January 8, 2004

[Captain Bouncer]

Variety of Fishing Fun

The week started slow with just a few fish over the weekend. The last two days have been much better for catching. Tuesday was flat calm with blue skies. We decided to try some wreck fishing while listening for action to pick up on the radio. Our first 5 drops on wrecks produced 3 black grouper from 15 to 25 pounds, plus two more lost. As the radio stayed slow we tried some very deep wrecks and lost a couple big fish and caught a mystic grouper and a snow grouper. Our efforts at surface action matched the rest of the fleet. We caught a small shark and lost a kingfish to a barracuda. A final shot at a shallow wreck produced a beautiful African pompano and a almaco jack.

Tarpon fishing off the beach has been great. We had one trip last week with 4 out of 5 up to 110 pounds and another trip Friday night with 3 out of 4 to 120 pounds. Tuesday evening we arrived on location to tarpon rolling everywhere. We figured on another great evening. Wrong! 1 bite equaled 1 fish about 40 pounds plus a couple blue runners and a 3 pound bluefish. The fish were there, but the bite was off.

Wednesday morning the wind was blowing about 20 out of the northwest. We caught herring and headed out to try for sailfish. Starting in 80 feet of water, the kingfish ate the baits as fast as we baited the hooks. Over the next couple hours we lost track of how many kings our one angler caught and released. These were 10 to 15 pound fish and a lot of fun. Through the morning the wind continued to rise. We caught a big sailfish about 10:30 and another smaller sail about noon. By now the wind was blowing 30 or more. This made fishing difficult. The kite line broke and we lost the kite, we caught a couple smaller kings and a 20 pound barracuda. The wind switched to the northeast, the seas grew to 8 feet and we headed home. We had some fast action and nice fish, but the weather finally won. Numerous fronts forecast for this weekend should produce plenty of sailfish for the very sea worthy anglers.

Be sure and join me at Dusky Sport Center on January 20th at 6:30 PM for “Everything You Can Catch on a Kite”. This should be a really good seminar.