Fishing in Bimini

This year we took the kids light tackle that we use for bream fishing in the pond and one rod with 15 pound line. We caught and released several sergeant major fish on the light tackle using pieces of plastic bait on small hooks. The Sargent Majors would swarm the bait as soon as it was in the water. The kids had a great time. Some of the Sargent Majors were big enough to filet at around 6" but the kids thought they were too pretty to eat. The next day I caught and kept 2 yellow tail snapper, two grunts, a dark colored parrot fish and a queen trigger. I caught them on the 15 pound line using a stainless hook with about a third of a squid for bait. I typically had a bite within a minute or two of casting. I threw back many grunt and yellow tail snapper that I felt were undersized. Those six fish were our dinner one night. We kept the filets separated by species and had a lot of fun tasting them to figure out what we liked best. We had a little bit left over that the kids requested for dinner the next night.

We spent less than four hours fishing this year. It was a great time and I would like to try for some bigger fish next year. Grouper are particularly interesting to us. I plan to add a couple of rod holders and bring large rods with 30 to 50 pound line next year.

So @andy07sx230ho, @upperdeck and @tim h, I know that you went well prepared for fishing and spent a lot of time on the water. What did you guys catch and what advice would you give me for next year?

Thanks

Here is a picture of our catch and it cooking.

@Bruce we caught very similar fish that you did, the only addition was a decent sized barracuda, a couple of Sea Chubs, and the head of a nice red snapper (darn shark got it before we were able to get it in the boat). The barracuda we threw back and we kept the chubs which were good eating. We used light tackle to catch everything with the exception of the barracuda which was on a medium size deep sea rig.

From talking with some of the real fishing boat in our marina, they also were only catching what we did and with the same tackle. This year it seemed like nothing was running to be succesful with deep sea rigs. Hopefully @upperdeck and @tim h can provide better information especially what they used in 2013 to catch the tuna and wahoo. I do know they were using cedar plugs to catch the tuna but not sure about the wahoo.

The large Boston Whaler group that left just before we arrived may have depleted the fishing just as they did the fuel and food on the island!

I was not at all unhappy with our catch but I would love to catch some family meal sized fish. I am not much of a fisherman, more of a gatherer. What I caught was easy and how could I be disappointed with catching dinner for four in an hour or two.

We were hoping there was something running that we could troll for, especially for an evening booze cruise troll. I had borrowed 2 of my brother-in-laws medium duty (30 to 50lbs) deep sea rigs, the rods were 5'6" long which were perfect to stow in the ski locker when not in use while underway. The reels had 30 lbs test line with a 8' of 100lbs monofilament leader. I had bought some 4" cedar plugs and got some mirrolures to use while trolling. We also had some rigged ballyhoo to troll with but since nothing was running we ended up cutting it up and used with our light tackle.

Something that I may try next year while we are having dinner on the boat or snorkeling is to hook small live fish and let them swim around on medium tackle such as you brought. This works well for catching larger fish in fresh water. Perhaps it would work in Bimini.

Bruce said:

Something that I may try next year while we are having dinner on the boat or snorkeling is to hook small live fish and let them swim around on medium tackle such as you brought. This works well for catching larger fish in fresh water. Perhaps it would work in Bimini.

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We tried that with some of the small yellow tails we caught but no luck landing anything. The bait fish would get eaten over time but whatever was doing the eating was not getting hooked, either our hook was to big or the fish was to smart.

I went with medium tackle, 25lb test and 5'6 roller rods. I pulled 4" and 6" Cedar plugs and various skirted lures as well. I also tried out a Bird Chain. Unfortunately we didn't fish as much as I would have liked. And when we did we didn't do as well as last year. A handful of Barracuda and a very small tuna...

@tim h and @andy07sx230ho thanks for the responses. I wish you guys had had better luck!

My crew wanted to do some fishing. I didn't have anything that I wanted to sacrifice to salt water so I went to Wally World and bought some $20 rod/reel combos with 15 lb line on them. They worked great and didn;t spend a bundle...

We used squid. Dropped the line at the 100 ft mark to the bottom and killed 'em. At our first line drop we had 3 fish in 3 seconds, it was a riot... We hooked up probably 12-16 triggers with only a small box of squid. Had a blast and it was easy. If we make the trip again (which I want to) will do the same but would like to go after some other fish too.

waterboy said:

My crew wanted to do some fishing. I didn't have anything that I wanted to sacrifice to salt water so I went to Wally World and bought some $20 rod/reel combos with 15 lb line on them. They worked great and didn;t spend a bundle...

We used squid. Dropped the line at the 100 ft mark to the bottom and killed 'em. At our first line drop we had 3 fish in 3 seconds, it was a riot... We hooked up probably 12-16 triggers with only a small box of squid. Had a blast and it was easy. If we make the trip again (which I want to) will do the same but would like to go after some other fish too.

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Did you eat them?

No we didn't come prepared for cooking fish. maybe next time. We practiced catch and release. Who knows, we might have caught the same damn fish 12 times...

waterboy said:

No we didn't come prepared for cooking fish. maybe next time. We practiced catch and release. Who knows, we might have caught the same damn fish 12 times...

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The queen trigger had extremely tough skin. I ended up using a serrated steak knife that was in the condo to saw through the skin so I could get to the meat with my filet knife.

We liked the taste of the queen trigger, which is on the left in the grill picture, but preferred the yellow tail snapper.

We did ok this year, trolling cedar plugs and some skirts. We had rigged ballyhoo this year with some rigged squid also. I don't think I'd invest as much in the rigged ballyhoo or squid as we did this year. I don't remember what we used on last years' wahoo. It had to be the cedar plugs or the skirts since we had nothing rigged.

So it was suggested that I get something witha 15 lb test on it and go for yellowfin. All my current poles go up to a 12 lb test. Great for our small lake perch and bluegill, but probably not what I want out in bimini. I will bring two of them I think, but if I wanted to buy one decent pole to catch these things, what an I looking at. Local shop guy here listened to my story but admitted to not knowing a whole lot about saltwater fishing. He suggested a $40 spinner catfish setup he had so I wouldn't spend too much, but it comes with a 15lb line and a sturdy pole.
links would be great!

@Speedling that is exactly what I did. I spent $20 for some rigs at WalMart. Worked great, I caught fish and had a good time. Flushed out the salt when I got home and will use them again this year.

Yeah I took the cheap route but it worked just fine for me.

oh and meant to add... that @upperdeck dude is a serious fisherman too look at that fish

Speedling said:

So it was suggested that I get something witha 15 lb test on it and go for yellowfin. All my current poles go up to a 12 lb test. Great for our small lake perch and bluegill, but probably not what I want out in bimini. I will bring two of them I think, but if I wanted to buy one decent pole to catch these things, what an I looking at. Local shop guy here listened to my story but admitted to not knowing a whole lot about saltwater fishing. He suggested a $40 spinner catfish setup he had so I wouldn't spend too much, but it comes with a 15lb line and a sturdy pole.
links would be great!

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If you look at the picture @Bruce posted above (fish in the sink) the silver fish with the a small yellow strip, 4 of them, those are yellow tail snapper. Any of the reef fish which is what is in the sink should be fine on your 12lb setup.

Yes, 12 pound line is fine for reef fish. They are easy to catch and fun to eat. The big fish are too much work for me.

Awesome! We just wanted to make one meal of them.
Ice I assume is sold somewhere near?
bait?
is there a cleaning station?