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| | #1 |
| Registered User ![]() Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: New Orleans, LA
Boat: 1979 Pearson 365
Posts: 33
| Fishing?
Wife and I are coastal cruisers. On a recent 2-week trip along the gulf coast (Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama), we decided that we needed to learn how to fish, both for fun and to provide protein. The problem is neither of us know anything about fishing. A recent trip to a sporting goods store proved totally confusing. We hear of some cruisers using a hand line to fish, but we don't know what that involves. We have seen some cruisers fishing with a rod and reel after they have anchored, but there seem to be a thousand different types of rods and reels. And what bait to use? Any cruisers out there have any suggestions on a simple and inexpensive way to get started?
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| | #2 |
| Registered User ![]() Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Skagit City, WA
Boat: Fellippi 32
Posts: 2,205
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Just get some weighted rubber squid for trolling while moving. Green and yellow are good. Get one about 8" long. Usually the lead weights and rubber squid are sold separately. Get the Bullet shaped weights that the line goes through. Get large hooks bigger than your thumb for sure. A stout pole and reel with 60-80 lb line is good for "meat fishing". Just get a used one or cheap one, really doesnt matter. Get some stainless steel leader 4 ft ong or so to put between the line and the lure. This avoids barracuda taking your rig! Any small fish, clams, little animals in shells you find on the beach etc can be used as bait while fishing when anchored. The key is to catch the first fish with what you can find, and then use parts of that fish for bait! Or buy some bait, not sure what is best down there, but I suspect shrimp bait is widely available...
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| | #3 |
| Registered User ![]() Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Western Caribbean & ocassionaly inCanada
Boat: Mesqua Ukee, Buccaneer 40 (Salar 40)
Posts: 350
| We use the bungee cord method when under way. Same kind of heavy headed squid rig as Cheechako described, color is important. There are numerous theories about what color to use. We attached the squid to 100 or 200 lbs monofilament with a wire leader of course. The line is wound around a large diameter hand spool. We let out a couple hundred feet of line and attach it to one of those black rubber straps. When a fish strikes it stretches. We wait until the fish stops thrashing around. Then we wind the line in by hand. A gaff is used to land the fish. We rarely slow down. Some of the fish we have caught have been self cleaning. A shark snipped the tail off and the flow of water through the open mouth would nicely rinse all the guts away. |
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| | #4 |
| Registered User ![]() Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Skagit City, WA
Boat: Fellippi 32
Posts: 2,205
|
Yes, I've used that method it works well too. And the self cleaning can be overdone.... once I got the head of a wahoo... only! The one advantage of the pole and reel is you can leave the clicker on and when you get a fish, it is more noticeable, so the barracuda or sharks dont eat most of it before you notice! Although, there have been times when I noticed a drowned smaller fish skating on top of the water behind the boat!
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| | #5 |
| Registered User ![]() Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: So.Shore, Massachusetts
Boat: Morgan OI 30' Itinerant
Posts: 154
| rod holder
We use a piece of pvc pipe about 18" long and have it zip tied to one of the stanchions. It perfect for holding a pole and just trolling along.
__________________ A man who is not afraid of the sea will soon be drowned, he said, for he will be going out on a day he shouldn't. But we do be afraid of the sea, and we only be drowned now and again. J.M.Synge, in The Aran Islands |
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| | #6 |
| Registered User ![]() Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Western Caribbean & ocassionaly inCanada
Boat: Mesqua Ukee, Buccaneer 40 (Salar 40)
Posts: 350
| We use a homemade alarm system using a clothes pin clipped on the line. If the bungee cord stretches it pops off swings in on another line and attracts our attention. A rod and reel does not work well on our boat. We do have mounted on the port side one of those downrigger reels for winding down a 10 lbs weight. I replaced the stainless wire and weight with 200 lbs monofilament and use it as a reel. Letting line out is easy as it has a brake on it. Pulling in line is a snap, one crank of the handle pulls in 3 ft of line. Works well. Those sharks can be a real pain, they can get carried away cleaning the fish for you. Reeling a fish one time it was struck 3 times. All we had left was the line and leader. |
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| | #7 |
| Registered User ![]() Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Asia - on Sea Life
Boat: Beneteau 393 "Sea Life"
Posts: 3,025
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People don't really catch fish at all. I think they all lie and buy them at the shops. We have sailed for 14,000 nms and have caught 4 fish.... thats one fish per 6,000 kilometers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All the fishing shops sell lures that cost about the same as a teenagers education and to get what? ![]() Save your sanity and just download fish photos off the internet! Mark
__________________ Malaysia... near Singapore If you are going up G.O.A 2010 PM me. OurLifeAtSea.com |
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| | #8 |
| Registered User ![]() Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: sausalito
Boat: h46LE
Posts: 689
| amen to that! Catching fish is the sign of a slow boat.
__________________ reality is for those who lack imagination |
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| | #9 |
| Registered User ![]() Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Brisbane Australia [until the boats launched]
Boat: 50ft powercat, light,long and low powered
Posts: 2,245
| Really? I would say that every fish I have caught trolling was at over 6 knots Have had them on the chew at times where we couldn't even get the line fully out before getting hit. Almost every fish (over 1000lb of them) we got on this trip was at 8 knots . http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...94&postcount=4 Even had hookups (and landed) when up in the mid teens under sail
__________________ "Money can't buy you happiness but it can buy you a yacht large enough to pull up right alongside it"...............David Lee Roth http://www.thecoastalpassage.com/ |
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| | #10 | |
| Moderator ![]() Moderator Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: San Francisco Bay
Boat: research vessel
Posts: 4,660
| Quote:
Try some live bait....like that yappy terrier at the marina.
__________________ David Where land ends life begins. | |
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| | #11 |
| Registered User ![]() | the cheeepo silver colored rattletrap is awesome---i caught 6 fish in 5 weeks....not bad average, actually--donot need live bait to troll behind the sailboat as ye cruise.....donot need to spend big bux on a fishie, either--the fishies donot know the difference between cheeepo and spensive lures----go to walmart and find a cheepo silver colored lure and fish while sailing---also buy some latex palmed garden gloves---cheep---for whenye catch th efishie so doesnt slip out of your hands.....wow---gooood luck...smooth sailing and goood fishing......~~~~~_/)~~~~~~
__________________ a woman must have....a set of screwdrivers,.....wrench,....anda black lace bra...... |
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| | #12 |
| Registered User ![]() Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: sausalito
Boat: h46LE
Posts: 689
| I haven't had much luck... ...with yappy terriers. Do you use downriggers, or just troll them at the surface?
__________________ reality is for those who lack imagination |
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| | #13 |
| Registered User ![]() Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Toronto in the summer, the Bahamas in wintertime.
Boat: CS36Merlin, "La Belle Aurore" Ben393 "Breathless"
Posts: 2,444
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On the surface, by the tails!
__________________ Rick I Toronto |
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| | #14 | |
| Registered User ![]() Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Asia - on Sea Life
Boat: Beneteau 393 "Sea Life"
Posts: 3,025
| Quote:
![]() Mind you, this is asia and I am not sure I would want to eat anything out of this water....
__________________ Malaysia... near Singapore If you are going up G.O.A 2010 PM me. OurLifeAtSea.com | |
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| | #15 |
| Registered User ![]() Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Homer, AK is my home port
Boat: Skookum 53' "Rose
Posts: 413
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You can drag just about anything behind the boat with a hook in it and you should get some kind of action, anything that splashes or is silvery will work. I have used the tuna jigs that have the feathers, and the rubber squid jigs as well and they both work or a large silver jig. I personally prefer a hand line, less monkeying around and using a snubber is a good idea, it doesn't have to be fancy, you can just use a tarp strap. 100 yards of 150 lb to 250 lb mono makes a good hand line, then put a big barrel swivel in the end of it and put a couple of fathoms of 80 to 100 lb test on it as a leader, then connect some stainless wire about 18" long and put a swivel on the end of that and connect your jig. A stainless steel gaff hook and a short club can come in handy. There are a lot of big tuna in the gulf of Mexico. You can also catch the King mackerel, any piece of flotsam or jetsam is a place for potential fish action. You can hang a cat's bell on the line as an alarm. Mark you must not be holding your mouth right, I have caught fish from Alaska, all the way through the west coast, and up through the Caribbean, and all over the gulf of Mexico, dragging a jig behind the boat, some days we'd have to pull the line out of the water because there was no place left to store the fish.
__________________ "When you sit down to eat with the devil it is wise to use a long handled spoon" |
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