Sailboat fishing is a primary occupation when sailing. Sailboat fishing and how to catch fish from sailing yachts and sailboats is always a fun subject. Saltwater fish go with salt water life afloat. Amongst the emerging order from the previous chaos when moving on board were assorted little tins, boxes and bags of fishing tackle. Some long forgotten, some donated, some passed on from my aging parents. “You cant have too much of this stuff, you’ll always end up using it” the old man used to remind me. Lead sinkers, rusted hooks, rolls of nylon line, I even had a robustly engineered reel to bolt to the stern rail. This glorious piece of engineering manufactured on a small coaster he worked on, was cleaned up, the varnished timber reel sides restored, and placed into active service.
Well, supplementing my diet with fish is a very high priority, and I was side-tracked temporarily into looking at this in greater detail. With the ravages of long line fishermen, and large trawlers, the fish were going to be even harder to catch. I visited a newly found tackle shop within a well known department store. Lucky me, after I explained I wanted to catch fish off the yacht, the better than helpful fellow proclaimed that he sailed a Hans Christian 42’ and he just had the right solutions. I said in one Credit Card damning statement, just give me a fishing kit that works. My reasoning is better to spend several hundred dollars on this, as you will save literally thousands later. See how much fish you get for $50 in a fish market, not a lot of meals really.
The first subject was about lures, so many views an opinions. He told me that the quite cheap small squid types were just terrific and always gave him good results. So, in detail he rigged them up using 300lb nylon trace, and a quick lesson in swaging, also in rigging up swivels. The end result was fish ready tackle, and a little more knowledge. Get those fish in quick he said, round up the boat, haul and gaff them, sometimes something bigger is following your catch, next thing whack! You had a marlin or whatever for 500 milliseconds, makes a great tale to tell, but you just lost your tackle, more pennies out of the cruising kitty.
Well prior to my visit I had already sent in an order to Murray Bros in Palm Beach, Florida, having given them a plug in my book The Great Cruising Cookbook, I gave them a try. Besides the interminable wait as they sent my order by sea mail (thank goodness for internet based and courier order deliveries), or they made the lures swim themselves, I worked out what I was to do next. The assortment were for catching everything from record size marlin down to more edible varieties. One lure I was keen to try was the flying fish ones. I read a very good article on this, that many ocean going pelagic fish feed primarily on flying fish. Now for many years at sea in the tropics I have sat mesmerized as these fish take off, and skim just above the waters surface for hundreds of yards. It made good sense and I have to say they were very effective The rig arrangement was to have a dummy lure, followed by a trace with another real lure, the idea being to bring in the interested fish and then offer him a side dish. Made sense to cut out the middleman and just run with a flying fish. Another addition to the kit was from a company who made “Make-a-‘Lure” kits. It came with everything required to cast and mold your own. Highly recommended for cost saving cruising yachts.
Now my friend Spencer says that fishing is a problem, he quite understandably dislikes killing anything, and I said Spence, whack them clean between the eyes, bleed them, think taste, think flavor, and get those fillets straight off and into the refrigerator or freezer. If you’ve got a good mackerel that’s all you need to eat for 2-3 days. A good filleting knife is essential, I didn’t have one, so I added a knife to the shopping list.
The line, well forget any of that nylon stuff here he said. Use Venetian Blind (VB) Cord. The VB cord is thicker, if you break it, well the fish is bigger than you’ll ever get in, and what’s more, it’s easier on the hands. Makes sense to me, so I added a roll to my shopping list. Next he said, you need some of those rubber rings used in plumbing and toilet seals. The idea was he said to fasten your line to that, then hook or tie the ring to suitable stern anchorage. When the fish strikes, it cushions the shock load. Add rubber rings to the shopping list
What about gear for estuary fishing. So, I put together a box of chemically sharpened hooks, lead sinkers, cheap lines on plastic reels, some of that new, invisible line for traces, and an assortment of lures, such as prawns and shrimps, squids etc, at least to see how effective they are. For old times sake, I also added my little fiberglass rod and reel to the kit, just for catching bait fish and shoreline fishing. Sailboat fishing is fun and rewarding.