May 11, 2003

[Captain Dean Panos]

05/11/03

What can I say about the fishing, other than the fact that it is really good. Starting with kingfish, this has been the best year in the last 5 years, as far as the size, quantity, and the length of the kingfish run. It is hard not to get your limit by 11:00am. We have been letting the smaller ones go, and keeping some of the bigger ones. The average size has been 15 – 20 pounds, but almost everyday we catch a 30 – 35 pounder. Dolphin fishing has been spotty. We catch some on the edge while kite fishing, and the runs offshore have only been producing small schoolie dolphin. May has been known for a good dolphin month, and I anticipate the larger dolphin starting to pour through our area. Blackfin tuna have still been around, but the majority of the blackfins seem to have moved just North of Gov’t Cut. The fish are averaging 20 – 30 pounds. We also caught a few wahoo this week, live baiting the edge. Sailfishing still remains good. We have caught anywhere from 1 to 3 sailfish per day, with the exception of Saturday, where we saw one caught, but we didn’t get one. The story of this week though was our swordfish trip. I had a great group of guys on board that have swordfished with me before. On my last trip with these guys, we caught 2 swordfish, so they knew the drill. This time, we had an even better trip. We started the night with a double header of swordfish, caught both fish and released both. After resetting out the lines, we hooked and caught another one. This one was about 54 inches (lower jaw to fork of tail). That brings us up to 3 for 3 so far. We were congratulating ourselves on the ratio, and then missed one. Now we are 3 for 4. Less than 20 minutes later we hook and land another swordfish. Now it starts setting in that we are 4 for 5 on SWORDFISH. We reset our drift and almost immediately hook another swordfish. The hook pulled on that one. Now we are 4 for 6. At that point, although it was still fairly early, the anglers had a great night and we called it a night knowing we had just had a great evening of swordfishing. All the fish we caught or missed that night were exciting, but the last one that we lost was probably the most exciting. At first, the rod tip never moved, nor did the jug, but very slowly we all watched the electralume light rising to the surface. As it started rising, it started increasing in speed. It came to the surface and then head straight for the boat at warp speed. At this point we were winding as fast as possible, but couldn’t catch up. The swordfish actually swam to the boat (we could see her) before we got tight. By the time we got tight, she was already beyond the boat, and the hook pulled almost immediately. Although the swordfish was not a huge (estimated 80 pounds), the speed of this animal is awesome. Unless you experience it, there is nothing like watch your glow light on the surface streaking away attached to a swordfish. It is a memory you will never forget.

Swordfish trips are really starting to book for this summer, as are Bahama trips, so book your trips now.

Tight Lines and Good Fishing, Capt. Dean Panos