Bimini 2006 Report

[Deep C]

Understanding Bimini
Before all the reports come out and confuse the heck out of people lets take a minute and learn some 101 stuff about Bimini. Shes actually two islands at the western edge of the bahamas. She has a small shelf of reefs directly off her that but up against the hard wall at the edge of the gulfstream.
North and south are dotted with small islands and more reefs but Bimini, more specifically the center of the north island juts out the farthest west. With that said . That would mean all fish running up that wall from the south get forced around that corner. Thats why thats "the spot". Like any road that some times has cars and some times doesn't if you sit there long enough you will find passers by...
Now just a few minutes inside that spot is a strip reef that can provide action several ways. You can troll jigs, chum and chunk or use big live baits for a variety of things...
Directly in front of the cut is productive ground for a variety of things an when you dial it in right theres some great strawberry grouper to be had. North and south there are numerous reefs. If you can find a patch that hasn't been beaten too bad you can find oodles of species there. Inshore options even abound for the explorer at heart with even more variety.
The key to Bimini is to switch games several times a day if things go quiet at one type or another.
I have used the word variety here maybe i can shed a little light...
Offshore: Blue marlin, White Marlin, Sailfish, dolphin, Blackfin tuna, Yellowfin tuna, giant bluefin tuna, wahoo...
Reefs: Cero, King mack, amberjack, almaco jack, green jack, blue runner, red grouper, black grouper, strawberry grouper, coney grouper, nassau grouper, yellow fin grouper, mutton snapper, lane snapper, schoolmaster snapper, grey snapper, black snapper, yellow eye snapper, yellowtail snapper, white grunt, french grunt, tomate, margate, bluestripe grunt, squirrelfish, chubs, quuen trigger, black trigger, grey trigger, mojara (sand perch), sand eel, surgeonfish, blue tang, spadefish, hound fish, ... Just to name a few...
Inside: Sharks, rays, bonefish, permit, tarpon, horse eye jack, goggle eye scad,...
You get the point. Thats a list of some of the goodies my people dealt with this trip. Bimini is not just a hard core offshore place. Its one that needs to be worked. Tossing the "kitchen sink" at em kind of fishing...

The island itself is an enetrtaining place with several stories of its own to deal with. I'm headed off to get the boat straightened out and do some paperwork.. Reports to follow.

[Deep C]

For those of you who have been following the ongoing saga of the Deep C, you know that my motors are always having me looking over my shoulder. That was no different as I pushed the sticks forward loaded with fuel and 1400lbs of supplies. A flat calm ocean did little to keep my mind off monitoring the guages and sweating the gulfstream slowing me up by 4+ knots. Still four hours later, up popped that silouhuette of the wonder rock of legend and lore...
The iron pigs had survived the crossing and my butt stopped puckering. The customs was quick and painless. Our first client Boca Dave was on the dock to greet us and I invited him to come along as we set out for our "practice" fish.
Water was calm and gin clear with a good strong current racing up the edge... The spread of death hit the bubbles and we were off. About a half hour into it a sail raised on a big bait and my mate pitched and bowed up. Unfortunately it did not stay stuck for long but still fun way to start. We checked out some numbers and laid waste to a variety of bottom dwellers and called it an easy first run.
The next morn was a continuation of gorgeous conditions and off we set. We hammered the whole edge with little but the omnipresent cudas there to bug us. A slide inside and a shrinking of the spread to jigs produced one of the strangest bites I have had the pleasure of bowing up on the troll! I could not make out for the life of me the strange critter we were dragging up from my perch in the tower but as it drew near my eyes popped out as a 18" flying fish was brought aboard!
We slid to my patch above the pines where we wrecked some ceros and some dandy yellowtails including a really big "tailzilla". Fishing there was good so it prompted me to drop the hook and chum up a pile more of tails.
The blue water called me back out and we set to hammering from the cut to the pines. Back and forth we waited patiently then up it came. Our first blue. We were a touch rusty but drilled it on the fourth clean shot. The 50w made short work of the 125-150 class fish and soon we were back at it.
I drew two more passes through the exact same line we had that bite and another raised. This time it took five clean shots to drive the hook home but we succeeded in pinning blue number two (about the same size) for the day and trip to the end of the string. I thought with that we would be on fire all month...
Several more passes drew nothing so we went bottom meat slaying to round out that day.
The next day had me hammering the area where we had the blues but nothing would raise. Cudas raised holy hell with us and we were hard pressed to get a bite. I saw birds to the offshore and headed deep. On the way there we had a blind bite that turned out to be a rat white. It turns out that was to be the highlight of the day.
Dave had an early flight to catch and passed on his last fish day. With that he had had an outstanding catch...
[QUOTE=Deep C]TAil Zilla!!!


And Fineus Maximus the Flying fish


Bowed up off the Beach on a pitched Sail


And cant forget the buckets of stuff...

[Deep C]

I love to run a smooth operation but sometimes things are out of my hands. Bimini Island Air being one and weather being another. Both came into play during this leg. It always kills me but especially hurts when I have great people like the group from the Sweet Caroline.
BIA touched down two hours late. Prior to that we had had some pretty good billfishing and our dock neighbor had even returned by ten am with a Blue release. Precious minutes of a hot bite ticked away with the flight delay.
Eventually we got the strings untied and slipped through the cut to my out front hammer grounds. About twenty minutes into the pull I heard the 80w with my cavitator screaming in protest as line started going away. Looking back I could see a 500 class blue making tracks back behind us. Lines were getting cleared and people shuffling. Just about the time to throttle back and transfer the stick from gunwale to chair I saw the fish starting to turn. The throttles were on their way down and a quick head shake sent the lure back to me.
About a half hour later a freak front from hell hit full force. Blowin at 35 from the wrong direction shut the bite down with no mercy. The clock was tickin and a switch of style was in order. We loaded up on a few species of bottom yummyness and made way for the dock.
Dinner that night was entertaining as someone brought up a name I had blurted out during the day to my mate. When things aren't perfect, I do get creative with nicknames and "Dooshh Berry" stuck with him through the voyage...
The next day woke windy as all get out. Although not rough yet the screamin 30 knots wouldn't let my spread run right. Cudas beat us with impunity as the baits dragged sideways. We had a bill raise on the rigger only to just go away. I switched to other tactics without much better results. We deployed the wwwwwb black and red spread hoping for a wahoo or big grouper. The 80w got to groanin again and I was hoping we had something good going on. Their man Rocky took the chair and about 20 minutes later of some rough and tumble heavy duty pulling a very fat cuda arrived at the transom. Its moth had been popped open and was force fed about two gallons of gin clear bahama blue water.
The wind continued to perk the next day but not as severe. We hammered the hole and had a blue take a quick shot at a mack. Alas no bite... As we pulled deep into the morning the rigger went down and half a 50 w went away. A few minutes into the fight I guess a cuda or wahoo found the lure trailing behind our hooked trophy and clipped us off ...
Late in the run a tuna in the 100+ classs piled on us at the Batelco Rip near the inlet. Again the steel never sunk... I attribute it to the fact that the guys were repeatedly using the "B" word (monkey food) ... But as Captain and master of my 28' of world I take the blame for sucking...
We set up at the deep drift spot and proceeded to work the bottom. Now I wont point fingers and say that the guys were sucking but I will say Caroline was kicking ass and taking names! Repeated cries of "I'm hooked up" from her had to send the testosterone levels of the others into a tail spin. Neutered, we returned to the dock with a fair tally of bottom fish but no real hero fish.
Next day the conditions still sucked so we tried all kinds of tricks. Finally with enough activity, dirty water and a backward current running with the wind I decided to ancor and let the chum do the talking.
We pounded yellowtails at a pretty good clip then saw some big boils. The rigger live bait went down with a gaffing sized cero first. Then Dave bowed up on a big fat sloppy rubberliped Bimini Amberjack in the 60 class. That was followed by a couple smoker kings to round things out...All in all it was a good day but the bills wouldn't play.
The last morning the current had turned but the wind still roared. Seas were now heavy. Dave cut his head going below. Only cudas wanted to play and the leg ended with a thud. Oh well, great company but tough conditions. It wasn't like we didn't give it 110%. As the BIA plane passed over I think I could hear them saying bye to Dooshh Berry and Capt. Crunch with the trusty side kick, Chocolate Starfish!
A yellowtail (high center) in 75' about to get hammered!



He got hammered! All too common this year...



Caroline shows off the smallest tail of the trip... Harder to hook!


Rocky works the 80 in 30KT wind! Wrong flavor...


A pile of meat headin for the cleaning station... The cooler is packed with tails!

[Deep C]

As the Sweet Caroline Group left the next make up group arrived. Consisting of a couple young guys from Jersey and a mid aged guy from Mass. Their focus was not on the monsters but on the variety and action thing. Bimini is certainly the place for that.
As mentioned in the Sweet Caroline thread, the seas were rapidly on the build. As this group boarded, swells cutting across the cut looked like the Bonzai Pipeline or the north shore of Oahu. Undaunted the Deep ate up the big stuff like candy and despite their white knuckles heading out into the 8-12' beastly blue, they loosened up when they saw how the Albie mastered the big water.
A few minutes into it we picked the first cuda. To my delight, these guys were extatic with them. Hell, they wanted all I could provide of them. We picked a few along the edge to north of the pines where the seas were a tamer 6-8'. When I made the turn south I slid out to the deep and the really big impressive stuff.
"Sail with his fin up!!!" shouted my mate.
I looked back to indeed see a large purple spot but it was tough to identify. Then it turned...
"JEEEEEEZIZ!!!! Thats no sail... Thats a grander or bigger!!!!!"
We had been looking straight on at a blue easily over a grand and when she turned toward my rigger bait my bung slammed shut. LAzily she just came up and looked. All five jaws dropped as she just followed us in the mountainous seas. At least three feet of tail sticking out and that center notch wasn't yet near the top.I sweated bullets wondering what we could do if we bowed up. We tried teasing her into a bite but she was just window shopping. She moved closer for even a better look. Four feet deep, three feet thick and atleast 15' she was a beast. I could see that eye big as the base of a coffee can lookingat the masher bait but again she was more interested in surfing and looking than eating. Eventually she just moved off leaving five guys speachless and shaking...
The next day broke open calm. The big stuff was gone and even the current dropped out.
We hammered the blue with no action. Then we zeroed in on some cudas. We slid inside to troll ceros. We chummed up a pile of tails then set to hunting strawberry grouper. We found them thick right in front of the cut and put a merciless beating on them and coney groupers. Minutes turned to hours, coolers were filled when Shawn bowed up on something good... A determined run for the rocks said grouper. But what kind? Ten minutes later we were rewarded with a gorgeous yellow fin grouper... The holy grail of all grouperdom... With that we slid back to the dock.
Nights were spent either cooking or enjoying the hospitality of the big game club. There was oodles of night life to cap off the days full of meat fishing.
The next day involved more calm and more bottom carnage before the birds invited me to the deep.
My buddy , Al, owner of our marina was out there deep dropping and made for a great "Range" marker to stay near the schools of tuna and skippies. Pass after pass yieded some bites and a couple small tuna and huge skippies. On one pass I noticed a glint out of the corner of my eye and turned toward it. A few hundred yards later, I could see a pink shape writhing on the surface. As I got close I had my mate get the gaff. We had stumbled on a "Floater" big yellow eye snapper that had evidently been lost by Al on one of the reel ups. The fish was boxed and I knew I could have fun with that back at the dock.
As I continued to hunt birds I saw flyers going off to my north and headed that way. As we got there the lines started going off. Big Big mahi all around. We kept three bowed up and went to work. A twenty, twenty-five and forty pound fish added to the meat stack and we called it a day.
Two of our guys now had pulled hero fish and I wanted Casey to get one. Full Day three produced tons of fish but just not that special one. BAck at the dock Al was grillin me about the yellow eye. I just stuck to my story. "There we was, just a trollin up a storm an then the yellow eye piled on the rigger, Al. I about burnt my trannies going backwards and took a flyer and poon to get er in the boat!"
Last mornings sometimes end as duds but this one was gonna prove different. Five minutes from the dock we set the spread and before we were done another 40+ dolphin piled on the flat. Casey bested the squared headed green hornet and I was tickled. We made it just short of the pines and the rigger went down blind. The fish missed and some jigging of the bare lure brough it back up. The white was drilled and released and I made the engines work hard getting back to get the boys to their plane on time. The pilots shit as they loaded about 200lbs of meat aboard the poor Cessna.
We waved bye bye and waited for the next bunch to treat...

Almost forgot to tell yall about my pet black groper on the patch... Last year we hooked the chunky guy up three times and three times we failed. This year we had the same thing going. During this leg I took it personal.
We were on my spot and I could see that fatty sitting down there flipping me the fin. I signalled right back and I swear I could see him laugh. This black grouper is noty a monster but he is one that I want to lay on the fillet table bad after being smoked so many times. This is beyond just a thing, its Elmer Fudd and Buggs having at it!
I had the spread workin and plenty of action but I could see him still just sitting. I pinned a small grunt to a 40lb outfit and added a couple ounces... Down it went and over he came. I watched as he circled slow then drilled the happless grunt. Bowed up I went to work. Its not my trip. It belongs to my charter so I passed off the stick and ... Bang straight into the hole... I slacked off and the stupid beast backed out. I leaned on him and had it near half the 50' back to the top before passing it off again. Again the customer was blended to the gunwale by the critter and soon was back in the hole...

"Ok that does it! You f***ed with the wrong cappy today fish and now I'm pissed."

I think the guys about shit when I came back from the below deck in mask and snorkel!

At my age I have no business free diving fifty feet but I was on a mission... Down I went... It was all I could do to keep from laughing because the Buggs Bunny picture stuck in my head. I could hear Elmer singing "Kill the Wabbit" as the pressure pushed on my ears.
Down on the bottom I could see the gills flared out and holding like danforth steel in the coral hole. I tried to get a grip on the fish but it was not meant to be. It just dug in deeper. Four mor trips down finally got his attention and it shot through a hole on the other side of the rock...

Oh well... Next time you wascally wabbit!

[Deep C]

Strawberries and coney grouper loaded up!


Yellow fin Grouper the Holy grail!!!


Trippled up!


Dandy Dolpin!!!


Caseys "Hero fish" graces the pit!


Bowed up!
[/

[Deep C]

As with any group, it was sad to see the meat mashers head home but thats part of the game. One comes in and heads out. We had three grerat groups so far and this one would prove to be another...
It seems each year I will get a very laid back relaxed couple that takes the whole boat and it happened again. Bob and Meg were as delightful in person as they had been on line. Bob had specifically requested light tackle so the big guns went away and out came the 25 and smaller goodies...
When this happens I expect finesse and gentle touches commong from the players. Well, it was not long before it dawned on me this guy was the other end... just liked doing it on light tackle. I guess he learned striking techniques from ESPN on saturday morn because man! the lips were rippin and I was duckin on each strike...
Hey thats fine with me as they just had a ball. It didn't matter what it was they were catching. Each fish tickled them more than the one before... Tails, triggers, grunts, the list grew and they grew more bubblly.
Bob had a fondness for the patch where he drilled a monster king and even had a permit bowed up only to horse it off... Oh well, they were having a ball and thats what makes my job worth it...
Then they wanted to dedicate some time to just light trolling. I can't be sure what was going on that day, perhaps mating ritual but I never saw so many cuda. The count was somewhere in the forties. Some people ***** but when its action the people want , they cant be beat. On that run we were just slaying them when a white came up and caught us off guard. I take the blame. I missed him twice and my mate did too. Then a few minutes late we had another crack that at least got a jump.
The water we werer working was pretty but no current so I slid south to pick up the edge... When I got there I saw a shape. A lone bluefin, the only one of the trip was just lazily sluping some kind of half inch long bait. Now I suck at pics as you know but I managed to get a shot with the camera as he ignored every bait in the spread on several passes.. Not very good but a pic that if you look hard you can see him almost standing straight up and down.
As discussed on line when they made the booking theytook the last full day to go bonefishing. That gave me and my mate a day to just do things. IHe too went bonefishing while I did some much needed maintainence on the boat. I was done by 11AM and took up an offer to go fishing with a couple native friends...
DAMN! DID I GET SCHOOLED!!!
Wire line and black and red feathers to me spell wahoo but in their hands turned to absolute gold. We worked to an area about ten miles north of the island and started hammering coral patches in 70' they would angle up just right and take sharp turns "jigging" the two bait spread so to speak. It wasn't long before boxing a couple twenty class grouper. Then a forty then two SIXTY CLASS!!! Thats right 60 class pigs... I was humbled as I have only caught a hand ful that size in all my years. The ride home involved dragging smaller blue and white feathers and resulted in a mix of cuda, king and even a nice 20 class tuna...
Back at the dock I was tickled to find my people had done well with bonefish. My mate had also done well keeping a couple for marlin baits...
This couple was very laid back about things and decided to skip the last morn and opeted to take us to breakfast before going on a nice quiet island stroll. The french toast made from Bimini bread was beyond delicious. They strolled and I loaded cooler with their catch and all too soon they were off...
A baby bull shark takes a rest on the deck before release...


A full grown 400 class bull works the racks in the marina...


One of my mates Bonefish waits to be rigged...


The box from my day of getting schooled!!! 320 qt!


A better look at a real grouper!


My buddy Ambrose with a good lookin one...


The sleepy bluefin...

[Deep C]

Enter the next leg of our Bimini explorers. Randy, a real estate man from Oregon and Robert (Order) a Coast Guard Prosecutor from DC had done the Chub run with me before and were looking for the fast change up pace we do at Bimini as opposed to hard core marlin dragging in the pocket.
Scott(Law), a new addition to the Deep C fan club is an officer with the NYPD and we were proud to have him...

Seas were calm and the current was screaming but the offshore fish had just vanished. These guys did not mind though. They were up for any pullage they could get. We beat the strip patch and scored well. One surprise guest piled on a live bait and for the first time this trip we got spooled by a mystery fish that made the 500 yards to a mooring buoy and cut us off...
Tossing the kitchen sink fishing involves trying several styles all in the same day so it was off to the strawberry patch for some drifts. The current was a ***** but these guys had the base skills to build the necessary rythm to wreck the tasty critters. That night after a pile of filet was vacumed up at the big game club it became clear that round the clock would be in order. They had liked the live bait deal and went to work on the goggle eyes around the big game docks. Quite the sight seeing them in tag team relay race fashion making the quarter mile run with five gallon pails filled with swimming gold. These runs seemed to stop and I figured they went to bed. I woke at 1AM to see they had gotten innovative and had hijacked a wheelbarrow to transport more with less frequently!
In the morning my bait pen was full.
The out front still looked good but no life was to be found. With no flyers in the area I let the boat slide to the north where we tried deep trolling, live baiting high and low, jigging, bottom dropping, ledge working, etc... Cudas had us whacked at every turn and 12 hours of it produced little. Some ceros etc was all we had going for us. On the troll back our wwwwwwwb black and red got doinked when we got just off center island and we had a sail give uus a quick show before tossing the 3lbs of hardware and hook...
The bait brigade was back at it that night. Several dozen baits were loaded into the pen after we feasted on some of our catch...
This group was a delight to be with as they worked well together. They listened well to instructions and got rythms necessary to score quickly with each new game we triied... Night time between the bait runs involved Anejo and Cokes and the Kalik flowed like water. These guys knew how to live it up , play hard and fish harder...
The next day bore a foul wind that grew all morning. We crushed all kinds of reef species but with the spread going sideways in the wind trolling really was out of the game. Then I got bright and headed for the dock with enough daylight to load the guests in the cart with my mate for a run at bonefish. Catching wasn't in the cards but they had shots and really loved the tour and the variety of life on the flats. That gave me another chance to get caught up on boat maintainence which was sorely needed. I may consider making that a part of every trip in the future...
The third full day had the wind go back down but still dead out front. This time I went exploring and found a spot in 75' that held all kinds of promise. We deployed two deep goggle eyes and some vaious other stuff. Immediately we got into a hot bite of yellow tails and other goodies. We had a couple freight trains slam us that we couldn't turn before they made the rock piles north and south of the ledge I sat on top of. Coolers filled to the top with time and we made tracks for the beach.
Here came the dreaded last morning. Randy had had enough and opted to stay on land for some peace and quiet as law and order jumped right back in the game.
I went back to the numbers from the day before and this time it was a slow start. A shape appeared that sure looked like a cobia. Not quite... It was a big remora that added to their species body count. We were all playing with it sticking it on each other when the deep gog got pounded. Law was quick on the gun as the freight train threatened to make the rocks. He stayed tenacious and stopped it. Masterfully he turned the fish and we were rewarded with a gorgeous 25 class black grouper... Minutes later Order drilled one of 15 pounds to round out their visit to Bimini... Back at the dock Randy was sad that he had missed that last flurry of activity but he was well rested for the long flight back to oregon...
So closed our last guest leg for Bimini 2006. All that was left was for my mate and I to break camp and fish our way home... That will be detailed in the next post...
Mixed Bags Every day...


Law and order Displaying an Array of goodies...


Law Order and my Mate show off a nice black...


Poor Grooupers were cold so I loanded them my shirt.

[Deep C]

]
]

[Deep C]

With the departure of our last group, it was time for us to break camp and head west. I dropped a few grand on bills, tipped out the dock staff, and gathered up our goodies. As we were looking at maybe ten knots from the east as per forcast and what was for real at Bimini, we planned to troll across and set up for a sword drift.
A few miles out it became clear that we had been wrong with the weather as it started cooking from the north butted up against the gulf stream. I would have to guess it had been blowing for quite a while as the seas kicked up to a steady 4-6' with the odd eight tossed in to keep us on our toes. All nearly on the head...
With each bone jarring slam it was going to be a long ride home... Ears focused on engine noise. Eyes took turns watching the sea and scanning the guages for signs of any trouble. The hands glued to the throttles and wheel. Minutes turned into hours. Focus one second then drift off to replaying the trip in my head the next...
Between the swells I thought of the burnt ruins of the Compleat Angler. Part of me cried and part felt closure after wandering the ruins. I had considered taking a tile from the ruins then gave it a pass as I had lost a friend in that tragic blaze and it seemed appropriate not to violate his resting place...


The attention would turn back to the angry sea. Checking course and plodding through the slop... Eventually though I would drift of and dram of the endless laughter we had shared with the good people of the trip. Echoing in the recesses of my mind were the doosh berry and Capt. Crunch titles we had adopted.
Somewhere half way between Bimini and the mainland rips formed, making bad seas worse. Of course though Murphy's law was working overtime. Birds, weeds and fish gatehered in the rip and it was game on. My mate stroked a jumbo 20 class skippie and similar size yellowfin in short order. I released a 40 class bull dolphin as we were already packed with meat. As I left the fish the bilge pump lights reminded me that I should pay closer attention to my suroundings and screw the fish...
Onward we plodded... Hours ticked by. We reached unfishable swordfish grounds and just kept going. Again and again my mind would drift to the emerald waters and lovely accents I had left behind. I could still see the moinster bull sharks swimming through the aquarium that would gateher at the cleaning table. I could smell the fresh Bimini bread. I could taste the conch salad. The sounds of the Junkanoo rang in my ears and the soft white sand still squished between my toes...
The current and wind dropped away a few miles short of our inlet and we again splashed some baits. It wasn't long before we had found the dolphin so common here this time of year... We let a couple go and boxed a gut hooked one and pushed the sticks forward toward the inlet where we arrived as if on cue as the sun set...


Final Tally:
Blue Marlin: 2/5
White marlin: 3/5
Tuna: 6/8
Cuda: +-500
Grouper: +-200
Snapper:+- 300
Cero: 30
King: 8
Amberjack: 6
Giant Bluefin: 0/1
Shark: 6
Bonefish: 6
Permit: 0/2
Misc stuff: +- 300
............................ Fillet sent home 240lbs

Used up:
Ballyhoo: 600
Shrimp: 10 lbs
Mullet: 18
Macks: 18
Chum: 100 lbs
Squid: 16 lbs
Local caught bait: 100lbs

46lbs lead, 200 hooks, 12 lures, 6.5lbs line, 130 Swivels and snaps, 1 bird, two rods, one penn reel...

[Deep C]

More pics...http://www.sportfishermen.com/board/...4675#post84675