Tortugas Liveaboard
- mmcauliffe
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Tortugas Liveaboard
So I'm going on one of these liveaboards to the Tortugas in a couple weeks...gettting jacked as you can imagine.
What should I pick up (if anything) in the way of live or dead bait before I board the boat? I know they supply (some) bait and we will be catching local stuff on sabiki's but should I purchase any additional baits? Crabs, that sorta thing? And where would be the best place to do this?
Bait aside, is there anything that isn't obvious that you may have found usefull that I shoud bring along? I have a bait bucket with a battery powered bubbler. They have warned us about no avalable 110v outlets.
What should I pick up (if anything) in the way of live or dead bait before I board the boat? I know they supply (some) bait and we will be catching local stuff on sabiki's but should I purchase any additional baits? Crabs, that sorta thing? And where would be the best place to do this?
Bait aside, is there anything that isn't obvious that you may have found usefull that I shoud bring along? I have a bait bucket with a battery powered bubbler. They have warned us about no avalable 110v outlets.
Last edited by mmcauliffe on Sun Nov 01, 2009 4:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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- fishnfool73
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Re: Tortugas Liveaboard
Which boat ? Do they have a livewell for you to use ? Live pinfish are a decent bait that is easy to pick up the morning of your trip. Fresh dead mackeral, ladyfish, googleeyes, herring, flying fish, and ballyhoo are all good baits to bring.
Dreaming the dream that one day I can be as good as some of the boatless pros and catch some 12 inch mangrove snapper.
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- mmcauliffe
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Re: Tortugas Liveaboard
Florida Fish Findercrashmister wrote:Which boat?
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- mmcauliffe
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Re: Tortugas Liveaboard
They make no mention of a community live well, or any live well for that matter.fishnfool73 wrote:Which boat ? Do they have a livewell for you to use ? Live pinfish are a decent bait that is easy to pick up the morning of your trip. Fresh dead mackeral, ladyfish, googleeyes, herring, flying fish, and ballyhoo are all good baits to bring.
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- fishnfool73
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Re: Tortugas Liveaboard
They have a community live well but unless you are fishing next to it , at time bait disappears from it. Get some fresh dead mackeral either kingfish or Spainish, ladyfish, googleeyes or ballyhoo and you'll be fine. I have written a novel on this boat and what you need for it as well as how to fish it. Use the search feature and read up on it and feel free to ask any more specific questions if you have them after reading the twenty or so articles I have written on the subject.
Dreaming the dream that one day I can be as good as some of the boatless pros and catch some 12 inch mangrove snapper.
- mmcauliffe
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Re: Tortugas Liveaboard
Nice to know they do have a live well and some good advise there too, thanksfishnfool73 wrote:They have a community live well but unless you are fishing next to it , at time bait disappears from it.
I did a search and found some of your posts, some good info there. Looks like you guys had a blast in '08. Any plans on another "boatless" trip?fishnfool73 wrote: I have written a novel on this boat and what you need for it as well as how to fish it. Use the search feature and read up on it and feel free to ask any more specific questions if you have them after reading the twenty or so articles I have written on the subject.
Where is the closest decent bait shop. Didn't I hear of a new one in Key Largo that seemed to have a variety of baits?
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- PhishingPhanatic
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Re: Tortugas Liveaboard
Yellow Bait House in Key Largo sometimes has fresh gogs, speedos and flyers. You can get fresh ballyhoo at most bait shops in the Keys.
- mmcauliffe
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Re: Tortugas Liveaboard
Thanks....googled them and got their address and phone no. I'll call them on my way down. I don't think I'm going to have time to fish up my own bait before leaving Pompano.PhishingPhanatic wrote:Yellow Bait House in Key Largo sometimes has fresh gogs, speedos and flyers. You can get fresh ballyhoo at most bait shops in the Keys.
I'm bringing a light rod and a variety of sabiki rigs onboard but it sound like that may be a waist of time.
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- bolo
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Re: Tortugas Liveaboard
I would leave the small bait rod home. You will need a stout rod to catch bait. Buy a goggle eyes sabiki and if they are thick you can catch them 6-8 at a time.
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- PhishingPhanatic
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Re: Tortugas Liveaboard
I was using my 20 lb spinner to catch gogs and they were still pulling drag when you have 6 of them on at the same time. Ask the captain or mate if they are marking bait at night.bolo wrote:I would leave the small bait rod home. You will need a stout rod to catch bait. Buy a goggle eyes sabiki and if they are thick you can catch them 6-8 at a time.
- mmcauliffe
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Re: Tortugas Liveaboard
K - between your post and Phishing's sounds like if I want to try and catch bait I can use my 4500 baitrunner. I have 20lb mono on it now and planned on bringing at least one of these anyway so I'll take the advise and leave the ligher spinning rod at home. One less thing to mess with.bolo wrote:I would leave the small bait rod home. You will need a stout rod to catch bait. Buy a goggle eyes sabiki and if they are thick you can catch them 6-8 at a time.
I have 2 of the bigger sabiki (green) rigs. Their made by Hayabusa but the description is written in a language I can only best describe as asian, bought them at BPS...you all have seen them there, so I'm not sure what "exactly" the sizes are but they are considerably larger than your typical #6 rig.
Thnaks for the input
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- bolo
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Re: Tortugas Liveaboard
I use the one with the yellow label with bait picture drawn on it. It should say Goggle Eyes sabaki. I use the green one and red and blue one that looks like small squid.
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- mmcauliffe
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Re: Tortugas Liveaboard
Everybody, thanks a bunch for the info and advise, much appreciated.
- mmcauliffe
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Re: Tortugas Liveaboard
Packing the van this morning, leaving straight form work this evening and crashing at the Blue Fin Inn tonight before boarding FFF tomorrow. I haven't been this excited about a long weekend in quite awhile
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Re: Tortugas Liveaboard
mmc; Good luck Dude! Don't forget your camera. The wind died down late Tue so it should be good.mmcauliffe wrote:Packing the van this morning, leaving straight form work this evening and crashing at the Blue Fin Inn tonight before boarding FFF tomorrow. I haven't been this excited about a long weekend in quite awhile
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Re: Tortugas Liveaboard
Blue Fin is a great place for the price ! Good Luck with your trip
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- mmcauliffe
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Re: Tortugas Liveaboard
Well.....that was fun!!
Left work a couple hours early and headed south. Stayed the night at the Blue Fin Inn. Key West really isn't that far but spending the night halfway down just seems to make my long weekend off just a little more like a vacation. Just FYI for those curious, I thought the Blue Fin Inn was a good value ($39.00/night) definitely nothing fancy but it was clean, 1/2 mile form the Bass Pro and lots of places very close for dinner and breakfast.
"GET TO THE FISHING PART!!" you say.....okay, okay
The boat left the harbor around 10:45A, we had lines in the water around 3:00P
This is all new to me so I was happy with catching anything…
I hooked into a nice Yellow Eye Snapper in just the first few minutes of fishing, then another. OK, I have fish in the cooler!! We moved the boat a couple times looking for Mutton Snappers. I latched onto an Amber Jack that ran on me well over a ½ dozen times. My arms were getting pretty damn tired lol. I got it to the surface and Adam (one of the mates) gaffed it. He said it weighed between 50-55lbs. That is the biggest fish, by far, that I have ever caught. Remember, I’m a Walleye fisherman from Michigan that moved to Pompano Beach this past Feb
After the Battle Royal with the AJ I went up top and had a few beers, dinner and crashed ‘til the next morning.
Some of these guys are hard core, I think there were one or two that may have slept for 2-3 hours the entire trip lol.
Next day we had a lot of current. Captain wanted to put us on Mutton Snappers and Grouper but the current caused a lot of snags on the bottom and a lot of tangles. Everybody was cool with the tangle issue, it was happening to everybody so patience was the word of the day. I caught one really nice Mutton and a couple nice Yellow Tails. Everybody was catching fish, not filling any limits but a variety of fish were caught throughout the day. AJ’s, Kings, Mac’s, Gag Groupers, Strawberry Groupers (Rock Hinds) Triggerfish, Yellow Eye, Yellow Tail’s and a few others that escape me now.
That night we went a little shallower, everybody wanted to fill coolers so went after Yellow Tails which were plentiful enough.
I caught a Googleye of all things, right through the lip on a 6/0 circle hook baited with a big chunk of Ballyhoo on my 4/0 rod. The mate said “I’d re-hook that thing and send it right back down” which is exactly what I did. Five, ten minutes later my rod doubled over and the drag started screaming. It was all I could do to hang on. I kept thinking….”did I do a good job on all my knots? How frayed is my leader?” Well, after quite a battle, albeit short, I got cut off. The knots held, clean break Never saw what it was. Mates thought either a nice Grouper or the way it ran more likely a shark.
Fished a little more for Yellow Tails and called it a night after a much needed shower.
What a fun time!! The weather was perfect, I learned a ton about bottom saltwater fishing, made some new fishing buddies and have a good amount of fillets vacuum bagged in my freezer…..
Good times!!!
I’ll try and get some pic’s up later
Left work a couple hours early and headed south. Stayed the night at the Blue Fin Inn. Key West really isn't that far but spending the night halfway down just seems to make my long weekend off just a little more like a vacation. Just FYI for those curious, I thought the Blue Fin Inn was a good value ($39.00/night) definitely nothing fancy but it was clean, 1/2 mile form the Bass Pro and lots of places very close for dinner and breakfast.
"GET TO THE FISHING PART!!" you say.....okay, okay
The boat left the harbor around 10:45A, we had lines in the water around 3:00P
This is all new to me so I was happy with catching anything…
I hooked into a nice Yellow Eye Snapper in just the first few minutes of fishing, then another. OK, I have fish in the cooler!! We moved the boat a couple times looking for Mutton Snappers. I latched onto an Amber Jack that ran on me well over a ½ dozen times. My arms were getting pretty damn tired lol. I got it to the surface and Adam (one of the mates) gaffed it. He said it weighed between 50-55lbs. That is the biggest fish, by far, that I have ever caught. Remember, I’m a Walleye fisherman from Michigan that moved to Pompano Beach this past Feb
After the Battle Royal with the AJ I went up top and had a few beers, dinner and crashed ‘til the next morning.
Some of these guys are hard core, I think there were one or two that may have slept for 2-3 hours the entire trip lol.
Next day we had a lot of current. Captain wanted to put us on Mutton Snappers and Grouper but the current caused a lot of snags on the bottom and a lot of tangles. Everybody was cool with the tangle issue, it was happening to everybody so patience was the word of the day. I caught one really nice Mutton and a couple nice Yellow Tails. Everybody was catching fish, not filling any limits but a variety of fish were caught throughout the day. AJ’s, Kings, Mac’s, Gag Groupers, Strawberry Groupers (Rock Hinds) Triggerfish, Yellow Eye, Yellow Tail’s and a few others that escape me now.
That night we went a little shallower, everybody wanted to fill coolers so went after Yellow Tails which were plentiful enough.
I caught a Googleye of all things, right through the lip on a 6/0 circle hook baited with a big chunk of Ballyhoo on my 4/0 rod. The mate said “I’d re-hook that thing and send it right back down” which is exactly what I did. Five, ten minutes later my rod doubled over and the drag started screaming. It was all I could do to hang on. I kept thinking….”did I do a good job on all my knots? How frayed is my leader?” Well, after quite a battle, albeit short, I got cut off. The knots held, clean break Never saw what it was. Mates thought either a nice Grouper or the way it ran more likely a shark.
Fished a little more for Yellow Tails and called it a night after a much needed shower.
What a fun time!! The weather was perfect, I learned a ton about bottom saltwater fishing, made some new fishing buddies and have a good amount of fillets vacuum bagged in my freezer…..
Good times!!!
I’ll try and get some pic’s up later
The problem with writing about religion is that you run the risk of offending sincerely religious people, and then they come after you with machetes.
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Re: Tortugas Liveaboard
Great report! Can't wait for the pics
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- PhishingPhanatic
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Re: Tortugas Liveaboard
Sounds like a fun trip, thanks for the report.
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