This report starts on a high note. It was September 28th and goes like this. So what if I have a bad cold. What's so bad about 20 knot NE winds and 5 to 8 foot seas. Well maybe some of those seas were a little higher. All's well that ends well. I fished with Marty and Martini Arostegui and crew man Sherman Huffman aboard Timely Sale this weekend. We were fishing in the Miami Swordfish Tournament.
When the dust settled we had a pretty successful weekend. 15 year old Martini caught 3 of the 4 swordfish that hit his baits. We had one other swordfish beat up two baits right behind the boat when Marty was retrieving them while Martini was fighting one of his fish. A quick drop back of those bait fail to produce another chance.
Martini tagged and released his three fish of about 35, 50 and 55 inches. These catches awarded him and his boat with 3rd place overall, 2nd place releases and 1st place junior angler. Martini was 2nd place angler which was not a recognized position.
The top angler was Jason aboard the Miss Britt with 1 release and the only boated swordfish, a 214 beauty. This fish gave the Miss Britt the top weight fish award and top angler with 14 points more than Martini.
Top boat in the tournament was My Sea Sin with Captain Randy Towe of Islamorada. They released 2 swordfish on Friday night and 3 swordfish on Saturday night.
Our next trip was with Don and Sandy. The mullet run was in full gear and we took full advantage of it. We ran the beach searching for mullet and their traveling companions. We found a big school of bluefish and caught them on 4 to 8 pound tackle and lures for a couple hours. That was about 50 bluefish releases and a lot of fun. We then ran back to Government Cut and fished with live mullet. When the spray settled we had caught 1 out of 6 tarpon that we jumped or fought.
A lot of days on my October calendar are marked "blown out". It was a pretty windy October. We fished with Ed Walker and his party on the 9th. We caught 8 nice yellowtail snappers, a king mackerel, a big cero mackerel, 2 dolphin, a barracuda and a blackfin tuna offshore. On the way in we caught 5 big jack crevalle in the inlet.
The next evening we fished with a couple guys from London. We caught a 70 pound tarpon, 4 bluefish, a ladyfish, a bonnethead shark and a snook.
The following day we fished with Ron and his 13 year old son, Scott. They caught 2 sailfish, 3 dolphin, a hammerhead shark, a blacktip shark and 6 skipjack tuna. The one bummer of the trip was that every time we went to photograph Scott's fish the leader would break or the hook would pull while the fish was next to the boat. On the way home we caught a snook at the inlet.
The next day we only fished a couple hours. We caught a dolphin, 3 skipjacks and an 18 inch cobia.
After a week of no fishing we fished an evening trip on the 18th. We caught a sailfish on the edge and a snook in the inlet.
We spent the weekend of the 20th on Cayman Island. We were invited to help with an educational event to help the Caymanians perfect their swordfish techniques. They had caught a few and wanted to prove they had a swordfish population worthy of enjoying. The weekend was super. We had a round table seminar on Friday night attended by over 100 anglers and captains, with 7 Floridian captains and 5 local captains at the round table. Saturday morning over 120 anglers and captains attended a hands-on bait and tackle rigging program that lasted for 4 hours. Saturday night 16 boats went swordfishing. There were 23 hook-ups. Several swordfish were confirmed as hookups and Captain Charles Ebanks and his brother brought a 189.3 pound swordfish to the dock on their 28 foot, 5 foot beam, 6 inch freeboard canoe. Everybody had a great time throughout the whole weekend event. Our thanks to Clarence Flowers and his fellow board members for a super event.
Don and Sandy joined Ray for an afternoon and evening of fishing this past week. We caught a sailfish, 3 dolphin and a wahoo in the afternoon, but the swordfish avoided our hooks in the evening.
The Fort Lauderdale Boat Show was great. We got a look at the new Bahamian Fishing Regulations and they were well received.
You are now allowed 18 pelagic fish per boat , 20 fish or 60 pounds of reef fish per boat, 6 conch, 10 lobster and no billfish. The fish must be kept in whole condition for the time being.
The wind is blowing out the rest of October, but the swordfish are biting day and night. The sailfish and dolphin will be hot from now through next spring and the tarpon should be here soon. Let's plan some fishing trips at captbouncer@bellsouth.net