One of my first trips from our new dock in Hollywood, Florida was not exactly the perfect south Florida day and my fishing report is about this trip. Doctor Dale and his crew showed up in windy conditions, overcast skies and a 60% chance of rain for their all day trip. The seas were running about 4' and that was about his threshold so across the street we went to take a look. They had driven quite a distance to go fishing that day and the waves breaking on the beach were around 4' so they opted to go rather than postpone. It turned out to be a good choice too.
As I said, Doc had done this before and was all about buying some live bait for kite fishing. No problem with wind, we had plenty and kite fishing is probably one of the most comfortable ways to fish in seas. While conditions at the beach were 4', it was surprisingly comfortable out in the ocean where the waves were 4 to 6' with the occasional 10. And fish LOVE this kind of weather! The only thing that could dampen our day was if the weatherman was correct about the 60% chance of rain. They haven't invented a kite that will stay up in rain… yet…
We set up and began waiting for our first bite. It took a bit but there was finally an explosion of water out by the long right kite bait. One of Doc's guests went first, I think it was Caj, and with some coaching, after about 10 minutes, she landed a nice 25 lbs. Kingfish. This fish was a real stud and Doc was already happy about his decision to go fishing as they were quite hungry. LOL
We reset and again had to wait a bit for our next bite. This was a decent sized Barracuda which was landed by Doc's other guest, Rick. This bite also came on the right long bait. As crew, we prefer the hits, when they come as singles hit a short bait. Then we don't have to do a complete reset, just reel the kite to the short pin. I felt a trend developing.. . LOL
Again we reset and had to wait. That's the part of fishing that sometimes get to you. With doc up and ready, our next bite was seen coming for the… you guessed it, long right kite bait. A Dolphin was approaching and quite excited about his next meal. This fish took some time to land as the big ones can be especially acrobatic and are not happy when they get close to the boat. Darren finally was able to stretch out and gaff this 20 pounder which was immediately put in the fishbox and the lid slammed. They have a tendency to jump back out of the boat and it would be a shame to loose such a prize.
Ok, this long right stuff is getting old, right? But we're not done yet… Some more waiting and here's comes Mr. Sailfish. He's on and jumping and Rick, who caught the Barracuda, is now battling his first ever Sail! Doc and Darren are down there coaching and I'm just trying to keep the boat close to the fish as we land and photograph this delightful fish before releasing him back to the sea. It took a bit of reviving by dragging him slowly by the boat in the water until he regained his strength. We really try to do what we can for successful releases to protect our fishery.
To this point, we'd only missed one hit, a small Kingfish had chopped a bait in half. Our time was running short and with only 10 minutes or so more to fish before we headed back, I was kidding with Darren about a shark biting a bait and extending our trip. Sharks do NOT come to the boat easily… And there he was, his fin cutting the water headed right for the LEFT long… finally. Finally another bait got eaten! LOL
Doc was up for this battle as he had never caught a Shark before and on a class 80# rod and a Penn International 130, he actually made fairly quick work of this fish. About a 7' Hammerhead had eaten our bait but luckily he never sounded to the bottom. He stayed up near the surface making the fight much shorter and within about 20 minutes, we had him to the boat but couldn't hang on. He screamed out some more line but returned to us shortly to be captured, pictures taken boatside and released. And with that? Our day was done and it was time to head home.
We never had any rain except for a few sprinkles. The seas were big but not uncomfortable. Sunscreen was not needed today but all in all, it turned out to be a banner day of fishing. 5 for 6 on bites, 5 different species. And they were nice ones too. And that's how Fanntastic Fishing made its start at our new dock in Hollywood, Florida. Not a bad fishing report if I do say so myself.
Captain Steve
P.S. It wasn't until I sent the picture from my phone to the computer that I just remembered our 4th passenger. That would be the dog by the bottom of the fish. This truly was a sea dog too.
