Nov 27th, 2006
The new boat is performing flawlessly, and it is catching fish as well. The new Mercury Verados are actually a bit stronger and a bit more fuel efficient than last year's model. Everything on the boat is working and we are ready for a good winter hopefully full of trips and fish.
The past two weeks there have been sailfish, kingfish and dolphin. The sailfish haven't poured through in big numbers yet, but they will. We only had one trip that we didn't catch a sail, but we have been averaging between one to three sailfish per trip. There have been quiet a few very small sailfish around. Luckily we haven't had to tangle with any of them. These fish are less than 10 pounds and are very fragile. If you do hook one of these youngsters, once you get them boatside, simply cut the leader as close to the hook as possible. Do not grab them by the bill, as their entire head structure is fragile and you will do a great deal of damage to them. These are our future stocks, so we need to treat them gently.
There have also been some dolphin on the edge. They have been of decent size. We did catch a few in the 20 pound range, but most have been between 5 and 15 pounds. They have been eating the kite baits which have been herring or pilchards. Besides the dolphin, there have been a few kingfish around. One day the kings bite well, and then they seem to shut off for a day or two. Most of the kings have been on the small size. As a matter of fact, I don't recall catching a kingfish bigger than 15 pounds since my last report. A lot of the smaller kings are hard to hook, especially when using bigger bait like a herring intended for sailfish. When the small kings are around, try to use smaller bait like a pilchard, and if you don't have any, then try a small white jig.
The wind has been pretty constant for the past two weeks. The wind is good for the sailfish and for fishing on the reef, but any wind out of the North, NE or NW is not good for swordfishing. With that said, we haven't been swordfishing for a while and had to cancel or postpone quite a few trips. We have more scheduled for this week, so hopefully the wind will lie down so we can get back out. This time of year, the probability of going swordfishing is diminished, but on the other hand we get great sailfish conditions.
The holidays are coming quick. We already have quite a few days booked around the holidays, but have open dates as well. I also offer gift certificates. If you have that special someone in your life that loves to fish and you simply can't figure out what to get him or her, we can set you up with a gift certificate for a fishing trip.
Tight Lines,
Capt. Dean Panos
www.doubledcharters.com
(954)805-8231
