Well March madness is winding down and the winds are slowing down as well. We caught a lot of fish this month including one extremely special catch.
Since our last report sailfish have been our most common success. We caught 3 sails, a bonito and a 12 pound mutton snapper on the 8th.
Mr and Mrs Audino each caught sails plus a mutton, a king, a dolphin and 3 bonito on the 9th.
Ron LaSota and his team had a great day on March 10th. They started out by catching two tarpon off the south jetty of Government Cut. By days end they had added 7 sailfish, 8 dolphin, 2 twenty pound kings, and a couple more kings. Not bad with 2 Gold Coast Grand Slams.
Rick Resnik and his son wanted to keep up the pace so they caught 11 sailfish and 8 dolphin.
Now for that special catch. Tom Bell and his fishing buddies came down to catch sailfish, ,but the wind and current quit. To keep them smiling we started the day with a tuna and 3 bonitos. With action slow we headed for a wreck. One of the guys brought his own vertical jigging outfit which we rigged up for him. We would drop his jig and a live bait on each pass over the wreck. Now Jack, who shall remain nameless, said that in 225 feet of water all we would catch was amberjack. Therefore he would only fish the top lines. The first drop proved Jack right by producing a nice amberjack. Tom said he needed to catch an amberjack for his club fish list. Tom worked the live bait rod while jig man hooked a good fish which cut his leader on the wreck. Tom hooked up and I told Jack, it would be a gray grouper. Jack said amberjack. It was a 22 pound gray grouper. Jack said he would catch one of those, so he took his turn on the live bait bottom rod. Jig man hooked another good fish and lost another jig to the wreck. Of course Jack caught an amberjack. Jig man was up on the live bait rod, so Tom took the jig rod. Tom dropped the jig to the bottom, jigged three times and the jig rod doubled over. The fish burned 65 pound braid from the reel and the rod jerked and shook. Tom fought and the fish took more line. Tom fought and the fish tired. After several intense minutes the battle ended with a huge 57 pound warsaw grouper bursting to the surface. The 4 ounce vertical jig hung from the groupers lip and everyone cheered Tom's catch. Tom never did catch his amberjack, but did catch two super grouper. This was our first warsaw in 4 years and our biggest in about 20 years.
Tom caught this 57 lb. warsaw grouper on a verticle jig
Lisa Tucker's guest, Garret caught a 100 pound tarpon that evening.
The weekend of the 15th was terrible for us, we caught a couple small fish Saturday and saved face a little on Sunday with a sailfish, an amberjack, a 30 pound jack crevalle, a king and a couple big barracudas.
The 17th through the 19th were too rough, but we did catch a sailfish Monday morning before falling back to the bay for mackerel and ladyfish. Tuesday we caught a 25 pound tuna before heading for the dock.
The 20th we caught a sailfish, a dolphin, 6 bluefish, a mackerel and a snapper in the morning. Tom Hobbs and Wayne fished the afternoon and caught 4 sailfish, a king and a bonito. One of Tom's sails was in the 100 pound class and another was an easy 80 pounds.
The Fowler gang fished the 23rd and 24th. They scored with 4 sailfish, 4 kingfish and two tarpon.
Hank Dinardo and his son caught 2 huge amberjacks, a cobia, a 9 pound red snapper, 2 mutton snappers, a barracuda, an almaco jack and a king.
The 25th, Al Young and his guest caught 4 of 7 sailfish, 5 dolphin and six bonitos.
On the 26th we were making Italian fishing TV shows. We caught a sailfish, a dolphin, 2 bonito and a cuda for one show on kite fishing. Then we caught 2 forty-five pound amberjacks, a bunch of smaller jacks and an atlantic bonito on vertical jigs. This morning we made a show on anchor live bait fishing. We caught a 30 pound king, a 10 pound king, a 6 pound blue runner and 6 dolphin for that show.
Lots of sailfish, tarpon, tuna, dolphin and kings will be caught over the next month. I hope you can join the fun. Call me at 305-573-8224 or e mail captbouncer@bellsouth.net
