On a previous trip before the weekend Francisco and his dad and brother chartered a full day of fishing. We started out with over a dozen Goggle eyes, and a couple dozen Pilchards. We headed north and found a rip in 200 feet of water that was setting up real nice.We put the spread of baits out consisting of 5 rods. The ocean was dead calm with a little north current. We all watched a huge Kingfish skyrocket at least 8 feet in the air not a 100 feet from the boat on the side where the baits were. Soon we got a hit then quickly lost it as we got cut off. I quickly re-rigged and set out another Goggle eye. I let it swim freely for awhile and then I felt the thump. It was quick so I tightened up on him and the fish swam deep and under the boat. Francisco's dad stayed on the fish for at least 15 -20 minutes as this fish wasnt quite done yet. We had the gaff shot once but this fish would run 50 yards so quick I knew he wasn't finished. 6-8 times this happened and finally we got our shot into another fully harvestable Kingfish about 40 pounds. So that was Francisco's dads' first saltwater fish ever and they were very happy. We stayed on this rip and another rod bends over and sticks without the line ripping out. The fish then came straight up and started tailwalking as fast as he could away from the boat. Sailfish on! Francisco's brother is on it even longer than his dad was on his. Over 30 minutes later we have the Sailfish to the boat for a quick pic. Still full of life, the fish swam away.
All morning I'm hearing boats going offshore for the Dolphin. What a beautiful day it was for it. I got the call from my good friend Dick Russel who was offshore about 8 miles. He was on so many Dolphin he said there was at least a hundred of them under his boat and he was picking and choosing his fish. He gave me the coordinates of where he was and we made the run offshore. When we got around him there was alot of nice weed patches around so we started fishing them, but there were no fish. Sure enough they were all over this one particular patch and we both fished it. The fish were going crazy on our baits, eating the Pilchards one after the other. We were swinging in the Dolphin one by one, blood is all over the boat. We notice a huge Dolphin come up checking out the commotion. Dick said he saw the big fish picking away at the small Dolphin. I had quickly jigged up a small one and quickly rigged him up and threw him out. The big Dolphin noticed the bait and swam right up to it and swallowed it. We had him on and then we quickly got cut off. I don't know what had happened but we were robbed. We still had fun picking away at the fish and brought back at least 10 Dolphin and our big Kingfish.
I'm looking foward to every chance I get to getting on the water this season. Not everyday might be as good but everyday brings something different. I will be trying to put my attention on the Blackfin Tuna bite thats here each Spring and early summer. I absolutely love that fish.
See you on the rip,
Captain Cary Hanna
954-907-0967