Some of the best Fishing Abord Hooked Up
Capt. Taco Perez
May 5, 2009
Fort Lauderdale - Saltwater Fishing Report
April 26
Today we had Doug from Montana, Nick from South Florida, Chris from Georgia, Tom and Maria from Cinn.
We started out trolling the reef and ended up catching some king fish. Than we set out our kites with a few live goggle eyes suspended from them along with one dead king fish also suspended from the kite. We also set out one more dead king fish just free floating out of one of our out riggers.
Well I've got to say that the bite did not take too long to get. Doug jumped in the chair and the fight was on. At first Doug was fresh and ready to fight this sea monster but after about an hour later Doug did not look like the same guy that jumped in the chair (LOL)
It seemed like it took forever to get this BIG HAMMER HEAD next to the boat but at last Doug hung in there and he got him next to the boat. We got 2 out of the 3 hooks out of the fish and watched him swim away in great but tired shape.
Guys we've still got a few more weeks of these big hammer heads around and I've got to say that most of the boats practicing catch and release now I can't remember when I seen the bite this good.
So come on down to Sunny South Florida and get Hooked Up.
Captain Taco (954) 764-4344 or toll free (877) SEA-4344
April28
WHAT A DAY OF FISHING
We got to the boat and we were greeted by Steve, Steve JR, Doug and Darrin all from Alberta Canada. I was off today but Captain Greg and Captain J.J. were running the boat. They started out trolling down the reef hopping to find a few king fish or bonitos just to start out their all day trip buy getting a few fish in the box. And that was just what they got and some. The kings were biting like mad dogs and they had a box full in no time. They also caught a few bonitos.
Now it was time to try their luck at something big. So out went the kites with 3 live baits suspended from them along with one big dead king fish also suspended from the kites. They also put a dead king fish about 150 feet down and one last dead king on the bottom 350 down.
From there it did not take long. After a few minutes of the trap being set Here comes the Hammer head shark and he is coming in hot on our right long kite bait while we were watching him grab our king fish out of the kite at the same time a sail fish popped up on our left long kite bait. (HOLLY @&*^%%) we are about to have our hands full to say the least.
Doug jumped in the chair and started fighting his sail fish and Darrin jumped in the other chair and started fighting his hammer head shark. Talk about some lucky guys. Now we were double Hooked Up and we just got started. Thank god the sail fish went one way and was dancing all over the surface of the ocean and the hammer head went straight down so there was not much of a problem keeping the lines away from each other. It was a big back and forth tug a war for quite some time but at last Doug started making head way on his sail fish. Finally as Doug got his fish next to the boat they could not believe the size of this SEA MONSTER 98 inches long Holly Cow. This is the biggest sail fish I've ever seen and for sure the biggest that has ever been caught on the Hooked Up.
Ok one down and one to go. Darrin was fighting his heart out on this big hammer head shark but at last he did finally reel him in to the side of the boat. We got 2 out of the 3 hooks out of him and watched him swam away in great shape to fight another day.
(WHAT TO DO NEXT???????)
I guess the only thing to do was to put the kites right back out there and see just how lucky these Canadians really were. Well you're not going to believe this but they ended up catching another sail fish and yes one more hammer Head shark also.
So having said all that let me just say that I have good news about today's trip and I've got bad news about today's trip.
While everyone one the boat caught a lot of fish and everyone got to catch one big game fish each I've got to take the same group out fishing tomorrow.
(HOW THE HELL DO I TOP OR EVEN COME CLOSE TO TODAYS TRIP??????)
That's all for today's fishing trip (JUST ANOTHER DAY AT THE OFFICE)
If you ever thought you might want to come down to sunny South Florida and do a little fishing I kinda think NOW IS THE TIME. So give us a call and lets us show you the day of a life time.
Captain Taco (954) 764-4344 or toll free (877) SEA-4344
April 29
Ok make no mistake this is a fishing trip that I'm not really looking forward to being the Captain on. I've got four guys from Alberta Canada that fish on my boat yesterday on my day off with Captain Greg and Captain J.J. Greg and J.J. caught them 2 out of 3 sailfish and also 2 big hammer head sharks, a box full of king fish, bonitos and dolphin fish.
And this was their first time fishing off the coast of Sunny South Florida. So I'm sure that Steve, Steve JR, Todd and Darrin figured that this is just the way fishing is down here. Little do they know that they had just had one of the best fishing trips that anyone could have down here?
Now I got the pleasure of spending 8 hours on the water with them fishing. And trying to explain to them that it was a one in a million fishing trip they had yesterday.
So here's what I decided to go with: As the guys all showed up at the boat in the morning I told them that we had to have a little pow wow. I let them know that their fishing trip the day before truly was a one in a million and the chances of me topping that were slim to none. BUT if they wanted to there was one way we might be able to top yesterdays trip and it was a long shot and at the end of the day we would either be a HERO or a ZERO. I had bought a few big squids from the local tackle shop (LMR) and we could go trolling our way off shore and look for some dolphin fish, Wahoo and or maybe a blue marlin. Than once we got to the right spot about 15 miles off the coast of Ft Lauderdale we could drop one of these squids down to the bottom and see if maybe we could catch a sword fish.
This day time sword fishing requires dropping a squid on the end of a 120 foot leader all the way to the bottom anywhere from 1300 to 1750 feet down. We are dealing with a good four knots of north current and holding the boat just right requires a lot of work on the helm and on the throttles this is why we only do this kind of fishing when it is FLAT CALM.
Just my luck it was not calm in fact it was downright shitty and the further out we got the rougher it seemed to get. Once we were about 5 or 6 miles off shore I asked Captain J.J. what he thought about what we were going to attempt? His reply to me was we got no live baits on the boat and that at this point we were committed.
Ok no switching plans now. So off we went. As we were working our way off shore we did manage to catch 5 or 6 nice dolphin fish witch was good but we were by no means out of the woods and it would take a lot more than that for me to save face after their trip the day before.
Ok so now here we are finally got to the sword fish grounds and time to switch out all of our trolling baits and break out the electric reel and rig up for a VERY DEEP DROP.
Captain J.J. threw out the bait and started the six min drop to the bottom. Holding the boat was no easy task but we just dealt with the conditions we had and finally got to the bottom. Once we got to the bottom I found that if I held the boat pointed to the south east it was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. We kept the bait on the bottom for a good 30 min before we decided to reel it up just to make sure that the bait had not gotten tangled up around the line on the way down. As it turned out the bait was fine and the leader had laid out just the way it was supposed to.
So I decided to move about a mile away from where we had just dropped and try again.
(At this point I was getting worried) But I did have one trick up my sleeve. As J.J. started his next drop I started eating a sandwich and let everyone know that whenever I tried to eat lunch we would get a fish on.
Once J.J. got the bait on the bottom once again he reeled it up a good 50 to 60 feet off the bottom to make sure we did not get hung up on the bottom.
Bait on bottom and sandwich in hand and ALL OF A SUDDEN the rod just did a little twitch and slowly started bending more and more. (WE WERE HOOKED UP) I could not believe it. In this 5 to 6 foot seas we got our bait down to the bottom. And we were now HOOKED UP.( Still not out of the woods) All we had at this point was a rod bent over and something 1400 feet away pulling on the other end.
For the first 40 to 50 min we were very excited but after that J.J. and I started talking about it a bit and thought about the fact that this fish never came to the surface and never really screamed off the line it was just a long slow back and forth tug a war. We would gain 2 inches he takes back 1. Back and forth forever in fact over an hour had passed by this time and we were starting to think that maybe we had hooked a big shark in the corner of the mouth.
At this point J.J was grabbing the line and helping it on the reel and we really had no idea how much further we had to go?
Than we seen the 15 pound lead popped up and things got real serious real quick. All of a sudden up popped this huge sword fish just wind shield wiping his sword back and forth. (HOLLY COW)
At that point J.J. reached out and unsnapped the lead from the line and started pulling all 120 feet of leader to get the fish close enough to the boat to get a gaff into him. The second J.J. got one gaff in the SEA MONSTER Steve got a harpoon into the fish. We still were not out of the woods. This fish was BIG and still had plenty of fight in him. I came running down off the fly bridge and got another gaff in him. Than Steve reached over and was trying to hold the tuna door open but this sword fish was still thrashing his sword all over the place and I think it was the second or third time Steve got hit by the sword he finally let go.
After 2 broken gaffs, one broken tuna door and three beat up guys later we finally got the catch of a life time into the boat.
I don't know how to end this very exciting fishing story except to say ;
(JUST ANOTHER DAY AT THE OFFICE0) (LOL)
Checks out these pictures and for more looks at this fish go to Photo gallery called (April fishing)
The fish ended up being 78 inches from the fork of the tail to the lower jaw (the 2 shortest points) and the overall length of the fish was 131 inches and on the deck he was 26 inches high off the deck. We guessed the sword fish to be between 380 to 400 hundred pounds.
Steve, Steve Jr, Darrin and Doug THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!
(WHAT A LUCKY GROUP)
Well fishing has been pretty good so if you like trying your luck like these lucky Canadians did give us a call.
April is gone and here comes one of the best months of the year May
Captain Taco (954) 764-4344 or toll free (877) SEA-4344
Target Species:
Sharks, sailfish, Dolphin fish, Sowrd Fish, King Fish ECT
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