What's the Best Fishing Tackle & Stretegies for Cruising East Coast US?

[liveaboardL]

What are the best fishing strategies and tackle to use while cruising along the East Coast of the USA in a sailboat?

What works for:
Coral reef, the ledge that drops off to the deep-blue water, the ICW, deep blue water way out in the ocean

When is the best time to get the bait deep near the sandy bottom of the ocean?

[a64pilot]

Trolling or bottom fishing? Many other sub sets of both of those, but that is just a beginning. Realize people that fish usually carry large boxes full of "stuff" they use for fishing, I assume that is not what you want.

I have had great luck trolling for grouper ( a great eating fish) with Mann stretch 30's. Grouper are more traditionally bottom fished though, but that requires being in exactly the right spot, a good bottom machine will show what looks like a christmas tree, but I assume you are after fishing while travelling?

[Cheechako]

I like big rubber squid, maybe 7-8" long, Green Yellow or Blue White for trolling. Big single hook... about the size of a silver dollar. 3 ft of wire leader or you're gonna loose a lot of rigs. Use bullet shaped weights that fit inside the head of the rubber squid. The leader just goes thru them.
For around reefs etc from the dingy a smaller one maybe. I've had excellent results with a bright silver weighted spoon, maybe 3" long as kind of a universal fish catcher. I've caught everything from Mahi, Tuna, Sierra mackeral, Jacks etc on one.
When further south, always sail by any flotsom on the water... Mahi often sit under that stuff.

[Miniyot]

Originally Posted by liveaboardL

What are the best fishing strategies and tackle to use while cruising along the East Coast of the USA in a sailboat?

What works for:
Coral reef, the ledge that drops off to the deep-blue water, the ICW, deep blue water way out in the ocean

When is the best time to get the bait deep near the sandy bottom of the ocean?

it depends on the time of year...May thru August...If you like kingfish, try for them. people troll for kingfish. sometimes you will only catch redfish, but beware....there is a slot.....FWC does not care if you are a local, or out of town or an immigrant....it's illegal (reds)under 18 or larger than 27
20 pound test, any rod capable of a 30 pound fish, any reel that can hold 300 yards of 20 pound mono...but you do need a steel leader.
You can catch kings within 2 or 3 miles of the beach, maybe even further...

ICW?
in northeast florida, it depends on the time of year. It really varies on a monthly basis that I'm not even gonna start...sorry bout that. I live in N.E. Fl. and catch a multitude of fish that can vary on a weekly basis. Just use shrimp and you can catch something.....

Any time you are 3 miles or less, you MUST BE AWARE of the legal fish!

[Cuttyhunk]

If you want to keep a tuna or swordfish, get a National Marine Fisheries recreational angler permit. The angler permit is for the boat and allows you to keep tuna, within the size limits. Google NMFS Permit Shop. It is only $20. I just bought mine for 2014, one for the sailboat and one for the fishing boat. We fish in Rhode Island waters and offshore New England.

Last year, we landed one 30" bluefin and hooked a white marlin (it shook off the hook; we would have released it anyway). This summer, we will go further offshore in search of a nice yellowfin tuna.

We have some heavy duty tackle, two Shimano TLD50s and a Tiagra 50. These reels are two speed and can handle anything we are likely to hook (Tim caught a 500 lb. tiger shark on the Tiagra last year, on a charter...he released it, no one wants a tiger shark in the boat!).

[OutOfControl]

Originally Posted by Miniyot

...Any time you are 3 miles or less, you MUST BE AWARE of the legal fish!

Miniyot,
Florida has some of the most restrictive regulations in the Southeast U.S., but only extends 3 miles offshore(9 miles in the Gulf of Mexico). The SAFMC(South Atlantic Fishery Management Council) regulates fishing from 3-200 miles offshore and has their own set of regulations.
By the way, Florida regulations prohibit possession of any size redfish in Federal waters.

[fisherman.ben]

if you just want a few rigs for new England I would go with (for tuna) a 6in cedar plug, (plain or painted, they both work well) a green machine with red beads, a blue white and siver smoker, all rigged with 150lb leaders and 9/0 hooks. for mahi's I use a 1oz castmaster or a white bucktail both tipped with a strip of either squid or lobster tail and a 60lb stainless leader. for stripers/bluefish again the 1oz castmaster, or 4in poppers or plug. for seabass, blackfish, fluke, winter flounder and trigger fish I use a speargun. as for rods and reels, for tuna a good bent butt with full rollers and a penn international 2 speed is what you want, (along with a minimum 600 yards of 100lb test) for mahi, stripers, and blues I have an old penn 704 on a penn boat dominator rod with 30lb test, speargun is an omer 100. when trolling for tuna you want to be on the edge of the 70 degree water, about 65 fathoms, going 7-10knts, mahi's look for stuff floating and cast around it, all the rest are pretty much around the rocks on shore, just swim around and shoot.

[Randyonr3]

Over the years we've used a little of everything but what we've had the best luck with is a simple cedar plug and a Cuban YoYo with about 300 feet of 60lb test.. not fancy but it works..

[Capt Phil]

Hand granades work wonderfully well... Phil

[Kevin84]

Originally Posted by Capt Phil

Hand granades work wonderfully well... Phil

Best response EVER. Stick of TNT is also good. No shrapnel that way either.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[onestepcsy37]

for general use try a red/white feather jig or a silver spoon.

[liveaboardL]

Love the advice. Very interesting. Not sure my sailboat will go 7 knots w/out some seriously strong currents helping.
I like the idea of trolling & look forward to trying the cedar plug, spoons, squid, & other lures & baits I have. I can get a lot of local baitfish w/ the castnet, but my problem is identifying those little fish.
I have a Penn Senator Special 4/0 & 80#, 20#, & 300# mono. Also got a bunch of bullet weights & a 3 lbs lead weight, & some cuban yo-yos.
Catching sharks in the ICW near Georgetown, SC is easy. Seems like the sharks always find the bait before anything else.
I want snapper, or tuna. I need to get that license mentioned too.
Seems like it will be a lot of fun, but I need to make sure I can get back to an anchorage before night-fall, and I try not to use any fuel except for leaving anchorage & returning, so I may wait for a southern or North wind.
I have a few ID guides & charts but still have trouble w/ these litle fish. It seems in the charts, they're all adult.
I got some wire leader too for sharks, but my last big shark broke it off the mono Even though I put 4 knots in the splice, I really need to learn how to do it better next time, cause that would have been one hell of a catch. Matter of fact, Im wanting a good spear or something to kill the shark w/ before bringing it on the boat. Jig in one hand, spear in the other. I don't own a gun, & I don't know how much FPS an airgun would need. Those are affordabe, but I'd probably be better off shooting a shark point blank in the head w/ a 22?

[sharkwatcher]

Think simple and low tech for fishing while underway or just picking up dinner. Buy a couple of line spools (the type offshore fishermen use for rigged trolling leaders), fill them with 150' of 100-200 lbs test mono. Crimp or tie a heavy duty snap swivel to the end. Now you have a simple handline rig that you can clip a feather jig rigged with wire leader to and troll off your stern rail underway, attach a bottom jig or baited hook and sinker to, to catch snapper& grouper off reefs. Stores very small, last forever, requires no cleaning or maintenance and always ready. A smaller version with 30 lb test mono and a sabiki rig will catch spanish sardines and baitfish.

[chuckr]

Originally Posted by Randyonr3

Over the years we've used a little of everything but what we've had the best luck with is a simple cedar plug and a Cuban YoYo with about 300 feet of 60lb test.. not fancy but it works..

we use to use rod and reels and that was fun bur if you want to put meat on the table use a yoyo but we use 80lb on one and 100lb test on the other. we have had some cedar plugs and som top water bubblers.

by the way in the med we have caught way to much tuna and if we fish and catch we put them in the reefer and give them to dockhands or customs officers ect as we are so tired of eating tuna.

[fishin4bogey]

Make sure you know how to tie good fishing knots.

A pair of 6/0 Penn senators would be as big as I'd go on a sailboat. If you're using wire leader there is a device called a haywire twist tool. Makes doing a haywire twist "knot" on wire leader a breeze. Good ball bearing swivels and snap swivels, if your going to use snaps. A good swivel will allow the plug or feather to look natural while it's being pulled through the water. The cheap swivels will make your lures do The Funky Dance. No fish bites The Funky Dance.

You'll be at 6-7 kts most of the time. Troll feathers, cedar plugs, and other dolphin jigs (poppers, different color feathers). I very, very rarely use snap swivels. A good ball bearing swivel ties to the line, and if I want to use wire leader, the Haywire tool only takes a minute for an unbreakable knot. Have a good spinning set up at the ready. If you're going really slow, and see a few dolphin, throw them a small jig. Nothing smaller that say a Penn 750. Dolphin on 20lb bass fishing gear is an absolute blast, but on a boat where I can freely move around and follow it, not on a sailboat.