Visit our Popular Forums

colemj · 22-04-2009, 10:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cheechako

Get a strong rod and 60-80lb test line. Use a 3 or 4 ft ss leader and a weighted rubber squid (green/yellow worked good for me), just put it out whenever the boat is moving. Once invited, Tuna, Mahi Mahi, Yellowtail and various other things will come to dinner! Oh, and unfortunately Barracuda also! For Grouper etc, get the spear out. I was never in better physical shape in my life than when I went spearfishing every day, diving to 25 ft maybe 50 times an outing.

Got this one yesterday on a pole spear. Whipped the spear about like a noodle and whipped me around on the other end. Probably shouldn't be poking at ones this big, but I'm not very bright...

Mark

Cheechako · 22-04-2009, 11:20

wow, nice one. Watch for Ciguatera in the big ones!

tager · 22-04-2009, 13:03

Ciguatera is terrifying! AHHH! What are you supposed to do! No treatment, no way to tell, nobody knows what causes it? OMG.

TaoJones · 22-04-2009, 13:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cheechako

wow, nice one. Watch for Ciguatera in the big ones!

Good point, Cheech. Well worth reading: Ciguatera - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

TaoJones

**s/v Jedi** · 22-04-2009, 21:37

Okay, for the Caribbean Sea, this is what I've been told over and over: draw a line west to east through Cuba and Martinique; south of that line there's no ciguatera and north it's Russian roulette. We enjoy 1.5-2' barracuda south of that line, very tasty fish much like cod !

cheers,
Nick.

roger.waite · 22-04-2009, 22:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by MarkJ

We have caught 4 fish in 13,000 n miles.

Thats one fish per 6,000 kms

Now if you want me to cost the lures we have lost................

Do you dangle the lure in Nescafe?

(Read Mark's recent posting on quality coffee if this is too cryptic.)

Portobello · 22-04-2009, 23:42

A mate of mine bought a $35,000 fishing boat and had caught 5 fish in a couple of years - about $7000 per fish he reckons! The fish shop must look good - at least when I go sailing I don't even have to pretend to be able to catch them!

**GordMay** · 23-04-2009, 03:33

See also some earlier discussions:

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...-fish-831.html

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...oning-964.html

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...eed-15235.html

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...info-1585.html

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ning-6216.html

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...rld-18459.html

amytom · 29-04-2009, 07:24

My most recent off-shore trip was meant to be a fishing trip off of Cape Canaveral. With four lines down. One on a planer with a skirted ballyhoo the other three diffeent combinations of spoons, cedar plugs, "live ribbon fish" lures, and frozen baits. Not a single bite! The only thing we pulled up was a soft coral off of Brevard reef1.

We eventually ended the trip early to avoid a mutiny of kids (6 of them 2 of us, not good odds).

Too make a short story long... I truly believe that live bait would have a made a difference but sailboats (even cats) weren't designed with that in mind. What does everyone use as a livewell for the bait?

Tom

Captain Bill · 29-04-2009, 08:55

Having a catamaran makes getting the fish aboard easier for me, but if one had a long enough gaf it is pretty easy on a monohull. One does not need a lot of tackle to supply fish on a cruise, after all your trying to get dinner, not fill a freezer with a years supply of fish. I find that Clark spoons work really well for spanish mackeral and bluefish. A wire leader will solve a lot of the loss problem and I use a small down planer to put the lure a few feet under water. I tend to use the smaller spoons when going for dinner as I don't want a bigger fish than I can use and I don't find big mackeral and bluefish all that tasty. When I have refrigeration available I target mahi which will often feed a number of people for several days. Keep in mind that these fish tend to be found in a specific depth range, usually from 50-1000 feet or near dropoffs within a mile or two of land. While you will occasionally catch them on open ocean (several thousand feet deep) it will be a rare event. For mahi I use green and yellow lures about 6 inches long. While I've had luck with several brands I am particularly fond of the bullet head lures from offshore angler. They come prerigged on 100lb mono leaders and cost less than $6. I've had my best luck with the yellow and green skirt. Here is the link to Bass Proshop's page, but you can get them a number of other places. Offshore Angler Blue Water Trolling Baits - Bullet Head color number 3. I've caught mahi, barracuda, yellowtail snapper, bigeye tuna and mutton snapper on these. Note that we caught the snapper using downplanes while the mahi will bite lures at the surface or on a small plane a couple of feet down. I tend to drag one of these off one hull and a clark spoon off of the other. While cruising I never use natural bait, live or otherwise, it's just too much trouble.

Make sure you have an adequate pole and reel. A big fish puts a lot of load on a rod when hooked by a boat going 7 knots. Some of the cheaper reels will simply break apart when put under such a load (I only bought one of these cheap combination deals once). The other option is to use a simple hand line. I keep two on the boat and tie them off to my rear cleats. Keep in mind I'm talking about a proper hand line equipped with a shock cord. Simply tying off a line to the rear cleat will result in a lost lure as it can't take the shock load when the fish bites and you are doing 7 knots.

The alcohol trick works but I recommend using a drinking alcohol (cheapest you can find) as rubbing alcohol is often denatured with stuff I would not want to take internally should it get on the meat.

If you catch a fish big enough to go more than one meal I recommend vacuum baging the meat. This used to be complicated but the new vacuum bag systems from Reynolds and Ziplock make this easy and the units are small enough to store in a drawer. It will keep the fish much fresher in the refrigerator than a plain plastic bag.

If you want to see some pictures goto our blog at www.spiraserpula.blogspot.com.

Cheechako · 29-04-2009, 09:28

Yea, I liked using the aft steps on my cat for landing fish also..... and it's easy to bucket off the blood. I used a gaff, but in my earlier days I just used a glove and grabbed the steel leader and hauled them over the lifelines. That might be a problem with some of the big ones though! Ditto on weighted bullet heads with very large hook and 6-8" greeen yellow skirts. I caught Mahi in a lot of different depths. The biggest one I caught was between Vieques and Puerto Rico in shallow water... go figure. That lure works well for Big Eye tuna etc too. Love that big eye tuna, one hour in the freezer to cool it down and sushi in the cockpit....

Curmudgeon · 08-05-2009, 09:03

If you have the right terminal tackle at the right depth you will catch fish.

Also here in the Northeast US I keep a saltwater fly rod or lighter spinning rod handy whenever I'm out on the water. If you run into feeding blues you can heave to and catch dinner.

You don't even need a grill. Take some raw fillets (striper or bluefish) and put them in a plastic container with vinegar, lemon juice and spices. Put the container in the sun for an hour. Instant ceviche.

Instead of the alcohol trick, how about a fish billy? The billy never needs refills.