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We are going down for our 6th charter during the first week of December. We have a 48 sail cat and would love to fish while we sail. I have not had luck in the past so I would love some advice! What is the best bait? Optimum speed? Any good advice would be wonderful!!

Thanks

If you are on a Moorings 4800 you will not be able to fish. They are only licensing their crewed boats and power cats.
G

Bummer!!! Sure glad I asked! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/duh.gif" alt="" />

Bummer on the fishing license.

For our October/November sail we had a lot of large barracuda on rigged ballyhoo and some bonito tuna action on Williamson surface lures. You can buy the Williamson as a set of six lures.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001NXC84O/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The Williamson Dorado Catcher Lures were catching the Bonito in yellow/green (Bleeding Dorado) and red/black.

https://www.amazon.com/Williamson-Dorado...lliamson+dorado

We did all of our fishing in the USVI and SVI. Lots of action between Culebra and St. Thomas as well as good action on the north side of St. Thomas. We did not try for any of the drops. The BVIs are a hassle to fish and you need to get offshore to catch much.

We typically run some combination of trolling rods and handlines with shock absorbers. Two rods and a handline are doable while towing a dinghy. The handlines we use are 100' WaayCool.

http://waaycool.com/index.php?option=com...&Itemid=135

Cheers, RickG

You might mention to the Moorings that you will look at other options in the future if the don't license the sailboats.

I will do that!

On our Saba 50 catamaran, we usually fish a spread of 5 handlines (75'-100') with a 6th lure on a boat rod 200'-300' back.

Lures we're using include:
- Zuker Tuna feather (ZF blue/white & ZG yellow/green)
- Catchy spinner jet (mackeral/blue/silver, 4.5 oz)
- Iland Lures Sea Star (SS700F Blue/Pink)
- Tormentor Mullet Head (Rainbow barracuda)
- Yo-Zuri Bonito on steel leader (purple/black, 8-1/3", 10-7/8 oz)
- Mold Craft Junior Wide Range (blue/white/pink, 4")
- 3' Spreader Bar with 9 tuna feathers (mexican flag & yellow/green)

I've not tried rigged ballyhoo yet.

I've seen our catches go up since we started using the spreader bar. I think it simply provides more visuals for the fish.

In the near-shore waters you'll most likely catch barracuda, bonito, and occasional cero mackeral. In 20+ years of dragging lines through the BVI near-shore waters, I once had a double hookup of mahi-mahi on the way to Anegada. That's been the highlight.

Once you get to the south or north drop, your odds to catch something edible goes up dramatically (but no guarantees).

Two weeks ago we sailed from St Thomas to BVI, to Anguilla, back to BVI, to St John, to Culebra, back to St John, to St Thomas. 425 nm in all. Caught & released 6 barracuda and 6 bonita in the near shore waters. Caught & released 1 yellowfin tuna (only 1 pound) offshore from Anguilla. The highlight was a 4 foot long (~50 lb) sailfish that we caught in 6000' deep water offshore from Anguilla on the boat rod (with Zuker tuna feather - blue/white). Fish did several tail walks near the boat. We were able to cleanly release it. The most productive lure was the Zuker blue/white tuna feather - 95% of the catch.

Remember to bring your lines in before you get in the mooring field (and put engines in reverse). A long-time ago personal lesson-learned <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/duh.gif" alt="" />

I have had some luck with the Stubby-bubblers, having caught numerous bonita, several 'cuda, and hooked up to a wahoo just north of Peter Island (while motoring at ~7kts).
Make sure to get the cable-rig version... I lost the wahoo b/c it chewed through the mono-rig.
The pink/white/pink mylar and blue/pink/silver mylar have worked well.