CaptainRickyWheeler

I fished with my friend on the 44′ Henriques “Rum Knuckles”. We were going with one thing in mind, tunas! It was a pretty day with a moderate 15 knot Easterly wind. We ran offshore a bit until we found a little bird action and set the lines out. It looked like it was going to come together but never did. We did however manage to come across a log that we picked 2 small wahoo off of as well as 1 mahi and jumped off a few other mahi unfortunately. Not long after that everything dissipated and the birds scattered.

We trolled around some more searching for the birds, and by 1100 we found them! And wow did we find em. It was complete NatGeo! Birds everywhere of all kinds, 100-200 pound yellowfin tunas skying out like crazy, porpoise in the mix, flying fish getting up, and through the day we even saw a nice blue marlin cutting on the surface. Unreal, and it was game on for 4 hours straight. We went 7/9 on nice yellowfin tuna up to 165 pounds. Beautfiful fish! Most of them we caught on the blue and white 2 ounce tuna flare and also the Downsea blue and pink tuna flare, both rigged over a Ron-Z Tail. We also caught 2 on a crystal sea star with a ballyhoo.

Super fun day, and we left em biting at 3pm. I actually got to crank in 4 of them which was a fun change of pace for me. What a fun day!

It really seems to remain consistent most years here that the January and February New Moon gets the sailfish chewing, and today was no exception! We started the morning in some action quick going 1/3 and raised another but then it got quiet. We pushed offshore more and after a couple hours found the fish. The sails were occasionally on top cutting through bait balls with the birds helping us find them.

We had solid action and plenty of bites and ended the day 6/12 on sailfish and saw quite a few more as well. Really fun fishing for sure! The water finally turned blue and everything came together today.

Check out my latest CaptainsVlog which covers the end of 2020 where I did some more boat projects, touch ups, and some billfishing as well in the mix!

With the perfect flat calm weather (not something we get too often here in Grenada), I wanted to take advantage and go try to learn some bottom fishing here. We started the day on top of the reef at Reindeer Shoal in the green 84 degree water fishing 60-90 feet of water. Plenty of rock and coral meant lots of snags, and no bites at all between the snags. We kept moving out further and deeper and started to get some bites and caught a few rock hinds and Jacks.

We tried a few deep drops as well for grouper and snapper as well as a couple for daytime swordfish, but not much love although we did manage a few snappers and groupers for the dinner table that made all that reeling worthwhile. No, I do not have electric reels for bottom fishing. Around 230 we decided to switch up and spend some time wahoo fishing. The last hour from 430-530 it came alive! There were birds on the blackfin tunas, speedos, rainbow runners were showering. It looked incredible, and it was. We ended up pulling the hook on a blue marlin and went 2/5 on wahoo. Unfortunately we ran out of time and had to head for home. Fun day of fishing!

We got started today fishing around 730 in 84 degree water with a stiff NNE 20 knot wind. The water was blue green and O saw plenty of flying fish throughout the day but never marked anything on the sounder. The blackfin tuna and birds came and went plenty but nothing was ever around them.

The first bite came at 900 and we missed a sail off left teaser. Beaitiful switch but jumped him off. At 1035 we had a double header and missed both of them as a third popped up on the teaser but never ate anything. I did a few loops to try and re raise that fish but no luck. Then at 1120 we missed yet another sailfish. OUCH.

We had a few mystery long rigger bites and we couldn’t ID the bite due to the glare when the bite happened. Finally at 1230 we had a blue marlin peel off the left dredge and pile on the left flat party skirt bait. It didn’t come tight and came in hard on the left teaser. We had the big pitch out but he piled on the right flat instead and game on! Kate put the work in and we got a good show and a clean release. That made our day!

I went along with a friend today in search of billfish. It felt good to be in the cockpit today, and luckily enough I got to hook and catch a few sailfish myself. With the New Moon having passed on the 14th I was curious to see if some fish started to filter in the area. The weather was beautiful, and as we set out around 730am a sailfish came up on the right long fish Downsea mini Chugger and game on! We went on to release that fish and get back at it. We picked at 3 bites the first two hours, then second and third on Fish Downsea Party Skirts on the long riggers. We hooked both but lost one after a few minutes.

The rest of the day remained a steady pick and we managed to get 9 bites, hooked 7, and released 5 sailfish. Really fun and consistent fishing!

I wanted to run the boat for two solid days so today was day two and the weather was too nice not to. We made our way to the wahoo grounds and boxed a blackfin tuna right away. After that it was silence for hours. We kept pounding it out though and about an hour into the incoming tide we got our first wahoo bite, but the hook pulled on the run. OUCH!

Not long after that we finally boxed our first wahoo that was about 35 lbs. we went on to catch 3 more wahoo ranging from 20-40 pounds to put a solid catch together! We also managed to get 3 first time wahoos for 3 anglers (Kate, Aaron, and Kyle).

Given we have been sitting at the dock for about two weeks and doing a lot of work to the boat making some more upgrades, I wanted to run the boat and have a little fun fishing. We tried for billfish all day today, but it was very quiet. We still have a lot of green water here but plenty of new blue water seems to be getting close. We did have two sailfish bites in the first two hours that we missed unfortunately. After that nothing ever materialized.

I have had a lot of people asking so I decided to go ahead and do it. I started a NEW Clothing line with my fishing charter company Fish Downsea Charters. I have everything from boat shirts, buffs, performance gear, stickers, and more all representing my charter program with some new cool logos, line art of the beautiful 60′ Fishing Machine and more. So please check it out and pick up some gear at: https://www.fishdownseacharters.com/gear