Offshore over the Holidays I did several trips and had success and failures by my standards. Water temperatures still in the high 70's has not pushed the numbers of targeted Sailfish into our areas yet. Most of my trips are seeking these fish on their trips and it can make fishing tough.
The day after Christmas Devon and I took a father and son team fishing, Peter and Marshall Dill. The fishing was less than stellar, matter of fact, it was more like in the cellar. We got our bait with a little bit of trouble but we secured plenty for the day. We struggled all day on the calm seas. The seas were as calm as a secluded pond and there was absolutely NO current moving in the area. We hit 3 different wrecks, worked the bottom, and tried the mid depths. Of course, we had a full compliment of baits working the surface at all times. Nothing, is the key word. We worked our hind parts off and only came up with 2 small Dolphin and a Barracuda within minutes around 12:30 in the afternoon. The wrecks didn't produce anything with live bait or speed jigs. The mid depths which normally wear us out with Kingfish never produced a single strike and the surface was void of all species. This only confirms that those who pray for a nice comfortable day on the boat get a nice comfortable boat ride, nothing more! Good Lord, I hate those days!
The next trip was with a fellow World Cat'er, Tom Maggliacco who owns "Latitude Adjustment". He is a local from the Redlands who is imported from Michigan. We departed the dock around 11 AM for this tutorial trip. You see, Tom is a die hard "troller" who I have convinced that he needs to up his game and move into the live bait arena during the winter. Live bait fishing is not only the most productive fishing method during the winter, it is the only cost effective method with the price of fuel today. This trip was dedicated to help him learn various live bait techniques, from finding and catching bait to deploying those baits in a productive manner. Tom learned downrigger fishing methods which produced several nice Kingfish. We dropped bottom rods and he caught a small Cobia which wouldn't reach "fish box" measurements. We had several good strikes on the speed jigs, all of which resulted in cut off jigs. That can get expensive quick! At the end of the day he also learned that those live baits on the surface will also produce Sailfish. He managed to catch and release a very big Sailfish during the evening "witching hour". All in all, the day was very successful. Tom has called me several times with questions about the day. We managed to have a good afternoon with many strikes and some nice catches. He is anxious to set up some more trips to continue learning our South Florida fishing style.
My last trip was with an good client, Parker Creech and Stina (his better half) from North Carolina. This trip was a last minute call for an afternoon trip the next day. Parker used to fish with me every year and we lost contact over the years, for some reason . It was good to hear from him and take him fishing once again. Devon and I met him at 12 noon and we made bait quickly. The patch that we have been using the past several trips is loaded with hungry baits. Catching them on hook and line was quick and 2 throws of the 10' Calusa cast net and we were on our way with fully loaded bait wells.
Parker was there for the Sailfish and Stina was there to catch all the other fish. We had some good success with the mid depths on Kingfish but for some reason Stina couldn't keep them pinned to the hook all the way to the boat. The bottom rod caught us another 18 inch, sub limit Cobia. We stayed busy most of the afternoon and when the "witching hour" arrived we had BIG Kingfish sky rocketing on our surface baits. Most cut off the mono leader like a hot knife through butter. One managed to collect the circle hook in the corner of his jaw, exactly as intended. This fish was a "smoker" which worked Stina to the limits on the 20# spinning tackle. When she finally got the fish to the boat it ripped back and forth across the stern, several times. Devon crawled into the motor wells twice to clear the line from the motor cowlings. The last clearing attempt found Devon falling into the drink. Not a problem. I put the motors in neutral and Devon, being the fish that he is, made 3 strokes against the current and was on the dive ladder. At that same time I was sticking the gaff into this Kingfish. The fish weighed out at 28+ pound on the Boga Grip scale. This was the only fish we kept that afternoon as we are about caught up on our smoked fish supply. Unfortunately we finished the day without a shot at a Sailfish for Parker but he was very happy. He was also glad we had reunited once again and is planning another trip to come fish with us in February.
Here is a funny note! While cleaning that one and only Kingfish, Devon found a belly full of Ballyhoo and one Goggle Eye. The kicker… the Goggle Eye was tethered to a rubber band bridle on a small circle hook, one Ballyhoo was bridle to a J hook with copper wire, and Lo and behold, there is the front half of our Ballyhoo pinned to the Owner circle hook which was cut off about 10 minutes prior to this Kingfish being caught. This King was obviously wreaking havoc in the entire fleet that afternoon. He obviously came to dinner, one too many times in our spread, which led to his demise.
Hopefully the weather will change and bring us better fishing conditions. Until then, best wishes for a good year in 2008, from the crew of The BEAST.
Capt. Jim
The BEAST
305-233-9996
www.beastcharters.com
beastcharters@aol.com