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LUCAYA
By, taxlawyr, 6/21/08

Decided last minute to make a trip over to Lucaya with another buddy and our wives. Left Boca Inlet early Saturday and ejoyed the nicest crossing I ever had. Water was flat calm and we cruised at 45mph all the way over.

Surprisingly, we saw no bird activity and little weed all the way over, except about 4 miles out from West End. Cleared Customs at WE and were back on our way to Lucaya after a quick walk around Bahama Bay resort. We had to promise the ladies that we would come back and stay a weekend there in order to get them back on the boat, as they didn't want to leave! Does this look like a Corona commercial or what! Arived at Lucaya and had a great day anchored off the beach at the Sheridan enjoying jerk chicken and some drinks.

About 6pm we talked the girls into trying to catch some dinner and made it no further out then the bouy before seeing tuna crashing the surface. Put out two blue/white feathers and had a double hookup with a minute or so. Unfortunately, we lost both fish rather quickly, but we continued trolling west up the ledge and it took about 15 minutes to have our second double header of tuna. This time we landed both blackfin and we headed back to the docks for a night of sushi and mojitos!

Sunday morning was spent doing some snorkeling and just plain relaxing on some desterted beaches in the area. Around 12 we headed back towards WE and saw an incredible amount of weed in about 300ft. Lots of birds working the area all the way to the Freeport. We stopped several times and caught/released quite a few small schoolies, but couldn't seem to find anything worth keeping. Spent some time more time on Woody Cay off WE before making the crossing back to Boca Inlet.

About 40 miles from BI we came across a nice school of schoolies and caught a few morefor the fun of it. Kept 2 for dinner before a nice cow made an appearence out of nowhere. Threw her a chunk of squid and 30 min later she was in the boat. The seas were not quite as calm as the way over, but we were able to still make 40+mph until we hit the storms as they came of the coast. It got pretty snotty for the last 4 miles or so but we made it, just a little wet.

There was quite a bit of Coast Guard activity in the area this weekend. We were buzzed twice by the jet (probably because we were cruising so fast) and saw the cutter and its tender pulling over boats making the crossing. Its nice to see them out there keeping us safe. There was also a large Bahamian military gunship anchored East of Lucaya and there was some talk at the docks that they and their tender had been checking catches and making sure boats were not fishing in Bahamian waters before clearing customs and obtaining fishing liscenses. All in all, the girls had a great trip (their first crossing) and we got to do some selective fishing and lots of relaxing. >>Forum Thread & More Photos

BIMINI MARLINS
By, TNT, 5/26/08

My wife and I live in Naples, but keep our boat in Marathon. We left Marathon Wed, May 21 and arrived in Bimini Big Game at 1:00, checked in, re fueled and spent the rest of the day around the pool. We almost exclusively fish offshore and although we like fishing for dolphin, wahoo, and tuna, we really enjoy fishing for marlin. So this would be our main target......

Thursday morning, wake up at 7:00 and leave marina at 7:30. Just outside Sands markers turn northwest and head out. Although we have caught marlin north and south, we decided to start trolling North because we were eager to fish and because we have had success close to shore in this area before. At 600 ft deploy the spread and continue on a northwest heading turning north no more than 2-3 miles offshore. The spread consisted of the following: short port flat - Marlin Magic Ruckus, short starboard flat - blue/white Ilander with horse ballyhoo, Short rigger large blue/white Ilander sea Searcher with ballyhoo, Port Long rigger - purple/black Wide Range, Star. Long rigger - naked Horse ballyhoo and center shotgun - Roddy Hays Jet Head.

At about 8:30 star flat snaps, but nothing. Reel it in and need new horse ballyhoo. Five minutes later, blue/white sea searcher snaps and see a bill, drop back, then nothing. My wife then makes a turn to backtrack and 80W with the Ruckus goes off - finally solid hook-up. I fight the fish in the chair and after 20-30 minutes, release healthy the 1st Blue of the day. Celebrate with a Kalik and a margarita and back out with the lures.

So now its my wife's turn. Resume trolling the same general area and both head up to the tower to look for some activity. About an hour later and less 1/2 mile from 1st Hook-up, same 80W with the Ruckus goes off again. Nothing like the sound of a 80W going off. Still hooked, the fish races to the opposite outrigger and pounces the naked ballyhoo on the smallest rod, a 30W. The 80W is now quiet and the 30 is exploding with a solidly hooked, greyhounding, larger Blue. Because its on the small rod, my wife fights it stand up and does a great job. Finally, almost 2.5 hrs later I leader the second Blue which had taken us directly off Bimini Bay. This fish was about 300#s and a great catch for my wife on 30# test. So after another round of cocktails, its back to trolling. We almost headed in but decided to try for a Triple. Had one more chance at a blue, but didn't get a solid hook-up, so we returned to the docks around 4:00.

We spent the next couple of days fishing/diving, etc catching some dolphin and a few barracuda. Had planned on leaving Monday, but decided to leave on Saturday do to the weather forecast on Sunday afternoon and Monday. And it was a good thing we did because a couple miles off Bimini heading back to Marathon, our starboard transmission goes out. Keep going at 7 kts on one engine and three hours later, port transmission goes out. UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!! Lucky for us, we travelled over with a friends larger Hatteras and he was able to tow us to Key Largo, where we anchored for the night and then tow us back to Marathon on Sunday.

Seventeen hours being towed is not fun and it gives one a lot of time to think. I thought of the 2 Blue Marlin we caught in one day and all the fun we had in Bimini, nights at Big Johns, conch salad, cracked conch, conch pizza, etc. I thought of how much the repair bill would be and time off the water. But what I thought of most was how lucky I was to have a wife like mine who loves to fish for marlin, dolphin,tuna and wahoo as much as I do. >>Forum Thread & More Photos

CHUB REPORT
By, Dpdash, 4/20/08

I've been all over the islands but never had a chance to get to Chub until this weekend. Went over with CaptMitch and my younger brother. We were supposed to leave on Thursday but the 3 days prior we had strong N/NW winds and all the forcasts were calling for large seas, but calming towards the weekend. We decided to stick our nose out and see what it was like, if it was too bad we would turn around.

Got to the boat, turned the genny on and no raw water. 1/2 hour later, loose belt was fixed and genny running. Went to start the port motor and no start. Dead battery. 45 minutes later, we shove off to light NW winds. The first 5-7 miles the wind was at our stern and it was smooth sailing. 5 miles out, realized I forgot the LP, uh oh. At about the 55 line, the seas started stacking up bigtime. We were running in the trough so even though it was a solid 6-8' it wasn't that bad. Until they started cresting and about every 3 minutes we would have a set of 10'ers come through. It was right on the edge of being too much but our angle was good and we were making 18-20kts so we kept going. We had about 15 miles of "nervous" running but then the swells stopped cresting and it was basically smooth sailing. All in all, it only took us 2 1/2 hours to cross. It only took 2 hours on the return to cross in flat calm water. It was an interesting crossing and I learned a little more about the boat. Didn't get any pics of the crossing, I was a little busy.

Got to the pocket and trolled for a few hours without a hit. Checked into the slip, no fresh water in the marina. Problem with the desal plant. Water was a real problem, it was never turned on in the marina the entire time I was there. We fished hard Friday/Sat looking for a marlin, only caught 2 small skippies and a few cuda's. Had one real nice hit that bent over a 50 and ran off a bunch of line before he came unglued, didn't see it but it was probably a blue, turns out to be our only shot of the trip. Did a little freediving and shot some small groupers and wiffed on the only hog I saw. Caught a few Y-tails, nothing to get excited about. Went down to the North AUTEC buoy which people said wasn't there, it was. Got there about 5:00pm to find 4 other boats fishing it. Made a few drifts without a bite and headed in.

Marina, I would say it was half full, the east end of the marina was deserted while the west two docks were pretty full. We were by far the smallest boat in the marina. If you didn't have a 60' Viking, you were chump change. Lot's of real nice, big boats.

Sunday morning was time to come home. We hadn't caught a decent fish the entire trip and it was do or die time. We trolled the pocket for a few hours hoping for that marlin shot which wasn't going to come. We finally got a bite, we had 5 50's out and one TLD25 with a small blue/white lure. Two guess's which rod got hit. One nice run but no real fight, we were expecting a small tuna. Up pops a real nice wahoo, then things got interesting. The fish came close and behaved, I got a nice gaff shot just behind his head and went to lift him in, hmmm, a little heavier than I thought. As I held him there, I wanted to make sure that nobody was in the way when I put him in the boat. At that moment, the fish realized things weren't going his way and it was time to do something about it. He started thrashing around violently and shaking his head. As I was lifting him in, I see the lure come flying out of his mouth. At the same time, he twists and comes flying off the gaff. Holy Crap!!! He hits the water and is stunned for a split second. Then he comes too and digs his head and goes to take off. I make a lunge and hit him across the back third of his body and he starts thrashing again. I lifted him up, grabbed his tail and threw him in the boat. All of that took place in about 1/2 a second. Wheww, that would have been one long, ugly ride home if I missed that fish. It made the trip.

To make matters even more intersting, the lure he hit had 80lb flourocarbon mono leader. When I looked at the lure, turns out, he hit the green plastic spacer bead just ahead of the hook and cracked it in half. The bead took the brunt of the bite and prevented the sure cutoff. The loop of mono through the hook was nice and curly, how it held I'll never know. One lucky catch but we certainly earned it. The crossing on the way back was spectacular, flat calm and great sun really made for some incredible colors of blue and green.

Overall, the fishing was really off, with the entire marina only getting two blues(one boat) and two sails(one boat) and I saw 3 dolphin. The marina had some challenges but was in excellent shape. Except for the crossing, the weather was spectacular. It was a great weekend in a new spot, CaptMitch fed us like kings and the only thing that broke on the boat was a genny belt which I fixed in 30 minutes. Till next time. >>Forum Thread & More Photos

COSTA RICA SLAM
By, FSeric, 3/28/08 Last year my father, Karl Wickstrom, bought a trip at the CCA-Florida Martin County banquet to fish and stay at Los Suenos, Costa Rica. The trip was donated by forum member "SailsCall", Kent Malinowski, http://www.hummingbirdvacations. It included all lodging, transfers and 3 days of fishing aboard the 34’ Venture Sails Call. Joining Karl were two friends and myself.

I’m writing this report in Los Suenos, right outside Jaco after finishing our fishing today.

Anyway, on day one, we headed 45 minutes offshore to the sailfish grounds, and were greeted by spinner dolphin chasing bait, and running alongside the boat. It took a while but we soon hooked up with a good size dolphin, and lost another that the capt estimated to be 50 pounds, when a bird flew down and bit the line. I’ve never seen that in my life.

Then the action got real slow until after lunch, when it was steady sailfish action, for almost the rest of the day. And, almost every time, it was two strikes close together. We managed to boat four fish, one for each of us.

On day two, we decided to fish for roosters close in, and then head to the 26 Rock for snapper. Well, the roosters didn’t show at all, but the snapper action was better. We caught a bunch of smaller snapper, and two really good-sized mullet snapper.

On day three, we decided to try more snapper fishing at the same spot. We caught a couple smaller cubera snapper, rainbow runners, and one small grouper. Not great fishing, but more than enough fish, and other great sites.

Today, we booked a half-day trip through forum member "HookedOnCostaRica", Josh Foster, http://www.hookedoncostarica.com aboard the 26’ panga-style boat Barracuda. Early on, we had a monster fish on for 30 minutes, likely a rooster, before the hook pulled. Later on, I caught a nice rooster and we caught one more.

Check out all the photos and more details below.

>>Forum Thread & More Photos