A good friend of ours named Loren, who you met in an earlier post, Great day with a mixed bag, asked if we would like to help him pick his new boat up from Suva. This pick-up would involve some fishing as well as getting the boat back to his dock. Who can pass that up?
We set the plan for an early morning departure. It is a 45 minute drive to the boat so we all pile into a taxi before dawn and head out.
There is a chill in the air but as the sun breaks the horizon our bone warm up.
By the time we reach the boat it has been prepped and is ready to go. Just a few last minute pointers for Loren from the builders and we are ready to go.
Loren's boat is a 24ft version of my boat. Very stable and comfortable to ride in if we were to run into any bad weather. That was not to be. It was mill pond flat and a real pleasure to be out on it.
If you have ever entered of left a large busy harbour with completely inadequate markings, then you will relate to theis image. Myself and Loren trying to find our way out of the harbour.
Once clear of the harbour we made a bee line to some reefs that looked really fishy on the charts. I insisted that Loren take a few casts while I get to drive his boat.
With the drift set and the water looking fishy Loren and Rosie proceeded to cast poppers towards the reef. It did not take long before we all saw the strike. Loren's popper was violently taken by a good size fish. After a good fight and a couple of guesses as to what the fish was, we finally see that it is a nice Spanish Mackerel (Walu).
This was not only the first fish on the boat, but it was also Loren's first Spanish Mackerel all on the maiden voyage.
We fished on for a while but nothing else was biting. The weather started to look a little iffy so we decided to head home. The ride was smooth and comfortable and Loren was happy.
Date: February 8th, 2012 Name: Lake Baccarac Hottest Baits: senkos, 1 oz spinnerbaits, topwater Rico poppers, Watermelon Lizards Hottest Colors: watermelon Date Fished: February, 2012
Comments: 02/08/2012 - A big moon and big bass..wow once again the bigger fish have showed around the full moon...full report coming in a couple more days. Lets see if the pattern holds...predicting great fishing the next couple days with lower big bass results next week......
02/03/2012 to 02/06/2012 improvement of overall numbers of bass being caught. Bigger largemouth found using spinnerbaits and wacky style senkos in watermelon / red patterns. The topwater bite has been good using Rico poppers.
This weekend I had the�privilege�of taking Emily aka The River Damsel out for two days of fly fishing. Our first day of fly fishing took us to an un-named river fly fishing for big brown trout. In typical Rebecca fashion, the batteries on my camera were dead and I didn’t have backup. So the big [...]
Our study involving largemouth bass provides the first direct experimental evidence that vulnerability to angling is a heritable trait and, as a result, that recreational hook-and-line fisheries can cause evolutionary change in fish populations. - via Selection for Vulnerability to Angling in Largemouth Bass A twenty year study on Largemouth Bass yields an eye-opening conundrum [...]
An 18th deer has been added to the�Muskoka Outdoors ?Most Wanted? list �photo contest. This Ohio buck was shot in South Vienna, Ohio. This photo is a submission from, Trent, and he shares the story behind this elusive buck: ?His 26 1/2 in inside spread made him hard to miss when he appeared during daylight [...]
2011 ended and 2012 began with some fantastic fishing action from both sailfish and blue marlin. The year ended with boats raising up to 7 blue Marlin a day, and the year began with boats raising up to 40 sails a day!
The McGee / Hughes group tried their luck fishing aboard the Rum Line the last few days of December and raised 25 sails, 6 blue marlin and keep the grill supplied with fresh dorado burgers everyday. The two couples released 13 sails and 2 of the blues. The first days blue was about 250lbs, and day two?s blue was over 400lbs?very nice!
The Palmieri brothers fly-fished the first few days of January and saw some awesome action as well. The duo raised 84 sailfish, more than half of which came blazing in to accept a fly, and we released 22. The blue marlin decided to tease us, with 4 of them showing up, but wouldn?t be caught. Chris Palmieri decided to jump in and swim this his last fish to put a cap on a great trip.
The Bite is ON!!! ? RED HOT fishing reports are pouring in from the Casa Vieja fleet. ?Everyone?s been averaging over 25 releases per day? says our head skipper Capt. Chris Sheeder aboard the Rum Line. The bite is on FIRE folks!!! Following the full moon ? the anglers on Casa Vieja fleet boats are blowing the doors off:
Cates party (14 & 15) ? Brian & Teresa with sons Phillip & Michael aboard the Release with Capt. Chico Alvarenga and special guests Norm Isaacs and film crew raised 85 sails, had 70 bites and releasing 35! World renowned skipper, angler and TV personality Capt. Norm Isaacs raised 63 sails on the 14th of January. ? That?s as good as it gets? said Capt. Isaacs.
Derner party (13-14-15) ? Justin, Brad, Steven, William and Nick aboard the Captain Hook raised 50 sails, had 43 bites and released 26! They had one blue bite, but no joy.
Daniels party (14 & 15) ? Matt & William aboard the Makaira raised 69, had 51 bites and released 29 and a 250lb blue marlin!
The Brownlee party (14-15-16) ? John Brownlee, editor and chief of Saltwater Sportsman Magazine, and his lovely bride Poppy raised 41 sails with Capt. Nicho Alvarenga aboard the Spindrift. Spindrift raised 72, had 58 bites and release 40! They also pursued roosters, snappers and bottom species.
Jarvis party (13 -17) ? Tom & Tina with the Pintozzi boys aboard the Intensity who are still fishing now, have so far raised 102, with 88 bites and 51 released, with two more days to go!
We went fishing with our friends Yuki, Jose and Maki. The weather was good, but the bite was not really hot.
Yuki had expressed a desire to fish among some bommies. For those who do not know what a bommie is. A bommie is a shallow piece of reef with some being close together and some far apart.
Below you can see small reef structures just below the surface, these are bommies. The splash is a popper doing what poppers do, POP!
When casting to GTs among bommies you have to change the style of fighting. You have in effect, given the fish and advantage. There are sharp edges everywhere, just waiting to cut your braided line. The fight, once hooked up to a GT, will be brutal at best. You have to keep the GT from getting you around a bommie and that will not be easy. Pound for pound they are one of the hardest fighting fish in the world.
If Yuki wants to fish the bommies, then why not? After all it is really addicting even if it is a bit costly in terms of lost gear.
Mr. Maki who has fished before but never for Giant Trevally was ready to go.
Rosie gave him a few instructions before showing him how to cast. On her first demo cast, she fires out a monster cast towards a bommie and as she pulls up the slack and gives the lure a pop, it gets smashed. She sets the hook before handing Mr. Maki the rod.
He puts up a good fight and soon enough we have a nice Job fish in the boat.
Hottest Colors: watermelon red, crankbaits, pearl and purple db-22
Date Fished: March, 2012
Comments: 03/21/2012 Bill Benson and Jack Moncik reported with 9 bass 10 pounds and over. The two best largemouth were 11-6 and 12-1. Six came on soft plastics ( 7" senkos & 8" Zoom lizards) two on deep running crankbaits and one on a spinnerbait fished deep. We had many 7-9 pound bass also. Our total count was somewhere around 150 fish. Bill Benson Denis Bootenhuff reported the first pic is 13.5 then 11. ,10.8, 9.9 but Terry I have been coming to your lake now for years on one October. I think in 2008 we had the best top water in my life but I say that this trip was the best bass fishing I ever had. We logged 16 bass over 10 lbs. I am convinced that the next world record is in Lake Baccarac. Thanks for the greatest fishing day of my life!
03/16/2012 to 03/20/2012 Continued Big Bass Bite is On...The numbers have picked up a lot with some boats catching up to 80 largemouth bass a day of solid 2 to 5 pound fish. BIG crankbaits producing bass over 10 pounds... You have got to work for the big ones Dave McKinney coming down in the King Air from Amarillo managed 2 bass over 10 pounds for grandson...Jack Moncik and Bill Benson caught 10 lbers as well>>>> Jorge Gonzo in 3 days on the water caught 3 bass over 9 and 3 largemouth over 10 pounds.
