The offshore fishing set up that worked well for me is: +- 200' of 100 lb. or 200 lb. test fishing line stored on a large enough spool (old lead wire spool work great) to be easily handled.
+- 3' of stronger leader, often a SS braid A 3 prong hook (AKA big a** #2 or #3 treble hook) A 12" length of double braid sailing line, preferably white with red and blue color woven in. +- 3' of large diameter bungee cord Fabricate a lure from the double braid line by passing the leader and hook through the center of the double braid, whip the top of the double braid tight to the leader with the hook approx. in the middle of the length of braid. Fray the double braid up to the hook or a little past. Be sure the braid is large enough in diameter to camouflage the hook as much as possible. The goal is to make the frayed double braid look and act like a flying fish or squid. Attach the leader to the fishing line. Drop the lure/hook into the water off the stern with a fair lead to a winch. Run out 50' to 100' of line, wrap a few turns around the winch and cleat off. Tie the bungee cord to the fishing line and secure the bungee cord to a cleat. Ease the fishing line out enough that the load is on the bungee with a little slack in the fishing line. Cleat off the fishing line but keep enough turns on the winch to allow easy handling under load. Take a nap. Check the bungee cord form time to time. With a fish strikes or the hook tangles in some debris the bungee cord will stretch out to let you know to check the line. Use the winch to help with bringing the line in by hand. If you catch a fighter (either tuna of mahi) keep sailing for a while. Dragging the fish will often take the fight out of them enough to bring them in by hand. The key for us seemed to be moving fast (5 to 7 knots) past drifting debris that is large enough to have a shadow. A piece of plywood was worth turning around and making a few passes. Mahi mahi seemed to hang out under floating debris and would strike at something going by fast enough to be a flying fish or squid. Tuna seemed to be more random in location but likely following a school of flying fish. We would often see tuna attacking a school of flying fish or other small bait fish. We would alter course to close with the schools dragging our lines. This process was not as reliable as catching mahi from under debris. I'm not a chef but we did carry the seaweed, wasabi, and other makings for sushi rolls, we would cut sashimi right off the fish while cutting them up into meal sized chunks for freezing. One of my favorite preparations was to cut off a steak sized piece and quickly fry each side in soy sauce and ginger with a side of rice. I do recommend you consult one of the many excellent fishing guides for more professional fishing hints, but on multiple Hawaii crossings, using the techniques like I described I have been able to catch more than enough mahi and tuna to stave off mutiny when the provisions became boring. Martin DeYoung Calypso 1971 C&C 43 Seattle -----Original Message----- From: CnC-List [mailto:cnc-list-boun...@cnc-list.com] On Behalf Of Lee Youngblood via CnC-List Sent: Thursday, June 18, 2015 11:18 AM To: cnc-list@cnc-list.com Cc: Lee Youngblood Subject: Re: Stus-List Pacific Sea stories / Offshore fishing tips? OK Martin, I'll bite. . . Can you share a few offshore fishing tips? I know the cheap booze spray bottle trick, but you probably invented it with a sneeze to the gills. . . Thanks, Lee On Jun 18, 2015, at 10:25 AM, Martin DeYoung via CnC-List <cnc-list@cnc-list.com> wrote: > If the story teller was "Texas John" then it was the '77 delivery back from > Hawaii following our 1st Transpac as a crew on the C&C 39 "Midnight Special". > > That delivery was one of my favorite of my 4 east bound Hawaii deliveries. > Great weather and crew, reading in the cockpit by moon light, 2 weeks on one > tack, getting ready for night watch by putting on a T-shirt, and teaching the > crew the words to Jimmy Buffett's "Cheeseburger in Paradise". We hit the > dock at Shilshole around dawn on a weekday. By 9AM we were loaded into my > 1969 Ford Econoline van headed to one of the crew's lakeside houses for a > party. It was a great year to be young, single, and hooked on offshore > sailing. > > The one thing that would have improved it would be to know what I now know > about offshore fishing under sail. Back in 77 no one on the crew knew how to > catch tuna and mahi mahi. With what I learned on later Hawaii deliveries we > could have been eating like kings most of the trip back to Seattle. > > Martin DeYoung > Calypso > 1971 C&C 43 > Seattle _______________________________________________ Email address: CnC-List@cnc-list.com To change your list preferences, including unsubscribing -- go to the bottom of page at: http://cnc-list.com/mailman/listinfo/cnc-list_cnc-list.com
