A Cuban What!!???

A Cuban Yo-Yo. It is another name for a hand-line reel. We wanted one to take on our trip from Tortola to the Chesapeake to try our hand at catching fish. We had some surgical tubing handy and created an elastic shock absorber for it. Some of the rigs we saw had a line run through the center of the yo-yo, which made it impossible to reel the line back onto the reel without disconnecting it from the boat. So we drilled a small hole in the center and ran the 1/8-inch nylon backing line through it where we tied a loop. We can now easily snap a small ring onto the loop to keep it attached to the boat.

Here's the setup. The surgical tubing is tied into a loop using a water knot. It is attached to the aft cleat. A small snap shackle attaches the tubing to the yo-yo nylon backing cord, so there's no strain on the yo-yo itself. There is a figure-8 knot in the nylon backing line on the lure side of the yo-yo to keep it from deploying itself down the line and into the water. A second line with snap shackle creates an end stop to (hopefully) keep it aboard if something big and solid hits the lure. We wanted the monofillament to break if that were to happen, instead of losing our yo-yo. There is about 50 ft of 1/8 nylon braid tied to 50 ft of 100 lb test monofilament using an Albright knot. A Fisherman's knot is used to tie a ball-bearing swivel snap to the end of the monofilament for attaching the lure. There's no need for a weight.

With this setup, we can wind the line back onto the yo-yo without disconnecting it from the boat. We won't lose the rig due to fumble fingers or a big fish grabbing the lure while we're pulling it in.

We caught two fish on our trip. A pretty big mahi took the hook while going from Tortola to Turks and Caicos. We had it up to the back steps twice and the second time, it threw the hook and escaped. All we have are memories and pictures.

The second fish was a nice tuna, about 8 pounds. It produced some nice tuna steaks that fed us for three meals.

We read another cruising blog that said that it is better to troll two lines, so we bought another yo-yo at Sailor's Exchange in St. Augustine. (You should stop by Sailor's Exchange if you're in St. Augustine and are looking for some boat parts and don't mind buying some used or excess stock parts.)

The best lure was something called Dolphin Candy, which you can buy at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Boone-Dolphin-Candy-Kit/dp/B004RDOFSE
Gee's brother says that the blue lure works best.

Additional Tips

Over time we've learned a few key tips that increased our ability to catch fish.

1. Deploy more than one fishing line (mentioned briefly above). One of the fishing blogs we read suggested that there's something about having multiple lures in the water that increases the number of bites. Sure enough, when we started deploying two lines, our successes increased.

2. Four lures on two lines. If adding another lure helps, go with four lures. Our rig includes a swivel snap at the end of the monofilament where we connect the leader to the lure. We added a small (3/8 to 3/4 ounce) bucktail jig to that snap. The fish see a small fish (the bucktail) being chased by a slightly larger squid-like thing (the dolphin candy).

3. Stagger the lines. It seems to help that the two rigs we have are slightly different lengths: roughly 100ft and 150ft. Our impression of whether this really helps is very subjective. We have no evidence to back it up.

4. It's ok that the lures run right at the surface. We can look back and occasionally see the lures breaking the surface. This doesn't seem to hurt our success rate and is validated by other blogs we've read on the subject.

5. Bring the fish in quickly. We've experienced the most losses when we wind the line back onto the reel as we bring in the fish. We're fishing for food, not for sport. Gloves are essential (seen in the photo above) and we retrieve hand-over-hand, dropping the line onto the deck. So far we've not had it tangle. If you have limited space, drop the line into a bucket as it's retrieved. Keep your feet out of the way just in case a bigger fish takes a liking to your hooked fish. We've found that it helps to bring the catch to the surface as quickly as possible. With its head above water, it will quickly become calm and it can't get its tail to bite in the water to fight. The result is that the load on the line and hook is reduced. If it's a big fish and still seems to have fight, just drag it on the surface for a few minutes until it settles down. This also gives you time to get your gaff and towel ready. We bring the fish aboard on the stern scoops without using a gaff.

6. Drop a towel over the fish's head once it is aboard. The seems to help more with some species than others. It also gives you something to hold onto the fish. A small amount of vodka poured in the gills is a non-messy solution for the final dispatch.

7. Remove the hook and redeploy the line overboard to prepare for retrieval on the yo-yo. The line is on deck or in the bucket in reverse of the order that it needs to go on the reel. So just drop the lure back in the water and pay out the line. It will (in our experience) deploy without tangling. You can then continue to fish or wind it on the yo-yo.

A note about fishing rods, since most boats we've seen use them. They are great for sport. It's a thrill to reel one in. But if you're fishing for food, there are a few downsides. They are more challenging to store. Our two yo-yos fit in plastic shoe box that's easy to store, including spare lures and gloves. Rods position the line higher. Our rig is right on the stern, about 5 ft above the water. Less line out is less to retrieve and still get the lures near the surface. Rods add several more feet of height that requires more line out to prevent the lures from continuously skimming the surface (some skimming seems to be ok). An alternative is to use a heavier bucktail. With more line out rods take longer to retrieve.

On the rod side of the equation, we've had three strikes in which we lost the lures and the snap swivel in each case was completely destroyed. These were big fish that might have been caught if we used a rod.