My son and I love fishing and always enjoy guided fishing trips when we travel, whether in freshwater bodies of water, inshore/nearshore, or offshore/deep sea. During a week-long family trip to Grand Cayman for the kidsโ spring break, we booked a full day with Captain David Arch. David and I traded quite a few notes in advance of the trip to work through the details (including the exact sandwich my son would enjoy for lunch!) which made organizing the trip seamless.
David and his son (also David) were a true pleasure throughout and worked exceptionally hard to try to maximize our chances of finding quality fish. My son and I managed to boat a really nice barracuda each (my son will be quick to tell you that his was quite a bit larger!), and we had a few other strong hits based on the toothmarks left on the lures, but unfortunately nothing else hooked up fully on the troll lines.
David suggested that we try some vertical jigging for the last 1-1.5 hours where we each had several solid hits and even got a few smaller ones near the surface before they managed to get off. At the very end of the day I dropped a line to the bottom (~200โ) and immediately felt snagged. We all assumed it was a rock, so David moved the boat around a bit hoping to free the lure when suddenly the โrockโ started to pull drag right when things should have been going slack! Given the nearly immovable weight, our best guess is that Iโd hooked up on a goliath grouper, and after an ~10 minute (difficult and exhausting!) fight, the line went slack and we reeled up to find that it had frayed and split the heavy braid. Extending our educated guess, we assumed that it went under or around a rock. Very fun fight, though, and so cool to see the โrockโ suddenly and unexpectedly start pulling drag!
If youโre looking for a great guideโand a great guyโto show you around the waters off of Grand Cayman, you canโt do better than Captain David. Iโll definitely be giving him a ring the next time Iโm in the area.
My son and I love fishing and always enjoy guided fishing trips when we travel, whether in freshwater bodies of water, inshore/nearshore,...
