May 1
Ok so April is behind us and here we go right into one of the best Shark fishing months of the year.
We started out May fishing with Phil, Brain, Piere, Charles and May all from Oklahoma.
What a great way to start out the new month!
We started out trolling the reef catching kingfish and bonitos one after another.
Ok so now that everyone had caught a fish or two we brought in the trolling gear and set out our kites with live baits suspended from them along with a couple shark
baits set down deep.
Ok the trap is set and it seemed like only min till this BIG sailfish was chasseing one of the live baits all over the place and just like that we were Hooked Up.
Phil jumped in the chair and the fight was on. 20 min later Phil had his 89 inch sailfish to the boat.
Than all of a sudden one of our deep rods bent over and line started peeling off. Holly Cow we got another big fish on just like that. This time Brain jumped in the chair and the fight was on. After a good 15 min Brain was worn out so Piere jumped in the chair to give him a hand. 10 min later at last this big hammerhead shark was at the side of the boat. J.J. managed to get 2 out of the 3 hooks out of the hammerhead and we watched him swim away in great shape.
What a great trip and as we pulled back to the dock we had our afternoon trip eager to give their luck a shot aboard the Hooked Up off the coast of Fort Lauderdale.
We had Jordon, Elson, Chirag all from Dallas Texas and Tim out of Miami Florida.
Once again we started out trolling the reef catching everyone a bonitos or 2 and than we set the kites right back out there and sure enough another sailfish popped up and this time Elson jumped in the chair.
15 min later he had his first sailfish catch. J.J. cut the leader as close as possible to the sail's mouth and he also swim away in great shape.
What can I say but this was the perfect way to start out May!!
Thanks again to all of our lucky anglers today and thanks again for fishing with us aboard the Hooked Up.
Captain Taco (954) 764-4344 ob toll free @(877) SEA-4344
May 3rd
Today we started out fishing with Charles, Brent, Mark, Emma and Andrea from Ottawa Canada.
We went right out to 150 feet of water and set out 2 kites with 3 live baits and one dead shark bait suspended from them.
The bite started out a bit slow only catching a few king fish and a few bonitos than all @ once line started screaming off the one of the reels and we had a big fish on.
After a 15 min back and forth tug a war up came this nice 18-pound black fin tuna.
Guy's thanks again for fishing with us aboard the Hooked Up and we are looking forward to fishing with you guys again next year.
Captain Taco (954) 764-4344 ob toll free @ (877) SEA-4344
May 4
Today we fished with Jake and Brent from Lexington Kentucky.
We started out trolling the reef with 2-planner boards running about 45 feet deep along with 3 baits skipping across the waves. The planner boards seemed to be getting all the bites with us boating a half dozen kingfish along with a few bonitos.
Ok now that the skunk was out of the box we brought in the trolling gear and set out 2 kites with 2 live baits suspended from 1 kite and a live bait and a big dead shark bait suspended from the other kite. We also set a shark bait on the bottom and one last shark bait half way down.
Ok so the trap was set and now all we needed was for some big SEA MONSTER to come along and take a bite.
That's just what happen and Jake jumped in the chair and the fight was on.
It was a back and forth fight till at last Jake got his hammerhead shark to the boat.
We slid him into the tuna door got all 3 hooks out of him a quick measurement to have a replica trophy made of Jake's catch and watched him swim away in good shape to fight again another day.
Jake and Brent thanks again for a fun day of fishing you guys are first class and we look forward to fishing again.
Captain Taco (954) 764-4344 ob toll free @ (877) SEA-4344
May 5
Today was kind of a special day of fishing off the coast of Fort Lauderdale for me because I got to fish for the first time with the newest edition to the Hooked Up Local Knowledge Fishing team Brendan. I'm not trying to write this fishing story about one of the crew members but this truly ins a big part of the story today.
Brendan was a customer on the Local Knowledge quite a few months ago and Captain Mike has been using him to book trips and has slowly been training him to be a mate.
Well today both my main crewmembers J.J. and Greg needed the day off and I just wanted to see what Brendan had. By the way I did have one of our fill in Captains Chris ride along just incase things did not work out but as you'll read things worked out very good.
Ok back to the trip we had Dennis from Sevierville Tenn. and Valery who now lives in Fort Lauderdale aboard.
Dennis told me he had been on 4 ob 5 fishing trips in the past without catching anything! I assured him that I would not let this happen on my watch!
So off we went on our 4-hour fishing trip. We started out trolling the reef with 2 planner board running about 45 feet down, one wire line set way back and two baits skipping across the surface.
We started trolling to the south catching a kingfish here and a kingfish there and while Brendan was wiring in the fish I would yell down to him that I wanted him to gaff the fish in the eye!! I must say this kid can gaff! He gaffed every fish just where I told him to and I think he was starting to feel a little good about himself but I was not going to let him get too at ease yet.
Ok so the kid was doing a pretty good job and at this point Dennis had let me know that he was having a ball and wanted to extend his trip for the whole day.
Good eating fish was what Dennis was looking for so we brought in the trolling gear and started doing deep drops for snappers. While we did manage to catch one good-sized snapper they just were not biting so I decided to switch up and dropped a live bait on a ship wreck.
A few min after our live bait hit the bottom the rod bent over and we were Hooked Up with a big fish that was taking a lot of line off the reel.
Dennis jumped in the chair and the fight was on. After a good 10 min fight up popped this 35 to 40 pound greater amber jack. We got quick photos of Dennis's Jack and watched him swim back to the bottom to fight again another day.
O by the way I forgot to mention that while Brendan was bring this nice fish aboard he dropped him back in the water but by the grass of god the hook stayed tight and we were finally able to get a photo. (LOL)
Ok things were going good and now that Brendan was a little humbled we decided to go off shore looking for some dolphin fish.
Long story short we never did find any dolphin fish.
Ok no dolphin but I still had one more trick up my sleeve.
We caught a couple of live baits and we did a drop on one of my secret wrecks and as soon as the bait hit the bottom the rod bent over and we were Hooked Up again.
I called out to Valery (who to be honest had not felt very good for the last few hours but never once complained) to jump in the chair and reel up this grouper.
Much to everyone surprise (Me included) up popped this 15 pound black grouper.
Well Dennis you wanted good eating fish and this one is as good as it gets.
Dennis, Valery and yea Brendan it was a real pleasure fishing with you guys and two more things #1 Dennis I am looking forward to fishing with you again soon and Brendan you are not supposed to be happier than the costumers went we put a nice fish in the boat! (LOL) But all the same you did a great job and we're glad to have you aboard.
Captain Taco (954) 764-4344 ob toll free @ (877) SEA-4344
