Had a fantastic week in the BVI! Lived on a sailboat for 7 days and fished every day. Tolled with rodholders attached to rails on the sailboat on either side with a Abu Garcia 5500C rigged with 25lb test mono and a Shimano Cabo 80 series spinning reel. The 5500C was an old reel that I rarely use anymore for bass fishing but had a larger line capacity than my other baitcasters. The Cabo I had spooled up with 60lb braid for about the first 100 yards with 30lb backing. I got that set up after fishing with EricM for big catfish years ago. I had also used that one for throwing Alabama rigs. My tackle was a little under matched for the fishing that I was doing but for the most part was adequate. I had purchased some Williamson Wahoo Catchers as trolling baits before I got Shane's post above and didn't have time to get any other baits before I left. I also fished with a baitcaster rigged with different baits fishing for other reef fish that were near the boat while we were moored for the night.
Our trip was really not a fishing trip but I could easily see how renting a sailboat like we had or a powered boat could be very, very, productive and fun for a group of guys. The trip was really a sailing trip and we didn't stay along the drops from the 100 to 500 foot range at all. The one time that we did sail along the drop we got a Dolphin(Mahi) and that was only about a half hour the whole trip. The key for the trolling baits and being in contact with the bluewater species was to stay near deep water and make the lures work which took a speed of about 6 knots. The baits that I had had heads on them that would dive and produce a bubble trail in the wake at between 6 and 9 knots. Much faster and they were in the air most of the time, slower, and they would stay subsurface. As you can imagine, relying on the wind and the captain to keep everything right for the fishing was not perfect but still a very fun challenge! I `hooked and landed a Dolphin, a Barracuda and a large Yellowtail Snapper while trolling. I also hooked something huge and had it on for a few seconds on the Cabo reel with heavy line but once I got to the 30lb test it broke me off. I could see that it was going to spool me very quickly and had to crank the drag down as the fish was running and it just popped the 30lb test like nothing. May have been a Marlin or something like that. Boat management was a bit of a challenge as the captain had never had someone fishing off the back of the boat but it really helped to have him let tension off the sails once I got a fish on as with only 25lb test and 200-300 yards maximum on the reels if the boat kept moving even a smallish fish would spool me pretty fast. Part of the fun was figuring out all of the ins and outs that would make it possible to hook and catch big fish within the limitations of what I had to work with. What would have been more optimal would have been to have a 4 to 6 rod set up with two of the lines on outriggers, stiffer rods and high capacity reels with 30 to 80lb line. I think that most of the fish that I would hook would be catchable with 30lb test and enough line, 3 to 500 yards.
The inshore fishing was a lot of fun but limited while mooring. I caught lots of fish on the Foley spoons that I rigged Carolina style that I got from Spurhunter. Everything seemed to be happy to go after them. I caught blue runners from alongside the boat and learned a lesson really fast. I knew a blue runner was a great bait and had thought that I would be able to get a Grouper to bite. I rigged it up on a drop shot rig with 17lb test flouro and a big hook and flipped it out the back of the boat on the first day we were there, moored and in an instant a Barracuda in the 6 foot range flew out from under the boat and grabbed the bait. I could not believe it and was not expecting that! I had him on for a few shakes of his head before he cut me off as I had not used a wire leader, rats! That thing shot away from the boat jumping for about 300 yards! Wow, to have that fish on for a while would have been a blast. After that, always used wire leader with the live baits near the boat.
I will post some pics as my wife took pics as I was bucking the waves and bringing in the fish.
Another thing that I did which was suggested in some of the forums that I read was I tied my rods/reels to the boat with para cord whenever I was trolling. I figure if a wave hit me wrong while I was getting the rod out of the rod holder that I might loose a rod and reel with a big fish on the other end. Luckily, never used the para cord, was there just as a guarantee.
