Sailing and Fishing

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by nautical62

The issue I see in fishing from a sailboat at anchor is that one usually wants to anchor where the bottom is fairly barren and not the best fish habitat, as well as being a bit farther from shore and deeper than one may wish.

That said I have caught a few fish from an anchored boat, especially if in a cut with a current.

When working charters in Belize, I had a favorite anchoring spot with a coral head nearby (deep enough to not be a hazard), but the bottom was otherwise barren. The head was loaded with snapper & grunt. I would drop hook there and guests would start to fish. Usually randomly casting about and catching nothing. I would take out a rod and...BAM!...hook up on every cast. After a few hits, I would let them in on the secret. [emoji41]

[DefinitelyMe]

Most cruisers here in the Pacific fish while on passage, mostly for Mahi Mahi and tuna, some barracuda and the serious guys and girls get marlin, swordfish, sharks etc.

We use two lines, 500-pound test with 400-pound steel leaders and a 350-pound swivel to the lure. A piece of shock cord helps with the sudden load when the fish strikes. Works for us. A lot of other boats use a rod and reel and they seem to do a little better than us. We do lose lures and we've had a couple of hooks straighten out on us. The rod seems to allow people to get the bigger fish, but then we don't really want the really big ones. Basically, if you're not in a hurry most things will work. Doesn't need to be fancy or expensive. The fishermen on the out-Islands use whatever they have lying around as lures and they're able to bring in some pretty decent hauls.

[Taichungman]

Lived and sailed on Texas coast in the 80's on a cat. Best place to catch some Reds and kingfish are out around the rigs. Don't need to anchor anywhere; just go out there and take your sails down and bob around clear of the rig and work boats of course. Usually had to go about 100 miles out to catch tuna and did that while trolling two lines with a shock cord. They were mostly black fin tuna and didn't like them; gave all away, but the fishing was fun.
Anchorages were usually not good places to fish. The kids usually caught crabs in those places.
Caught 16 big ones trolling from St. Lucia to the Bahamas last year. Most were Mahi Mahi. We ate lots of sushi....We thought we had caught a marlin at one point. It looked like it was on the starboard line and started reeling it in...but then it wasn't there...it was over on the port line..and we started reeling it in..but it wasn't on that one either....those things are so fast and smart...it was just following the lure checking it out..feeling of it..flipping from side to side..it followed all the way to the stern steps and was holding on to the lure but not the hook in the lure...We actually pulled it out of the water for a moment until it let go....it was pretty big , 6' at least and glad we didn't get it on board. Some of the mahi mahi beat us up pretty bad; no telling what that marlin would have done.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by Taichungman

Lived and sailed on Texas coast in the 80's on a cat. Best place to catch some Reds and kingfish are out around the rigs. Don't need to anchor anywhere; just go out there and take your sails down and bob around clear of the rig and work boats of course. Usually had to go about 100 miles out to catch tuna and did that while trolling two lines with a shock cord. They were mostly black fin tuna and didn't like them; gave all away, but the fishing was fun.
Anchorages were usually not good places to fish. The kids usually caught crabs in those places.
Caught 16 big ones trolling from St. Lucia to the Bahamas last year. Most were Mahi Mahi. We ate lots of sushi....We thought we had caught a marlin at one point. It looked like it was on the starboard line and started reeling it in...but then it wasn't there...it was over on the port line..and we started reeling it in..but it wasn't on that one either....those things are so fast and smart...it was just following the lure checking it out..feeling of it..flipping from side to side..it followed all the way to the stern steps and was holding on to the lure but not the hook in the lure...We actually pulled it out of the water for a moment until it let go....it was pretty big , 6' at least and glad we didn't get it on board. Some of the mahi mahi beat us up pretty bad; no telling what that marlin would have done.

Marlin do have some interesting behaviours. One theory of how they use their spike is that they swirl it around prey to create turbulence and thus adversely affect the ability of the prey to swim...then, gulp.

When I hear the drag going off on a reel briefly but regularly...I know a Marlin is playing with the lure...probably puzzling over how the damn thing can keep swimming so fast.

Ive hooked up on a White Marlin before and played it all the way to the stern before letting the line go slack. Its a smaller member of the family and quite a beautiful fish.

Ive deliberately broke off a few fish, without ever seeing them, because whatever was on the other end was too big for us to boat safely.

[Cheechako]

Spent a day Marlin charter fishing and learned a lot. The Capt would point out a marlin following the bait. You could watch it ease up behind the bait, then knife it with his bill before he hit it. Other thing we saw was Marlin lying on top of the water on their sides sunbathing. Wierd!

[Suijin]

Caught a ton of mahi-mahi and tuna offshore while sailing. It's not sport, it's meat fishing. The line goes on the winch and in comes the fish and the boat never stops.

I once drift-fished a striper blitz at the mouth of the Patuxent River in the Chesapeake. All the center consoles around me were a bit stuptified to have a 40' cutter drifting through them but I was catching so got some respect lol.

I'm going to bet that those who do not have a lot of success trolling offshore with lures don't have their lines set so the fish can take the lure, turn, and THEN have the hook set. If you're trolling with a cuban yo-yo line wrapped around a cleat you're not going to do much catching as you're just snatching the bait right out of their mouths.

Mahi-mahi are not that selective. I've tied tin foil to a hook and crushed them after I ran out of lures.

[Fiveslide]

How many of you enjoy fish for breakfast, along with eggs and normal breakfast foods? From my non-cruising friends, I always got weird looks when I told them we ate fish for breakfast. They just don't get it. Reel one in on the yo-yo after seeing it at first light and fillet it, straight into the pan with it.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by Fiveslide

How many of you enjoy fish for breakfast, along with eggs and normal breakfast foods? From my non-cruising friends, I always got weird looks when I told them we ate fish for breakfast. They just don't get it. Reel one in on the yo-yo after seeing it at first light and fillet it, straight into the pan with it.

Ive often thought of trying the rumored traditional offshore sailor's breakfast of flying fish (which are often found on deck at dawn), but have never been able to stomach that first thing in the morning.

[UNCIVILIZED]

I know I shouldn't say this, but if I could have good, fresh caught fish for breakfast every morning, I might ask them to invent more mornings. LUV the stuff!


For the OP do a search with "trolling" as the key word, you'll get lots of threads. And you'll pleasantly find that you needn't have much equipment, nor talent.

[iancoombe]

Eggs cooked in same oil as you fry the fish in is a treat for breakfast. We troll everywhere using Rapala lures we tried other brands but the Rapala,s out fish them 10 to 1 we have no commercial interests in Rapala, however if rapala reads this feel free to send us some samples