REPORTS FROM THE RIP: Old friends and new ones gathering for the fishing season

Sunsetting on another day in CDC

Casa De Campo ( CDC ) is beginning to come alive. With boats steadily trickling in, Each day seem to bring in new boats and old friends. The past few years, there have only been 7-12 boats here. This year they are expecting as many as 38. These docks will be a lot of fun.
As each day passes, some of the boats are fishing, While the others do oil changes fix things that broke on the way down to CDC and prep their gear for fishing here. Each afternoon, we all seem to end up gathered behind one boat or another, chatting and having an adult beverage. Last night we had a dock party… Now what some of you may consider a party, is not what ours tend to be. Im not really sure if anyone can understand how laid back these dock parties are. We just get with all the boats on the dock and tell everyone to bring some food. Its not wild an crazy. but instead its just a bunch of guys sitting around eating and trading fish stories, or telling stories about what kind of mischief the young deck hands got into the night before. Last night, was a perfect one. The cool Caribbean breezes made for a prefect temperature. The waining full moon lit up the dock nicely. We had some easy reggae music playing….. It was just a perfect night. But lets face it, its more about the food. One boat gave us some fresh Yellowfin tuna they had caught. Tyler and I did two big trays of seared tuna with Sesame seeds and cream cheese wrapped in bacon. I grilled up some Jerk chicken. I made some of Miss Peaches Mac and Cheese ( Bahamian style) One boat did BBQ ribs. One boat did a big tray of Roasted taters while another did pasta salad. It was just an incredible feast. After eating the way we all did, I was not going to go out to " git jiggly wit it" with the younger deck hands. So a few of us just sat and chatted and enjoyed the night. It was also nice last night to see some old friends that live here. We picked up right where we left off last season. Good friends great times.
The fishing here is just now at a point where the blue marlin should begin showing up in big numbers. Most of the boats that have fished over the past few days are seeing 2-4 blue marlin and catching 1 or 2 blues. There has been a good number of dorado offshore and even a stray yellowfin tuna. The fishing will begin to pick up with the full moon fading. We can't wait to begin fishing in earnest.
Marina (CDC )Casa de Campo has done a great job of bringing in more boats and especially welcoming the boats as they arrive. The dock attendants here are very friendly and willing to help out in anyway they can. Its great to see that very few faces have changed.
The dock is pretty quiet this morning. Flash and I were just out on the dock having our coffee. From what we gather, it sounds like most of the younger guys went out hooting it up at Altos Chavon last night. Im glad I am old enough to know better than that. Or am I just to old????