There may not be much in the way of vegetables and fruit in Chagos, but one thing is for sure--there are plenty of fish! Spending any length of time in the atolls turns you into a fisherman. It's fun to go fishing when you know you're going to catch fish.

What did you catch? What kind of bait are you using? Let me see your lures. These were sure to be topics of every cockpit conversation in Chagos. Remembering the fishing we did Two Years Ago (2YA), we stocked up with extra hooks, different types of line, plenty of wire leader and crimps, plus a few lures. Most of the time Al makes our trolling lures with lead weighted "tuna" heads wrapped with skirts of white plastic bags, some silver foil from the box wine bladders, and a bit of red rip-stop nylon. This is what we use trolling with our hand lines behind the boat, either open ocean, or across the lagoon. We use double hooks.

Trolling from the dinghy we use a silver spoon, (a Tom-Mac #5) also with a double hook on a hand line of about 80lb test weight. We've caught a zillion fish with this rig by trolling along the edges of the inner reefs and bombies. This time we also used a long narrow diamond shaped spoon with green and yellow highlights. A lot of people use a rod and reel in the dinghy for trolling; we find this too awkward and use a plastic hand line reel instead.

Al holding a 5kg trigger fish. Fun to catch, but actually, these are not great eating. Meat is tough so they work well in curry or such.

For bottom fishing from the dinghy or the side of the boat Al makes up a rig with a small lead weight at the top of a wire leader about 18" long with a hook on the bottom end. The idea is to get the weight to hit the bottom, then pull back about 6 feet and let the baited hook dangle there. The hardest fish to catch is the first one--because you need that one to make bait! When Al cleans fish he saves the belly flap meat and skin for bait. He cuts it into strips and keeps it in a jar covered with salt. This keeps it without refrigeration. Sorta "cures" it from going rotten and smelly. Honest!

The thing is, it gets boring just sitting in the cockpit waiting for something to bite. So Al devised several ways of "alarming" the line to alert us that a fish was trying out the bait. For a while he tied the plastic reel to the steering wheel in the cockpit. When the fish struck, the reel would bounce against the wheel; you could hear this noise all over the boat, respond and haul in your fish. One day we heard the clatter and arrived in the cockpit just in time to see the steering wheel pull sharply to port (it was tightly locked too!) and the whole rig--the line, the reel, and the wheel tie down go flying overboard! We speculate it was a shark.

	One small fish we caught trolling with the dinghy.

So how'd we do? The Fisheries Department asks you to keep a fishing log and hands out a form to define the when, where and what you caught. I also kept our statistics. Up to the end of May we had caught 77 fish with a total of 115.8 kilos (254lbs). The most common fish we caught were snapper types - 21; coral trout - 16; and other grouper types of fish - 18. The biggest fish we caught was a 6kg red snapper and a 6kg green job fish. I'd say most of our fish were around 1.5-2kgs (3.3-4.4lbs). If a fish wasn't big enough to make a meal for us we usually released it. The "perfect" fish was just big enough for dinner that night and some left over for lunch the next day. Because then--you could go fishing again!

Once more we faced the dilemma of "too much fish". We are lucky that we have the frig/freezer and can keep all we catch. The Catch 22 being--do you eat the fish you already have in the freezer, or go fishing again today. We gave away a lot of fish to those who weren't so proficient for one reason or another. And we dried fish too: slice thin, marinate for about 2 hours in a combo of soy sauce, crushed garlic, brown sugar, a bit of chili sauce, then lay the piesce on a flat pan-cookie sheet, pizza pan--and put the pan in the sun on deck. Makes a sort of fish jerky, keeps well, a great snack food.

A Different Kettle of Fish...

One morning we hiked across the island we were anchored behind to the seaward reef with Paul and Susan, our neighbors. It was low water springs, and most of the reef was exposed. We had had strong west winds for several days and the waves were really crashing on the outer fringe of the reef. So much so that I feared getting tumbled by the surge, and Al had his camera to protect. We left Paul and Susan poking around the crevices in that foamy surf and did our exploring among the stranded pools and coral formations farther back from the edge.

One of the lobsters from the condo on the reef!

I was walking in ankle deep water beside a knee-high rocky ledge, marveling at the weirdly formed holes and bowl-shaped pools on its surface. I was thinking back to when I was a child and my family was visiting relatives living at Sunset Cliffs on Point Lomanear, San Diego. We too had been exploring low tide pools below those cliffs just like these, and we found a big lobster stranded in one! Wouldn't it be funny if...and there at my feet were 2 pair of antenna!

Well, what a commotion! Called Al over, and we beckoned Paul and Susan back from the splash zone. By now we could see there were more than a couple of bugs in this lobster "condo". We developed our strategy and deployed forces to surround and attack. Getting the first one was easy--then what a scramble! There seemed to be lobsters fleeing everywhere...fast! They go fast all right, but not very far, and there were no other hidey holes around to escape in. I chased one down and put my foot on it until the guy with the glove could come and bag it! In the end we had a beautiful catch of lobsters to share for Easter dinner.