Quiet on the troll, busy on the bottom

Headed out into a day of light winds, calm(ish) seas and gorgeous sunshine on our FISH-7 charter with 2 guests a couple of days ago. Onboard was Captian Craig, fishing guide "JP" and our good friend and photographer (freeloader?) Didi. Many thanks to Didi for some amazing shots of the day's action. Our guest Marius had been with us before, 2 years ago with a buddy on a rougher day where the yield was shall we say, underwhelming. On this trip, he was accompanied by his charming girlfriend Kelsey. Both were excited and eager to get out on the salt and try their luck. Marius was particularly looking to bag a nice Mahi-Mahi - a catch that has so far eluded him. The Mahi have been pretty prolific around St Maarten of late so we were pretty confident we could deliver. We have also had lots of reports that the Wahoo are back again, now that waters have cooled down. We planned our itinerary accordingly. With the boat packed and ready, fishing gear prepared, and guests safely on board, we headed out from port. Once out of the lagoon and into the open sea, we headed to Wahoo territory. The seas were a little rougher than expected given the wind at around 8 to 10 knots but still not too bad. Pretty close to average swell around here. Our chosen course put us directly into the oncoming swell but the boat was handling it well and everyone outback was handling it comfortably (i.e. nobody was feeling seasick - yay!) About 30 minutes out, we hit the drop-off, slowed to trolling speed and dropped our lines. It took about another 40 minutes before the first call of FISH ON! We got all excited with a nice hard strike. When the line went dead but heavy we knew it for the tell-tale sign of a barracuda. We ended pulling in a 4-foot Cuda. Good looking fish but unfortunately, inedible in these waters due to the high possibility of ciguatera poisoning. After we unhoked him, back into the sea he went. Still, it was some fishing action. 2 more catches in the next 40 minutes - more cuda. Catch and Release is fun but we'd rather have some fish we can put on the table! We'd been trolling out in the primo depth on the drop-off of between 300 and 600 feet but we decided to try some shallow trolling. As we hit around 45m, one of our lines went singing. FISH ON! We knew it was a good fish right away as it peeled off at least 50m of line in under a minute. Our guest Marius took up the job, picked up the rig, and eased on brakes. The fish hit on one of our medium setups, a Shimano TLD 50 reel mounted on an older Penn Tuna Stick, with a Tormentor single hook lure. The fish put up a great fight but Marius (and our gear) was easily up to the task Within 10 minutes we had the fish alongside the boat. JP stuck him with the gaf and a few minutes later, a 44lb Wahoo was on our deck. First Wahoo for Marius and our first for the season. I will never get used to the excitement I see on the faces of our guests when they pull in their first big Wahoo. Absolutely priceless! Truly, a magnificent fish and a great fighter all the way to the boat. Wahoo in the cooler, deck washed down, and back on the troll. Ten minutes later and it's FISH ON again. Kelsey steps up to the plate. After 2 previous Cuda, she's ready for something new. This time she is not disappointed. After a mighty (but rewarding) struggle, she lands a nice football size Black Fin tuna. Something hit this fish on the way in and almost took off it's tail. We can only ponder what hit it and wish we had of hooked it. No way to tell but the bite marks look suspiciously like Wahoo bite. We can only ponder what size Wahoo we might have been able to hook. No matter, we have a nice Tuna in the cooler and we're back fishing. Not too much later, the TLD goes off again and Marius brings in a nice 8 lb Bonito. We troll around for a little longer and catch a few small bonito which we throwback for later, We know Marius is keen to land a Mahi-Mahi so around lunchtime, we give our guests the option - continue to hunt for Wahoo or head back to St Maarten local waters where we know the Mahi are running quite prolifically. They chose the mahi option. A 40-minute cruise puts us back within a few miles off St Maarten. We trolled around for maybe 30 minutes, then we get a big hit. FISH ON and we can see him jumping out of the water. The fish hit the perfect combo - a spinning rod we had rigged with a small green and yellow lure with fresh ballyhoo. Maruis handled the fish like a pro. Giving him some line when needed, fighting hard when the time was right. In no time flat, we had the Mahi by the boat Our fishing guide JP had the fish gaffed and in the boat in short order. Didi, our on-board photographer for the day even captured some amazing shots of the action. Despite a few tiny bonito taken afterwards, the final hour or so of the day turned out to be rather uneventful, despite lots of bird activity. Not to worry, all in all, we ended up catching around 14 or 15 fish on the day and all spread out ra

This week we had 3 days with the wind speed down under single digits - finally, after weeks of unseasonably high winds over the summer. We were joined on our boat Blu Bi U by the Berry family from Michigan, for a 7.5 Hour Charter. Mom was a bit hesitant to get too far off-shore in case it got a bit rough, so we had planned to stay pretty close in. Once we got out there, though the seas were like glass. barely a ripple, except for our wake, of course. Within the first hour, we bagged a nice football size, Blackfin Tuna. We were trolling a cedar plug on a spinning reel way out back. I just happened to be looking back at the trail of the plug (which you could actually see, for a change, because the water was so flat), when I saw a silver flash behind the lure. Before I could even turn my head to look at the reel, I could already hear the line zinging out. Fish On! I grabbed the rod and handed it to the young fella as I called out to the captain to slow the boat. Our guest worked the rod like a champ, reclaiming line when he could, letting him run when he needed to. After a valiant, but fruitless, struggle on the part of the fish, we got him to the side of the boat. I pulled him up and over the gunnels. No sooner was he over the side than he flipped off the hook. A 5 minute chase around the deck ensued to contain the flapping fish. OK, well, it was more like 30 seconds but it felt like 5 minutes. We finally got him under control though and into the cooler. We re-rigged and set off on the troll again. Things went quiet for a while apart from a couple of hits where we failed to hook up. We came upon two huge rafts of sargassum and trolled back and forth along the line but spent more time clearing weed off the lines than catching fish. So, we decided to stop on one of our favorite deep drop spots and try the bottom. As we got our deep drop rigs setup and in the water, one of the weed patches drifted toward us. As I dropped our first line we spotted several Mahi in the water dashing out from under the weeds. We started tossing chunks of bait into the water while I baited up a hand line. As soon as the handline bait hit the water, one of the mahi hit it hard. I handed the line to one of the guests who quickly pulled the fish into the boat. Meanwhile, I pulled up my baited deep drop line to the surface. Two Mahi pounced on it and I had a double hook up. Getting one crazed Mahi into the boat is hard enough, Getting two in is like herding cats. When we finally got them on-board and they hit the deck they go completely crazy. It took us more than a few minutes to get them under control, hooks out and in the cooler. After all that activity, it was time to head back to the dock. We trolled all the way back in but to no avail. With the sea so calm and visibility down to about 60 feet, I'm guessing the fish were all hiding under what cover they could find and not interested in taking our lures. Back at the dock, we cleaned up our catch and our guests took away a generous bag of fresh Tuna and Mahi for their dinner. Our guests were happy after a great day on the water. We were happy the guests were happy and also because we were left with nice tuna and Mahi to enjoy for ourselves!

Guests Eran and Jason joined us yesterday for a nice day out on the water. Originally, they booked for the next day but we saw some nasty weather heading our way and gave them the option to reschedule for the previous day. Good thing we did, as today, while I'm writing this report, it's pouring rain with scattered thunderstorms. We left the dock yesterday morning around 10 am. A few scattered light showers earlier but by the time we left the sun was out again and it was warming up fast. With Captain JP at the helm and myself on the lines, we chose to start the day with a little in-shore trolling just a mile or two off the coast. Within 20 minutes we got a small hit but failed to hook up. Two more hits and misses over the next hour kept me busy changing out the ballyhoo. As we turned south and headed out to the drop-off, the sargassum started to flow thick and fast. Long thin strands of weed played havoc with our lines. No big solid mats where we might find a lurking predator or two, just thin scattered strands. Lately, we have been putting trolling birds in front of our lures - this really does seem to help keep the weed of the lures - up to a point. Still, spent a lot of useless energy reeling and clearing. Close to noon we hit our first Mahi - a small schoolie but a keeper all the same. Snagged him on our shotgun and after a long haul he was in the boat and on ice. As the weed started to bunch up into some nice rafts, things looked more promising, we hooked a good size Mahi on one of our shorts. He was jumping and heading straight back at us, crossed our other line, and then took off sideways. We reeled him in and sorted out the tangle. Got him in the clear and off the Port stern in blue water. Not ten feet from the boat he lept out of the water with a big head shake and spat out the lure. Gone. You win some, you lose some. We trolled a little longer, catching a small Lesser Amberjack for the bait box along the way and then we saw some bird activity going on a few miles back. Unfortunately, it was a mile or two inside the local Marine Park. While it's tempting to go chase them down, we have to respect the regulations against fishing inside the reserve. It's just the right thing to do. Anyway, at this point, we decided to head to one of our favorite bottom spots and hit the depths. We headed a little inshore, within the lee of St Maarten. The water was calming nicely, with light breezes and smaller 2 to 4 feet swells. Perfect for drift fishing. Our first drop with the electrics started in about 500 feet of water. As soon we hit the bottom we started getting bites. Wasn't long before we had a few small Silk Snapper on ice. Eran and Jason took to the electric reels nicely. Deep dropping with electric reels can be a little hit and miss for some people. When you are used to fishing in 100 feet of water with a rod in your hands, you can get accustomed to the tactile feel of when a fish bites. The electric reels are different. It's much more of a visual game and it can be hard to tell the difference between the rise and fall of the boat, the vibration from the engines, the small movements of the weight drifting over the bottom, etc. With 600 or more feet of line out, braided line, a large weight on the line, etc it can be hard to tell when a fish actually bites and know when to set the hook. It takes practice and a keen eye. Some people get it, some, not so much. I can appreciate that. In any case, it's how we do it and we can catch some good fish that we wouldn't ordinarily get in the shallows around here. On this trip, the guys took to it very well. We bagged a few nice Yellow-Eye and Silk snapper at around the 600-foot mark. We also snagged a nice little 8-Bar Grouper, the first I've seen around here in quite a while. As we drifted out into the premium depths, at one point, both rods hooked up with a nice bite almost simultaneously. With the rods bent over nicely, we bought in two 5lb plus Caribbean Queen Snapper (see photos). The Queen Snapper is our target species of choice around here on the deep drop. With delicious, delicate tasting flesh, they are some of the best-eating fish to be had. We baited up and dropped again. On the next drop, Captain JP and guest Jason hooked up a nice heavy fish, possibly even multiple fish (we run multiple hooks of course when fishing that deep). Unfortunately, they started high-fiving and fist-bumping a little too early. As the business end of the line came to the surface, we could also see a nice size shark following it up. Right near the surface, the shark struck and took fish, line, and sinker. Cha-ching, a nice Queen Snapper, and $40 of gear lost to the deep. An important lesson to the punters out there! No celebrating until the fish is on the deck - don't tempt the fates. We managed to bring in a few additional Silky and Yellow Eye Snapper after that before it was time to head back in the lagoon via the 5 pm bridge. All in all, a very nice day (sea/weather-w