Don and Sandy Blake were joined by Ray Stormont for some fishing the afternoon of June 24th. They caught a nice cobia, a king, a blackfin tuna and a couple mutton snappers.
We then headed off to help with the Cayman Swordfish Challenge. Myself and 7 other Florida swordfish captains traveled to Cayman Island to share fishing experiences with the great anglers and captains of the Cayman Islands. We had a great time and learned a lot over the following days and evenings. Arthur Mariano gave a great talk on currents of the Caribbean as well as swordfish tagging benefits. Ali Mercier gave a super talk about the catching of swordfish in the Caribbean. We all shared bait rigging methods under the tent on Saturday. Fishing Saturday ands Sunday evening produced two swordfish released by Cayman anglers. Many escolar, a.k.a. oil fish were caught as well as some big sharks. A couple good swordfish got away. And a lot of good times were had. The trip ended with a super drive around the island, good times at Rum Point and a super awards dinner.
The Orvieto gang were our first anglers when we got home to Miami. Brad and Drew caught 6 nice snook on rising tide.
Ryan Stevens and his lady caught 3 snook the next night after spending all but 30 minutes of the trip trying to catch a tarpon. I think tarpon season is over for this summer.
We fished with the Cotrone brothers on the 4th of July. We had a swordfish bite, but no hook up. We did some deep dropping which produced 2 snow grouper, a kitty Mitchell grouper, 5 vermillion snappers, a yellow eye snapper, a king mackerel, a large almaco jack and 4 bonitos.
The next day fishing was very mixed with 3 dolphin, a king, 4 red snappers, 1 vermillion snapper, a large scamp grouper, 5 bonito, 2 hammerhead sharks and a 20 pound barracuda.
Our next adventure was up to the northeast. I flew into New York and drove to Montauk to fish with Joe and Jay Della Monica. We fished aboard their beautiful Viking with Captain Fritz. Striped bass were the target and we really scored well. Over two days we caught 30 big striped bass from 40 to 49 inches. What a great time we had drifting live porgies on 20 pound tackle just offshore of the Montauk Lighthouse. If you have never caught striped bass, they can fight very well and taste great.
Montauk was a beautiful place and I ran into several old Florida friends while there. I can't thank the Della Monicas enough for a great weekend.
Monday morning I took a ferry to Connecticut and drove to Cape Cod to meet up with Steve Nichols.
Steve has a ultra equipped 25 foot Dusky fish around and we were going to do some tuna fishing and shark fishing over the next few days.
We headed out on Tuesday morning at the crack of dawn. we were joined by JT and Jason who were in the northeast for the summer. The ocean was flat calm and the air was cool.
About 40 miles from the dock we were surrounded by marine life. Whales spouted, jumped and rolled in every direction. My day was made just viewing the whales. Birds searched all around us. As the day went by we saw schools of bluefin tuna running along the surface pushing a wake before them. The ocean was alive, but the tuna were not in the mood to feed in this flat calm weather. We have all seen it before. Weather too good to catch fish. It was still a very fulfilling day.
Wednesday was a duplicate to Tuesday except that while we were catching bluefish for bait, we had a race with a big seal to see who was going to keep the 3 pound bluefish. The seal chased the bluefish right up against the boat. What a way to start your day.
Once again we saw lots of whales, birds and tuna. And once again the tuna were not feeding. Watching those whales and 500 pound tuna swimming 30 feet from the boat is as good as fishing can get without ever getting a bite. All that and we got to have ice cream with 3 of Steve's beautiful girls after dinner. What a great day.
Thursday we met up with our shark tournament team. Mike and sons were ready to help get those sharks again this year. We ran to Martha's Vineyard to register in the tournament. Then we caught a bunch of bluefish for live bait. While we were catching the blues we also caught some small striped bass. It was a good day of fishing and sight seeing.
Friday it was up at 2:30 AM, run 50 miles and start catching sharks. Within 5 minutes of lines in we had blue sharks in the chum line.
When they called lines out we had caught 15 blue sharks up to 175 pounds. That is a lot of fishing action.
Saturday was a duplicate fishing day except that it was blowing 15 to 20 with big seas for that 50 mile run. Thank Dusky for one tough great riding boat. Saturday we caught 15 blue sharks up to 250 pounds. I have got to try this guys on the fly rod next time.
Sunday was clean and recover time before the flight home on Monday.
Tuesday we went swordfishing, but I am sorry to say we had no bites. When you target giant tuna or elusive swordfish, you need to understand that these special fish are just that because they are harder to catch.
Wednesday we had Vic Davetta and his boys out for a few hours. The guys had a good time catching 4 kings and 3 bonitos.
That evening, July 23rd if you have lost track of time like me, we caught 16 snook with Howard and Jay. The best was about 25 pounds.
Friday we caught a couple kings and a couple small bottom fish.
That evening Tim O'Brian caught a dozen snook and had a couple cudas on.
Saturday and Sunday we fished with the Charles Davidson party. We targeted swordfish and dolphin. Saturday we caught about 20 dolphin from undersized to 23 pounds. Sunday all we caught were some small dolphin.
Monday evening I fished with Matt, April and Tyler Tambor for just about 90 minutes. We caught 8 snook up to 21 pounds and lost several more. Remember that these snook are gathering to spawn, so traet them with care for the future of the sport.
I will be speaking about day and night swordfishing at Dusky Sport Center on August 19th at 6 PM. Call 954-922-8890 for details.
Look for good dolphin through August. Swordfish action should be very good over the next 3 months. They can be caught both day and evening. Snook fishing will stay good till October. Give us a call at 305-573-8224 or even better, e-mail me at captbouncer@bellsouth.net and we can set up a trip to catch any of these fish or others.
