Eleuthera, Bahamas

[Srbenda]

Technically, much of this fishing is "inshore" however, it is far offshore from the Big Bend, so I'm going with that.

The house where we typically stay is on a large flat, and you can see rays, barracuda, and the occasional bonefish come by. So I've been trying to land a bonefish, so far unsuccessfully. However, the view while trying is pretty fantastic. I've also been picking up some bait on a sabiki rig the same way.



About 1/2 mile offshore is a small island, and the water depths get to 30+ on the way over. It's a relatively easy trip to kayak, and it's nice to drift a bait behind the kayak as you float over. I'd rather not go much further than that in kayak, as the wind can pick up and make it a tough trip back. In past years, I've gotten lobsters and crabs from around the island, but nothing so far this year.



Today, I went to the Atlantic side for about an hour, and was fishing a reef from a spit of land, and managed to land a yellow jack fishing on a jerkbait. Despite what you may think, these fish are nothing like Jack Crevalle, and they are delicious to eat! This one will make at least two meals for the family. The flesh is white with a tight grain, I'll post more photos later.

[silverking]

Sweet. Keep trying on the bonefish.

Love the water there. I need to get back. Enjoy the Kaliks!

[doomtrpr_z71]

I hope I can swing a trip to the Bahamas for my anniversary this year, looks awesome

[dombern34]

awesome! we need to have a talk about your choice of rods tho

[luckywsp]

Looks like an amazing time Benda. Just thought I would throw in my 2 cents on the bonefish. When I was in St Croix I had a lot of success catching bonefish on a very small buck tail jig in pink. It was about 1 1/2 inches long. Wasn’t sure what you had or how you were fishing but that was what I caught the most on just blind casting the flats in about 5 feet.

Have fun and enjoy yourself

[Srbenda]

awesome! we need to have a talk about your choice of rods tho

Oh, I know.
These are garbage rods, but they're two piece so I can pack them easily, and I won't have an aneurysm if Delta smashes one of them.

Looks like an amazing time Benda. Just thought I would throw in my 2 cents on the bonefish. When I was in St Croix I had a lot of success catching bonefish on a very small buck tail jig in pink. It was about 1 1/2 inches long. Wasn’t sure what you had or how you were fishing but that was what I caught the most on just blind casting the flats in about 5 feet.

I actually bought some much smaller jigheads today, and I'll shorten some of my plastics to fit, but I think I was throwing stuff that was too big. Had a few smaller barracuda chase my baits, but none have hit...yet.

[Srbenda]

Here's some of the Yellow Jack I caught yesterday.

We prepared it very simply- seasoned, and cooked stove top with a little vegetable oil. You can see the tighter grain of the flesh, compared to say a grouper, but it was a nice sweet white meat. And then it became fish tacos! Eating on the out-islands requires a bit more creativeness in cuisine, as the ingredient options that we have are very limited.

Apparently yellow jack is also used heavily in Japan for sushi, you might see it listed on a menu as "hamachi".





Today has been a rough day for fishing. Strong thunderstorms all night, and then more have popped up this morning. It took the visibility on the flats down to 2-3' but I did squeeze in a few minutes of fishing before the thunder chased me back inside.

[silverking]

Realize there's not a BPS or Kevin's down the street, but the Hank Brown Hookup Lures bucktail jigs are great for bonefish. Go as light as possible, with pinks, tans and brown. Fluoro leader is a must if you're using braid, again as light as possible.

DOA 1/4-ounce shrimp in natural or pink are great, too. The pink ones are good for permit since they look like baby lobster. The 2.75 DOA shrimp weren't out the last time I fished the tropics, but they would cast well, sink quickly and be a good size for bones.

Lime green tube lures or shiny casting spoons like a Deadly Dick or Kastmaster with a trace of wire leader will fool cudas.

Have fun and hope those thunderheads stay away.

[doomtrpr_z71]

Just a heads up https://forecast.weather.gov/product.ph ... suedby=AT3

[Srbenda]

Just a heads up https://forecast.weather.gov/product.ph ... suedby=AT3

That storm created those lovely clouds in the photo above. It hung around most of the day until about 530pm, with rain, lightning and thunder, but once the lightning quit, I had about 2 hours of daylight to get in some fishing. I headed over to some deeper water on the Atlantic side, with some heavy reef and structure, and started throwing a spoon. I got dinner fairly quickly in the form of this mutton snapper, he wasn't a giant, but certainly a good size for dinner. He was followed by a small jack.



I then switched to a 3/4oz white bucktail, and started bouncing it. With the reef, I needed to be very careful where I cast, as I didn't want to donate any hardware to the reef. This smallish red hind grouper took the bait, but with dinner already done, we sent him back to get bigger. However, when I caught him, he actually had part of the white jerkbait in his mouth from the previous day of fishing! The big yellow jack came in with just the hook, and apparently this hungry guy had grabbed it- why it was still in his mouth, I have no idea.



We cheated a bit, and took the fish filets down to a restaurant, and they prepared dinner for us, which was fantastic.

[tailwaters]

Really liking your reports. Please keep them coming!

I've been down to Andros a couple times and caught a ton of those grouper you have pictured. We had always called them "Strawberry Grouper". Regarding the bonefish; I know it's a little late now but I ordered several hand tied jigs from Buggs http://www.buggs-fishing-lures.com/bonefish-jigs.html. They worked great on the windy days when it was too difficult to use the fly rod and picked up the spinning tackle instead. Hear is a link to his store if interested. https://buggsfishing.com/store/

BTW I also use these jigs a lot for reds in our area.

[Salty Gator]

Watch out for cigutera. Supposed to be in most reef fish down there. Google the symptoms

[Srbenda]

Watch out for cigutera. Supposed to be in most reef fish down there. Google the symptoms

Yes, it is a risk, however, it is more typically in the larger/older fish found on the reef. So far, everything I am catching has been (relatively ) small and I'm not have 2nd thoughts about eating them.

[Salty Gator]

Watch out for cigutera. Supposed to be in most reef fish down there. Google the symptoms

Yes, it is a risk, however, it is more typically in the larger/older fish found on the reef. So far, everything I am catching has been (relatively ) small and I'm not have 2nd thoughts about eating them.

I really just wanted you to google the symptoms ...you are absolutely killing it down there. Making us all very jealous. Enjoy the trip, glad it’s all coming together for y’all

[doomtrpr_z71]

Killing it, and making me jealous while I stare at flooded cotton fields. Are you renting a house off of VRBO? I have considered staying at the Hilton in Bimini with points but I want to do Eleuthera as well.