March 14-15
Monday and Tuesday I had my whole crew out fishing with me. Darrin, Paul, Leo, and I had the outfitters from the Outdoor Channel on our boat for a few days filming a TV program and did we have some AWESOME fishing! Day 1 we headed south out of Ft. Lauderdale to a wreck about 5 miles away to catch some live sardines. We were baitfishing for about an hour when Leo saw a sailfish jumping in the waves offshore of us. I ran the boat out to the area while Leo, Darrin, and Paul all pitched live baits at different times. It took a quick 15 minutes before Pauly hooked one of the fish. After watching the sailfish jump around the ocean awhile we got him released and looked for more. We picked up and went south for another 15 miles to a spot called the "Double Diamonds" for more action. We popped our kites up into the air and were waiting for a bite- it didn't even take 15 minutes this time. The boat was sitting on an edge in 150 feet when Pauly hooked sailfish #2. We got the release on this fish and then ran south again because the current was running at 2.5 knots, which is good for kite fishing although you have to keep resetting.
All day long the fish were coming in one at a time. Sailfish numbers 5 and 6 were a double-header grabbed by Pauly and Leo. With the tally at 6 sailfish, 4 mahi-mahi, 3 bonita, and a blackfin tuna we decided to call it a day and headed home. On the trip back we told the camera crew that we would stop on a ship wreck and try for some amberjacks and barracudas. The current was at 3 knots here and the fish weren't biting off the wreck. I spotted an edge and moved the boat over to 150 feet and told the guys to put the kites up for a few minutes. Even as the kites go up with 3 baits on each Pauly hooks up on sailfish #7 while Darrin just misses getting another. I slide the boat over to 140 feet and as I do Darrin gets a bite off our right long rigger and hooks up on our last sailfish of the day, number 8. The crew from Outdoor Channel went 8 for 10 on sails and caught a handful of other fish- what a fantastic day of fishing.
On the 15th we decided to go daytime swordfishing to get some good footage. Leaving the dock at 6:30AM we headed for the sword grounds about 20 miles off the shores of Ft. Lauderdale in 1800 feet of water. About 90 minutes later we drop our first bait, a bonito belly strip with a 10-lb. lead weight all the way to the bottom. Leo and Darrin set up a kite with a shark bait on long, a goggleye in the middle, and a sardine on the short and wait for the bites. The action started before noon when we got a double-header mahi-mahi, both fish around 25 lbs. Darrin picked up another 40 lb. mahi on a spinning rod and it was a good tussle with 3 fish on at the same time. The crew boated all 3 fish as Leo saw another and pitch-baited another 20 lb. fish. That gave us 4 nice, big dolphin on the last day of the shoot, but not we never got a daytime swordfish bite.
