In 1638, the British established a colony on the southern coast of Roatan. Formally, the settlers of Previous Port Royal had been directed to reap timber from the forested slopes of the island. Unofficially, the colonists invested fairly a little bit of time in piracy — Spanish galleons loaded with Central American treasure had been ceaselessly intercepted and ambushed, and the treasure typically by no means left the Caribbean.
After the more and more annoying — and really pricey — raids grew to become an excessive amount of for the Spanish crown to tolerate, the Spanish navy confirmed up in 1650 and wiped Previous Port Royal off the map. In time, the settlement would come again, however the Spanish rebuke taught Roatan’s pirates a significant lesson — their craft wanted to be practiced in secret.
As an alternative of brazen piracy, Roatan’s outlaws retreated to the hidden cays and deep-water coves of the island. They took refuge within the mountains and carved mazes within the mangrove swamps — these illicit highways nonetheless exist at present (and so they’re nonetheless utilized by locals to get round).
Within the mid-1600s, Roatan was residence to a number of the most notorious buccaneers in historical past. The vile Edward Train — identified to most easily as Blackbeard — used the island as a sanctuary and hideout. Within the 1660s and 1670s, Sir Henry Morgan (the namesake for some fairly common spiced rum, sadly) grew to become probably the most profitable “privateers” within the Caribbean, the place, sanctioned by the British crown, he grew to become one thing of a authorized pirate within the waters round Roatan.
Then there was John Coxen, the namesake of the neighborhood visiting vacationers see first after disembarking from Roatan’s worldwide airport. Coxen, over the course of his profession as a pirate, performed daring raids on Spanish strongholds all through the area within the mid- to late 1600s, and he was beloved by his crews. Roatan supplied security for the notorious buccaneer, and someday after being captured and later pardoned by the governor of Jamaica in 1688, Coxen, his eight-gun ship and his crew merely disappeared. To today, the locals of Roatan say he and his mates occupy an exalted nook of Davy Jones’ locker.
The British and the pirates they spawned weren’t the primary colonial affect on Roatan. Christopher Columbus, crusing for Spain, arrived on the Bay Islands in 1502. Over time, the island endured the imperial shackles of Britain, Spain, France and the Netherlands as all of them fought to reap the bounty of the New World.
But it surely’s the pirate lore that lingers.
The island some 30 miles off the coast of Honduras nonetheless offers up buried treasure now and again within the type of outdated pirate swords, historic trinkets and different gadgets that flip up for would-be treasure hunters. There’s a sure romance to the tales the locals nonetheless inform, and the key water trails by the mangroves or the outdated pirate hideouts within the mountains are a testomony to the island’s wealthy and colourful previous.
Not surprisingly, given Roatan’s strong maritime previous, the deep, blue waters off this beautiful and considerably self-governed island boast a number of the finest wreck diving on this planet — Roatan is famend for its beautiful reefs and quite a few shipwrecks that span some 500 years.
Populated by a colourful lot of characters originating from Spanish, English, Dutch and French occupiers and imprisoned West African slaves who had been delivered to the island after which largely deserted, Roatan has earned its place as a cultural melting pot within the Caribbean. No particular person Roatanian appears to be like fairly like one other, and Creole tradition is dominant. Though Spanish is the official language of Honduras, most Roatanians converse English laced with a heavy dose of Creole thrown in, simply to make it fascinating.
And, whereas diving and snorkeling have confirmed to be precisely what the little island must type of preserve its economic system full of life and considerably separated from the much less gentrified surroundings on the Honduran mainland, one other group of adventurers continues to find what the wetsuit crowd has identified for many years.
Roatan possesses one other silvery treasure — its metallic tarpon, chrome-bright bonefish and glossy faculties of searching allow are catching the eyes of fly fishers the world over.
Roatan is fishy. Very fishy.
Picture: Earl Harper.
Allow by the dozen
“You see them, proper?” Michael Bodden requested as he pointed off into the space, the solar at our backs. The turtle grass on the flat left me utterly baffled. How this child at my facet might delineate between the darkish, inexperienced backside and the darkish backs of the approaching faculty of allow with out the assistance of polarized sun shades was past me. I had polarized lenses, and I’ve been fishing the tropics for greater than a dozen years, throughout which I believed I’d honed a reasonably strong fisheye — and I wasn’t seeing something
“Inform me what you’re taking a look at,” I stated quietly. Then, about 80 ft away, a sickle-shaped tail sliced by the water and I tensed the way in which all fly fishers do once they’re about to get a legit allow shot.
“You noticed that, proper?”
“I did see that.”
“That’s a giant faculty,” Michael stated. “That’s a whole lot of fish. We’re going to get one.”
We arrived simply as a borderline historic week of gale-force winds engulfed all the Caribbean, all the way in which from Roatan’s shores north to Cuba. This was our third morning of braving the “exterior” waters to get to this little flat on the southeast facet of Roatan. Our third morning of waking up as daybreak knocked, guzzling espresso after which assembly Michael on the dock behind our comfy little beachfront villa earlier than the solar cleared the ocean. Our third morning of driving in Michael’s unsinkable panga over offended ocean rollers into the pale morning sky. And it was the third morning that I’d nonetheless not seen the allow I used to be casting to.
Then, as if I had been paying my dues on this skinny stretch of turtle grass miles from wherever, I began to see what Michael appears to see on a regular basis. I noticed the fish pushing by the water, and never simply the tell-tale dorsal or tail fin. I noticed shapes and shadows and that offended allow face because it contemplates its subsequent meal whereas nonetheless in some inexplicable rush to get wherever it’s allow go once they’re not proper in entrance of you mocking your crappy solid or your clunky presentation.
And, I don’t assume it’s a coincidence that that is when my solid instantly discovered its goal and I began hooking up. By the tip of the morning session on that third day, I’d managed to attach with a number of allow, struggle two of them and convey one at hand. Extra importantly, we noticed probably a whole bunch of fish in faculties of 10 to 12 actually from the second we set foot on the flat to after we referred to as it quits for lunch. It was a great day on the flats for any allow addict.
Casting for Roatan “seaside bones” (picture: Earl Harper).
Respectable bones
This nook of the Caribbean isn’t identified for large bonefish, however the east finish of Roatan may show to be the exception to the rule. Farther north in Belize and alongside the southern Yucatan of Mexico, a pleasant bonefish could be about 4 kilos. Throughout our week-long expertise fishing out of Oak Ridge on the southeast coast of Roatan, the bonefish had been a bit bigger on common and we laid eyes on some very nice fish.
However, the dimensions of the fish apart, it’s additionally a really distinctive bonefishing expertise. Definitely, bones and allow share the identical flats on the far-flung east finish of the island. However, in additional gentrified areas of the island, the bones have tailored — and, dare I say, thrived — among the many growth.
How so?
After we confirmed up on the seaside villa that was to be our residence for the subsequent week, one of many first issues we seen as we appeared out over the marly seaside was a faculty of bonefish frolicking within the mushy waves not 200 ft from the porch the place we stood. Whereas there are many huge, sweeping bonefish flats alongside the reef on the island’s east finish which can be completely price a half-hour boat experience to achieve, the “seaside bones” that poke up out of the blue water and frolic within the mild Caribbean surf, are a blast to chase.
That is as a result of they’re not tailing on “typical” flats — the fixed, but delicate, tidal motion on calmer days helps break up the water a bit. This leads to bonefish that aren’t as overtly cautious as most bones I’ve solid to previously. It meant shorter, extra correct casts and fish that didn’t spook so badly if a solid ended up proper on high of the fish.
Dare I say, seaside bones are extra forgiving than the fish I’m extra accustomed to chasing on sand and grass flats from the Bahamas to Belize. And, if anybody can recognize a forgiving bonefish, it’s me.
One very windy morning, reasonably than courageous the surface experience to the allow flat, Michael took us west a bit, utilizing the island’s inside channels that had been carved years in the past — generally centuries in the past by pirates and privateers — the place we actually performed an exciting recreation of “spot-and-stalk” with some very huge bones in opposition to a very distinctive backdrop. To the south, the huge Caribbean opened up earlier than us, and the blue water began inside just some ft of the wave break. Towards the shore, the island’s pure fuel receiving station stood sentinel over the flat we had been fishing, simply throughout the transport channel from us.
It was fairly the juxtaposition, truthfully, however every little thing on Roatan’s east finish may be very actual — the island neighborhood doesn’t conceal its underbelly. Not even for visiting fly fishers. And, I can say with absolute honesty, the fishing was actually good. It was a testomony to how a superb inshore sport fishery can co-exist with the day by day lives of Roatan’s big-smiling islanders.
Boat-basin tarpon
Roatan is residence to resident tarpon, and the larger, migratory fish are summer time staples within the area. However within the spring, fish from 25 kilos on as much as 100-pound behemoths have a tendency to assemble within the island’s boat basins and mangrove coves, and fly fishers can do very properly chasing them among the many docked yachts and even fishing boats and transport vessels.
Definitely, the massive fish hand around in the mangrove bays and the reduce channels, however watching a dozen rolling tarpon whilst you’re slowly motoring by a busy ship channel is fairly cool.
Picture: Earl Harper.
It would look like an odd setting — and I’d examine the expertise to chasing tarpon, snook and redfish among the many dock lights of Tampa Bay — however it’s a really fascinating fishery. And,
Should you’re a tarpon purist, there are locations on Roatan the place you may expertise usually the identical factor, minus the man-made chaos.
The “X-factor”
From our little beachfront retreat, we generally eschewed the fishing and opted for one thing completely completely different. One night, we loaded a cooler filled with Salva Vida cerveza and hopped right into a water taxi for a tour of the island’s historic mangrove channels. We docked at one among a number of waterfront bars accessible solely by boat, the place we sipped rum and Cokes and took within the island’s distinctive vibe.
Within the evenings, after dinner, we’d typically wander subsequent door to the little out of doors bar on the Reef Home, the place locals and expats collect to drink and chat and verify in with the Coconut Telegraph. Later within the journey, reasonably than stomach as much as the bar, we hopped aboard the island’s tiki boat for a sundown cruise.
Picture: Earl Harper.
One afternoon, we joined Michael on a reasonably distinctive journey to Pigeon Cay, on the east finish of the island. Michael guided the villa’s twin-outboard cruiser to a distant cluster of sandy shallow shoals, and began tossing baitfish into the water. Inside seconds, a half-dozen lemon sharks and a number of eagle rays confirmed as much as devour the fish.
Then, we donned snorkels and fins and plunged into the crystal clear waters, the place, generally inside mere inches, we had been in a position to watch the massive fish do their factor. It was a bit unnerving at first, however, after a couple of minutes of watching the sharks and rays, we didn’t wish to give up, whilst darkness approached.
All of this, after all, speaks to the wonders of Roatan. Certain, it’s fishy and us fly anglers can’t let the divers have all of the enjoyable. But it surely’s no marvel this little-known nook of the Caribbean continues to search out favor amongst adventurous vacationers and digital nomads on the lookout for one thing completely distinctive.
Roatan’s “discovery” was centuries in the past. And its treasure nonetheless lingers.
