Suggestions for fishing Port Lucaya area???

[fishensticker]

Heading to Port Lucaya to do some fishing with a buddy and our wives in about 2 weeks (weekend of April 13th) and we're hoping the tuna will be coming through by that time.

Any suggestions of a general area to fish over there would be greatly appreciated--neither of us have been there before.

Also, do you think bringing live bait is worth the effort?

[cogzwell]

fishnsticker:

We just came back from west end. Fishing was very good. Blackfins boiling water in 1200 ft. Yellowfins are starting to show uo around the point, should not be long ubtil they travel south. Hang at the dock and listen....... with a keen ear and hearty attitude the boys will point you to the spots.


Good luck and post after your trip!

[Certifiable]

Get a chart of the Grand Bahamas. A place marked "tuna canyon" 25-30 miles south of Lucaya is a good place to start. I have hit the YFT as close as 10 miles out of Bell Channel on the heading for the canyon. Look for birds and debris on the way, fish what you find.
Evening bite is always the best, head out at 3:00 and start searching. Best YFT bite is from 5:00 on, when the sun is lower in the sky.
Start out at Billy Joes on the beach at Our Lucaya, he has the best conch salad around. Anchor your boat at the beach in front of his shack and get your buzz on for lunch, then roll out for the evening bite.

[Warrior]

I like the morning bite... mainly because if I go to Billy's I'm not going to be in any shape to fish. Seriously, I do like the early bite. Bring your radar!

Bring your bait, it doesn't have to be alive. Freeline sardines or greenies in front of the bird packs.
Run and Gun!

[billspilingup]

Fish cedar plugs or feathers way back with a long light flourocarbon leader and no snapswivels and don't go through the birds. Get ahead of them and let the fish swim into your baits.

Don't forget to keep a marlin lure short when tuna fishing. We're not the only creatures that think tuna are tasty.

[chummer]

Just got back from there. The seas were snotty all last week, with 4' chop and a stiff 20 knot wind out of the east. Made it damn hard to get around. We managed to find some small blackfin about 14nm due south of Lucaya. We picked up about a dozen one day, but they were spooky. I think getting ahead of the pack, shutting down and chunking might work on those fellows, too.

We got our fish (and the usual mix of skips) with darker colored braid speedsters and 6" Todd's lures. The bait was these 3-4" flyers, so we kept our baits small - no hits on larger lures.

On one day, we thought we hooked up a monster tuna. It was a triple hookup and we boated a skip and blackfin, but this reel was screaming off some line. It was an instant hookup and scream, so we figured it hit the lure and didn't eat a smaller fish. The angler suited up and engaged in a 2 hour long fight, switching off to another guy halfway through after getting whooped.



20 lbs of drag and planing this fish to the surface, only to have it peel off another 200 yards of line. I finally got him to the surface and I started leadering the fish (luckily I had a 25' wind-on leader working for me) and as the fish got under the boat, we saw it. It was a damn shark. We knew it was longer than my boat was wide and the best I could tell, it was a bull or lemon shark. The girth was more than I could put my arms around. I was hoping to somehow get my braid speedster back. Anyway, it started doing the death roll and eventually cut the leader.

Good luck out there.
Chummer

[fishensticker]

Thanks for your responses. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the YFT will be coming through by then! Last time I was in Harbour there were YFT, but the sharks were well trained...and selective--they allowed us to reel in the Blackfins, but weren't as generous when we hooked a YFT. 99 % of the YFT we hooked got chomped before we got them to the boat.

Any good shark repelling tricks if we get a hooked-up?

[Warrior]

Try 80 wides! We've lost too many fish count even with our 80s. There is no helping with sharks.

[riskreward]

Just got back fri. Had 3 days of awsesome fishing. YFT, dolphin and Wahoo. 25 miles south to SE. was pitching ballyhoos to 40-60 lbers at the boat. Caught 15, probably lost as many. will post some pics when I get them.