Times of the Islands Summer 2021

We chatted with people at Sandy Point and then our
“trans man” Zander drove us to Horse Stable Beach where
we walked the beach and marvelled over the shells and
the stillness. As the sun descended perilously close to the
horizon, the no-seeums began to hunt their large human
prey, so we headed over to Susan Butterfield’s for supper.
For some reason, the other five were able to spend
the night at a friend’s house that could only take five.
We heard that someone had a place where one person
could sleep and that’s where I spent the night. I got up at
5:15 Tuesday morning to wait for trans that never came.
Fortunately!
How Willis Taylor knew my situation, I don’t know, but
he came by and said he was heading to Pine Cay by motor
boat from Bellefield Landing. Would I like to come? Well,
yes! Broad smiles all around. His two teenage sons straddled
one bicycle, he another, and my place was behind
him.
Off we rattled on the gravel road under pedal power.
The last half mile or so veered down a steep hill, and we
plunged down at a mad pace, me holding on to him. Willis
knew and steered around every pothole and in no time we
arrived at the low tide water, and he and the boys tucked
their bikes away in the underbrush.
We loaded ourselves and our belongings into the skiff
that had a huge pile of netting in the stern. Willis showed
me his lunch bag that contained several whelks he’d collected
from the north side of Dellis Cay—his wife had
boiled them for him earlier that morning. The engine
came to life and we headed out across the flats. I’d be
home for breakfast.
Suddenly, the boy at the bow pointed ahead and off to
the port side. “Bonefish!” I didn’t see anything, but Willis
immediately steered over to an area several hundred feet
away, and as we approached I could see the water alive
with large silvery fish, lots of them, just below the surface.
I looked at Willis who gave me a little frown. “We
have to stop for these,” he said. The work day starts now.
He threw the anchor over and he and his sons leapt
into the waist-deep water, carrying the huge net. Within
minutes, the two boys carried one end of the net in one
direction towards the school of fish and Willis carried the
other end in the opposite direction until eventually the
net formed a large circle that trapped many of the fish
inside. All three began catching the two- and three-foot
long fish with their hands, giving the necks a quick twist
and tossing them into the boat.
“You, too,” Willis, worried look on his face, motioned
to me to give them a hand. Really? Okay, I could do this!
Into the den of circling fish I slid. “Break their necks if
you can, otherwise, just throw them in the boat,” he said.
Okay. I’d caught smelt (seven inches long) in Ontario with
my bare hands, I could do this! Well, this was different,
and I wasn’t a big help but I did add a few to the several
piling up in the skiff. I didn’t have the know-how to snap
their necks, though.
Those guys moved FAST! The excitement lasted all of
fifteen minutes. The boys carefully walked the net back in,
folding it just so, so that it would be ready at a moment’s
notice again. At least fifty bonefish. A good haul, a good
hunt. Most of them he would sell to the Meridian Club on
Pine Cay. Calm now, he weighed anchor and steered the
boat and cargo back on course over the milky turquoise
flats.
The next day, I ran into Willis on Pine Cay and he gave
me a slow warm smile and slight nod of the head. Not
long after, I somehow wound up on another bonefishing
trip with him, and “we” captured over eighty. He said I was
his good luck charm.
No, Willis, you were mine. How many people can say
they have been bonefishing the traditional time-immemorial
way? a
Diane “Dee” Taylor lived and worked for three years on
Pine Cay with her husband Gary Hodgkins in the early
1980s. They worked with PRIDE (Protection of Reefs and
Islands from Degradation and Exploitation) under the
direction of Chuck Hesse.
She teaches memoir writing and has published The
Gift of Memoir: Show Up, Open Up, Write. She is part
of Spirit of the Hills Writers. For more information, visit
https://dianemtaylor.com.
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