Last week Over Under and some guests fished our way down from Treasure Cay to Cat Island, the spring location for the 54 ’ Over Under.
We left Treasure Cay last Friday around 3am. Our goal was to get ahead of a building high pressure system that was coming into the area. We had lines in the water around 8am at Hole in the Wall, the southernmost tip of the Abacos. Quickly we boxed 3 dolphin, one came off a rigger bite while we were fighting the first two. Other than that the fishing in the area where we set the lines was slow so we moved out on to the Tip. Birds were everywhere with tunas up top. Even though they had lock jaw we kept on working the area trying to stay away from the cudas and sharks to grab a nice yellow fin. We had one spectacular hit as a 70# yellow fin aired out on the bait but just never came tight. Everyone on the boat saw it so it raised the excitement level. We were able to box some smaller yellow fins but finally we had a sizeable one come tight on the bridge rod. We left Hole in the Wall around 2pm heading towards Harbor Island where we laid up in the marina for the night.
On Saturday the fishing off the front side of Eleuthra was slow. It was expected as we had the same weather pattern for a week of light and variable and the fish were lazy. We wound up working some birds that were messing with smaller black fins. We had a large barracuda that came up on the teaser and faded off to the bridge bait. There was excitement that we could have a bill on but it was a 50# cuda. We took advantage of the nice weather and fished most of the day, pulling up around 2:30 to choose our anchorage for the night over off the back side of Eleuthra by the bridge.
We found a nice cove with some good bottom tucked in close to the beach because the wind was going to come up that night. We made a nice dinner consisting of fresh Dolphin and then did some bottom fishing before bed. The yellow tail fishing was not exactly red hot but I think the guys managed to box over a dozen nice ones.
On Sunday we got off to an early start and had our lines in at the bridge around 7:30. We managed a dolphin off the bridge and decided it did not look right so we ventured to a hump off Little San Sal. That Hump was holding some Tuna in there. We quickly hooked one up only to get sharked quickly. Our best catch on the hump was a 25 pound head. Captain Joe says it was probably an 80# tuna whole. We managed to grab a smaller yellow fin about 10 pounds but seems like we lost them at the tide change because all the activity on the water stopped. We decided to pick them up and run to alligator point on the back side of Cat to fish there so that we were in a bit of a lee from the weather we had coming down on us. The lee we were hoping to get was not there so our plans of anchoring out were extinguished. We fished alligator and then went off to hawks nest point and deep dropped. The guys were quick studies and were loading up every drop. The weather was against us as we were drifting faster than we would have preferred but the guys managed to put a nice catch together in the adverse conditions. Around 5:30 we were home … Hawks Nest on Cat Island.
On Monday we head out the cut, take a left and dropped our riggers. We started fishing off Devils Point. Not sure if the whole spread was out yet but we were quickly wolf-packed by Dolphin. I think we stopped with 8 in the box and even let a few go. The biggest one came in at 40.2 pounds. We had a nice run over around Columbus Point but that is all it was … a nice run as the cedar plug chain came up only to be found bit off. Our friend had a nice tuna #60 in the same spot where we had our run. We got wolf-packed again in the afternoon and it was a good bunch of fun. The customers were throwing their hats in to practice feeding the dolphins. They were doing a great job but unfortunately the sharks were around. Needless to say we did lose a couple of Ballyhoo rigs but it is what it is. A couple of beers with dinner and the chaos from earlier in the day made for some great laughs.
Tuesday was just a half day off of Cat Island as the guys had to catch a flight back to the “ real world ” . We were quickly wolf-packed again by the dolphin on Devils point. I think we grabbed 2 or 3 dolphin out of the mix but the rest of the day we picked away at them … all single bites. The last fish of the trip was a stud bull who came behind a blue marlin plug like a fighter jet and then faded off to the bridge rod that we reeled in front of him. That dolphin scaled in at 40.6! It ’ s amazing what these dolphin eat as this guy spit out a 2 pound ramora.
It ’ s nice to be back in Cat. We had a great group to fish down with and we ’ re looking forward to giving you guys a first had Blue Marlin report. There has been a handful around yesterday as our friends out here had one eaten by a shark. Back at it Monday.
Tight Lines,
Captains Thomas & Joe |
