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View Poll Results: What best describes the fishing you conduct while cruising?
We don't fish while cruising 10 9.90%
We fish casually when the opportunity presents itself 65 64.36%
We make a serious effort to catch fish and usually have all we can eat 23 22.77%
Sport fishing is a major part of our cruising activities 7 6.93%
Multiple Choice Poll. Voters: 101. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 09-03-2019, 12:45   #1
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Do you fish while cruising?

I was brought up on freshwater fishing and was on the tail end of the decades where good-sized walleyes were abundant enough in Minnesota lakes that they could be caught without particular effort. I didn't especially enjoy it but have to some extent rediscovered fishing as an adult. As part of my misspent youth I had learned to cast with a conventional "baitcasting" reel. Those have fallen out of favor because they're hard to use, and I find that a quickly (and inaccurately) am perceived to be serious about fishing when I use one today.


I've never fished in saltwater because the highly structured fishing charter trips don't appeal to me much.



I have the Bannerots' book, "A Cruiser's Handbook of Fishing," and found it to be an interesting read. Catching enough fish to make them a serious part of our diet, without great effort, is intriguing.



What have been your experiences incorporating casual fishing into your cruising lifestyle? I'll post a poll but please add your comments as well.
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Old 09-03-2019, 12:55   #2
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Re: Do you fish while cruising?

We fish for meat, not sport. We usually drag a lure or two while sailing, until the fridge is full. Also do a bit of spearfishing on the reefs.
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Old 09-03-2019, 13:00   #3
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Re: Do you fish while cruising?

If I'm sailing, there's a lure out. Especially in the tropics. In the PNW, it's a different style of trolling, slower and deeper, so unless I'm out just screwing around in light air, I don't bother. I just catch enough to eat today, while it's fresh. My 2 cents
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Old 09-03-2019, 13:09   #4
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Re: Do you fish while cruising?

I keep several rods on board, from a heavy 50lb boat rod to a fly rod for Bass. The last fish was 3ft of freshwater eel up a river. Wifey freaked when it started squirming around the cockpit and ran one way, the dog ran the other way and pair of them left me to it. It was returned to the water to fight another day.

Fresh mackerel are super in season, easy to catch and fun for those that don't even fish.

A 6 or 7 ft boat rod say 20-30lb and a quality multiplier, say ABU which I like because they do left hand models, will do for most fishing opportunities. A longer rod is tricky even for spinning because the rigging gets in the way. Casting a fly for Bass normally ends in tears unless the greatest care is taken.

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Old 09-03-2019, 13:19   #5
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Do you fish while cruising?

We fish occasionally, your on the water, it’s fun, it’s good food, why not?
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Old 09-03-2019, 14:48   #6
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Re: Do you fish while cruising?

There’s another option: hang around fisher folk, and gladly accept their offerings (sometimes in trade for fresh bread or cookies). Last season we ate so much fresh cod this way that I actually started to get tired of it .
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Old 09-03-2019, 15:18   #7
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Re: Do you fish while cruising?

Albacore caught trolling off hand line with a dangly lure and bungee cord to register when fish is on somewhere between Kauai and San Francisco last summer. Was real easy other than getting it on the boat without falling overboard. I had crew!Click image for larger version

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Old 09-03-2019, 15:30   #8
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Re: Do you fish while cruising?

Not much of a fisherman but used to live in barramundi country and fished with a baitcaster, so I agree with you. I like the control for flicking the lure in between and under branches. Have 3 now. The guys in the shop tried hard to sell me the egg beater type. Whenever I think of them all I see is a big tangle of line.

The rod for trolling has a huge reel and 80lbs line, not really for the sport, just a method of catching food. Thinking of getting a deck winch so we can pull them in without slowing down.

I usually throw out a lure when the boat speed is around 6-8kn, don't seem to have much luck at other speeds. I've just bought some chrome metal heavy ones to try at higher speeds.

Just yesterday I went looking at spearguns. I'm not a big fan of fish to eat so the idea of choosing your fish before you spear it sounds good. The Mrs likes most fish, particularily tuna, spanish mackerel, barramundi, and coral trout. She makes the tuna taste like a steak, the others are ok for me if they are covered with enough favouring that you can't really taste the fish.

We usually have a lot of steak on board.
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Old 09-03-2019, 15:33   #9
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Re: Do you fish while cruising?

Fishing to us is not sport, we just love to eat the stuff. We always drag a line on the east coats and crossing the stream. 200lb. test, there is no "playing" the fish.

Catch a 30lb. mahi ..... 1/3 is cut for the freezer, 1/3 gets cooked right away and 1/3 is eaten while dressing the other 2/3
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Old 09-03-2019, 15:38   #10
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Re: Do you fish while cruising?

I started out in boating to fish the Chesapeake as a 16 year old when there were tons of Trout, Croaker, Flounder, and Spot etc in the bay.

Now those fish are fewer and smaller but you can sometimes catch your dinner on artificial bait (fish bites) while at anchor. Live bait is better but doesn't last long. You can keep fish bites in your tackle box for months and use at you convenience.

I may start using lures again one day and troll while sailing. I used to bass fish a lot with lures and it was always lots of fun. The thing is on the boat I don't need too much fish just enough for dinner that night

I usually throw most of the fish I catch back in and just keep a couple for dinner......

Croaker and Spot in the picture. which I caught at the dock but similar to what I catch at anchor (sometime Kingfish also)..….more than enough for dinner and it's totally fresh
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Old 09-03-2019, 16:16   #11
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Re: Do you fish while cruising?

I also caught Stripper at Pickwick below the dam weighing around 8-10 lbs but there are 30 pounders there also.

So if you are coming through there, the fish are there or they were in the 90's. We'd catch the bait fish with red thread on treble hooks then put those on our larger rods and cast out below the Turbines and hook the strippers

You'd be coming in on the lake side though I believe and would have to hike to this fishing spot, but there are catfish on both sides. Below the dam though is best



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Old 09-03-2019, 16:46   #12
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Re: Do you fish while cruising?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Souzag818 View Post
If I'm sailing, there's a lure out. Especially in the tropics. In the PNW, it's a different style of trolling, slower and deeper, so unless I'm out just screwing around in light air, I don't bother. I just catch enough to eat today, while it's fresh. My 2 cents
Returning coho salmon and even chinook will bite a spoon trolled fast on the surface or behind an old salty planer off the Washington coast in July and August. Albacore are readily available between June and October. 30+ miles off the coast. Cedar plugs, plastics, rapalas can be productive.
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Old 09-03-2019, 17:01   #13
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Re: Do you fish while cruising?

Kinda off topic but a couple of years ago we went to a fish Hatcher in North Carolina. I forget where it was but you anchor the mother boat, take a dink into the back of the operation, then walk through the lines to the front where they have a display. One of the guys walked us through the fish hatchery. Most of the ponds were dry at that time but they were getting a few ready for growing fish.

IIRC he told me something like 80% of the strippers caught in NC are factory fish. Very few are native fish. Somehow they can tell from DNA sampling. Similar stats for other fish they raised. Kind of shocking.
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Old 09-03-2019, 21:00   #14
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Re: Do you fish while cruising?

We dragged a meat hook on our cruise. The first half of the voyage caught Mahi, Albacore, Ono, Aku, and even an occasional Barracuda almost every time we tried. Of course 'trying' was trolling for 24/7 but still usually caught a fish within a couple of hours. On the second half didn't catch a thing despite thousands of miles dragging a lure. The only thing I can think that accounted for the downturn of our fishing luck was our lures got pretty bedraggled after catching so many fish. We often caught an Ono around passes or entering bays. They were too large for us to eat so usually gave most of the fish to the locals. That made for a warm welcome for us.

We made up drag lines streaming from either side of the stern. Our trolling lines were very much meat hooks. We used parachute cord with a rubber shock absorber to 100# plus stainless steel leader and double hooks. The hooks were the weak part of the rig and we did have hook ups heavy enough to straighten the hooks a couple of times. One was so large I felt our 20,000# boat sailing at 6+ knots slow before I saw we'd hooked up. Never saw what took the bait and glad it straightened the hook. Had no idea how'd we'd have dressed out Moby Dick. If we hooked up, pulled in the other line quickly in and then took our time hauling in the other line. A couple of times had the the two lines tangle with each other probably because the fish veered into the other line. Created an unholy mess when they got tangled. The pro's use mono filament leader but Ono would cut through it and we lost a couple of lures so went back to SS leaers,
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Old 10-03-2019, 09:58   #15
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Re: Do you fish while cruising?

i work for one fish daily. that is plenty for me and cats.
we drag a line from aft shrouds of mizzenmast and bring fishie in by hand over hand method. without rod n reel i have yet to lose a fish. with rod and reel i lost more than 5 in gom and broke 3 rods.
i prefer my hand over hand meximethod. no extra equipment to worry about losing. just the braided line and a lure. easy peasy.
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