Port Canaveral Offshore 11-03-10
Capt. Henry Hauch
November 4, 2010
Port Canaveral - Saltwater Fishing Report
Fishing Report 11-03-10
Weather was a big question mark as we headed out of Port Canaveral at 6:30am. The forecast from the day before called for 3-5'sea's and winds at 10-15. The morning data from the 20 mile bouy showed 5' sea's, but a calm wind since midnight. We headed out and were pleasantly surprised at how calm it was. The wind stayed down most of the day and kept the waves in check, with 4-5' rollers.
The fisrt Fish of the day was a very unexpected one. About 4 miles out of port, with the sun not yet up, but light enough to see, a fish leaped out of the water from the port side of the
boat and hit me in the chest and right shoulder, bouncing off and continuing off the starboard side and back into the water. We were running about 30 mph, and the fish, for the split second
I saw it looked to be a 20" Spanish Mackerel. It did sting for a few minutes, but fortionatly it hit where it did, and not a few inches higher! I guess we'll call it a "Catch and Release".
Straight out and east to the 20 mile bouy. No weeds were seen, except a few very scattered small ones this trip, but we set lines out anyway. It was quiet for a while, until a real close pass got us a hit and drag run, but only lasted for about 30 seconds after the rod was in hand, and a sucked clean set of hooks came back without the ballyhoo. A little more trolling the area and we were about ready to move on, and as the lines were comming in, and we had a hit on the last line, for a 20lb Mahi. They took their time fighting it, and after a few last minute acrobatics and runs, it was on the gaff, and in the boat. Prior to this hookup, my guest was telling me, that he, ever since childhood, when his dad gave him a big book on fish, has wanted to see a Mahi in person. Well he got to see it us close, and take it home for dinner!
We set lines back out, but no more action, so we moved on. At the Louis wreck we did not see much marking the bottom, but decided to put live bait down anyhow. Very quickly, a pair of sharks showed up at the boat. They were only 3-4' long, but they were very aggressive to anything we put in the water, so a spinning rod was handed to my guest to give them a shark to fight. The 2 guest both had their sons with them, one 7yo, the other 11yo. They helped their dad's fight the sharks, for catch and releases.
The bottom did not yield anything, so to City's bardges we went. Here we had fish marking about a hundred foot off the bottom, so we were hopeful. Again we had sharks show up around the boat. Live bait and jigs went down. First fish up was a 4' Barracuda. Again we sent bait down, and a few hits on a 10" Verticle jig resulted in teeth marks deep into the soft metal body of the jig. The live bait finally doubled the big bottom rod over, for a minute of an intense game of 'tug-of-war", until like a few trips previous, a secondary larger tug resulted in a cut leader. After that, no more interest was given to our live bait, so off we went.
We decided to head in to 8A, so the young-uns could be a little more involved in catching. We made the 20 mile ride in, with the kids enjoying the roller-coaster like ride sitting in the bean-bag chairs at the front of the boat. At 8A we set out a flatlined bait, and one on the downrigger for some slow trolling. First fish did not take long....Shark. With this being an Atlantic Sharpnosed shark, we decided to put one on ice for them to try out.
Back trolling, another hit, this one however peeled drag, and their face lit-up. This fight took a while on light spin to get in, but finally it revealed itself as a nice fat 35lb King.
In the boat and on ice it went. Back to trolling, we found ourselves catching shark after shark. No matter where we moved they were there. My guest did have fun however fighting these pest, but with the day comming to a close they were ready to head in. The ride in was fairly smooth, with the sea's and wind at our backs, but at the shoals the waves were really starting to build and even break. We managed to stay dry all day, and no one got seasick. That and bringing a few nice fish back to clean made for an enjoyable day. With another charter lined up as soon as the weather settles, we can only hope the winds and sea's which are foreast to grow quickly will settle as quickly.
Captain Henry
ACME Ventures llc
www.ACME-Ventures-Fishing.com
"Deep Sea Fishing Charters"
321-794-7955
602 Glen Cheek Dr. Cape Canaveral Florida
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