Every dog has their day

Every dog has their day.

This week I'm finding it hard to gather my thoughts to write a report. Trying to keep it positive I can say the weather has been gorgeous. Comfortable temperatures and dead flat seas. There has also been hoards of sea life. Humpback whales are near shore in Palmas Bay and putting on a show for anybody who cares to watch. This week we also sighted huge schools of porpoise and many sea turtles. That was the good news.

The tough news is there has been very little live bait available and the bite has been very slow. In shore there has not been much action on roosterfish, sierra mackerel or snapper. Off shore striped marlin can be seen jumping and tailing but for the most part have lock jaw. There are a few quality dorado being caught but no concentration so it is just a matter of being in the right spot at the right time. There have been a few broadbill sightings which is very exciting and a few of the guys down south have gotten them to go.

No matter how tough things are it seems like someone always gets em. One day this week while it was very slow for most, one boat fishing the same area as us went 4 for 10 on striped marlin. Fishing within sight of that boat we only had one bite all day. For the most part I feel the deck is stacked in our favor with all Accurate reels, Calstar rods and Simrad electronics but every dog has their day and it was ours. On an average most guys are sighting many fish but only really getting a couple legitimate shots at fish showing interest in the bait presented.

It is ironic how quickly folks will change travel plans based on a report like this. After all it is fishing and there is always going to be ups and downs. It is these types of over-reaction that cause some operators to always have glowing reports when maybe fishing is not wide open. They choose to talk about the boat that went 4 for 10 and not give perspective of what the East Cape fleet is doing. I can tell you just like Arnold the bite "will be back".

In wrapping this up I want to talk a little about our bait situation. Last week I received mail from one reader asking for a report on the live bait situation and expressing he wasn't coming down without assurance there would be live bait available. It made me think about the first broadbill swordfish I ever caught. It was April 1995 and we used a frozen greenback mackerel for bait. One might ask why frozen bait? The reason was no live bait was available. It would have been easy to stay home because we couldn't get bait. I chose to go fishing and ended up catching the fish of a lifetime instead. My point is that it all cycles. The game fish will turn on soon and we will also have live bait. With it or without it there is no reason to not go fishing and have a positive memorable experience.