On a sunny morning during the Easter holiday two Placencia boys decided to spend the day fishing. Blake Leslie, age 12, and Darryn Eiley, age 13, have grown up around fishing – both their fathers are licensed fishing guides. With a kayak, a spin cast rod, and a hand line with a “ceasar hook” they took off to see if their fishermen’s luck would be good for the day.
The boys started out by searching for bait and eventually ended up catching two yellow tail snapper and one dog tooth snapper through a method known as hitching. Hitching is when a hand line is lowered straight down into the water and when a fish swims above it the line is quickly jerked upward. It takes practice but for someone that is skilled at it they can always provide themselves with bait. This is best done around the pilings of docks.
The boys quickly turned one of the yellow tail into a tow bait and set out towards Little Harvest Caye (located in the lagoon behind Sunset Pointe) with Darryn paddling and Blake in control of the rod. In no time Blake was fighting a small barracuda, known locally as a “booboo barra”. The barracuda was landed and the boys decided to make a stop in at Little Harvest Caye for a bite to eat. The caye had several coconuts on it and the boys knew with a few minutes of “busting” coconuts they would have a refreshing drink as well as the sweet meat of the nut to enjoy.

Before heading in Darryn suggested they circle the caye one more time and that was when the line started singing and the boys knew they had something big on the other end. The fish started to put up a fight, not being happy about being hooked, and took off towing the kayak and boys behind it. Darryn began paddling towards the caye with renewed earnest while Blake fought the line. Reaching shore Blake continued fighting and then they reached a dilemma… all of the line was out and their fish was still fighting. With no other choice the boys jumped back in their kayak, heading back out into the water to keep up with the fish. It towed them throughout that area of the lagoon for almost an hour, all the while with Blake keeping hold of the line and Darryn trying to slow the fish down through paddling.

The boys began to get tired and made their way towards another mangrove caye where they managed to anchor the kayak. They continued fighting the fish and finally brought it to the side of the kayak where they realized it was a crevalle jack (known locally as a cobali). Not having a gaff (hook stick) on board Darryn managed to grab the jack by its tail and finally the fish was landed. Darryn quickly put the fish out of its misery.

Tired after their adventure they decided to call it a day. They had already stayed out longer than they had planned to. One fish that they had caught for bait was still alive in the front of the kayak so they turned it loose and headed back towards home. On the way back they were treated with seeing a manatee sharing a part of the lagoon with them.

When they had made it safely back into the channel that would eventually lead them home they started to celebrate with loud hollering and antics which resulted in Blake dropping over board. Unhurt he quickly got back into the kayak and they paddled the rest of the way home. Not ones to waste anything the boys cleaned the fish, divided their catch, and cleaned the kayak but not before alerting their families of their adventure. If these two love fishing so much and having such great adventures now imagine what sort of guides they will be in the future!