Guy Harvey Magazine is focused on fishing, boating, scuba diving, and marine conservation. Portfolios from the world's best fishing photographers, articles on gear, travel, tournaments, apparel, lifestyle, seafood recipes, sustainable fisheries.
Issue link: https://guyharveymag.epubxp.com/i/53451
out, Guy tells me that he "likes to just come out for a couple of hours on his own," because the prime fishing ground on Cayman is right offshore. It's easy. "No place like it in the world," he says. And, if anyone knows, it's Guy. He's just returned from filming his TV show in Panama and, to state the obvious, has fished for billfish literally everywhere in the world. Even his kids have fishing records. The walls of his gallery have pictures of him with giant billfish from birth to yesterday. It's why his art is so intimate—because his knowledge of gamefish is extraordinary. And here I am, the luckiest fisherman on the planet to be on a boat with Guy. We pass through North Sound, where later we'll spend time with some southern stingrays. But now we motor through the cut in the reef, and within five minutes, we're paralleling a seaweed line—a favorite place for pelagic hunters. If there were pretty girls on the beach to wave to, they'd be able to see us. That's how close we are to shore, and how close the 25,000-foot-deep Cayman Trench is to shore. Guy tells me it's this proximity to deep water and prey that bring the big gamefish. We put four lines out and Guy lets me drive the boat. "The last time I was out here," says Guy, " I caught a lovely blue marlin, just around the corner." Then he tells me the only time his wife, Gillian, tolerates him being late is if he's on the water and gets a fish on. About 15 minutes into our venture, we get a strike. I take the pole and Guy shows me the motion to bring in a fish. I lean and pull, lean and pull, and reel in, and on the line is a big mahi mahi. I'm struck by its extraordinary colors. We decide to keep this catch, as Guy filets it right on the boat. We open its stomach, and there are four bonito, freshly eaten with the scales and parts still intact. And, despite that, as Guy marvels, the greedy mahi still struck the lure. We catch a few more mahi, but after about four hours and no big hits, we head in to see the rays. "That's fishing," Guy tells me. Which, I decide, is why fishermen are such good storytellers. Because you're on a small boat with your friends and when you're not reeling in a fish, you're telling a story of reeling in a fish, or the fish that got away, or the small indulgence your wife gives you for fishing. And, for Guy, he's always getting inspiration for his next painting. The painting he was finishing while I was on the island was of the blue marlin he'd recently caught in a weed line off Cayman. Stingray City is one of the Caribbean's most well known and successful eco-tourism attractions, a happy product of local fishermen cleaning their catch at Sandbar. 26 | www.GuyHarveyMagazine.com