Depends on where you are. We once dragged a turquoise T-shirt of our crew's on our sail from Ecuador to Easter Island, which served as a teaser that enabled us to finally (after two weeks of nary a bite) to catch our first Mahi Mahi of the passage.
In the Caribbean a favorite lure is a fish hook with a plastic bag from Budget Marine (the marine chandlery found in many of the Carib islands) as the lure. Works every time, we're told! But only a Budget Marine plastic bag.
In Middle Bight, Andros, Peter could toss any old thing out when the snappers were biting and catch dinner within 10 minutes of their feeding frenzy on the turn of the tide. I loved it! We had fish every way I could think of preparing it and so much fish that a culinary failure just meant tossing the meal and putting a line in the water again. Yum!
A friend used to sit on the dock with his line in the water. Small chunks of cheddar cheese, or spitballs of white bread, his only bait, and he was always successful in catching fish.
Chicken skin is another great bait. Sit at anchor with a line in the water with a small strip of chicken skin on the hook and dinner was almost a sure thing. I like chicken skin for bait so much that when I was provisioning the boat I'd buy chicken breasts for canning, and save and freeze the skin for bait.
Cleaning fish is now a blue job, Peter does it on the stern with a large-ish plastic cutting board secured to the rail. Often, with fish that are large, he would just filet off the meat without any other cleaning, then toss the carcass back in the ocean.
Most meals are KISS - Keep It Simple, Silly - sauteeing the filets in a little butter or oil, garlic, and lemon juice for seasoning, especially when we were under way.
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