It is sailfish time!
After a slow start to our sailfish season, a few cold fronts came through and the sailfishing picked up. We had a great day this week were we caught 15 sailfish in one day. We probably had at least 24 strikes and ended up catching 15. Usually on a day where you get into double digit releases, many of the sailfish are caught as multiples. That is, you get 2 to 5 or even 6 sailfish on at one time. This can be a pure rush as you have sailfish jumping all over the place and it takes some "controlled panic" to get most if not all of the fish caught. For one, you have to be careful that the lines don't cross, then you have to strategically place anglers throughout the boat to try to keep the lines separated and finally you have to pick one fish at a time as to which sailfish you are going to chase down. The day we caught the 15 sails, we started off the day with a triple header, followed by two more tripleheaders and then had a quad on. That was definitely a lot of fun.
Besides sailfish, there have been quiet a few dolphin (mahi-mahi) around. These fish are anywhere from a few pounds up to about 25 ' 30 pounds. These fish have been moving fast to the south. The good news is that there have been plenty of mahis up to the north of us and we should see the next big push of dolphin very soon.
Although we didn't catch any wahoo, there were some decent wahoo caught last week. There have also been a few yellowfin tuna caught. The kingfish bite really hasn't turned on full speed yet, but that should change shortly. Overall the fishing has been good and should steadily improve as the cold fronts come in.
Dates for February are filling in quick, especially around the Miami Boat Show. Now is the time to book the winter and spring trips and also time to start making plans for the summer Bahama trips. Hope to hear from you soon!
Tight Lines,
Capt. Dean Panos
