The fishing still remains very, very good. Don't get me wrong, we have had a few trips that the fishing was slow, but overall spring is the best time to fish especially for variety and that was definitely the case this month. Just the other day we had a late afternoon trip and in a little over two hours we caught 3 big blackfin tunas, a few sailfish and quite a few bonitas. It was non stop action during the whole trip. That's not to mention that we saw over a dozen freejumpers (free jumping sailfish) as well.
As you can see the tunas are still around and most are 25 to 35 pounds. There have also been some kingfish and the biggest king fish we caught last week was right at 38 pounds. We caught lots of kings between 12 and 20 pounds as well. The big push of bonitas is coming but we have had a few days that the bonitas were thick. Although not great table fare, they are fun to catch and also make a great swordfish or shark bait. Now that we have the tunas, kings and bonitas, mix in a few sails and you can see what variety is all about. Even with those four taking the majority of the action, you can still add amberjacks, permit, snappers and groupers by taking some time and fishing the wrecks. Talk about a mixed bag.
Since the last report, we also had the opportunity to fish the Miami Dolphins Tournament. Our charter was the Flanigans from the Flanigans Restaurants. The two brothers came with their sons and a friend and what a great group of guys. We had an absolute blast fishing with them, and we did very well in the tournament as well. We caught three big blackfin tunas and a king, plus 4 sailfish. We ended up with 5th place overall, 3rd largest tuna at 32 pounds and most importantly won top Junior Angler. Way to go MacKully Flanigan!
I also did one daytime swordfish trip and we caught one swordfish that we released. I did hear of a few more swordfish caught during the day and going into June the day sword bite should bet even better. What has been lacking and also lacking many reports has been the dolphin fishing. We only did one dolphin trip to the Gulfstream so far and did catch our limit, but with the fishing so good on the edge, not many people are venturing offshore to go mahi fishing. Again that will change as we get into June where the weather pattern stabilizes and more people start venturing offshore.
What I haven't had the opportunity to do so far this year is go to the Bahamas and go after the yellowfin tunas. From the report I am getting, the tuna bite is going off. If someone is interested in that trip, please give me a call and I'll even discount the trip $100 if you say you saw it mentioned in my fishing report. How's that for an incentive!
So whatever trip you have in mind, whether it is fishing the edge, offshore mahi fishing, day or night sword trip or fishing in the Bahamas for tunas, snappers, etc. I offer all kinds of trips and am ready to go catch some fish!
Tight Lines,
Capt. Dean Panos