Fishing Report -- 06-20-15

Today was a family trip for Joe, Nicole, Andrew & Katie. Andrew is 9 and Katie 6 and I believe it was their first ocean fishing trip. We figured it may be a short trip as we didn’t know how well everyone would do in the ocean. The ocean had a little bump on it from the windy evening before and conditions weren’t quite a flat calm as they could have been however pretty decent none the less. The start was a little slow as nothing was really showing any interest in the baits. Andrew caught a Remora just because there was not much else going on and it was good experience for him to at least hook a reel in something. He did a great job by hooking and landing the fish himself. Next Katie hooked into a Bonito just the right size for her, Goldilocks, not too big, not too small, just right. Dad got to help getting the fish on board but Katie wasn’t quite ready to have her picture taken that close to a fish just yet. While we were landing that fish the big rod went off and Joe was hooked into a Sailfish. It was a very slow and gentle bite but once the fish got going it really put on a nice show dancing around the boat. Joe had it on for about 15 minutes and the leader chaffed through. The Sailfish must have gotten wrapped up in the leader or something weird. None the less Nicole got some great action shots. Right after the excitement of the Sailfish died down the motion of the ocean began to take its toll and it was time to come in before breakfast made a showing. We were out for just over an hour and both kids got to catch their first ocean fish and dad got to fight a Sailfish as his Father’s Day treat. Seeing that it was still early and I still had live bait left I called my wife and we went back out. It was really quiet on the fish front but she did get one nice Blackfin Tuna. Not a lot of bites today but some quality fish. Perhaps the fish were off celebrating Father’s Day weekend and were too busy to come and play with us.

     

For more info. on TKF Charters click this link to my website www.tkfcharters.com

Fishing Report -- 06-13-15

The Double Trouble brother team of Glenn & Craig we onboard today for their annual duel to claim the title of ‘Sabiki King’. With the wind having blown through the night and still strong in the morning I had my doubts as to if we were even going to be able to get into the ocean for the challenge. We found out that the bait guy did not catch bait so with no bait to buy we had to make the trip out into the rough stuff to try get live bait, no bait – no fish. We donned our rain gear and headed out. It wasn’t as bad as we thought it would be but it was pretty rough and definitely wet, not like sprinkle wet, more like fully submerged wet. Fortunately we were able to reach the bait and the Sabiki challenge was underway. When it was all said and done I’d have to say the number of fish boated by Glenn & Craig were about even however Craig definitely had the edge in the “not tangling the Sabiki” category and seeing that Sabikis cost the captain money this category is heavily weighted and made Craig the clear winner and wearer of the crown for 2015. With the live wells stocked it was time to go and attempt to transform the smaller fish into larger fish. Craig was the first to perform his magic and turned his threadfin into a slot size Snook. He then copperfielded another threadfin into an even bigger Snook, a nice slob that gave a good fight and got the blood really pumping. After this fish the bite was very slow so we started moving around a bunch trying to find the fish. Each spot we went to only offered up one or two fish and then we had to move on. Not sure where all the fish went today however the numbers of fish were just not there. We kept moving and moving until we hit the honey hole where the big honey’s were holding. Three pilchards were transformed into three really nice 20+ lb fish here, with one more slob breaking off. One more slot size fish was landed in this spot before the action shut down and it was back to bouncing around picking away at the fish again. The unusual catch of the day was Craig’s Morey eel. What makes this very strange is that we saw a few Morey eels just swimming along a beach area in the intracoastal. They typically want to be near structure and in their hole, not sure what had them all out swimming around today. Craig was pretty impressed with his catch, the captain was less so as eels tangle up the line and this captain is definitely not handling a nasty green snake like creature. I was tempted to strip Craig of his title of Sabiki King for this nasty catch however the jury’s verdict was that the Sabiki challenge had ended and was a completely separate event. I awarded Glenn the title of “least nasty catch catcher”. At the end of the day although we didn’t catch the numbers of Snook expected (we landed about 15 or so) the four slobs caught (two each) definitely made up for it. Good job guys, congrats to Craig in winning the title this year, cherish it while you have it as I’m sure Glenn will be making at hard run at it next year.    

For more info. on TKF Charters click this link to my website www.tkfcharters.com

Fishing Report -- 06-06-15

Giovanni & Anita were on board today for a fly fishing trip. This was their introduction to saltwater fly fishing and I have to say they brought some serious mojo with them from Canada to overcome the curse of the full moon. Full moon was only a few days ago which typically means tough daytime fishing, not for these guys though. It’s June and we had a beautiful calm morning so we started the day looking for Tarpon. It started out by us just finding single fish here and there but finally we came across a nice size school of happy fish and within a few minutes Giovanni was hooked up to a really nice Tarpon. He had the fish on a 10 wt and it took quite a while to get the fish to the leader, however it just wasn’t going to give up to allow us to get our hands on it. We eventually cranked down the drag and ended up pulling the hook. We got a bunch of video but didn’t get any stills of the fish in the water, only the picture of Giovanni with fly rod bent flashing the “I’m hooked up to my first Tarpon” smile. After the tussle with Timmy the Tarpon it was time to head offshore and mess with Barry the Bonito. That action was pretty hot too with Anita & Giovanni getting all the action they wanted. The big sharks were lurking around too but we only lost 2 fish to the tax man. Anita got to see a surface attack on one of her fish, quite something to see. All too soon it was time to head back to the dock and for Giovanni & Anita to hit the road to catch their flight back to Canada. What a fantastic start to their saltwater fly fishing adventures, of which I am sure there will be many more to come. Great job guys.   

For more info. on TKF Charters click this link to my website www.tkfcharters.com

Fishing Report -- 06-03-15

Anthony, Gina, Julio and Peggy joined me for a night trip Snook fishing. Fortunately we had some live shrimp for bait and very fortunately were are able to net some live mullet. Julio started off by getting a nice Snook on a live mullet right before sunset. Julio’s first big Snook. Peggy also got her first Snook, just the right size for a young lady. Gina got into the action with a few medium sized Snook. Anthony however brought out the big guns and landed the two biggest Snook using live mullet. At the end of the night we put out the last mullet we had, a giant that I had to wrestle just to get on the hook. I really didn’t think we were going to get bit on this bait, however Anthony and Julio were soon hooked up to a monster Snook. It was cooperating for a little while but once it decided it had had enough exercise for the evening it headed under a dock and there was just no stopping it. I really wanted to see the size of the Snook that ate the monster mullet, however it was not meant to be. All in all a great evening’s Snook fishing, keep dreaming about that monster gents, we’ll just have to catch it next time.           

For more info. on TKF Charters click this link to my website www.tkfcharters.com