On the 15th of March I went to the Bahamas with my dad and little sister. We stayed with Tony Belcher on Cat Cay (traditionally pronounced ‘key’). My dad has visited Tony several times, usually participating in blue-water fishing tourneys. For me, the big excitement leading up to the trip was the fact that we were going to get a chance to do some flats-fishing for bonefish. Below is the account of our travel day and first day on Cat, with posts concerning the rest of our adventure forthcoming…

03/15 – Dad and I left Aspen around 11:30AM pulling our trailer and raft. The drive down I-70 was pretty uneventful, and we proceeded directly to Downriver Equipment in friendly Wheatridge, CO. After speaking with Phil and Mike about our current frame, we decided to get an upgrade. We left the raft, and then headed north to Westminster, where we met my sister Jessica. We had a wonderful dinner at O’s Steak and Seafood, where we met Robert Hall and tasted some of his great wine. We hit the sack early.

03/16 – Back to O’s dining room for breakfast. The Westin Westminster is an awesome hotel, and the breakfast buffet was perfect. A quick drive out to DIA, and that is were the trouble started. The big storm in the northeast made the planes late arriving, and we had to re-schedule (in a very white-knuckle fashion) our flights. Dad and Jess went direct to Ft. Lauderdale, but I had to go to Charlotte, NC and then fly standby to meet them. We ordered pizza at 1:00AM and didn’t get to bed until 3:00AM. They lost my luggage, including all my warm weather clothes AND my fly-reel (@#$&*!).

03/17 – The phone rang at 6:00AM, and I was completely lost… After we realized where we were, we booked it down to the lobby to catch a cab. The flight with Island Air was at 8:30AM, and we had some shopping to do… After breakfast and a quick stop at K Mart, we caught our flight. The majority of our first day was spent touring the island, catching up with Tony, and sampling some of the local cusine (and drinks!) at the famous Bu’s Bar.

The lovely Jessica Mae clearing customs

View of the beach from the pool