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Mangrove Cay trip

2K views 6 replies 3 participants last post by  Vince 
#1 ·
Hey Guys, I just returned from my annual trip with my FIL. This year we went to Mangrove Cay, stayed at Swains. After what appeared to be a disaster of losing a few precious days (blizzard), I was able to get out via a midnight drive to Baltimore (from NY), the requisite connecting flights into Nassau then Andros. Made for a brutal travel "day", but I picked up a day of fishing and was rewarded for my effort. In the 15+ years of travel fly fishing during winter, I have never had better weather nor consistent fishing. Sure we had some serious wind early in the week, but the sun was out pretty much the entire time. I fished one day in the Mid bite solo with Randy. 3 Days in mid bite with Alvin and 3 days in south bite with Patterson. The guides were all terrific. All the requisite "needs" were fulfilled. Fishing was great- singles and doubles mostly (didn't even see schools until final day) but had at least one fish (many times 3 or 4) on my 30min shift, EVERY TIME!! Was crazy, and it wasn’t even that great with fronts approaching, less fish on flats, etc according to the guides. Visited the conch stand for cracked and salad almost daily. A plethora of Guiness exports, Kalicks and Cubans (or good fakes). And I even caught the biggest fish of the trip after sundown the last evening in front of the lodge that was as long as my rod butt to the ferrule! I have fished all over but this trip was pretty special. Best fly for big tailers was a butterfly and best fly for deep was an inverted Simram typish fly that I tied but with stalk eyes, little spawning color, and with the body braid on the top of the fly, not facing the marl. My little kids think I should name it the “Marmis.” I also used a Triangle taper for the first time. Was good in the wind on the boat. Was good with long casts with absurdly long leaders to petrified tailers on the home flat, and it got wrapped and hung up a few times and held up well. Very impressed with the line. Hope pix help on another nasty day. (Says can only upload 5 pix at a time so ill reply with more.)
 

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#6 ·
I stayed at Swain's two years ago for a week in March. The place was entirely empty except for 3 days in the middle of the week with another young guy taking a break after doing a tour in Iraq as a combat medic. I fished with Patterson, Shine (who I'd fished with about 5 years before we figured out after talking for a bit), and one other guy whose name is escaping me.

The place was much nicer than I was used to after staying at dedicated bonefish lodges for the last 10 years! The flat in front is fairly productive which is nice on your days of arrival and departure since you can get in a half day of fishing each time. I wouldn't mind going back there again, though I got a steal of a deal on my lodging since I was serving as the representative for a tour company who had just signed the place but hadn't had anyone check it out yet, so I consequently got about a 50% discount on my single rate. I wouldn't want to pay full rate there unless I was going with a non-fishing partner. It is definitely one of the few places on Andros I would recommend as acceptable for bringing a non-fishing companion along.

Glad you enjoyed your trip there! If you go again, definitely have the guides take you over to the west side of the island. There are tarpon holes over there (we saw tarpon 3 days) and tons of totally unpressured bonefish since it's very rare for anybody to go that far. It's an hour ride each way, and requires decent weather so you don't get beat to hell on the way there or back, but is definitely something everybody should do if they fish Andros more than a couple of times.
 
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