We are now well into the fall and the species we are targeting are swordfish, sailfish and wahoo. Luckily all three of these species have cooperated. The past few days have been a swordfish mini marathon fishing a few swordfish day trips as well as a swordfish combo trip. Luckily the bite was decent and we did get a fish on these trips. The first day I fished with a good client and friend, Stephen, and some friends that he brought along with him. We did a day sword trip and the weather was perfect. We made two drops without a bite and on our third drop we hooked a nice fish. Stephen and company did a great job with the fish hand cranking it up from 1800 feet of water for the majority of the fight. It was definitely a decent fish with an overall length of 122 inches. That's over 10 feet of pure muscle and brawn. We did two more drops and on our last drop hooked another "donkey" but unfortunately pulled it off half way up. The next day we had a new clients who booked a combo trip from noon to midnight for both day and night swords. After a few drops with no bites we finally hooked a fish and all four clients got a crack at it. With an 85 pound fish in the box, everyone was breathing a bit easier. We set up for the night drift and although we never got a bite at night, we had absolutely great weather and everyone had a great time. They are already planning to come back to get another crack at it and are even planning a sailfish trip as well. The third sword trip was a day trip with repeat clients who had sailfished with me before but had never caught a sword. Well it was quite the interesting day. We made 7 drops that day and hooked and fought 6 swordfish. We finally got one all the way to the leader and within 30 feet only to watch it swim away. It was a legal release, and although not a huge fish, it was intended for dinner. The guys I had were all college students and they hand cranked every single fish from beginning to end. With 6 fish on in one day, that's a lot of hand cranking and my hats off to them for never giving up.
We also did a few trips on the edge for sailfish and were lucky enough to catch at least one sailfish and up to 5 sailfish on all of our trips. Besides sailfish, we also landed some decent mahis and some fall kingfish. Although I would have liked to have done some more trips, I was happy with the quality of each of our trips. Everyone on board on all our trips put in a lot of effort and its great when that effort pays off and everyone catches fish as well as has a good time.
Now is definitely the time to book your winter trips for sailfish. Bigger pods of fish are being seen up north and those fish will be here (some already are) within a few weeks. I have plenty of openings this month and next. If you have company coming down for Thanksgiving or during the Christmas/New Year holiday week, I still have some openings then as well. Also wahoo are still biting in the Bahamas and will for the next few months. If you are local and see a break in the weather and got an itch for some awesome wahoo fishing give me a call. So whether its sails, swords, wahoo, now is the time to call and let's get it done!
P.S. – to all my great clients and friends from the NE, I hope Hurricane Sandy made her way by you without too much trouble. In Florida, we know what its like to go through hurricanes – not a lot of fun. Hopefully everyone stayed safe!
Tight Lines,
Capt. Dean Panos
www.doubledcharters.com
