To be honest, 2007 hasn’t started off on the best note for me.
The high winds that plagued us for all of December have stuck
around into January, making the flats a muddy and difficult
place to fish. Casting a fly rod in these conditions is an
exercise in pure frustration for all but a handful of
experienced anglers. Most guys simply break out the spinning
gear after the second time a fly whacks them in the back of the
head. The fish themselves have been no shows too, thanks to a
lack of bait in the near shore water. I’ve had several days last
week where I had to give people what I call the “Crappy Day
Discount.“
To top off this current mess, my boat decided to break down last
Friday. Fortunately it’s a simple problem, a rusted battery
cable that only needs a new terminal connector. This is a $1.75
part that takes five minutes to replace. Unfortunately, there
isn’t one to be found on Vieques. This means that I need to take
the ferry to the Puerto Rico, rent a car for the day, drive to
West Marine outside of Fajardo for the part, and hustle to make
the afternoon ferry back to Vieques. If I throw in the cost of
the cancelled charter, this $1.75 connector will wind up costing
me close to $400. That’s life on an island in the Caribbean.
My previous home of Key West was also an island in the sense
that it was surrounded by water on all sides. However, it had a
very busy highway connecting it to the rest of North America. It
also boasted several marinas, marine supply stores, and dozens
of competent (and some incompetent) mechanics capable of working
on anything that floats. If your boat broke down in Florida and
you could pay the service charges, you were never off the water
for very long. My old marina in Key West was overpriced but it
had everything you needed, from bait and ice to a forklift that
hauled the boat in and out of the water every day. With the
parts department right there I could have fixed my current
problem in a few minutes and not loose out on a valuable
charter. The Keys also had dozens of marine tow operators and a
huge Coast Guard station, so if a serious problem happened on
the water help was usually a few minutes away.
Vieques has almost none of that. For starters, there’s no marina
on the island and no real plans for one either. It may happen
someday, but I’m not holding my breath. We do have several folks
on the island who are very good mechanics. However, my current
boat engine is a 2006 Evinrude E-Tec 90, a technological marvel
that has to be plugged into a laptop before you can change the
spark plugs. That means putting the boat, trailer, and Jeep on
the cargo ferry for an expensive ride to the big island and the
trained geniuses at the dealership. Fortunately, this engine is
a real winner and won’t need this service for another two years.
Since there is no marina, I have to keep the boat here at our
house and drive seven miles to the best concrete ramps on the
island. That throws an extra hour onto my day just getting in
and out of the water. Fueling up also means a trip to the ESSO
stations and the occasional Vieques gas line, especially on the
weekends. There’s also no live bait for sale down here. So if I
want a dozen small crabs to use for permit or bonefishing, it
means hitting the beach for a few hours with a bucket and a net.
We also have no tackle shops, no fly tying supplies, no rod and
reel repairs, and no one selling any of the dozens of useless
fishing tools that anglers love to bring along on their trips.
My current tackle shop is the internet and Post Office.
As a fishing guide, there are a lot of things I notice that
Vieques doesn’t have and the Keys did, and the most noticeable
of all is other fishing guides. The Key West itself has almost a
hundred guides and Vieques has two, myself and Capt. Franco
Gonzalez. I see Franco on the street far more often than I see
him on the water. With nearly 100 miles of shoreline down here,
seeing another boat is one of the more rare sights on my
charters. This is the only place I’ve ever been where on any
given day my anglers and I will truly have the water all to
ourselves. There are bonefish and tarpon on our flats that have
never seen a fly and will literally swim under the boat. You can
go anywhere on the island at any time without ever worrying
about upsetting another guide near you or getting run over by an
inexperienced newcomer. I have not had a single bad experience
with another boat in the nearly two years I’ve been on these
waters. Just try to find a guide in Key West who can say the
same thing.
Almost everyone who lives here will tell you about all the
inconveniences of Vieques. And it’s true that finding things
like battery connectors or fresh mushrooms can really drive you
crazy on some days. But it’s the things you never find, like
traffic lights or another boat on your favorite tarpon spot in
the morning, that really make the island worthwhile in the end.
Capt. Gregg McKee,
WildFly Charters
