Turks and Caicos...

[swordfish]

Well, I have almost been here a week and between one thing and another I have not been able to fish much, mostly due to weather. Today although I woke a little late I decided to go find me a good spot to fish. I made it as the sun was high, and found paradise... I waded in about 50 yards or so then stood in awe as I saw a school of about 100-150 fish approaching me, they looked like mullet... I took aim and tossed my skimmer out well ahead of them and slowly began to bump the lure across the bottom... I dead stopped in front of them and saw as the leading bone turned and went straight for my jig. He stared at it for what seemed hours and I gave it a small twitch... He went OFF, smashed it and RAN, I was ON! Stalked and fooled a bone! He wasnt very large, no more than 2-3 lbs, and as I was wetting my hand to grab him the bugger jumped off the hook and was free! LOL I was annoyed, yet SOOOOO accomplished! Annoyed because he didnt allow me to snap a picture before he went off. After that I got about 18 to 25 more shots at the same school that came coming back, some fish that must have been closer to 8 lbs in a school of about 4 of them, they kept away from the smaller fish. This is heaven on earth if you like bonefishing... I mean flats for miles, and I do mean miles and miles, far as the eye can see on the southern part of Providenciales. Either way, here are the pics... I promise a pic of fish soon, I still have at least 2 1/2 weeks left here and its only a matter of time... Oh and did I forget to mention? I have a 24 foot Boston Whaler at my disposal, open fisherman with 2 brand spanking new evinrudes, 400 horsepower in all, and the 5000 foot mark is less than a mile away from the dock... This is PARADISE! Keep a keen eye and the reports shall materialize in due time...









Boat



-sword

[CubanExpress]

Friggin' awesome!

[crashmister]

Sword; See if you can get a chart of the local waters. Stay in the channels as you already noticed it get's pretty shallow around there. Off shore just watch for birds and head for them. You will see bait busting on the surface as you get close. Caught a ton of tuna like that. Toss anything into the fray and you will get nailed. Just be carefull you don't get dumped. They can run 8 or 10 lbs or more. Water tends to get big on the south end of the island so keep that in mind. Great report and pic's! Keep em coming.

[james380]

Loving the report so far...

[swordfish]

Adding more pics, just random bear with me. Crash THANK YOU, the locals are tight lipped about what works here and they look at me as if I were the white boy coming to rape their fishery... LOL Hey I paid for the right to fish... plenty expensive too... Anyway, here is the tour...











My lounging partners... I am here to look after them and I am mostly with them, save for when I go fishing etc... Well behaved and good chaps!



Pix crazy! I may head out early tomorrow for some tuna... not sure yet, I want the weather to be good and its been rainy!

[PhishingPhanatic]

Great pics..I take it the rod tube worked?

[swordfish]

YES! Thank you bro, the lady was talking about charging me 150 for oversize and I pulled out the rule book... LOL she said "well I guess I was wrong, have fun fishing" If I didnt have the rules Id been one rod lighter... Got here without a scratch, thank you much, soon as I make it back Ill take a day trip up north to fish the beaches for snook and get it back to you!

-sword

[Morpheus]

Totally awesome!

[swordfish]

Went out this morning, late morning, and stayed out for about 5 hours or so, 10 thru 3 or so. I trolled at different depths, one was a hula popper and the other was a big crock spoon. Nothing, not a single hit... The wind was blowing from the ESE at around 13 knts or so and offshore it was pretty choppy. The one thing I am very very impressed with is the AMAZING efficiency of the evinrudes. I ran about 30 miles total back and forth and the needle BARELY moved, I mean as in almost nothing. I was looking for birds but no luck. When I go again Ill make sure to follow a charter boat loosely. I really want to get some tuna, or dolphin. Crash, if you can give me some more pointers even through PMs Id be truly grateful! I dont have the means to get a nautical chart or I would then just find a deep water wreck and go from there. How fast should I be trolling? I was using a near top water and a deep running spoon. Also, toward the NW of the Island there is like a hole that comes in almost to shore, looks pretty deep, do I go around there? I am just fishing for info here since again the locals dont give you any regardless lol!

Ill post the pics of the boat ride. I mean, bottom I know all I need is just a box of squid and to find a rock in 60-80 feet and I am almost certain Ill score snapper and grouper. What I am interested in is pelagics though... I was worried about raising a billfish too lol I dunno if I can handle one by myself, especially the release. Either way, any help would be greatly appreciated. I also searched about 3 miles offshore and found no water change or big temp break, I wonder if I keep going farther out, will I find a weed line? If so then thats all I need to know, cuz Ill search for birds when I find it.

-sword

[TeEnAnGlerPro213]

This is just awesomeness.

Try trolling around patches of weeds or floating debris, finding the color change would be ideal also. You can also try drift fishing, and you can try chunking cut sardines if you find some of these factors. Good luck, you are in heaven lol!

[swordfish]

Thx for the advice bro, but the thing here is... there is NO color change... it goes from 12 feet in the channel to 100 feet to 500 to 3000-5000 in less than a mile. Here is a map, showing where I come out of and where I end up when I clear the barrier reef!

http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=21.83202 ... 2&t=h&z=14

Its challenging, and I think Crash is the only one I know that has fished the Islands. I do thank you for the advise thou, I am definitely a lucky squirrel and will find my nut, I am just trying to find it sooner than later so I can avoid gasing the boat up, I have half a tank, and the motors are INCREDIBLY good on gas. I love it... then the bonefishing which I can get to from land is just out of this world... I think Im gonna get a box of squid and start "cheating" so I can put some fish under my belt... I was told by the locals that nothing beats a small strip of squid to catch bonefish on the flats because of the smell... He said he guaranteed me that Id catch bones that way... He also said to tip my jigs with a tiny bit of it and I wont go wrong. He has no boat so he has no clue about offshore, but inshore he showed me pics and he does well.

-sword

[crashmister]

Sword; Between your inlet channel and Pine cay is some of the best bottom fishing around the island. Dont know if you have a fishfinder on the boat. Looks like one on the right side of the council control panel. if not a depth sounder will do also. If you look on google you will see the wall as a transition from tourquise to dark blue or black. That is the reef wall. the best fishing is along that wall. As you said without a color change it hard to tell anything but there is a trick to it. head out your channel to about 150 feet and turn right parellell to shore and slow motor North east trying to stay about the same distance from shore. most of the pelagics will be just off that wall. Mind the breakers as that is the reef as long as you stay 100 or so yards off your fine BUT and this is kind of important, If you hook up and take the boat out of gear you can end up on the reef very quickly. depending on the current, tide and wind. All you do is turn off shore drop to an idle and fight the fish while keeping shore off the back of the boat. After a min or so you can pop the boat in neutral and fight away. just keep in mind which way you are drifting and correct or not correct accordingly. for bottom fishing you want to be in 150 feet of less. Reason is beyond the 150 mark it drops real deep real quick so it's real hard to fish. Be sure you can anchor before you go out. there are spots around there that are protected but I don't remember where. Good rule of thumb is if you see anchor buoys don't anchor. Tie off to a buoy. Chances are the buoys are dive sights so they should hold fish. It's pretty common to have large resident cuda in those spots in the 4+ foot range Snapper BIG Yellow tails schools of jacks are common as well. If the current is good and running parellell to shore you can drift also. Drifting is one of the best ways to fish that whole area. Start your drift in 80 or 100 feet and just see where you go. If you Bline for shore just move up or down the coast and try again. Let me know if you have a fish finder and/or GPS and I can give you more tips for trolling. Don't waste time looking for a grass line you probably wont find one. While your working the shore line keep an eye out off shore for birds. It wont be 1 or 2 but a couple dozen or more. If you see them head for them and try to drift with them and cast near the fray. They will be beating up a bait ball so it can be any # of diffrent species of fish including sharks. Like I said if you have a GPS I can help you set up a grid to troll off the wall.

[swordfish]

Sir you are a GOD right not... Yes the boat does have GPS and integrated fish finder... Seems to like shallow water best, last depth it recorded was 834 feet then it went blank till I hit 40 feet or so again. Those tips are golden, the only bait I can come across here is bought squid, but I think that should do well for bottom fishing. I have noticed fish are VERY aggressive here, and dont shy away from the boat like they do in the keys.

The GPS is very, color map etc, its a garmin, with a decently sized screen... I wish I had a chart but I cant pay the 50 dollars they wanna charge me, I also saw that I was in 120 feet of water in less than a hundred yards later it was 256 while keeping parallel to the break that youre talking about. If it is sunny I can see the reef exposed so I figure I can get fairly close with little trouble. I did not see any anchor bouys, and I do have to figure out the anchor, because it seems to go out but not up, its an automatic system but it seems to be broken, I hear power going to it, but it doesnt pick up the chain, had to do it by hand today, not too much fun lol. A grid would rock, I just want to catch any pelagic, be it dolphin or tuna or wahoo. Finally what speed should I be trolling at? I think thats an important point too. Feel free to PM me if you wish, or place info here for all to benefit from ^_^. Either way THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

[swordfish]

Here are the pics from the 4 hour boat ride lol!


Leaving the dock, that is the house from the channel.









Crash and everyone else who have been helping, thank you much! I appreciate it, and the least I can do is have u guys experience it through pictures.

-sword

[BoatlessFisherman]

That is a beautiful place enjoy your stay, Juan

[crashmister]

Brings back alot of memories Juan. I'll send you a pm later this am. Check the GPS for a fathom setting for depth. A fathom is 6 feet. So you want to be around 18 to 30 fathoms for bottom fishing deep. Just remember to change it back if you decide to go shallow.

[swordfish]

Thx bud, about to head out again. I feel kind of guilty being here with the oil gushing in the gulf and our waters threatened... Either way, Ill post about the day when I return.

-sword

[swordfish]

SUCCESS! Got em plenty! THANK YOU CRASH! I even got to see a small tuna party lol I wasnt quick enough thou and they dissapeared. I did as u told me and ended up with 4 fish, 1 rock hind, about 5-6 lbs which is legal here, 2 mackerel, one of which got bitten by a kingfish as I was bringing him up, I saw the king skyrocket with the bigger mack in his mouth, its was awesome! Finally a little cuda, the gentleman that takes care of the house, butler I guess... came along with me and he wanted the small barracuda, so I let him keep it. All in all HELL of a morning, and back by 12, boat is cleaned and fresh fish is cooking! This is paradise! TY crash again, I KNOW I will catch a tuna trolling like that, maybe a wahoo too, I just skirt the 100 foot mark or so trolling a spoon and a small hula popper, spoon runs deep, hula runs top, so both covered. SUCCESS!!!

[crashmister]

Juan; That's awsome Dude. To troll the wall is a simple matter of setting waypoints on the GPS. This time of year I would stay around the 100 to 150 foot mark. Heres what you do. Head out of the cut to about the 100 foot mark and enter a waypoint cruse the wall in either direction watching the depth sounder. Every quarter mile or so find that depth and enter another waypoint. Once you get a dozen or so waypoints entered you have a course to troll from point to point. You can fish shallower or deeper just by parelling those points. You can go as far as you want with this system. I'm trying to get you some wreck locations. I'm pretty sure there are a few right up the coast from you. They will hold some nice grouper and Jacks. Not to mention the slab Yellow tails. Should know something by tonight. I meant to tell you if you get into macs there is usually Kings in the neighborhood. Use wire if you have it as they are not nearly as skiddish as they are here. If you don't get anything at the depths I gave you don't hesitate to move in or out. There will usually be more fish closer to the wall than farther from it. BUT the bigger fish will most likely be in deeper water. Boat handling is key to covering the best spots. If you hook a nice fish mark the waypoint so you can go over that spot again. Keep in mind the fish will be coming off the wall to hit your baits so fish it accordingly. To bad it's the wrong time of the year. That is one of the stops for the million dollar fleet fishing for Black Marlin. There are a couple of holes not far from you that start in 50 feet and end up at 90. At the 90 foot mark are some of the biggest Yellowtails I have ever seen in 40 years of diving. Shoot me your email so I can send you the locations if I can get them.

[swordfish]

Yep bro that was awesome and all thanks to you. I trolled the shallower side for those guys, I am certain there are HUGE kings cuz one hit that mackerel as he was coming up, he skyrocketed right next to us! I am sure that if I troll a little deeper, say 100-150 or so I should bring up a dolphin, or some small tuna! Was litsening to radio chatter... they caught 3 blue marlin today, no location given, I think I will head out and stay at the channel one of these mornings and trail one of the big boats lol! If not I believe the NW of the Island has some cuts that come almost to shore, If I were a predator I would go there to feed on the bait that comes up from the upwell! If you find those numbers please PM me, I will be forever grateful as I am now, I saw a map somewhere with many wrecks around provo, and I know they will hold everything like you say, from monster yellowtail, to maybe some Cobia, and some big grouper! I think I will head out again on thursday, tomorrow it is bonefish round 2! This time Ill get up early, should be good, going off venetian road, toward the end.


-sword