Marlin Fishing In The Bahamas

Report Date: June 16, 2015

For the past three years I have been taking the “Ruthie”, a 39 IPS diesel SeaVee to San Sal in the Bahamas. We go there to target blue marlin and usually stay from 10 days to 2 weeks. A few weeks back, myself and my mate (Nate) took the boat over. We had decent weather and stopped at Nassau overnight. The next day we had a bit of a chop in Exuma Sound but the big SeaVee pushed right through it and soon we arrived in San Sal. It's a long trip of close to 350 nautical miles but once you are there, it is well worth it. The owner of the boat, Joe, arrived by plane the day we arrived. The next day we finalized some tackle preparation, rigged some baits and headed out to the grounds, which is only minutes away. We were on the grounds by 11:00am and by 11:30 we had our first blue marlin on and we caught it. For the next 4 hours we hooked a total of 5 blue marlin and caught 4 of them. To catch 4 blue marlin in one day in the Bahamas is unbelievable and we were so excited to have this great start to our trip. The next day we hooked 3 more blue marlin and caught two of them. We were on a hot bite and luckily we took advantage of it. The third day the bite slowed down and we had a marlin on but pulled the hook. The bite continued to slow down but we got shots practically every day and caught a few more blues and caught a white marlin which looking at the photos was probably a hatchet marlin. We fished a total of 10 days and even caught another blue marlin on our last day. We ended the trip getting 18 marlin bites and catching 9 marlin. That is incredibly good in the Bahamas. The whole trip was so exciting as we had marlin swimming in the dredge, in the squid chains, we got to pitch baits to quite a few of them. It was truly big game fishing at its best.

We fished both lures and baits and pulled squid chains and a dredge so we had plenty going on in the water. I would like to thank the guys at Baitmasters as the bait we got from them was unbelievable!! It was a great trip with great weather, great people and a great place to fish. I can’t say enough about how much I like San Sal. The people there are extremely friendly and will do anything to help you out. Through the years we have made good friends there and the fishing is great again. The marina was quite full and we knew a lot of the boats and their crews. It truly was great and I can’t wait to get back next year.

Prior to leaving for this trip, I did another trip to the Bahamas. We stayed in Bimini and target yellowtail snappers in which we did very well and also deep dropped and caught mystic groupers, and queen snappers. We did try for the muttons in the afternoon but we were probably there a couple of days early and didn't have any luck with the muttons. Again I had great clients and we had so much fun on that trip as well.

I just got back yesterday but quickly made some calls to get the report on what’s going on here in Miami. The hot bite has been for mahis in the Gulfstream and daytime swordfishing has been very good. I heard of a couple of swords being caught at night. I haven’t swordfished at night and would love to do that again soon. I also heard that the yellowfin tunas were biting in NW channel in the Bahamas pretty good as well.

So, now is definitely the time to get those trips booked whether its chasing mahis in the Gulfstream, drooping for swords or heading to the Bahamas, let me know so we can schedule that trip!!

Tight Lines,
Capt. Dean Panos

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