February 1st 2nd and 3rd
Today we had Eric and his son James from York Shire England. They chartered the boat for the 1st, 2nd 4th and the 5th of February.
On this report we are going to report the 1st and the 2nd.
The main fish Eric came over to catch was a sailfish but the first day started out on the slow side. We started out trolling and while we did catch a good hand full of bonitos and a few king fish once we switched over to kite fishing for sails we never did get the bite we were looking for.
On day 2 we went right to kite fishing and while we were getting a few bits from kingfish we never did see any sails.
Ok it was time to try to better our odds of getting a bite so I added a couple of shark baits to the mix.
While we still had our four live baits suspended from the kites for sailfish I added a shark bait on the bottom and another shark bait down about half way to the bottom.
All of a sudden our shark bait that was about half way down got a bite the rod bent over and line was screaming off the reel. Eric jumped in the chair and the fight was on. Ok so it was not a sailfish but we had a big sea monster on the other end of the line and we could not have been happier about that.
TILL the unexpected happen!!! While Eric had his hands full with this big shark a sailfish popped up on our right long kite bait and we now had 2 big fish on @ the same time. James jumped in the chair next to his farther and the fights were on.
After a good 20 min we ended up catching both fish. We held them next to the boat long enough to get a couple of photos of them next to the boat and released both of them to fight again another day.
While we ended up with a pretty good catch for the day. Eric still never got his shot @ a sailfish.
I'm going to jump to the 3rd day of fishing with Eric and James.
On their 3rd day of fishing we had to put them on our other boat the Local knowledge because we already had charter schuled on the Hooked Up. But while they were fishing with Captain Mike and Richard they were catching big boomer bonitos and keeping fairly busy catching a few fish still no sailfish for Eric.
Than I got a call from Captain Mike to let me know that they were Hooked Up with a sailfish. When I had said to Mike something about how happy Eric must be Mike told me that Eric was busy catching a big bonito when the sail jumped on and that James was fighting the sail. (RUT ROW) not again@#$^$&*
Eric we have one day left and if it kills me some how we are going to catch you that sailfish once and for all.
(To Be Continued)
Captain Taco (954) 764-4344 or toll free @ (877) SEA-4344
Feb 3
Today we had a shared charter with Gale from Cape May who had fished with us a few days ago and Joe and Donna from New Jersey, Jessie from Davie Florida who also brought along his father in law Teofilo who was visiting from Peru.
We started out dropping a live bait down 210 feet on a ship wreck and Gale ended up catching a 35 pound amber jack. Then we dropped a few more times on the same wreck without any more bites there. We moved off to another shipwreck with once again no bites.
Ok time for a change so we set out our kites with 3 live baits and one shark bait suspended from them along with a couple of shark baits down deep.
All of a sudden one of our deep rods bent over and line was just peeling off the reel.
Joe jumped in the chair and the fight was on. This was a back and forth tug a war for a good 35 min till finally we got a good look @ this big hammerhead shark.
We managed to slide him in the tuna door to get a measurement of him to have a replica trophy made of him we also got all the hooks out of him and watched him swim away in good shape.
Ok thing were looking a bit better for our charter but we still needed to get Jesse and his farther in law something to eat so back to trolling we went.
It took a while but @ last a bite and Teofilo jumped in the chair and reeled in a nice black fin tuna.
Holly cow what an exciting day of deep-sea fishing we had!!
Thanks again to all of our anglers today and we're looking forward to fishing with all of you again soon.
Captain Taco (954) 764-4344 or toll free @ (877) SEA-4344
Feb 4
Today we had Adria from Bellingham Washington Jay from Willington N.C. Chris from right down here in Fort Lauderdale and Ken from Van Cover.
We started out trolling the reef with our 2-planner board running about 45 feet down along with 3 surface baits skipping across the surface. As it turned out trolling the reef today was just not producing many fish for us however we did manage to catch a couple of bonitos'. It was time for a change.
So in came the trolling gear and out went the kite with the live baits suspended from them.
All of a sudden a sailfish popped up and before we knew it we had Adria in the chair and a sailfish on the other end jumping all over the place.
After a good 20 min fight Adria finally got her big sailfish to the boat. Way To Hang In There Adria!
Captain Taco (954) 764-4344 or toll free @ (877) SEA-4344
Feb 5
Ok here we go again with Eric and his son James and our last chance to catch Eric his first sailfish.
Today was hero or zero because we knew that it had to be a sail for Eric and I've got to say that the pressure was on due to the fishing being on the slow side today.
We had a hard north current so I decided to run about 10 miles to the south and try fishing water off the beating path in hopes of finding Eric's sail fish.
We set out our kites and suspended our 4 live baits from the kites and waited and waited and waited with no bites. (RATS)
Ok so catching a sail was just not looking good for us today so once again I take the blame and decided to work our way out to 350 feet of water and set out a couple shark baits along with the live baits we already had out. At this point I was just looking at bettering our odds of catching a big fish of any kind.
Once again no bites and now time was starting to run out.
Ok I've always noticed that if you put in an extra effort it seems to pay off. So in came all the baits and we ran back into about 105 feet of water and started over with just the live baits out of the kites and no more shark baits out.
All of a sudden here he came a big sail fish all over our right long kite bait and before you could blink an eye he was jumping and we or should I say Eric was Hooked Up.
I've got to say that in all my years of fishing I've seen a lot of anglers light up when they finally got a shot @ fighting a big sail that was dancing all over the surface but this time I'm not sure who was lit up more the fish, Eric or me?
We finally got Eric's fish to the boat and we really don't like pulling them into the boat just for a photo but this one was coming in and yes we got the photo as you can see and we also watched him swim away in great shape.
O yea and I almost forgot about James he also got to catch a nice 18-pound kingfish.
Eric I can't thank you enough for your patience and thanks sooo much for fishing with us aboard the Hooked Up.
Captain Taco (954) 764-4344 or toll free @ (877) SEA-4344
