Bimini or Bust

[Captain Rich]

I worked a charter with Paul Cameron this past weekend. The original plan was to take Blue Sky, a 42 foot Bertram across to Bimini on Thursday, but 20-25 knot northwest winds made that an imprudent choice. Instead we trolled from Singer Island down to Ft. Lauderdale along the beach and overnighted there. This made for a smooth ride and knocked two hours off of our crossing on Friday. We got into Bimini, cleared customs and we were back out fishing by 11 AM. I was on the wheel and Paul was laying out the spread when a 45 pound Wahoo decided to blast a marlin lure (bad idea for him!). A couple of minutes later he was in the box. A little while later a White Marlin decided to join the party and after some impressive tail walking and head shaking we got a clean release. After a couple of big mahi later we decided to call it a day and head in. Bimini Big Game Club has an incredible bull shark population in the marina. Don’t fall in the water there! Day Two was slower so we went bottom fishing and loaded up on triggers, small groupers and other bottom dwellers. When we went back on the troll another large mahi jumped on a marlin lure. Day Three was our departure day and we trolled out of there. As we were setting our course a 100 lb Blue Marlin slammed one of the lures and greyhounded right at the boat, I was on the wheel and none of the anglers had cameras ready, so we didn’t get photos of this fish until he was billed. At this point the charter thought that the trip could not get any better. WRONG ! A little while later a 350 pound Blue Marlin crashed the spread. Two Blue Marlin in one day, Not Bad ! Then a 25 pound Mahi decided she was hungry, so the gaff got some more exercise. Last blast of the day was a super sized skipjack tuna and then we decided to pull the lures in and run for home.

[shrimpman steve]

Fantastic!

[Deepdeckhand]

Fising in Bimini this time of the year is as good as it gets.I spent many years as Paul's deckhand crushing fish of all flavors. Bimini was all about Big Blues for us and Chub had more of a billfish mixed bag. Then you have the Yellow menace known as mahi in schools so thick they bite trolled hot dogs and lunch mea (Hot dog trolls like a cedar plug-actually catches like a MF in the wash/ very entertaining for charter)😊..Well I'm jealous - I'm going to go buy a bent but for my 70 / nessasary tool for next weeks halibut hunt.Gulf of Maine 25 longline halibut tags on boat..1 hour drift between haul backs...You know what I'm doing👍👍👍👍

[Captain Rich]

Was just talking to Paul, if anybody else wants to get in on this fishery, we are going to run a few more trips together.--Rich

[formakos]

Is Paul Cameron also known as "Deep Sea"???

[Captain Rich]

Deep C, and Compleat Angler

[Captain Rich]

Just got sent some more pics, here's Marlin Porn. with live action ! I couldn't transfer the you tube clip, so if you go to this site you can watch the video. Sorry Gerry


http://forums.floridasportsman.com/s...64#post2758164

[Deep C]

Rich it was a pleasure having you on the helm and pit both... Bimini is so often over looked as a hot spot for blues... I 're discovered it long time back and at this time of year its pretty good as you saw. Other boats want to use the place for a grocery store and load up on bottom junk. Fine by me... Less traffic in my "lanes' to deal with. We are still open for an island quickie til I head back up for makos early June... We'll resume island side stuff in October targeting wahoo at West end and with some luck next spring hope to get enough interest to hit Chub Cay in March and April moons to really run up the score!