October 26, 2004 - Fall Fishing Action

[Captain Bouncer]

Fall Fishing Action

Well it is hard to believe that October is coming to an end. We were looking forward to a bunch of swordfish trips this month, but we got a lot of rough NE winds. We had Jeff Shore out with his fishing partner John Freitag. They wanted to try some bottom fishing and then tackle some swordfish. The bottom fishing produced a nice amberjack, a couple smaller jacks and snapper and one nice gray grouper. 75 year old John got a nice swordfish. This 62 inch fork length, 120 pound swordfish was the fish that gave John a “World Billfish Grand Slam”. That was a thrill for all aboard. We have caught some pretty good bottom fish since then. Groupers to 20 pounds, amberjacks to about 40, an 11 pound porgy to name a few. Mackerel have been good enough to keep it interesting.


Last night was a milestone of sorts. After a couple slow evenings fishing live baitfish for snook and tarpon, I decided to try shrimp last night. I hope the shrimp fishing season has arrived. We had a ball with Lawrence Berlyn and his guest, Megan, Adam and Meredith. They caught several big ladyfish and a 5 pound Spanish mackerel on 12 pound spinning tackle. The best catch of the night came right at quitting time. We had jumped a big tarpon earlier, and as we were getting ready to go home, Lawrence hooked a big tarpon. He fought that fish from 4th street to 30th. It ran and jumped and rolled and fought through the hours. Paparazzi Adam never miss a photo op. The girls cheered for the fish and angler. And after two and a half hours we got a solid catch and returned to the dock. What a great start to the winter tarpon season.

We are rapidly approaching the tournament season. For the first time in years we have openings to take on new teams to fish these events. The Fort Lauderdale Billfish Tour. is November 19-21. A new tournament takes place in Miami December 11th and 12th. Cocoplum Sailfish is January 14-16. The Mayor’s Cup is January 29 and 30. Bob Lewis Billfish Challenge is March 5 and 6. Billfish Masters is March 19 and 20. And the Yamaha/-Contender Miami Billfish Tournament is April 8-10. Most of these dates are still available on Bouncer’s Dusky 33. If any of these appeal to you, let us know and we will give you all the details.

November means the sails are arriving along with African pompano, big jacks, groupers and a lot of others. So give us a call at 305-945-5114 or e-mail capt.bouncer@att.net to make a reservation. Let’s go catch some fish!