Walkers Wahoo and Red Grouper on Light Tackle

[Docked Wages]

Weekend of Jan 8-9, Scott (Bloodstream), Chris (Light_Tackle) , Frank and myself loaded up and ran across to Walkers Cay targeting some Wahoo.

This was to be a quick one night trip and back covering approximately 350 miles out of Sebastain in two days.

Walkers Cay continues to decline as the docks are now roped off for access and nearly no place to tie up and transit to the Bahamian Customs office.














After Check-in we went back out and trolled the late tide change for Wahoo going 1 for 4 while brushing off the rust of high speed trolling.

The one hoo was snake and released boatside. After the tide changed we turned to bottom jigging for a couple of drifts with light tackle for dinner. We got into cudas and rockhinds.

This Rockhind broke the Florida Sport Fishing Association (www.FSFAclub.org) club record for light general tackle at 3lbs 15 oz.





The next morning we hit the early tide and landed a few better fish, this one didnt want to be tamed







After the tide change the bite once again died off and we switched gears back to bottom fishing.

Here we found the red grouper bite pretty consistent and landed several nice fish on light tackle.

We fished until we got our limit then turned the bow West and headed home.

Here are a few of the highlights:



This red grouper came on plug tackle and went 14 lbs on 14 lb line test:



This 16 lb 12 oz red grouper I landed on 4 lb braid ultra light tackle was a great battle in 300' depth:



Here is the flipside of this fish, by the looks of the scratch marks, this fish did his best to rock up me up multiple times




The fish of the day was landed by Chris and is a potential IGFA record.

This Red Grouper went 22lb 5 oz on 10lb braid.

This fish was weighed and certified back on land at Sunrise Marina and will be submitted to IGFA for the applicable line category as the current record is nearly two pounds lighter.



Another beautiful Bahamian sunset

[quickrelease]

Way to make it sporty guys!

[isla21]

Awesome trip and pics guys, way to go. Thanks for sharing

[lt20]

That's very impressive and very interesting. Do you mind giving some specifics on what type of reel you are using for the light braid and rods also. How many fish do you lose for everyone you catch? I would assume with the lighter tackle you get rocked up more. Thanks for sharing and any additional info you provide.

[Offshore9393]

sounds like an awesome trip cant believe you were able to pull those grouper off the rocks with that light tackle

[Docked Wages]

That's very impressive and very interesting. Do you mind giving some specifics on what type of reel you are using for the light braid and rods also. How many fish do you lose for everyone you catch? I would assume with the lighter tackle you get rocked up more. Thanks for sharing and any additional info you provide.

Yes we do get rocked up and lose our fair share of fish, but I also think that we hook up more often from the light tackle. This trip we each lost at least one or more frieght trains but we also landed some nice fish. I like to start with a heavier line class and work down to the Ultra light class to get my battle rythum. Typically I start with light general class (20 lb line class) and put some meat in the box, then switch to Plug tackle (14 lb line class open caster) then Spin tackle (10lb line class) and eventually Ultra Light (4lb line) class. These are the recognized line classes from the Florida Sport Fishing Association (FSFA).

But Ultra light, 4 lb line class, is a completely different world. You cant muscle these fish and you need to palm your drag to the breaking point and then release, then again and again. It helps if you have a slight drift to move the fish out of his comfort zone and very rewarding when you get him out of the rocks. However you will get rocked more than once. If you look at those scratch marks on my fish you can see he rocked up multiple times by how the scratch marks cross over each other in opposing directions. Once you land a nice fish, or lose a fish, on 4lb and you go back up to 10 lb class you are now fishng with a lot more confidence as if you had 80lb braid! It is also surprising how many cuda you catch and land on mono while deep jigging due to the constent pressure you keep on the fish. But to answer your question, yes you will get rocked up and yes you will lose fish on light tackle. It also help to have a good capt that can manuever the boat when you do get rocked up.

As far as tackle I use stiff Penn Torque Jigging series rods and either Penn Conquer 5000 or Battle 3000 spinning reels with Berkley Crystal Braid, various line wieghts and various jigs weights with softbaits with scent (Gulp) or long curly tails for action. Leader I use 60 -80 lb Stren tinted Flourocarbon with a simple uni-uni knot, no hardware. I hope this answers your question.

[Kinembe]

nice post, and good job on the fish

[landlubber]

Great report and I really like that you responded back to questions. I have noticed that I have been able to put unimaginable amounts of pressure on "15 lb" Power Pro, enough that I was worried my spinning rod would break before the line. It is clear to me now that these lines really are over-testing drastically. Have you tested the actual breaking strength of your lines? Now, let me be clear, I am not trying to take away from your light tackle accomplishments. I love light tackle. But I would like to ask, do you think the 4 lb is breaking at 4 lb or other line classes?
On another note, have you found a way to use a sliding weight on the main line and still use no swivels? I find I can't get any sinkers over 1/2 oz that won't slide right over my uni to uni knots. I have found I can't even use 80lb test S-Pro swivels because even a 1 oz egg sinker slides right over them.

Great report, great pics. It's a shame to see that place looks so beat up.

[Docked Wages]

Great report and I really like that you responded back to questions. I have noticed that I have been able to put unimaginable amounts of pressure on "15 lb" Power Pro, enough that I was worried my spinning rod would break before the line. It is clear to me now that these lines really are over-testing drastically. Have you tested the actual breaking strength of your lines? Now, let me be clear, I am not trying to take away from your light tackle accomplishments. I love light tackle. But I would like to ask, do you think the 4 lb is breaking at 4 lb or other line classes?
On another note, have you found a way to use a sliding weight on the main line and still use no swivels? I find I can't get any sinkers over 1/2 oz that won't slide right over my uni to uni knots. I have found I can't even use 80lb test S-Pro swivels because even a 1 oz egg sinker slides right over them.

Great report, great pics. It's a shame to see that place looks so beat up.

Landlubber,

I agree that braid does not break anywhere near mono of the same line class. But fishing with 4lb braid and tying knots with 4lb braid is like working with thread. The line will break instantly if you pull a "Jimmy Houston Fresh Water Hook Set" but if you apply a slow increasing pressure you can get a great deal more than 4lb of pressure on the line for short periods before it gives. I would guess that in slow increasing pressure (versus quick hook setting pressure) I am probably seeing 2.0 to 2.5 times the line strength, in other words I am applying 8.0-10lbs of pressure with confidence. Also when using light braid you need a long leader to keep the main line off the fish and the coral heads. As far as egg sinkers I got no advice for you there. I prefer old school jigs with softbaits attached. I am not using lead sinkers or even butterfly jigs. I have tried them but I keep going back old school.

Light tackle makes other fish fun to catch to. We go through a lot of rockhinds, jacks and cudas between groupers. Below is a cuda landed on 4lb braid with mono leader on a previous trip in about the same area of 300' depths. Here you can see how this cuda was landed on mono leader with constent pressure. But this fish was a much tougher, or different, fight than a grouper that is stationary for the most part. This guy almost spooled my little 4000 series reel and fought all the way to the boat and the last thing I want to do is to loose a jig to a shark or cuda..

[Fins13]

Nice report and Dang the last red is a pig.