rolle, who has been fishing for 20 years, does everything he can to make his clients lifelong patrons.
“I’ve got a guy from Germany who has been fishing with me for six years,” he said. “For one, I feel that as long as people get comfortable fishing with you as a guide they continue to building that relationship and it becomes naturally like that’s your friend. When we look at bonefishing, sometimes it just draws the outer world into these islands.”
There are eight full-time professional bonefish guides on Exuma.
Exuma is centrally located in the island chain of The Bahamas. A 35-minute flight from New Providence, Exuma is also an hour from Miami. Flights include Air Canada, American Eagle and Delta Airlines.
The Tropic of Cancer runs through a beach in Exuma, aptly named the Tropic of Cancer Beach. There are lots to do on the island. The swimming pigs tour, a journey through most of northern Exuma, takes guests from Barraterre on Great Exuma to Compass Cay in the north. Four C’s Adventures is a recommended guide service that can accommodate large groups.
Visitors not only get to meet the pigs on pig beach, they get to explore Thunderball Grotto, an underwater cavern filled with marine life, which served as a pivotal scene in the 1965 James Bond film Thunderball. Within a few miles of that is a sunken drug plane. Then there is a beach filled with endangered iguanas, a property once owned by actor Nicholas Cage and of course Compass Cay and its equally famous nurse sharks.
These are experiences that can only be found on Exuma.
Thousands of sailors anchor in Georgetown each year during the summer season, many are on their way south in an epic exploration of the Caribbean. Exuma’s harbors are well protected and exciting.
Chat N’ Chill, a restaurant and bar found on Stocking Island, overlooks that harbor. On a dull day, you’ll find about 20 people on the island feeding stingrays and maybe eating their fresh tropical conch salad, enjoying a Kalik – beer of The Bahamas.
Rolle, my guide, grew up on Exuma. The son of a taxi driver, Rolle began instructing me in the ways of the fly rod during our trip.
“It’s the only way to bonefish,” he told me.
While we circled around the back of Rolle Town searching for the gray ghost in the marshes, I learned just how complex using the fly rod can be. Rolle caught one bonefish that day, I caught zilch. Needless to say, I did not master the fly rod.
As we returned from our trip, the tide became increasingly low and suddenly several sandbars appeared above the water’s surface. Exuma is truly one of the most exciting and unpredictable islands in the Bahamian archipelago.