TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Sargassum and fishing?

Just got back and had a real problem with the sargassum and trolling.
Winds out of SE all week brought in big and small patches everywhere.
Five or ten minutes is all it would take to clog up the lure with grass and start dragging the line out.
Pretty much gave up on fishing this year.
Any suggestions from you pro fishermen(woman) out there on how to deal with this.
Looks like it is not going away any time soon.

Honestly there is not much you can do if trolling. Sometimes the south drop has less weed than the north.

Hey George,

We cruised around the back side ( south side) of Peter and Norman.
Not out to the drop but along the coast.

No getting away from the stuff.

We just got done with a week trip in Antigua/Barbuda. Pretty mediocre fishing results because of the sargassum. A couple things we did differently:

- Put out a smaller spread and kept the lines closer to make clearing weed easier
- Skipped diving lures because of the drag with the weed
- Tried a weedless ballyhoo rig which actually worked pretty well. However, we were sailing 8-9 knots at the time and the ballyhoos didn't last too long at that speed

With heavy sargassum, avoid chugger or flat head lures. I stick with torpedo head lures such as the Iland bullet head or Zuker tuna feather/grass skirt which tend to stay cleaner longer.

Just finished bringing my boat from STT to Annapolis. There was a good bit of sargassum all the way until we exited the Gulf Stream. We dragged a spread of 2 rods set at 100yds and 5-6 handlines at 75-150 ft. Caught a 10lb mahi on day 1, a 5' blue marlin on day 2 that we released, then a 12lb mahi on day 3. After that we quit fishing as the freezer was full. All 3 fish were caught on the same rod trolling a Zuker Blue/White tuna feather at 100 yds from the boat. We got no bites on the other rod with a Zuker yellow/green tuna feather or the closer in handlines with a range of lure types and colors. Over the years, the Zuker blue/white tuna feather has consistently been my top performer in VI waters.

I've looked for the Zuker tuna feathers based on your recommendation, but haven't been able to find any in stock. Where do you pick them up?

The most productive lure on my recent trips has been the Yozuri Bonita in flying fish. Blue/white Iland Illander also does well.

I get them unrigged from CharkBait.com. I see they have the Zuker ZG7 grass skirt in stock for $8.99, but not the feather skirt. I've not tried the larger size Zuker ZTW tuna lure.

What size Yo-Zuri Bonita are you using (6-3/4" vs 8-1/4")? I fished one for a few years (with no success) until the swivels rusted and the hooks fell off!

Tackle Direct has them. I like the yellow & green feathers best. I troll them short in the BVI, kingfish like them.

Thanks I'll check out charkbait. Most places carry them but don't seem to have in stock. For the Yo-Zuris, we drag the 6 3/4. We also have the Yo-Zuri in purple and red. The flying fish gets far more hookups.

Well as chance would have it, I was near my local tackle store today...no Zukers, but a few similar feather lures. The Boone looks to be the closest replica. Also picked up the 8-1/4 Yo Zuri. I'll let you know how that goes on our next trip in October!