Fishing Report -- 03-27-13

Bud and Scott were on board ready to tackle some sharks. The wind was blowing a little more than we wanted. Fortunately the wind was North still making it fishable, barely. Catching these sharks are challenging under good conditions, throw in some rough water and it becomes really challenging. Bud and Scott were up to the task though. By the end of the trip 5 sharks were landed and Bud and Scott had figured out how to man handle these fish to the boat. Only shot a little bit of video, check it out, did capture a pretty cool jump.  

                       

For more info. on TKF Charters click this link to my website www.tkfcharters.com
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Fishing Report -- 03-19-13

It was a full boat today, Scott and the three young lads Davis, Drew and Braxton were onboard for a day of pulling on the sharks. I had an idea of how the day was going to go when one of the first things they asked me was what the boat record was for the most number of landed Spinner Sharks in a day. The number is 11 and has occurred twice, once by a single angler and then also with a group of 3 anglers. It’s great to see anglers who are really excited about the day and they had their sights firmly set on trying to beat the record. After catching some fresh bait it was time to enter the Shark Zone. Davis was up first on the rod. Soon enough he was hooked up and off to the races. It was a typical first Spinner Shark experience. I tell all my anglers who are fishing for these Spinner Sharks for the first time to be prepared for a bit of a shock as to how athletic these sharks are and how hard they fight for their size. All these guys have caught big fish in the past so they are not new to the game but had to admit that these sharks are formidable adversaries. The good news is that with shark number two and three it gets easier and easier as you figure out how they are going to behave and how and when to pull on them. After much huffing and puffing the first shark of the trip was landed and released. Next was Drew, he too quickly developed a respect for these fish’s fighting ability. Drew persisted and boated his first shark too. Next was Braxton. This is when Murphy decided to show up. This happens quite often when everything that can go wrong seems to go wrong to the same person. First fish Braxton hooked was a jumper and three jumps in the wire broke. Next fish was a jumper too with the same result. Third fish the hook bent out and so it went on, Sharks 5, Braxton 0. None of these lost fish were a direct result of anything Braxton did, he did everything correct, just bad luck. Scott took the rod in an attempt to break the streak of Braxtonitis. Scott’s fish was a nice big one but right at the boat made last minute run under the boat and found the trim tab to rub the line against. The trim tab always wins that battle. We had touched the leader just before that so Murphy had to move over a little bit as it was a caught but not landed fish. Davis and Drew then landed another fish each and gave the rod to their friend to see if his Braxtonitis condition was still affecting him. This time Braxton hooked by far the toughest fighting fish of the day and it took a tag team effort with Davis to land it. Scott finished the day off with a nice big shark to the boat. The tally was 7 landed and more than that hooked up and lost. The boat record is still intact but a very respectable run at the record was waged.       

                

For more info. on TKF Charters click this link to my website www.tkfcharters.com
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Fishing Report -- 03-08-13

The best way to summarize this trip is to title it “Shark on fly – the Hard Way!”. Today with Doug was fly only with the mission of getting some Spinner Sharks. Big waves were the killer. A font had just moved through and although the wind was blowing strong it was NW, still doable in the ocean however there were big waves breaking forcing us to keep our distance from the beach. The sharks were in tight to the beach and were not coming out to play. Disappointed with the shark thing we hit a few deeper spots with less than spectacular results. Doug did however manage some Lesser Amberjacks, Sea Bass, Bullet Bonito and Blue Runners. Late afternoon the swell laid down just enough for us to get close enough to the beach to get the sharks interested in our chum. To add insult to injury when we finally got some bites Murphy had to show up. First hooked fish resulted in a broken fly line, looks like another shark may have bitten it. The second resulted in a bent hook while the fish was running (weird as it’s pretty hard to bend a 7/0 Owner hook with a fly rod). The third hookup however resulted in a landed shark. Kudos to Doug for hanging in there till it finally happened. It was a brutal day on the water. The bright side is that the day before we didn’t think we’d even be able to get into the ocean, so I suppose sharks the hard way is better than no sharks at all.   

                          

For more info. on TKF Charters click this link to my website www.tkfcharters.com
To see Fishing Reports prior to 2012 click  www.tkfcharters.com/reports/reports.php

Fishing Report -- 03-05-13

Today was Ladies Day. Sarah, Sarah (no that is not a typo) and Olivia joined me for a morning’s fishing. They are here on Spring Break and did they luck out with spectacular weather, as good as it gets for this time of year. It was sunny, the wind was dead calm and the ocean pretty flat, these are the days that keep us living here in South Florida. We started by trying to catch Bluefish for shark bait, however the fish were running right on the beach and a small breaking wave was just enough to keep them out of our reach. In the process of chasing the bluefish we did come across some nice Jacks. Sarah1 landed a solid 20+ lb fish. Sarah2 also had a nice Jack on but the hooks came out resulting in an involuntary remote release. We started to see some decent numbers of sharks and it wasn’t long before Sarah 2 was connected to a nice size Spinner Shark. These ladies have not done a lot of big fish fishing and these Spinner Sharks can be pretty intimidating the first time you hook into one, but I tell you what it didn’t phase Sarah at all. She listened to my instruction and went at it with the shark. She was determined to land that fish and that is exactly what she did, no crying and complaining that I hear from some guys, she just quietly and patiently worked the fish to boat side. Next was Olivia’s turn. Her fish turned out to be a real handful once she got it close to the boat so her and Sarah1 tag teamed the shark to land it. What an awesome morning on the water. These ladies did an exceptional job fighting these big fish. Three good friends spending a morning fishing in perfect weather conditions and catching fish that weigh more than they do, no better way to spend a spring break day.   

For more info. on TKF Charters click this link to my website www.tkfcharters.com
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Fishing Report -- 03-01-13

Jerry, Jesse and Sam were on board day 1 for some shark fishing. The trip was a fly and conventional tackle combination trip. The sharks weren’t out in the numbers that we had hoped for however there were enough to still make for a good day’s fishing. We started out catching some nice sized Bluefish on lures and fly. After catching enough Bluefish for the chum bag we then switched to shark fishing, first on bait. Between the three of them 3 sharks were landed on bait. Then we noticed that the sharks were chasing the teaser plug that we were throwing for the Bluefish pretty good. Jerry put the fly out there and a shark came from under the boat surprising us all and lunched the fly. All three had their turn on the rod and the Spinner Shark on fly was successfully landed and released. Day 2 was just Dad fishing just with fly, boy was he in for a treat. The weather day 2 was about the same as day 1 being overcast and a little cold and also started out with fishing for Bluefish but once we started fishing for the Spinner Sharks it was night and day different. The sharks were the most active on fly that I have ever seen. It was constant crazy action. After Jerry landed a few we switched to using flies with weak hooks that will bend out under heavy pressure rather than having to spend over a half an hour to land them. Overall Jerry had 20 sharks hooked up. It was really incredible. To quote Jerry, “they are behaving just like Brown Trout”, except I would get into the water with a Brown Trout.                               

For more info. on TKF Charters click this link to my website www.tkfcharters.com
To see Fishing Reports prior to 2012 click  www.tkfcharters.com/reports/reports.php

Fishing Report -- 02-16-13

Steve has been patiently waiting for the right conditions to join me for a day of Spinner Shark fishing. Today was that day, NW winds shifting to West, perfect. Will and Tyler joined Dad and we were off to the rodeo. The morning was overcast and things were a little slow. It was a bit of a struggle to catch a decent number of Bluefish for bait but once we had that task completed it was off to the sharks. Once we found where they were holding it was game on. Tyler was up first. The first Spinner Shark you catch is usually somewhat of a shocker. They run fast, jump and pull hard. Tyler’s first shark was no exception. There was much huffing & puffing before the first shark was landed and released. Will & Steve then had their turns with similar experiences. However by the second and third shark they were all getting the hang of it and handling the fish like pros. There were some decent jumpers and we managed to get some of that on video. A total of 11 sharks were landed and released by the trio. An awesome day of shark fishing, even more awesome was seeing a dad thoroughly enjoying a day of fishing with his boys.                          

For more info. on TKF Charters click this link to my website www.tkfcharters.com
To see Fishing Reports prior to 2012 click  www.tkfcharters.com/reports/reports.php

Fishing Report -- 02-06-13

David and Kathy were in town and only had a small window of opportunity to go fishing. Fortunately for them the weather worked out to be perfect for the morning they had available. Catching fish for David on fly was the primary mission. We started by using a sinking line to try get some Amberjacks. David did hook one but unfortunately the hook pulled and we were not able to get another hooked up. We even had Kathy dropping the jig to get them biting but they didn’t even want to eat that. Kathy did manage to catch a small Grouper on the jig though. We gave up on the AJ’s and headed to the beach. We were welcomed by a giant school of Spanish Mackerel. The water was crystal clear and only about 10 feet deep which means that we could see them flashing and just milling around, quite a special sight to see, especially if you have a fly rod in your hand. David is a good fly fisherman and went to town on them. I lost count on how many he landed. Mixed in with the Spanish Mackerel David also landed a decent size Bluefish and a decent size Jack. Kathy also got into the action with some Spanish Mackerel on the jig. We were hoping to get some sharks interested in the fly however there were only a few around where we were and we didn’t have the time to make a long run to find them. They are running a little late this year and seem to be a bit more scattered than usual. Nonetheless David got to catch all the fish he wanted on fly in picture perfect conditions, can’t complain about that. Only regret is that we didn’t take a lot of pictures, only this one of probably the smallest Mackerel.                            

For more info. on TKF Charters click this link to my website www.tkfcharters.com
To see Fishing Reports prior to 2012 click  www.tkfcharters.com/reports/reports.php

Fishing Report -- 01-26-13

I’m going to chalk today’s somewhat slow trip up to the full moon. Typically the full moon really slows things down offshore for daytime fishing but fishing near to the beach usually isn’t affected as much. However the fish we found today were behaving very full moonish. We found schools of Tarpon, big Jacks and Bluefish and we only got one Bluefish out of all those fish to eat something. Tarpon you expect to be tough but the Jacks and especially the Bluefish are usually extremely cooperative. Even the sharks were not out in full force as expected. We caught as many as we wanted however we didn’t see the numbers that I know are there. Perhaps they took a little trip to deeper water for the day. Roy and Ollie hung in there and ended up with an Amberjack, 3 sharks, Bluefish, ladyfish and small Jacks. Check out the picture of the Lizard fish Roy caught that is the same size as the jig, only a Walleye fisherman can figure out how to do this !

For more info. on TKF Charters click this link to my website www.tkfcharters.com
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Fishing Report -- 12-28-12

Adam has fly fished with me for a number of years now at the same time of the year. This pretty much means the same fish are pretty much around each year. So this year we tried to change it up a little and the mission was to try catch a Spinner Shark on fly. It’s a little early for them and typically they get hot on the fly a little more into the season (late January they seem to begin to eat the fly better) but we figured we’d give it a go. The conditions weren’t ideal for the sharks but they we good enough that we gave it a shot. We located a decent number of sharks hanging around some Mackerel and Bluefish so Adam went to town catching some Bluefish & Mackerel to use for chum. It wasn’t long before Adam had landed a number of Jacks, Spanish Mackerel and Bluefish. Then it was time to try the sharks. We had quite a few curious sharks come in but bites were a little scarce. Adam did hook 3 fish. Two were quick on offs and one stayed on just long enough to give Adam an idea of what Shark fishing on fly was all about. Unfortunately the hook bent out, which is a little odd because Adam hadn’t even started to put any heat on the fish yet and it was a good 5/0 Owner hook, just wasn’t meant to be I suppose. On the way back in we stopped to end the day with catching some more Spanish Mackerel. We were partially successful on the sharks and Adam landed a bunch of Bluefish, Mackerel and Jacks all on fly. We didn’t take any pictures but I did get a little video.                        

For more info. on TKF Charters click this link to my website www.tkfcharters.com
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Fishing Report -- 12-23-12

This is just a warning right up front that I am going to whine about the wind. Today was brutal. 20 + mph NW wind and temperature of 46 degrees at the boat ramp this morning (not considering the wind chill). For us South Florida boys that is just plain cold. Grandfather and grandson Boyd and Bill were on board today and hats off to them for braving the cold. Sometimes with a strong NW wind we can still get out into the ocean close to the beach and still have good day on Bluefish, Spanish Mackerel, Sharks etc however not today. Swell was miserable and ocean rough. So we were pretty much confined to the Palm Beach inlet. Which this time of year is not necessarily a bad option. The Jack Crevalle fishing can be very good, there are big Cudas around and if lucky can see some Permit. The Jacks were around today and the big Cudas were there too but they both had serious lockjaw. The Jacks were about as uncooperative as I have ever seen them. We were fly fishing but eventually I threw some jigs, swimbaits and lures at them but they were totally disinterested, which is somewhat unusual for Jacks. The company on the boat was great and grandfather & grandson had a great day taking jabs at each other (all in good spirits) however fishing was terribly slow. Not sure what had the Jacks all finicky today, perhaps some big sharks moved into the inlet or they just didn’t like the weather either and were protesting.                      

For more info. on TKF Charters click this link to my website www.tkfcharters.com
To see Fishing Reports prior to 2012 click  www.tkfcharters.com/reports/reports.php

Fishing Report -- 11-23-12

Well, the weather truce referred to in my 11-01-12 report was definitely over. Steve was in town and  going to fish multiple days, fly only. As you can imagine using just fly gear in very windy conditions is extremely challenging, but Steve is an old salt when it comes to fly fishing and understands the game. He wasn’t phased by the challenging conditions and kept his enthusiasm high every day. I had to include the first picture below to show Steve’s mad skills in being able to catch a fish the same size as the fly, quite a feat. Thankfully the fish got a little bigger as the adventure progressed. The Jacks and Bluefish were pretty cooperative. We lost count on the number of Bluefish landed. Eventually we kept going down and down in rod size to keep things interesting. They remind me of Piranhas the way they mow through flies, just as well Bluefish haven’t developed a taste for human flesh. Our favorite was the popper, you can hear their jaws snapping as they come out of the water after the popper. Very cool to experience. The Jacks were out and about too, not quite in the numbers we were hoping for but Steve managed to get some nice Jacks to the boat. Of course the big one got away, Steve had a nice 25 lb Jack hooked up but it bit through the leader leaving us only with memories and some choice words for the fish. After a few days of grinding it out in the wind Steve’s positive attitude was rewarded big time. The wind subsided and we hit the ocean with great expectations. The day began with some large Blue Runners. I was hoping for the Amberjacks to have shown but still they were a no show (any day now, they are running a little late this year). Next were Spanish Mackerel, Ladyfish and some more Bluefish. Then we began to see something really cool. Large schools of minnows had pushed in near to the beach and the False Albacore (Bonitos) were on them pretty good. The water was frothing when the Bonitos charged the minnow schools. It doesn’t get much better than this for a fly fisherman and Steve took full advantage. Once we figured out the fly they wanted it was hammer time for Steve. We lost count but figured round about 20 Bonitos were landed. Only one was chomped by a Bull Shark, right next to the boat. I thought I was going to have to get the defibrillator out for Steve, the shark came out of nowhere and really surprised us. What a spectacular day, it was phenomenal to see that many Bonitos frothing up the water, even better was Steve catching that many. So here’s the lesson kids, you need to put in your time on the water to get to those epic days. Steve really deserved a fantastic day and that is exactly what he got. Fishing trips aren’t always fair so it was great to see someone who really put in the time being rewarded with such a special treat. Check out the little bit of video we took of the craziness.                 

For more info. on TKF Charters click this link to my website www.tkfcharters.com
To see Fishing Reports prior to 2012 click  www.tkfcharters.com/reports/reports.php

Fishing Report -- 11-01-12

Tony hails from the same hemisphere as I do and seems to have the same luck when it comes to wind. It would be good luck if we were sailors, unfortunately we are very wind sensitive fishermen. Day one the wind was brutal and the fishing very slow. I figured I could at least take Tony to my inside shark spot and catch a few nice sized fish. Again the southern hemisphere luck (or lack thereof) kicked in. It was the first time I have ever been skunked at my shark spot, we didn’t even see the first sign of a shark. We moved on and all the waters were willing to offer us were some small Jacks and one medium sized Jack. A few days later Tony was back and brought some of his northern hemisphere luck. This time the winds were a lot less and we were able to make it into the ocean. We started on the fly rod at my favorite Amberjack spot which proved to only have very big Blue Runners on it but no AJ’s. We moved closer to the beach which was loaded with small Blue Runners, we put a bunch of them in the well and headed for some bigger quarry. It wasn’t long before we began to see Spinner sharks just off the beach, we put out some baits and soon Tony was hooked to his first screamer. Spinner Sharks are so athletic, it’s a blast to watch them go. After some huffing and puffing and removing of the jacket the first shark was brought to the boat and released. The sharks were still hanging around so Tony went back at it. It’s pretty early in the season but there were a decent number of sharks to keep Tony busy. Three more sharks were landed before we called it a day. This time of year it always seems like we are fighting the weather, today the weather called a truce and let us out to play, much appreciated.        

For more info. on TKF Charters click this link to my website www.tkfcharters.com
To see Fishing Reports prior to 2012 click  www.tkfcharters.com/reports/reports.php

Fishing Report -- 09-19-12

JT, Gavin & Colin got a very early start today with me to try catch some Tarpon & Snook. It’s about time for the Mullet Run to be in full swing however it seems to be more like a quarter swing. There wasn’t much action in the inlet so we moved to a nearby bridge. Snook were busting mullet pretty regularly on the bridge however it was tough to get them to eat our mullet. We ended up with one decent size Snook for our hard work. When the sun got up we went into the ocean looking for some Tarpon action. Again the Tarpon action was slow however the Shark action was hot. I think about 9 Spinner / Blacktip sharks were hooked with 3 landed and released. Gavin had the bad luck today, he hooked a bunch of sharks, all but one broke off for one reason or another, nothing he was doing wrong, they just didn’t want to play nice. After JT and the boys were worn out on the sharks we made a long run looking for mullet schools off the beach. We didn’t see any big mullet schools, we did however run across some Bonitos close to the beach resulting in two hooked and one landed. Colin’s Bonito was on steroids and just would not come to the boat, unfortunately the hooked pulled before we got to see the fish, I think it would have looked just like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Colin got the unusual catch of the day award by catching a big Ribbon Fish (creepy looking things they are). All in all a good day on the water, nice weather for a change and some decent fish caught. Hopefully they big push of mullet will be here soon and things will really get going.   

For more info. on TKF Charters click this link to my website www.tkfcharters.com
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Fishing Report -- 08-31-12

Tough day in Biscayne Bay today. The wind was stronger than forecasted and muddied up the areas we really wanted to fish. Plan B wasn’t super productive, we only saw one school of Bones. Eric did a great job in getting a Bone on fly out of the school though. Nice and sunny so it was a beautiful day to be in Biscayne Bay, just not a lot of fish around today.      

For more info. on TKF Charters click this link to my website www.tkfcharters.com
To see Fishing Reports prior to 2012 click  www.tkfcharters.com/reports/reports.php