Bahamas Fishing

[neilinov]

Just returned from Eleuthera Bahamas. All I have to say is F*** circle hooks and sharks. We reeled in more tuna heads and wahoo heads than I can count. You couldn't get them to the boat fast enough to beat the white tips. As far as circle hooks go we had a couple of shots at blue marlin and couldn't get a hook into them with the circles. Drag everything in and replace them with the jobu and bam 1st blue marlin of the year released 2 hours later. Lots of nice dolphin to be caught. They almost became a menace. It's funny the sharks did not bother them at all. Any way my 7 year old daughter caught her first grouper. All in all she wound in 5 nassau and 7 gags. She also got to get into her first cero macs. She ended the day with about a dozen.

As far as the conservation issue that I had earlier, if you are fishing with a bahamian there is no word for conservation in their language. Their idea of conservation is take only the amount of fish that will feed you your extended family your 17 closest neighbors and if your gunnels are still above water grab a few more for the local fish fry. Same goes for the Conch and the Bugs.

Leaving the country with fresh fish is no different than it ever was. No checks and no worries. However Usairways is in for a surprise when they fianally find my cooler. About 20# of Mahi 10# of grouper and 6 bugs are flying around the country rotting away somewhere!! It was nice to see the blue water again and now can't wait for the season to get rolling back up here.

Neil

[knot for shore]

Welome to the site and thanks for the post!

[Deep C]

I hope the green death stays eluthera way... When they swarm at chub ist tough to get any serious fishing done. I concur on circles and blues. Theres a thread on here from the last day or so, that talks about NMFS being willing to shut the circle hook rule at least temporarily . There are links that you can write to and let them know how you feel about circles and Blue Marlin. At least you got the one. Pretty work!

[captadamr]

The fishing is getting better in my area, we went 1-2 with white marlin today and my dad released a 250LB blue.

[Nimrod]

Nice report Neil. Thanks!

Glad you got into a few fish and that your daughter got into the action as well. Pretty work on the blue one. How many teasers did you lose??

Won't be long before that trainwreck we like to call B-Dock will spring to life. Can't wait!

Hope to catch up with you soon.

[Logan9581]

Nice work! The sharks wanted tuna last week in Bimini. They left everything else alone.

[neilinov]

Paul

No lost teasers this trip, but man was it a sorry sight to see us trying to come tight with circle hooks on the Blue. Can't wait for summer. This year we are gonna wack that theiving blue in "Neil's Hole".

[WahooKing]

Originally Posted by neilinov

We reeled in more tuna heads and wahoo heads than I can count. You couldn't get them to the boat fast enough to beat the white tips.

Here's a Bahamas Tip.....Use big tackle...If them damn sharks are around, drag your hooked fish opposite land/ledge/hump...Drag them into the deep abyss as fast as possible....This technique is used by many Bahamian Wahoo Tournament anglers esp. those in San Sal.

[neilinov]

Anthony:

Thanks for the shark tip, but we were mainly look'n for bill fish. The biggest setup was a 80 drop back with a jack for big blue. We had heard that there were some whitey's interspersed with a lot of blues. Our spread was covered with 50's with mullet and the 30 with my fav eel. So most of our bites were tuna grabbing billfish baits on light tackle. There was no way to drag them to the deep and the sharks were killin us.

[captadamr]

here is the white we got on 13-3-07. We had another on about a mile up, but it threw the hook in 5-6ft seas