Oct 2009 fishing aboard the hooked Up in Ft Lauderdale
Capt. Taco Perez
November 9, 2009
Fort Lauderdale - Saltwater Fishing Report
Oct 2
This morning we had a local from Ft Laudable George chartered the Hooked Up to entertain a couple of his friends Shane and Chris from Oklahoma When we started out our day we had no idea how good fishing was going to be a no idea how long we would be fishing today.
It all started out with us trolling the reef with our two planners running down about 45 feet deep and three ballyhoos skipping across the surface. Today the kings were biting and biting well. We had our limit of 6 in the box in no time and another 4 hours left on our fishing trip. (So we thought) So Captain J.J. decided to troll out to the Gulf Stream and see what might be swimming around out there.
After trolling for over an hour catching only one little black fin tuna things were looking not so good when all of a sudden Captain J.J. spotted a piece of wood floating. As soon as the Hooked Up got close to the floating piece of wood out came a nice dolphin fish and we knew we were going to catch some good eating fish. We ended up catching a few nice dolphins there and decided to try one more trick to see if there might be anything lurking down deep under this floating fish magnet. We set out a planner with a big silver spoon trailing about 60 feet behind it and trolled by our piece of wood one more time and BAM it got hit. We ended up catching a nice 20 pound Wahoo.
What a great morning of fishing in fact it was so good that on our way back to the dock George asked us what we were doing for the rest of the day? We told him that we had nothing going on and he decided to go get some food and more drinks and head way off shore and do some sword fishing all night.
At 5:00 pm we headed back out for the sword fish grounds. Sorry to say that sword fishing was not as good as we had done earlier in the day. We did get one big bite but after a good 10 min fight we pulled the hooks and the fish got away. That was the only bite we had that night.
Guys thanks again for a good day and not so good night of fishing and George we'll be seeing you again soon.
Captain Taco (954) 764-4344
Oct 3
Today we started out our day fishing with Jim from Bolder City Colorado, Cindy from Nevada and Sara from Salt Lake City.
Once again we started out trolling the reef with two planner board about 45 feet down deep and three ballyhoos skipping across the surface. And once again the kings were biting. We ended up catching our limit of 6 kings and then went straight after some better eating fish.
We went to a ship wreck and dropped down what we call a chicken rig. A chicken rig consists of 5 hooks in a line one above the other about 8 inches apart with a weight at the bottom.
Once we got to the wreck we dropped down our chicken rig and the snappers stated coming up.We ended up with a bunch of snappers a 6 kings not a bad morning of fishing.
Captain Taco (954) 764-4344 or toll free (877) SEA-4344
Oct 8
Today we had a father and son Juan and Renan from Porto Alegre Brazil.
We started out trolling on the reef catching our limit of king fish then we headed out to deeper water and caught a nice dolphin fish.
Juan thanks again and looking forward to fishing with you again soon.
Captain Taco (9540 764-4344
Oct 10
Today we had a mixed bag of people from all over the country. We had Chris and Amber from Dallas Texas, James and Cathy from Orlando and Jake and Kathrin from Cincinnati Ohio.
We went straight to trolling on the reef and man were the king fish biting. You know the old expression if it ant broke don't fix it. Well the king were biting and everyone was having a ball catching them so we just stuck it out and caught 17 of them.
What a ball thanks again guys for a great morning of fishing and a bunch of laughs.
Captain Taco (954) 764-4344 or toll free (877) Sea-4344
Oct 11
Today was Captain Tommy Koppers first trip as Captain aboard the Hooked up so as you can imagine I was calling them on the phone a lot but as it all turned out Tommy and my son Luis did a great job not only of taking care of the hooked Up but as it turned out they also took real good care of Edgar, Luis, Erwin,
Alejandro and Poncho all from Venezuela.
Tommy went right to what had been working for us all week and started trolling the reef looking for king fish and yes once again the kings were biting and they ended up with a box full of kings.
Way to go guys and Eduardo we're looking forward to fishing with you again this January for sail fish.
Captain Taco 9954) 764-4344 or toll free (877) Sea-4344
Oct 15
Today we got chartered by Gorham Schaffer who was not on the trip but he sent down his # 1 sales men Chip to show Justin and Ron from Tenn. a great time here in Sunny South Florida.
I knew that they had a great time the night before by the way they were all moving or should I say not moving. (LOL)
We went straight to trolling the reef looking for some king fish or some bonitos just to break the ice and throw a few fish in the box. BUT the fish were just not biting and we could not seem to get anything to bite. We also tried dropping live bait down deep on a ship wreck with no luck.
At this point we had tried trolling deep and shallow and we had also tried some drops and time was starting to run short and still no fish in the box.
Ok it was time for me to pull a rabbit out of my hat and I had one more trick up my sleeve I went to a spot one of the other Captains had told me about that was a bit deeper than 400 feet and tried a drop there with some chunks of king fish on the hooks.
Once we got to the bottom BAM they started biting like mad dogs. We were catching a fish called tile fish and these are deep water fish that seem to mostly feed on shrimps and crabs. If you ever run across any tile fish let me tell you don't pass up the chance to eat some they are the best fish I think I have ever eaten.
We ended up catching more than enough and once we got to the dock we cleaned them up and had this little restaurant –bar on the water next to the boat cook them up for these guys.
As it turned out I think they liked them because I got a call from Chip and he also thought they were the best fish he had ever eaten and it looks like he wants to go out again and do some more fishing.
Talk about luck we somehow managed to turn a slow day of fishing into a great day of entertaining laughs good lunch and a nice box of fish.
Thanks again Chip and we are looking forward to fishing with you again soon.
Captain Taco (954) 764-4344 or toll free (877) Sea-4344
Oct 23
Ok we've been in the boat yard for some bottom work and a bit of much needed TLC on the Hooked Up and now we are itching to get back to the fishing. The only problem is the Hooked Up is still on dry land and our next fishing trip is less than three hours away. But after some hang shaking and a bit of grease here and there it seemed the whole yard pulled together and before we knew it we were back in the water and headed for the dock to meet our anglers for the day.
No sooner than we hit the dock our first angler showed up and she was eager to go fishing. We had Bobbie from Knoxville Tenn. soon after she got there Jerry and his wife Erica from Alexandria Virginia showed up and last but not least Even who was entertains his friend Alex from Columbia South America showed up and we were off and on our way fishing.
We had gathered some live baits from a few of the boats that were sitting at the dock and ran south for about 4 miles we went right to kite fishing.
Once we got our kites set with our live bait suspended from them the wait began. I had Bobbie up stairs on the fly bridge with me and while she was having a few drinks and telling me what a disaster her last fishing trip had turned out to be. Somehow I just knew that with the north current we had and the pretty blue water that this was going to be a good afternoon of fishing. At first it took a bit of penitence but at last it paid off. A sail fish popped up on our left long kite bait and we were Hooked Up.
Bobbie jumped in the chair and the fight was on. It was a back and forth battle for a good 20 min but at last Bobbie got her fish next to the boat. We got a couple of pictures of her sail fish next to the boat and watched him swam away in great shape. Way to go Bobbie!! (A bit better than your last fishing trip huh)
Captain Greg got the baits right back out there and back to fishing we went only this time it didn't take long till our next bite this time we got Ericka in the chair and her fight was on. This fish never jumped so we figured this one was not a sail fish but all the same he was giving us a tough time to get to the boat the way he kept go down and going in big circles. It turned out to be a nice black fin tuna.
Things were starting to come alive now because it seemed as soon as we got the baits back out there here came another sail fish and the second we hooked him here came anther sail fish.
So now we had two sails on at the same time and things were hopping on the Hooked Up.
Alex jumped in one chair and Jerry jumped in the other and now the double header fight was on.
Sorry to say that Jerry's fish finally managed to spit the hook but Alex's fish was not quite so lucky and Alex finally got his sail to the side of the boat for a couple of quick pictures and once again watched his fish swim away in great shape.
Thanks again to all of our anglers for helping us to getting off to a great start after the much dreaded boat yard ordeal.
Captain Taco (954) 764-4344 or toll free (877) SEA-4344
Oct 24
This morning Captain Greg and I got to the boat and we were as eager as you can get to get right back out there and do some fishing after the great day of fishing we had the day before.
Today we had a father and son team looking to spend some time together deep sea fishing aboard the Hooked Up. We had Jim and his son Andrew who was also celebrating his birth day and we were all chomping at the bit to see what today had in store for us.
We started out by setting our two planners down about 45 feet deep and three baits skipping across the surface. We were hoping to catch a few king fish and or bonitos to start out with. And things worked out good. The kings were biting and it seemed we had our limit in no time.
After catching our limit of kings we went trolling out in deeper water to see if we could find any dolphin fish.
As we were trolling around Jim was telling me about how he had been reading some of my fishing blogs and how he had read about us finding a piece of debris floating and how we had caught some dolphin fish off of it. I was explaining to him about how the fish like to hang around just about anything floating when all of a sudden out of the corner of my eye I seen something floating in the water. As I got closer I realized that what I had found could turn out to be a home run. It was an eight to ten foot branch of a tree and it was floating heavy in the water as if it had been floating for a long time.
As we made our first pass by this tree branch I seen them coming out from under the branch. Sure enough there was some dolphin fish here and there were all nice ones. I don't know how many we caught on our first pass but I knew that there were plenty more to be caught.
As soon as we made our first pass by we had dolphin jumping behind the boat and other boats seen this? Within 5 min we had four other boats trying to see what we were catching these dolphins under. But as luck would have it this branch was just barely out of the water and most of it was under the water so they were having a hard time finding it. Every time I would make a pass by it I would keep the boat moving and get a good way away from the branch and they just could not find it.
This went on for a good 45 min and I've got to say that if I was one of the guys running one of these other boats I would have pulled my hair out.
At this point we had more dolphin fish than we needed and I figured that a little good karma could go a long way so I got on the radio and called the other boats in and showed them what we had been catching the fish from.
Once we got back to the dock we were eager to hang up these fish for a picture and we were a bit surprised to find that we had caught 14 8 to 12 pound dolphins along with our limit of kings. Not a bad day of fishing.
After our fishing trip I decided to go next door to the little restaurant and enjoyed a great dolphin lunch with Jim and the birthday bay Andrew. Thanks again guys for great time fishing and for a great lunch.
Captain Taco (954) 764-4344 or toll free (877) Sea-4344
Oct 25
This morning we set out for a few hours of deep sea fishing off the coast of Ft Lauderdale with Sharon from Michigan and Ian from Scotland.
We went right to trolling the reef with our planner board and three baits skipping across the surface.
Fishing started out with a bang with the kings and bonitos biting like mad dogs. We had our limit of kings and were throwing them back by 9:00 am and we were also catching the bonitos one after another. After we had all had enough of the reef fishing we went off shore looking for some dolphin fish but sorry to say that today we just could not find any dolphin fish.
But everyone had a ball and we had a box full of fish.
Thanks again Sharon and Ian.
Captain Taco (954) 764-4344 or toll free (877) Sea-4344
Oct 29
Today we had a mom and dad Kevin and Therese and their two sons Brain and Ben from St Louis and from God free Ill out for a morning of deep sea fishing.
We started out trolling the reef looking for some good eating fish so they could have a fish fry later today. The kings were biting and we had a box full of kings within the first hour of fishing. But they were really looking forward to a fish fry and to be honest while king fish are an edible fish they really are not the best of eating so we decided to give some fishing with live baits a shot and see what we could catch.
So in came our trolling gear and out went the kites with live baits suspended from them. It took a bit of patience but soon enough we got our first bite and this one was a dolphin fish. I can't recall who got in the chair to fight this one but I do remember praying that this one would not get away. Luck was on our side and this fish ended up in the box Ok now a bit of the pressure was off of me but was not going to be enough to get me off the hook as far as their fish fry was conserned and I knew we were going to need a little more good eating fish than just this one little dolphin for the four of them.
We got all the kite baits back in line with the kites and back to waiting we went .Than all of a sudden we had a bite on one of the kite baits and line started screaming off the reef. Before we knew what it was out came this big sail fish dancing all over the surface of the water and we were Hooked Up. This time I do remember who got in the chair and I've got to say that Kevin wasted no time jumping in the chair. It was a back and forth tug a war for a good 20 min until dad decided to let Ben give it a shot for a while.
Finally Ben got this nice sail fish to the boat. We got a few quick pictures and a quick measurement to have a replica trophy made of their catch and watched him swim away in great shape. Perfect catch and release great going guys.
Man things were just going so great today and for that matter this whole week. But there was just one more thing I needed to do to make this a perfect trip and that was to catch a little more good eating fish.
I had one more trick up my sleeve and we were running a bit short on time so I decided to pull the plug on kite fishing and try a bit of deep drops to see what we might be able to pull off the bottom of the ocean.
So we went out to 410 feet of water and dropped what we call a chicken rig which is 5 hooks with a weight on the bottom. It turned out to be the right move because we ended up catching what a lot of people have never heard of Tile fish. These fish eat shrimp and crabs so you can just imagine what they taste like. At the end of it all we had more than enough fish for the table and a big sail fish for the wall to boot.
Guys thanks again and hop you have a great dinner.
Captain Taco (9540 764-4344 or toll free (877) Sea-4344
Oct 30
Today we had four guys from Holland that are over here working at the Fort Lauderdale international boat show. Pieter, Gerard, Erwin and Eric were able to get away for a morning of deep sea fishing.
And what a great fun full of catching day we had.
We started out trolling the reef and the king fish were biting like mad dogs. We also caught a big Wahoo and an African pompano while trolling for kings.
Than we ended our trip by doing some deep drops and caught a box full of tile fish.
Guy's thanks again for a fun morning of fishing and hope you guys had a great fish fry at the
Bahia-Cabana
Captain Taco (954) 764-4344 or toll free (877) SEA-4344
Oct 30 pm
Today while out on my morning trip I got a call from my daughter Samantha and she had told me that her best friend Jenna was feeling pretty down because she had lost her farther two years ago on this date and wanted to know if she could leave school early to spend some time with her bud.
I asked her what they planned to do and she let me know that she really did not know what they were going to do. So I came up with this great idea to spend the afternoon fishing.
Ok so the deal was made but first we had to talk Jenna into getting on a boat than she did not know this but she was going to be the one reeling in the fish.
I've got to say that this all was easier said than done. But at last we talked her into it and we also talked my son Luis into being the mate for us.
Perfect a fishing trip with no pressure!!
The ocean was so calm that we did not even have enough wind to fly our kites so we sent out four live ballyhoos and started slowly trolling them out in about 400 feet of water.
Everything seemed to be going along quite well Sam and Jenna we up on the bow of the boat getting some sun.
My son was setting out all the baits and I was up staring enjoying some music and a ice cold beer when all of a sudden things took a turn for the worse!
Sam and Jenna had come down off the bow of the boat and onto the cock pit with Luis and a good Van Halen (running with the devil) song came on the radio so I cranked it up and I mean loud when all of a sudden this monster sail fish was jumping all over right behind the boat.
I was yelling at Luis to get the rod Luis was yelling at me to watch my rod that I had up on the fly bridge with me and as for Sam and Jenna they were just laughing their butts off at us.
THE FISH GOT AWAY
We checked all the baits to see which one of us was to blame for losing it but as it turned out all the baits looked just fine. We figured the fish was just dancing to the music (LOL)
A few min later we did get a bite and now the hard part was getting Jenna to reel him in. I think it took longer to get the fish to the boat then it took to talk her into reeling in the fish. But when it was all said and done I'm sure she was glad she finally did it.
Today even the fish got a happy ending once Luis got the hook out of the small cobia's mouth we let him swim away.
We may not have caught a lot of fish this afternoon but we sure as heck caught a lot of laughs and that was really what we were after in the first place.
Thanks kids
Captain Dad Taco (9540 764-4344
Oct 31
Today we had three guys Troy, Al and Roger down from Canada for some golf and a bit of deep sea fishing.
We started out our day with a bit of trolling on the reef looking for some king fish and bonitos. Today the kings were not biting quiet as well as they had been but we did end up catching three kings and we also caught two monster bonitos both over 20 pounds and a couple of dolphin fish witch sure were a pleasant surprise.
We ended our day looking for some more good eating fish so we did some deep drops looking for some tile fish but as luck would have it they were all small tile fish.
All in all everyone had a good time and then everyone enjoyed the afternoon at the Ft Lauderdale international boat show.
Guys thanks again and hope you guys enjoy eating those fish for dinner.
Captain Taco (9540 764-4344 or toll free (877) SEA-4344
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