Elbow Cay in Mid-April: What to bring???

[mabartle]

Just booked a house in Elbow and a 23' Albury Brothers for a week in mid-April. Trying to get a jump on my tackle planning for the trip, but I am having a hard time narrowing the list down. I have everything from ultra light inshore stuff to offshore standup stuff, but really need to travel with the bare minimum due to luggage weight restrictions. looking to do some trolling, some bottom fishing for snapper/grouper, and some sight fishing on the flats. and advice on what to bring (rods/reels & terminal tackle) and where to go is greatly appreciated! Thanks!

[clacy]

Lots of bonefish around under docks especially accross Abaco sound from the south end of Elbow. Spinning rods and glass minnow imitations. If your taking the kids the same set up will be fun on the sound side around sunset with cut baitfish. Lots of small sharks. Cast net. Cant remember the name of the island but the few docks that were there were full of bonefish last spring break. Sling spear for Lobster in 10-30 ft of water out in front of the island under the coral heads. 1000' of water 2 miles off the beach.... so 30 wides will catch most everything you'd want except the Marlin and they pass right past there although I dont think at that time of year. Trolling baits hard to get so bring lots of lures for dolphin and Wahoo. You can cut belly strips to pull behind your sea witches but you have to catch the fish big enough for belly strips with lures. Btm fishing out front is great so if you have a jigging set up bring it. Just south of Elbow is an inshore... behind the outer islands... coral reef thats about 15-20 feet deep that is awesome for snorkeling or diving. It has an anchor ball over it. Tons of fish, huge leopard rays, barracuda, parrot fish etc. Those Aburys are great boats but they can be wet and the sound , while not huge, gets whipped up in the spring if there is a northeast wind. If you've not done this trip before take a handheld gps and download the detail for that area. Islands everywhere to explore but coming out of Marsh Harbor in a boat your not used to, weighed down with all you gear... that you want to keep dry... can make it a little tough to figure out where your going. Give yourself enough time (before dark) to get from the airport by taxi to the boat (10min) load the boat and due your paperwork15-20 min's then plan on a 15-30 min boat ride to the north end of Elbow depending on conditions. If your house is on the south end add another 10-15 min's. All these times are moving pretty good. It may take you longer. The Bahamian plane couldnt take rods that were as long as usair could so check before you go. I THINK anything under 6' will be ok. So your trolling and jigging stuff should be fine but check the length restrictions on the spinning stuff. One of my favorite trips ever. Oh and bring a jacket a north wind will make it rainy and cold.. but you can still get in the warm water! (lures... lots of them... based on what your fishing for there are no tackle shops)

[clacy]

One more thing the rental company was great about delivering your stuff to the house. So unless your kids gonna wear that goofy over the head life jacket provided by the boat rental etc... you can send all that stuff in boxes to the rental company and they'll have it in the house before you check in. Then you can box it back up and for a fee they mail it back to your home. Worth it. Go to Nippers for breakfast on Sunday morning if your a family if your going with the guys... Go to Nippers during the day.... WORTH IT! Go to Hole in the wall and snorkel at the mouth of the harbor in front of Petes Pub. Snokelings great but PETES... WORTH IT! By a paper map of the islands but bring a hand held gps. Cells dont work well.

[rirockhound]

Troll spoons behind the reef in 50ft of water. grouper will come up and nail them, as will jacks and cudas. we always did better with gold w/ yellow feathers. Pt. Jude lures make some killer ones.

Cut Bait, egg sinkers with a short wire leader. 5/0 mustad live bait hook for most stuff, smaller for yellow tails.

plenty of sharks on the flats and ocean side at night. also, the occasional Mutton) snapper (we've had them to close to 20lbs at night)

[Sublime]

I take a 54 quart cooler, put line the bottom with cardboard and pack as much ballyhoo as you can then stick another piece of cardboard on top and pack all my fishing tackle on top of that, works pretty well. Just duct tape it up after you check it in. They'll want to see how much dry ice you have. Bring some lead if you plan on bottom fishing, Some dry cat food works good for chumming, you can find that at the store down there. One package of gulp baits, just incase bait is hard to catch. We always stock up on food and beverages at Marsh Harbour then pack it in the boat and take it to Elbow.
I usually pack three trolling rods, one which has braid for bottom fishing and two lighter spinning outfits for fishing the shallow stuff....and a gaff!

Post some pictures after your trip!

[mabartle]

Thanks for all the great advice! I think I am going to look into building a PVC travel tube and shipping the rods down there (and back) to aviod the hassle of having to travel with them. The reels will go in a 54qt Igloo along with all the other fishing stuff. I will be taking the handheld GPS and i am going to get a copy of The Cruising Guide to Abaco, Bahamas 2011, by Steve Dodge to study up on the waters around Elbow. Keep the advice coming please!

[Lured Away]

Take at sites below, some good info. Try Tilloo Cut just south, can troll plugs. Look under the docks, many hold large fish. Take some plugs like Rapala CD 18s, red/white, some small feathers, Williamson Benthos jigs, etc

http://www.drralph.net/FishininAbaco2005.html

http://abacoforum.com/forums/index.php

Also take a handheld VHF you can listen to the crusiers net forecast every mroning at 8:15 on 68, they are used like cell phones down there.

http://www.cruisersnet.org/

Also take the time to run down to Pete's Pub at the south end, beautiful trip and some good fishing spots along the way. About a 45 ride from Elbow. Dodge's guide is excellent and gives the headings to run aroundas no markers. Most navigation is line of site but nice to take the handheld.

[dragonbait]

first check whith the rental company, ask if you can take it ocean side. most wont let you.

the best bait i found for the bones is cut conch, a 1 or 1/0 circle hook.
the patch reefs on the north end holds some nice snapper, if you chum they will come.

[mabartle]

Sounds great. Can someone give me some more info on the yellowtail/mutton/grouper fishing in the Sea of Abaco. This is probably what we will be doing the most. How do I rig up for this type of fishing? What do I look for to find a good spot? Do i just pick a random coral head and anchor up current and let the chum drift back?

Dragon mentioned chum. For traveling uprposes, does the dry chum seem to work (something like this: www.drychum.com)? Or...am I better off dry chumming off the dock at our house and throwing the cast net over whatever shows up and chopping that up for chum? Thanks again!

[rirockhound]

For yellow tail, a light, 3/8oz jig works well drifted back with a strip of bait (squid is killer), or a small slip sinker and wire and 3/0 hook, gives you can chance at anything else. Chum like hell and don't stop. Keep a decent sized rig ready for a big Cuda or AJ if they show up. You'll get the occasional grouper

Shark the beach at night with chunk bait and chum with racks from the days's snapper....


we travel exclusivly with light spin and conventional gear; I brought a 7ft 8-10lb spin, a 7ft 20lb spin with braid and a 8'6", 3pc surf rod raited about 20lb with a Cabo 60 w/ 50lb braid for chunking the beach. My father has a couple of 20lb convenitonal travel rods with Newell reels which are great as well. In the past we've brought everything from wire line to heavy trolling gear. wire line grouper is fun, but we have more fun with the light gear on the reef. A good shot at Tuna is a decent run east of the outter reef (up to 20miles) 12-20lb gear is sufficient for most of the fish on the reef; I've taken 2 AJ's over 50 on 12-20lb rods with braid. just stay on top of them w/ the boat.

Muttons are my favorite down there.
The best Mutton fishing we had was in march, on the patch (ocean) reef in 40-50ft of water on chunk bait and slip rigs. I have taken muttons on the flats (look for the red tail) up to 12lbs sight casting small yellow jigs on 8lb spin (photo 1), and 20lb at night (pic 2) when chunking for sharks.
Sharkfishing on the sea of abaco can be great, lemon, blacktip, reefs.

the key is to be flexible. it can blow 25 for weeks on end. find some flats out of the wind, and cast small yellow jigs. I have a blast walking the flats casting jigs for 1-3ft barracuda on light spin gear while the ladies collect shells. 30lb mono leader, crushed barb, and plan on loosing a few jigs. Watch the regs, grouper are regulated, and please only take what you need to eat. the fishing ahs gone downhill in the 20 years since we first went to Elbow.....