March 10, 2009
February is over and we are now into one of my favorite months of the year to fish off the coast of Fort Lauderdale. We are starting out March fishing with a father and son team Kelly and his son Jacob from Birmingham Alabama.
These guys don't get the chance to do a lot of deep sea fishing so we wanted to see if we could get them Hooked Up into something big. So we started out by picking up some live bait and went right out to 350 feet of water. We set out both of our kites with live baits suspended from them and one nice shark bait. We also set one bait down about 150 feet and our last bait was sent all the way to the bottom.
Not the trap was set and all we had to do was hope for the BIG bite. We did catch a couple of dolphin fish while we were waiting for the big bite. We had been waiting for quite some time and were starting to think of plan B in the event we did not get the bite when all of a sudden our deep rod bent over and line was just peeling off the reel. This was the bite we were waiting for.
We had to wait a good 3 minutes till the fish finally settled down once he did we got our angler in the chair and the fight was on. It was a back and forth tug a war for a good 45 minutes till finally up came this monster hammer head shark.
Captain Jay Jay did manage to get 2 of the 3 big hooks out of the shark and got a couple of quick pictures and watched him swam away in good shape.
Way to go guys and that's the difference between deep sea fishing and fishing in a pound (LOL)
Thanks again Kelly and Jacob see you guys again next year.
Ok spring is here and the fishing is getting better every day so give us a call and let's get you Hooked Up in Sunny Fort Lauderdale
• Captain Taco (954)764-4344 or toll free (877) SEA-4344
March 4
Today we had Pat from West Palm Beach brought his friends Frank from Ft Lauderdale, Butch and Phil from Atlanta Georgia and SEA SICK Joe from Ohio.
We started out trolling down the reef catching plenty of kingfish and bonitos. After everyone had caught fish we decided to set out our kites and see if we could catch a sailfish or some dolphin fish. But as soon as we got all the baits out there pat came up on the fly bridge and let me know that Joe was not feeling so well and we decided to bring him back to the dock. We made sure that Joe knew that the best cure for being sea sick was a palm tree and a pinaclada (LOL).
Once we got back out there we set out both our kites and suspended our live baits from them and started to wait and wait and wait. I'm sorry to say we never did find a sailfish but we had a box full of king fish and had a great time all the same. Joe hope you're feeling better and Joe next year were going to have you stay at the dock and cook the fish for us once we get in.
Thanks again Pat and looking forward to fishing you guys again next year.
Captain Taco (954)764-4344
March 6
Today Dave and Kelly flew down to South Florida with Dave's dad to celebrate his dad's 60 birthday they came all the way down from Pa just to try to catch his dad his first sailfish. Dave and his wife Kelly fish all over the world and have caught lots of big game fish in the past but this trip was for the birthday boy.
We stopped and picked up some live baits headed out to the ocean. Once we got out we noticed that we had a hard north current about a knot and a half to the north. So I decided to run way down to the south and set our kites out. Once we got about 4 miles down I found a nice edge where the blue water meat the green water and it looked good. We were in 110 feet of water set out both kites with our live bait suspended from them and the trap was set all we needed now was for Dave's birthday sailfish to pop up.
All of a sudden we seen a big swirl by one of our long baits and line started peeling off the reel. We were Hooked Up and we were hoping that a sailfish would come up jumping but instead a nice big dolphin fish came up jumping. As we were trying to reel him in another rod bent over and line started peeling off of that reel. We finally got Kelly to put down her book and jumped in the chair and she started fighting her fish. It also turned out to be a big dolphin fish in fact hers was even bigger.
We may not have had on the fish we were trying to catch but we were pretty happy about the ones we had on. Finally Dave got his close enough for Captain Greg to reach out and gaff. One down and one to go as we were getting ready to gaff Kelly's fish he took one more run away from the boat shook his head and spit the hook out (RATS)
That's why they call it fishing and not catching but all the same we had plenty of fish for lunch after we got in. In fact Dave, Dave and Kelly were eating this dolphin at the restaurant next to the boat in less than 2 hours from when we had caught it. (Talk about fresh fish)
Back to the fishing at this point the blue green edge had moved out to 195 feet of water. We were fighting another fish this one turned out to be a bonito. We had drifted all the way back in front of our inlet at this point and had not had a bite in a while. Here is where the story takes a strange twist.
I've been fishing for well over 35 years and have been doing this for a living for over 20 years and I've seen a lot of big fish over the years so bare this in mind as I get to this part of this fishing story.
We had 4 different charter boats fishing close together and I was on the radio talking to one of the boats when I noticed something coming up from the deep behind the boat. I yelled down at Captain Greg and let him know that something was coming up but I could not make out what it was. At first I thought it was a big sun fish (mola mola) but as it got closer to the surface I knew it was way too big to be a sun fish so I figured it was a whale shark but then it came to the surface within 10 feet of the back of the boat. A GREAT WHITE SHARK holly cow we could not believe what we were looking at. Make no mistake it was a great white at one point we could have spit on him that is how close to the boat he got. We estimated him between 12 to 14 feet long and as big around as two 55 gallon drums put together. As far as how much I think this thing weighed I've never seen a fish this big so it is hard for me to say however Captain Greg had caught 4 blue marlin over 1000 pounds and he say this thing could have eaten them with no problem. Here is the part where I messed up bad. We were so into looking at this sea monster and I just kept slowly moving the boat to the south so we could keep checking him out that I forgot that I had not one but two cameras right next to me and by the time I realized it and graded one the fish slowly went down and we never seen him again. I guess you would have to know me to believe this story but it is all true!
That night I had called a good friend of mine Jeff that lives up in Jasonville and told him about this fish. The following day I got a call from Jeff who is very involved in fishing up there and as it turns out there was a fisherman up off the coast of Jasonville fishing when he seen the same thing a big white shark about 12 feet long and the fish he had seen was also heading to the south. He had seen his fish two days before mine and I guess that might be about how long it would have taken him to get down to South Florida.
Now I know what you are thinking what are the odds of this being the same fish. Probably better than we might think. I don't know much about white sharks but I do know that in all my years fishing down in Florida and all over the Bahamas I've never seen one or never heard of one until year before last when one of the local Captains seen one. Also they are cold water fish in other words they like cold water not warm. So I guess we'll never know but I will keep my ears to the coconut telegraph to see if any one south of us sees him.
Back to Dave his dad and Kelly normally that would be the end of this fishing report because we headed in soon after our sighting of the white shark but this story goes on a little more.
We never did get Dave his birthday bill fish and they really wanted to go out again the following day. Since I already had a trip I sent them to go out fishing on my other boat Local Knowledge with my partner Captain Mike. It must be a white week because they hooked into a white marlin again something we catch very few of and got it to the boat to complete Dave's birthday bill fish.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVE AND SEE ON YOUR SIXTY FIRST!!
To read more about this white marlin check out Captain Mike's BLOGS at www.fishlocalknowledge.com.
We got back to the dock got Dave, birthday Dave and Kelly's dolphin filleted for them and got Steve from New York, Kathrin from Philly, Sandy from Miami, Q from New York and Enrico from Canada on board and headed right back out there.
Once again we went right to kite fishing. We had heard of a few sailfish around we were pretty pumped after our morning trip. Once again we set the kites up with live baits and started the wait. This time it did not take long before our first dolphin fish showed up. Soon after that one another one showed up and then another one we were having pretty steady action with dolphin and everyone caught some. Than it happen a sailfish at last we were Hooked up with a big sailfish that was dancing all over the surface. Enrico turn was up and he could not have been happier.
It took him a good 15 minutes to finally get his fish to the side of the boat. We got a few quick pictures and watched him swim away in great shape.
It had been a great day and everyone one got to eat dolphin for dinner.
Thanks again to everyone that fished with us today and to all of you thinking about coming down to South Florida (NOW IS THE TIME) all the big fish are showing up and Fort Lauderdale Beach is FULL of spring breakers so get on down here and be a part of all this fun in the sun
Captain Taco (954)764-4344 or toll free at (877) SEA-4344
March 9
Today I learned a new lesson in life. Now I know that we have all put our foot in our mouth at one point or another for example you don't ask a girl how far along she is in her pregnancy or how come you don't have any gray hair and stuff like that.
Well today we had our regular customer/friend Mike and his friends Tommy, Brain, Joe and Dino out for a day of fishing to celebrate mike's what I thought his 49 birthday. Well Mike sorry about that I had no idea it was your 39 th birthday (LOL)
Fishing has been pretty good the last few days and I really don't like telling customers that because I don't want to get their hops up and then the fishing not being quite as good as I told them it was. But I'm sorry to say that's exactly what happen. I had called mike a couple of days before our trip to tell him about our white shark sighting and about some of the sailfish and big hammer head sharks that had been around.
We left the dock picked up some live bait and headed down south in search of some sailfish and maybe some dolphin fish. We had our kites up and our baits set out there for about 3 minutes when I decided to yell down from the fly bridge to Mike and asked him what kind of fish he wanted for his birthday. He replied any fish that was biting. Just then at that very moment a sail fish ate one of our kite baits and I said Mike how about a sail fish?
I never did see that sailfish coming up it was just luck saying the right thing at the right time. It took a very happy Mike 10 minutes to get his fish to the side of the boat and just like that we were going to have a great day. What a way to start and we had not been fishing 15 minutes at this point and already caught and released a sailfish.
You can just imagine the Bud light was flowing and everyone one was having a ball. But we are fishing and anything or nothing can happen and I'm sorry to say that's all we caught. We tried dropping some baits to the bottom with no luck than we lost our wind so that was it for kite fishing. I had called some of the other boats that were fishing way off shore looking for dolphin and no one had seen any. We did troll the reef for the rest of the trip but no bites
I guess if we were going to catch one fish and one person was going to get to reel it in we got the right fish for the right 49 I mean 39 year old birthday boy.
Mike thanks again and we'll see you next month.
Captain Taco (954)764-4344