Fishing Aboard the Hooked Up mid febuary
Capt. Taco Perez
February 17, 2009
Fort Lauderdale - Saltwater Fishing Report
Feb 9
Today we set out for a morning of deep sea fishing with 4 guys from Russia as far as their names I could not say. They told me their names but really I could not say them. (LOL) We had one heck of a language barrier but I've got to say that made the trip even more fun.
When you're sitting there waiting for a bite it was almost imposable to communicate but as soon as we got a fish on everyone paid attention and we seemed to get threw it just fine.
We started out trolling down the reef with 2 deep lines on planner boards and 3 baits on the surface. At first these guys kept thinking that we had a fish on one of the planner rods because of the bend in the rod caused by the planners but once we caught our first king fish they seen how it worked and they knew just what to do when we got a bite.
We ended up catching 4 nice king fish and 2 big bomber bonitos on the reef. Then we went out a little deeper to see if we could find any dolphin fish. It wasn't red hot off shore but we did manage to catch 3 nice dolphin fish and missed something that crashed one of our top lines but we never got a chance to see what it was but I will say whatever it was it was a SEA MONSTER. I guess that's what fishing trips are about the one that got away.
That same afternoon we took out Chip from Westchester New York and his good friend Walter from Long Island New York.
This trip we went right to it we set our kites out in 350 feet of water with 3 live baits suspended from them and one dead bonito also suspended from the kite. We also set out a dead king fish down about 150 down and another king down on the bottom.
It did take some waiting but we got a bite on our deepest bait on the bottom and Walter jumped in the chair the fight was on. It took Walter about 15 minutes to reel his fish to the boat. It was a nice hammer head shark.
Way to go Walter now it is Chip's turn so we set all the baits right back out there and the trap was set and the wait began. We waited for over an hour and we were just starting to reel the lines in to go and try something else when it happen. Our deep rod had a BITE and I do mean a BITE line started going off the reel so fast and the rod was bent almost in half I thought it was going to break. We left the rod in the rod holder for a couple minutes to give the fish a chance to settle down a bit. Once the line slowed up a bit we got Chip and the rod in the chair and the fight was on. There was a back and forth tug a war for at least an hour before we finally got the leader up to the boat. But this was just the beginning of our problems you see when you've got the leader to the rod tip and you're looking straight down into the water and you still can't see the fish that means just one thing THRESHER SHARK. Their back is almost a dark blue to a purple and with the deep blue sea under him it is almost imposable to see the fish. And to make matters worse Chip has a trophy room at his house and we somehow need to get a measurement of this fish so he could have a replica trophy made of his BIG catch and add to his collection.
Jay Jay finally got the leader in his hand and started pulling and sure enough up popped this MONSTER Thresher shark. The only good news was that this shark had been fighting for so long that he was beat.
Once Jay Jay got it right next to the boat he opened up the tuna door and just slid him right in on the deck. We got a quick measurement and a few quick pictures and just slid him right back out the door.
Way to go Chip and Jay Jay nice job. Ten foot 3 inches THAT'S A NICE ONE!!!
We may not have caught a lot of fish on this trip but if we weighed our catch we caught plenty.
Chip and Walter thanks again and looking forward to fishing you guys again.
February has just started and some of the bigger sharks are already showing up so get the heck out of the cold ice and snow and come on down here to Sunny South Florida for a few days and is a part of this Great fishing.
Go to Photo Gallery #6 for a better look at this SEA MONSTER
Captain Taco (954)764-4344 or toll free (877) SEA-4344
Feb 10
They say that when you're on a roll just go with it and we are on a roll.
Today we had Steve from Flint Michigan, Troy from right down here in South Florida, Dave from Vancouver BC, Chris and Kristie from Conn. The day started out with trying to find live bait. We just had a big fishing tournament this weekend and no one was selling any live bait so we had to settle for very small live baits. But all the same we set out our kites and suspended our live baits from the kites and started waiting. It did not take long till the first dolphin fish showed up. Soon there after another one showed up and then another. Things were looking pretty good for when all of a sudden we had a big swirl by one of our kite baits and this was no dolphin. Jay Jay jumped on the rod and let the fish slowly walk away with the bait when he noticed anther fish on one of the other kite baits. This one he seen and it was a sail fish. Captain Greg went ahead with the boat and ended up hooking one out of the two.
Steve wasted no time jumping in the chair and the fight was on. It took Steve a good 15 minutes to finally get his fish to the boat. We got a quick measurement of his fish in order to have a replica trophy made of his catch took a couple of quick pictures and watched him swim away in good shape.
For a better look at this photo go to photo gallery # 6
We ended up with plenty of dolphin for everyone and one big sailfish.
Way to go guys and Chris and Dave we are looking forward to catching you your sailfish next month.
The fishing reports speak for themselves so get your but out of the cold and snow and come on down to Sunny South Florida and let's get you Hooked Up
Captain Taco (954)764-4344 or toll free (877) SEA-4344
Feb 11
WOW what a week of Deep Sea Fishing Off the coast of Fort Lauderdale.
Today we set out for a morning of deep sea fishing with Mark, Jayson and Sean all from Sullivan Illinois. We stopped at the bait boat and picked up a dozen live baits (witch were hard to come by) than we worked our way out to the fishing grounds. About half was out to where we were going Captain Jay Jay came up on the fly bridge and told me the bad news. It turns out that Captain Jay Jay had cleaned our live well out yesterday with bleach and forgot to rinse it out. We had all the baits we needed the only problem was that all of them were sleeping. (RATS)
So we turned around and picked up some more live baits and back out we headed. We went right to 350 feet of water and set out both our kites with live baits suspended from them and we also set out two big dead bonitos one on the surface and the other one down on the bottom.
As soon as we got the baits out there we got covered up with dolphin fish. So we were looking pretty good at this point and we had a good two and a half knot current to the north and I felt real good about getting a big bite.
After waiting about a half an hour it seemed we got our deep bait snagged on the bottom (Or so we thought)
After Jay Jay trying to get it unsnaged I went down stairs to see if I could get it unsnaged. Jay Jay did not care for the way I was trying to do it so after a couple of words I decided ok big shot come on down here and show me how it should be done. Jay Jay started reeling of the reel and I was trying to hold the boat in a way that it would help him out a bit. Then I noticed Jay Jay tell Sean to get in the big fighting chair and Jay Jay placed the rod in the chair and buckled a harness around Sean and on to the reel. I could not help but to ask Jay Jay if he was getting our customer to try to reel it off the bottom for him. No sooner did the words come out of my mouth when the rod bent over and line was just screaming off the reel.
I said O yea I knew that. We had a fish on the whole time and the fish had no idea he was hooked nor did we. But we were all quite aware of it now.
The fight begins and this looked as if this was going to take some time. Between the hard current the big waves and a very big fish on the other end this was one hell of a fight. I've got to give Sean credit he really did a great job and he kept doing a great job for one hour and 15 minutes. Finally up popped our leader and looking down we could not see the fish which gave us a real good idea of what we had on. We only get these fish off the coast of ft Lauderdale for a very short period in Februarys and the beginning of March. Thresher Sharks and that was just what we had on Here and this was a full groan one. We had one thing in our favor this fish was beat and for as big as he was it was pretty easy to slide him in the tuna door to get a quick measurement and a few pictures of this SEA MONSTER and then slide him right back out the door. And yes he swam away in good shape.
WAY TO GO SEAN
Mark, Jayson and Sean thanks for a morning of fishing I won't forget.
Ok all you snow birds up there in the North East time to get the heck out of the cold and get down here and be a part of some of this GREAT fishing down here in Sunny South Florida.
Captain Taco (954)764-4344 or toll free (877) SEA-4344.
Feb 12
Today we set out with Lindsay and Rob from Washington DC and their good friend Chris from West Palm Beach Florida.
We started out trolling the reef and catching a few bonitos and a black fin tuna. We had worked our way to the south off the coast of North Miami and since we were so far to the south we decided to try some deep drops on a ship wreck. We trolled around the wreck first to catch some small bonitos to use for bait. We dropped our little live bonitos down 225 feet down to the bottom hopping to catch a big grouper or maybe an amber jack. The current was going to the north at three knots so doing these deep drops were hard to do and it was all we could do just to try to keep the live bait on the wreck for about 30 seconds at best. After three different attempts at this we knew that this just was not going to work.
So we thought we would try to use this strong current to our advantage. We put a big dead bonito on the bottom about 350 feet down another one about 150 feet down and a third on the surface. We figured that with all this north current that the smell of our baits would get out quick and we might get a shot at a shark. After about 45 minutes of waiting we got the bit. It came on our bait that was 150 down. Line started peeling off the reel and the rod was bent over good. This was the shot we were waiting for. Rob wasted no time jumping in the chair and the fight was on. It took Rob about 20 minutes to finally get his catch to the boat. It was a 7 foot bull shark. Way to go Rob.
We got a couple of quick pictures of Rob's catch and released the shark.
Thanks again Lindsay, Rob and Chris looking forward to seeing you guys again this week.
Captain Taco (954)764-4344
Feb 13
Today we started out our day fishing with Barry his wife Lisa and their two children Aaron and Andrew all from New York City. We also had Tim from Wisconsin with us.
We were looking for some good eating fish so we thought our best way to target some good to eat fish like king fish or some dolphin fish would be trolling. We started out trolling the reef hopping for some king fish first. We never did find any kings but we did manage to catch some bonitos. After trolling the reef we went off shore looking for some dolphin fish. We never did find any dolphin fish but we all a had a good time fishing and catching some bonitos.
That same after noon we took out Dave his dad Si his two sons Noah and Max and their good friend Michael all from Boston.
We started out flying a couple of kites with live baits suspended from them in hope of seeing a sail fish or maybe some dolphin fish.
After a good hour of kite fishing we started losing our wind and the kites would no longer fly. So we needed to find any kind of fish to keep these guys into it. I started trolling the reef without any bites till I trolled past a ship that was anchored up off the coast of fort Laudable beach. As we trolled past this ship we got two bites at the same time. Noah got the first one in the boat and then Max got the second. We had found a school of bonitos and we were not going to leave these fish.
While we never did catch any good eating fish we ended up with a box full of bonitos and a boat full of happy anglers.
Dave sorry the fishing was a bit slow today but I'm glad your guests had a good time and we're looking forward to fishing you guys again soon.
Captain Taco (954)764-4344
Feb 14
Today we took out Amy and Bruce from Cape Cod Ma, Amy and Alex from New Hampshire and Kathy from Boston Ma.
Fishing had been slow for all the boats this morning so this afternoon we thought we would try something a little different. Since we had a live well full of live baits we set out our kites with four live baits suspended from them but this time we set up in real shallow water 80 feet. All the other boats were fishing in 150 to 350 feet of water. We stayed in shallow for over an hour without a bite. So I decided to slowly work our way out to deeper water. As we were drifting out deeper we put out two more lines. One down about 150 feet and the last one down on the bottom.
All of a sudden we saw our 150 deep line that was connected to a balloon as a bobber popped. Seconds later the rod bent over and we were Hooked Up. Amy jumped in the chair and the fight was on. It took Amy a good 20 minutes to finally reel her fish to the side of the boat. It turned out to be a monster Silky Shark and this fish was pissed off. Captain Greg kept trying to grab the leader to get the fish close enough to try to get a couple of the hooks that were swinging behind the fish out. But every time he would get the fish just out of reach this thing would go nuts and peel off more line. After about 5 minutes of this the fish made one more quick run and was spinning and finally got himself unhooked. (Thank God)
No we did not catch a lot of fish on this trip but we caught a big one and we also caught one hell of a fun time.
Amy thanks again and we can't wait to get the chance to catch you a LOT of fish next time. See ya soon.
Captain Taco (954)764-4344
Finally fishing has taken a turn for the better. The last couple of days fishing has been a little slow but I guess what we needed was some anglers with some good luck to change our luck.
We had Ralph from Vero Beach Florida and Chris and his wife Gretchen from Conn. All of our anglers were fishing on the Hooked Up complements of New York Life insurance company. We started out catching some small bonitos. Then we took these small bonitos to a ship wreck and dropped them down on a ship wreck about 210 feet down. We did manage to get one bite on the wreck but never did get a hook in the fish that tried to eat our bait. So we decided to change fishing methods.
We set out both of our fishing kites with live baits suspended from them and from there it didn't take long. We had two sailfish pop up at the same time. We managed to get a hook in one of the two of them. Ralph jumped in the chair and we were Hooked Up. It took Ralph a good 15 minutes to finally get his fish to the side of the boat. Captain Jay Jay got the hook out of Ralph's fish got a quick picture and watched his swim away in great shape. (Way to go Ralph)
After some hand shaking a some high fiving we got the baits right back out there. This time we waited and waited without any more bites.
It was time to reel them in and head back to the dock when at the very last second here comes another sailfish. This time Gretchen jumped in the chair and once again we were Hooked Up. Gretchen did a great job and got her fish to the boat in just about the same amount of time that it took Ralph.
Thanks so much for a great fun morning of fishing.
Cold fronts are moving threw again and so are the sailfish so come on down to Sunny South Florida and let's get you Hooked Up.
Captain Taco (954)764-4344 or toll free (877) SEA-4344
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