Bahamas Crossing - All in a Days Work....
I took advantage of some great weather (and a great forecast) and decided to take our 19' Key West Skiff over to join Low Profile in the Bahamas. I left Key Largo at 4am, and trailered the boat up to Palm Beach, where I dumped it in the water, loaded all our supplies for the winter, and parked the car. I got going about 8:00am, and ran out Lake Worth Inlet to find a bit more chop than I had hoped. Oh well, I decided to go a bit further and sure enough, as I got into the current the chop laid down with the winds out of the south. I had 60 miles to go to West End, where I was going to clear customs, then another 100 around the north side of Grand Bahamas and the Abacos to Guana Cay. The first half of the stream crossing, was pretty decent, a bit wet, but ok. The second half the wind started to grow and white caps appeared (not a good thing when you're in a 19' open boat). The last 10 miles was brutal, and by the time I pulled into West End to clear, I must have looked like a drown rat. I cleared, fueled and was back on my way about 1:00pm. I figured i was gonna be cutting it close on making it before dark, but I had little choice, and plunged on.
The second part of the trip was all fairly shallow water, ranging from 20 feet to as little as 2 feet. The first 50 miles of this part of the trip took me up near Mangrove Cay, then on toward Little Abaco Island. Once north of Little Abaco, the seas laid out very nicely and I was able to really pick up the speed. As I rounded the corner with Spanish Cay in sight, I was now running really nicely, but time was not on my side. It was about 5 o'clock and it became pretty obvious that I wouldn't make it before dark. With only a little hand held GPS, with no plotter, I wasn't too excited about navigating the remainder of the trip in the dark. For those who don't know, there are rocks and little Islands all over the place in these parts. I made it almost to Green Turtle Cay, before the sunlight faded into dark. I quickly studied the chart, made some mental notes, and plotted a course that would keep me clear of the hazards. With a little luck and determination, I pulled into Orchid Bay Marina, on Guana Cay about 6:30 and found Thomas and Joe and the LOW PROFILE. I was pretty well beat, and still soaking wet, and ready to call it a day. Mission accomplished! We now have a 19' Skiff in the Abacos, that will allow all of our guests to enjoy the great inside reefs, beaches, bars, and exploring that can be done with a smaller boat in the Abacos.
Tight Lines,
Capt. Trey
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Wahoo Fishing in Guana Cay
Guys and Gals, we just got here after our 480 mile crossing and... fishing is off the hook! We just arrived on Friday and after a good night of R & R and unloading, Thomas and I decided to wet our lines on Saturday.
Well, it didn't take long as our deep line started to sing! Just an hour into it we had our first Bahamas wahoo of the season, although not a large one it was a good eating one at about 18lbs. Shortly after we had another deep rod bite which seemed to be the identical fish, just a shade more at 22 lbs. We had about five bites in our short three hours of fishing, boating two wahoo and one tuna.
Here our deep rod consists of a bent butt 80lb class Penn rod and reel connected to a bimini to a snap swivel. After that the snap swivel is connected to a three foot strand of cable at 600lb with 54 oz. of lead. The way to connect the lead is snap swivel then one foot of space then a crimp (this is to prevent your weight from rising or lowering on the cable). Then you connect the 54 oz lead followed by another crimp with a 1/2 oz lead in front to prevent slippage. This is followed by 12 inches of the remaining cable then to a snap swivel. Ok, so after the snap swivel you will have 20 feet of 400lb shock leader before the next snap swivel. Then after that you will have your YoZuri plug with six feet of 600 lb cable attached to the snap swivel. Best YoZuri plugs are the large blue blacks or the mini black orange. However, on sunny days it seems red/black large seems to work.
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Well, we were back at it today with our first charter of the season just being a short half day. Strong winds were around us this morning as we approached 8 foot seas towards Hope Town where our better bite was the previous day. After trugging down to Hope Town, with just a dolphin to speak of, I decided to pound the edge in calmer seas off of Guana Cay . This proved to be the ticket as we quickly went 1-2 and 1-1 on 27 to 45lb wahoo. Once again the deep rod is the ticket here guys as all the wahoo in the past two days, six hours of fishing, have been on the deep rod. I expect the fishing to continue to get better with each passing cold front as the wahoo aggressively feed in colder waters. Today our water temps were in the 77.8 range down from 78.2 yesterday. Also we are still available for the rest of the wahoo championships as well as the Hawks Nest tournament. Call to book if you wanna win!
Captain Joe Trainor |
