Closer to shore, not much has been going on with the exception of a good Snook and Tarpon bite heating up as the schools of Mullet start moving through in there enormous pods. There are other predators also like the Jack crevalle, Barracuda, and even some grouper that are sabatoging these schools.
In the usual zone from 70 to 350 feet there is somewhat of a bite with the occasional Dolphin schools coming through and a few Kingfish and Bonito. The nice fish are still holding to the north a bit but will start pushing south as the Autumn weather comes through.
Back to whats really happening in the Swordfish bite, we made it out 3 trips In the past 10 nights. We had great action each night. Our first night to break the ice was Thursday the night after the Swordfish tournament. The weather wasn't fishable for the past 6 days prior because we had a strong Northeast windkicking over 25-30 knots steady. Thursday night the wind died just enough at 15 knots or so and we were able to get out with Curtis Beers. The seas weren't as bad as we thought so we were even more confident to put Curtis on some fish. We did 2 drifts. On the first drift we caught 4 fish and released 3 of them. We reset the boat and started fishing again and had 4 more bites. We missed 2 fish and caught 2 more. 1 was a keeper and the other was a throwback, being under 47 inches lower jaw length. But what a night we had. We didn't catch the big ones but these fish were everywhere and if we stayed all night we would of had time to replan and catch bigger ones.
The next night we had another Swordfish charter, the day before the tournament. Me and my mate Kenny Josack, who is one of the best driven Swordfisherman I know, were ready, as we knew what to expect and where to go. Both nights we caught plenty of live bait and had our share of Squids. This night Daryl Dawkins and his sister Debbie came aboard. The seas were much nicer at 2-3 feet, from the previous nights 3-5. We arrived on our SPOT, in theory, and by the time the tip rod was set, emmediately my eye caught the electralume racing for the surface. He was coming up from behind the boat as I was trying to set the sea anchor. We came tight on her and Daryl boated his first Swordfish after an awsome 40 minute fight. His fish ate a Squid 200 feet down. This fish had an amazing bill almost 3 feet long. We reset the boat and waited a little while before we got the next hit. This fish got the best of us as he shook off quickly. Thank goodness we got another shot and we were tight this time. The bite happened within 3 minutes of the last one so maybe the fish came back into the spread. Debbie brought this one in and she also had caught her first Swordfish. Both of these fish looked like bookends as they were just about the same size weighing around 150 pounds. We made it out later in the week on the back side of the moon and the bite seemed to slow down for us but we did manage to get another very good bite. The fish ate our long float like a bat out of (a cave). We hung the fish but she managed to come unglued. Since then there have been reports almost every night with someone catching a 400 pound fish, On 4 ocasions I know of.
As with fishing, there are no rules. It's back to sqaure one with, lets go fishing! Most everyone can count on the waxing moon for a good bite, but when she keeps going into the new moon with no particular prediction, you never know what could happen. So lets get on out there and see what the Swordfishery is all about! I hope your trip catches a sea monster.
Captain Cary Hanna
New Lattitude Sportfishing
954-907-0967