Yellow Eye Snappers Caught Fishing at West End Bahamas

The owner of Daddy’s Dream is hooked on going to the Bahamas.

This is our 3rd trip and this time we just went for one night. During this time of year — February — you really have to be careful with the weather because those fronts can come roll in and really kick those seas up. We got a nice weather window and ran over to West End for one night. The crossing was nice maybe 2-3′ seas, but we got a late start so we didn’t get much fishing in the 1st day.

We tried trolling for Wahoo, but the Barracuda were all over the place. We were even catching Barracuda in 1000′ foot of water while high speed trolling. We kept some Barracuda for deep dropping bait and gave a few to the Bahamians.

That evening we enjoyed a really nice dinner at Old Bahama Bay and for the night we stayed at Blue Marlin Cove, Bootle Bay, West End, Grand Bahamas. Marvin Robert is the manager and can be reached at phone 242-349-4101. The next morning we headed for our Yellow Eye Snapper hole in 800′ foot of water.

Yellow Eye Snappers Caught Fishing at West End Bahamas

We caught our limit of Yellow Eye’s and headed back to St. Lucie Inlet late that afternoon. It was a little choppy on the way back maybe 2-4′ seas, but we took it easy and were able to clean our catch on our way home.

Yellow Eye Snappers Caught Fishing at West End Bahamas

40lb Kingfish

This trip was a charter to the Abacos this past summer. It was on Daddy’s Dream a 28′ Mako with twin 300HP Mercury outboards. It was the owners first trip to the Abacos. We left from St. Lucie Inlet and cleared customs in West End.

Clearing customs & immigration is much better than it used to be, it only took us a 1/2 Hr. Cost for clearing was $150 for boats 35′ and under which includes your cruising permit, Customs & immigration charges and a fishing permit. This covers a vessel with 4 persons or less. Each person above 4 will be charged a $15 Departure Tax. If your vessel is 36′ or larger the fee is $300.  If you are heading to the Bahamas you can contact The Bahama Tourist Office, 1200 S. Pine Island Road, Plantation, Fl. Phone (954) 236-9212 and they will mail the forms you need for clearing.

Capt Mike with a Barracuda caught on light spinning tackle.

FYI Old Bahama Bay website is www.oldbahamabay.com. You can also pick up extra forms when clearing so you can have them filled out prior to your next trip. This can save you some time. We fueled up at Old Bahama Bay Marina which was pretty empty and then ran to Spanish Cay in the Abacos where we spent the  first two nights at Spanish Cay cottages. After cleaning some fish on the dock an 9′ Bull Shark and some smaller sharks came by for a meal.  Capt Mike decided to feed the Bull Shark some Grouper left overs which it gladly took out of his hand, not something I would recommend doing.

Capt. Mike feeding a Bull Shark at Spanish Cay Marina

Day three we ran to Green Turtle and checked in at The Bluff House http://www.bluffhouse.com/our_island.htm. and stayed there one night. It was much cheaper than Spanish Cay and maybe a bit nicer. We had some great Goombay Smash drinks at Miss Emily’s Blue Bee Bar and they also made us a nice dinner. We did some fishing off Green Turtle and caught some Grouper, Barracuda, a large Amberjack and a nice Kingfish. Don’t release all the Barracuda you catch, give them to the Bahamians because they love them.

Miss Emily's Blue Bee Bar in Green Turtle Cay

Day Four we ran to Grand Cay and stayed at Rosies Place http://www.rosiesplace.com/ for the night. Even though we had reservations for a room and a slip we still had to wait over an hour to dock. It was really very disorganized at Rosies Place. It’s just too bad Walkers Cay is no longer open.

Snook catch & release off Jupiter Inlet

This was a local fishing trip out of Jupiter Inlet from 4-9PM.

We caught live bait (Sardines) using size #6 Sabiki rigs just south of the Jupiter Inlet. We then fished just off the east end of the North Jetty and caught and released two nice Snook, one around 20lbs and one around 12llbs.

At 7PM we fished the North Fork of the Loxahatchee River and caught and released 10 smaller Snook in the 3-6lbs range close to some docks. We were using light spinning rods with Shimano 4000 spinning reels spooled with 15lb. Power Pro braided line and 4′ of 30lb Flourocarbon leader and a size 2/0 circle hook. Fun Trip.

Snook catch & release off Jupiter Inlet

Snook catch & release off Jupiter Inlet

Over the Seas Expeditions offers custom Alaskan charters through some of the most spectacular marine wilderness in the world.

Below are some pictures from the trip. The boat I captained from the Alaska sound to Ketchikan, Alaska was “Faithfully” a 40′ Norhavn.