Islands Prep 101

[Deep C]

Not quite yet time for Chubathon 2010 but got the green light for the go. No broken up eight week thing this year. Gonna work the next new to full moon over there every day of it. Plan to leave here the 11th. I know we had a zillion readers last year who followed it. Figured I'd add a little to making the experience a little more "compleat" if you will, by including some of what we do to prep for a trip like this.


For people heading over on their own island runs whether a weekend thing or extended trip, they might find some of what we do helpful in their own preparations. As always I toss the disclaimer. This is how "WE" do it. Not the only or even the best way. Being my thirty first year doing this I take a lot of what we do for granted and what may be automatic for me may be something others hadn't though of. Its a win win for me to put it in writing cause... Maybe someone will spot something I forgot or someone can add other suggestions...

[Deep C]

First we need to get ready to go. No better place than the beginning to start. That being the most important toy in the tool bag... The boat...

The first thing on my to do list gets done as early as possible. Make sure all your papers are in order. Passports all current? Seems simple but inevitably somebody either doesn't have one or its expired. Since they take time to get done... Check them out well in advance then put it in the bag you will bring all your clothes and last minute stuff.

Next that customs decal current? A lot of people don't know you're supposed to have one and its quite the headache if you return and not set up right. I carry a notebook with me on trips. On the inside of the back cover I put down all the important numbers. Passport, decal, hull id, doccument #, Registration #, passport# and for goodness sake don't forget the numbers to customs for when you return.

We move to doccumentation... Current and in order? Registration, decal for the right year? Insurance, make sure you have a rider to cover you. A lot of them limit coverage to X number of miles from US Mainland... Make sure you have enough... If your headed to the outside of the Abacos and only have 100 miles rider, you're gonna come up short... For us Chub is 72 nuatical from Cat Cay and another 45 to the nearest point in the states 125 covers us but we stretch to Nassau and sometimes beyond so we get 200 miles to be safe...

Now on to safety gear. We carry both liferaft and inflatable boat. The viking we carry an 8 man solasType a and a West marine inflatable with 6 horse merc. On my small boat we have a 6 man Valise type for the raft and then we go out and get an intex raft rated for five. The inflatables are inflated and on the bow for the ride. Over island side we have a ball with em. They come in handy for running fish across the Chub marina to the fish cleaning house or if we get bored we take a hard right out of the cut and drift the near by flats for bonefish.

Coast guard gear of course is a no brainer and we get extra of everything. Our ditch kit includes charged up hand held vhf radios. Lots of flash lights and a manual crank radio. EPIRB, personal locator, and multiple hand held gps. Loads of flares and smoke containers. Water is a must. Knife, compass, mirror, hand line, hooks, flourescent orange ponchos and reflective mylar blankets round it out nice.

Then we get to the boat herself. We go only after every inch is inspected. We carry enough oil to do an entire oil change should we blow a line. Fresh filters all the way around and two back up sets ride with us in case of contaminated fuel. Naturally full tool kit comes along. Hose clamps of everysize. Hose couplers come in handy if you cut a steering or fuel line. Spare bilge, water, washdown pumps and switches are prudent even for a weekend. Manual bilge pump comes along if you lose battery power. If it can break and you don't have it, it sucks having to fly home to get parts to fix it. Right down to spare running light or even cockpit light bulbs you should have em. Plugs, stoppers, corks various sizes of wood. Duct tape, screws, glue, superglue, caulk, all in my emergency pile. We even carry pvc and aluminim pipe. Last year that aluminum came in handy to repair the rigger that one blue launched and landed on. When we get to the tackle I'll talk about wire, copper wire, monel, and mono leader. This can come in handy for repairs on the go too.

[Deep C]

Ok we stowed all that boat stuff away nice and neat. Our platform is sturdy and seaworthy. This is a fishing trip and we're gonna need to address the tackle. Now I don't care what kind of a fisherman you are or what you target. Chub is one of those places that cater to a wide range of fishing. Though we are primarily billfishermen on our boat we tote stuff for all kinds of "diversions".

Our main tackle we use for the trolling there is 2 each 30, 50, and 80 pound outfits. Being that we go for a long time and the fish are often brutal we carry a full back up set and even one more reel in each class. No fun being down a rod cause you got spooled or had a reel blow up on a hot fish. Before going we make sure our line is fresh, the reels lubed, rollers all loose. I have over the years become a fan of putting wind ons all our trolling gear. Couple reasons. First I hate the idea of somebody getting caught up in a coil of long leader. Second I have had far too many blues longer than my regular leader get that big ol tail back there slapping the main line and cutting it. We use 100lb on the 30's, 200 on the 50's, 300 on the 80's...

Next we get to something we have a lot of fun with, "shallow bottom/ jigging" outfits. We bring 4 twenty pound spin outfits to fish the mid day lulls with. Armed with 2 ounce jig or 4 ounce 2 hook "guppy" rig we tip em with cuda strips on the jigs and chunks on the others. Before heading over we make up about 40 rigs and bring about 3 dozen jigs... The bottom over there can eat that stuff alive.

Next we have four 10lb spin outfits. Yellowtail are another nice diversion and the rods can be used also for bonefish. Yellowtail can be found in 15-100 feet of water most of the way around the pocket. On a hard north west wind its nice to tuck up in the lee of diamond rocks and play with em there. I bring a gross of #2 short shank hooks, a couple gross of splitshot, and a half gross of 1/4 ounce jig heads. Tip em with a half shrimp, strip of squid, strip of conch, or strip of cuda.

For chum, we make our own. With freezer space at a premium we felt it better to go this way. We bring a mini food processor to chop fish with. We add dry cat food, minute rice, water and a few squirts of bunker oil and freeze it in gallon bags. We just open one end of the bag to get our flow and that seems to be just right.

While yellowtailing we often will dangle a live one off a rigger. I suggest wire leader. big kings, cero,cuda, aj, or groupers often come to play. I have even seen sails come up in there. We twist up about 36 short wire leader live bait rigs before going.

Now lets get back to the trolling stuff. I figure a dozen rigs for each of our four bait positions will be wrecked in a typical week. So make your adjustements fusing that formula. We use concave faced lures over select hoos on the riggers. Blue and purple being our favorite colors there. Our flats get a small rainbow flat head over medium hoo on one side and a bird witha swimming hoo on the other. Notice I said four "bait" positions. Thats cause on our inside riggers they get the 80s with large concave and large slant lures. These dont get wrecked as fast so I bring maybe six replacements and plenty of replacement skirts. To facilitate rigging of our stuff we pre cut a load of leaders. Some with the hook end crimped on and others with the loop end. In addition to the goodies mentioned above we tote long a bag of wahoo plugs and another of bullet head lures for them. Some days they can get thick and rather than sacrifice a bunch of good marlin gear we burn that up. We also pack a bag of assorted feathers if we happen to find yellowfin crossing the pocket late in the day.

Our offshore box has 200 each sleeve in 80/100, 200, 300, 400lb sizes. 12 snap swivels in each 150, 225, 300 class. 24 each 8/0, 9/0, 10/0, 12/0 hook in J style. 12 each in circle. 24 each 1/4, 1/2 and 1oz egg leads. 6 ea 2, 3, 4, 6oz egg leads. 1/2pound each #7,10,12,15 wire. 200yds 80, 150, 200 mono leader. 100yds 300, 400 mono leader. Crimpers. 8 tubes copper wire...rigging needles, waxed nylon, floss.

More comming tomorrow...

[teddyp]

Yawn. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[Deep C]

Haaaayyyy wake up...!
Theres gonna be a test on this shit... Better yet... Why don't you offer up some tips since this is a how to? Surely you being from CakaLaka will have all kinds of good advice on prepping for a Bahamas trip...

[perfectscore]

Ok we stowed all that boat stuff away nice and neat. Our platform is sturdy and seaworthy. This is a fishing trip and we're gonna need to address the tackle. Now I don't care what kind of a fisherman you are or what you target. Chub is one of those places that cater to a wide range of fishing. Though we are primarily billfishermen on our boat we tote stuff for all kinds of "diversions".

Our main tackle we use for the trolling there is 2 each 30, 50, and 80 pound outfits. Being that we go for a long time and the fish are often brutal we carry a full back up set and even one more reel in each class. No fun being down a rod cause you got spooled or had a reel blow up on a hot fish. Before going we make sure our line is fresh, the reels lubed, rollers all loose. I have over the years become a fan of putting wind ons all our trolling gear. Couple reasons. First I hate the idea of somebody getting caught up in a coil of long leader. Second I have had far too many blues longer than my regular leader get that big ol tail back there slapping the main line and cutting it. We use 100lb on the 30's, 200 on the 50's, 300 on the 80's...

Next we get to something we have a lot of fun with, "shallow bottom/ jigging" outfits. We bring 4 twenty pound spin outfits to fish the mid day lulls with. Armed with 2 ounce jig or 4 ounce 2 hook "guppy" rig we tip em with cuda strips on the jigs and chunks on the others. Before heading over we make up about 40 rigs and bring about 3 dozen jigs... The bottom over there can eat that stuff alive.

Next we have four 10lb spin outfits. Yellowtail are another nice diversion and the rods can be used also for bonefish. Yellowtail can be found in 15-100 feet of water most of the way around the pocket. On a hard north west wind its nice to tuck up in the lee of diamond rocks and play with em there. I bring a gross of #2 short shank hooks, a couple gross of splitshot, and a half gross of 1/4 ounce jig heads. Tip em with a half shrimp, strip of squid, strip of conch, or strip of cuda.

For chum, we make our own. With freezer space at a premium we felt it better to go this way. We bring a mini food processor to chop fish with. We add dry cat food, minute rice, water and a few squirts of bunker oil and freeze it in gallon bags. We just open one end of the bag to get our flow and that seems to be just right.

While yellowtailing we often will dangle a live one off a rigger. I suggest wire leader. big kings, cero,cuda, aj, or groupers often come to play. I have even seen sails come up in there. We twist up about 36 short wire leader live bait rigs before going.

Now lets get back to the trolling stuff. I figure a dozen rigs for each of our four bait positions will be wrecked in a typical week. So make your adjustements fusing that formula. We use concave faced lures over select hoos on the riggers. Blue and purple being our favorite colors there. Our flats get a small rainbow flat head over medium hoo on one side and a bird witha swimming hoo on the other. Notice I said four "bait" positions. Thats cause on our inside riggers they get the 80s with large concave and large slant lures. These dont get wrecked as fast so I bring maybe six replacements and plenty of replacement skirts. To facilitate rigging of our stuff we pre cut a load of leaders. Some with the hook end crimped on and others with the loop end. In addition to the goodies mentioned above we tote long a bag of wahoo plugs and another of bullet head lures for them. Some days they can get thick and rather than sacrifice a bunch of good marlin gear we burn that up. We also pack a bag of assorted feathers if we happen to find yellowfin crossing the pocket late in the day.

Our offshore box has 200 each sleeve in 80/100, 200, 300, 400lb sizes. 12 snap swivels in each 150, 225, 300 class. 24 each 8/0, 9/0, 10/0, 12/0 hook in J style. 12 each in circle. 24 each 1/4, 1/2 and 1oz egg leads. 6 ea 2, 3, 4, 6oz egg leads. 1/2pound each #7,10,12,15 wire. 200yds 80, 150, 200 mono leader. 100yds 300, 400 mono leader. Crimpers. 8 tubes copper wire...rigging needles, waxed nylon, floss.

More comming tomorrow...

tell us about da ........bitches..........hooch..............smoke.............and da rum...no stinkin safety sheet

[Deep C]

Thats in the 202 course...

Now look... I'm going to the trouble of writing a how to. Some people at this time of year might be thinking about their own first trip and might find something of use here. Its not mix it up here so lets try to show a little maturity please...

[Deep C]

Ok now to the "fun" stuff... This being the stuff that if it aint cold its gonna stink real bad...

Heading over long term for me sets up one big obstacle.... Bait... There simply is no way to carry all we could use so I ve to "ration" it. Bites in the pocket can come at a rediculous pace and could easily burn five dozen baits a day. We "ration" to 30. A thirty fishing day run that means we're toting 900 delicious ballyhoos to feed the pocket pests. To tote that much I have learned to squish it in 8 cubic feet of freezer space. That for me means a trip to Brands Mart to buy a 5 cu ft one. We have 3 ft built in.

Buying bait by the case is one way to do it. If we go that way the daily lot is two six pack selects and a dozen large mediums with a second pack of mediums split over two days. The draw back to store bough case bait is the packaging is bulky and you'll be hard pressed to carry that much in 8 feet. You really need ten if you go that route.

Another option is to get fresh hoos. We try to get em right off the boat. I prefer if they never see freshwater ice as that starts the softening process. We layer em in a jumbo cooler sprinkling salt on em as we go. Sprinkling with salt really toughens em up as we don't want any washing out while we are there. We then take ice pack and put them in to keep em cold. After about 12 hours you'ld be surprised how much juice has been drawn out by the ice... All weight and volume. We bust their backs and bag them in 20 medium and 10 selects adding another sprinkle of salt before popping in the freezer.

Joining those hoos in the freeze we brig a few bags of shrip and squid. We cut the squid into strips before we go again to cut down on wasted space for guts... Now I suppose you're wondering... Heres this guy going marlin fishing and he's not toting macks or mullet? Well if I was going to Bimini, Walkers, Abacos or Harbour Island. I would tote em but in the pocket even the blues respond well to the spread I described. Also, the pocket is full of pests. I am not in the mood to feed the dolphin, cudas, and hoos ten dollar mackerel.

You'll also note that I don't pack teasers. The fish are thick enough that you don't really need em. The toothy ones will tear up even bowling pins. You don't want to miss a shot at a "out of nowhere one shot" blue either. Then you have some really cranky makos in there and they will play tug of war until that 400 mono breaks. that will bend a rigger if you run off there or send that heavy line whipping back in the pit if you run off cleats

[Deep C]

All that needs cold is not necessarily bait... You need to feed...

We bring along a George Forman grill and a two burner hot plate to do the cooking. Used to bring a gas grill but thats dangerous and charcoal is messy.We plan our eating in cycles. On Day one its grilled fish. Day two gets a steak. Day three its fried fish. Day four is restaurant night. So you need to stuff steaks, one per man per steak night, in your freezer. I bag em single in heavy leak proof bag to fill the gaps between the bait bags easier.

Lunch often is pbj but we allow 2pounds of ham, a pound of turkey, and a big pack of cheese for a week. Again stuff between the bags of bait. This stuff stays good in just a cooler after thawing. (I have a fridge on the 43 that makes that easier). Also in that cooler you want to keep your mayo, mustard, tartar sauce. Though more expensive we get small containers of mayo and tartar sauce. This so it doesn't get the chance to go bad. We chuck it at the end of a "cycle". A great fill in for lunch if we can get it is wahoo or tuna sushi. So don't forget the wasabi and soy. Another luch treat is conch salad on crackers. Dice it fine, add chopped pepper and onion, salt and pepper, a little bit of olive oil and douse it good with lime juice.

On our boat since we're running rations on real food we find it necessary to pack every empty inch of space with snacks. At Costco you can get 50 packs of dorito/ chips assts. We also get those lance crackers in the 36 pack asst. Little bags of chocolate chip cookies and a big bag of miniature candies covers it for the sweet teeth.

Bread over there is an issue... I have discovered that Publix white bread can rival the Egyptian mummy makers for preserving stuff. As unbelievable as it sounds we can get through the whole month on it. We allow two loaves for every three days with an average of six total people aboard.

For frying the fish we use a medium fry pan. We get oil in the quart size and pour a quarter inch deep. I mix up flour, salt , pepper, garlic salt, in a large batch then put about a cup each in gallon bags for how many fries we plan on doing. Fish goes in and shaken up. We eat our food with plastic forks, knives from the dollar store, and double strength paper plates... Don't forget: Spatula, serving spoon, can opener,

We also bring two cans of veggies (green beans, corn, veg all) for each meal. Not done yet. We bring boxed mac and cheese or potatoes for each meal too. Parmalat milk stays good at room temp to use for cooking.

Now we get to a heavy issue... Beverages. For as long as I've been doing this I see a pattern emerge. Some drink more than others but a constant number keeps comming up. 3 sodas per man per day. Water use fluctuates more. Again one of those things we cant carry enough of so we get a couple cases wash and recycle the bottles. To make it more interesting we also bring powdered gatorade in a couple flavors and powdered iced tea. We ourselves don't carry beer or booze aboard but a lot of our guests drink back at the dock. For them I try to up the soda count a bit on ones that are commonly used for mixers. (Coke, ginger ale, sprite)...

[teddyp]

Bring a wirerod, attach a stretch Mann lure and troll for Grouper. You'll catch all the Yellow fin grouper you want.