June 4

Well June is here and we are expecting a great month for dolphin fish, kingfish, sailfish and bonitos. So give us a call and let’s get you and your friend Hooked Up down here in sunny south Florida.

Today Cam from Canada and Tim from Oklahoma spent the late afternoon fishing aboard the Hooked Up. We started out fishing out in deep water looking for a shark or a sailfish. But after about an hour of fishing the sky got dark and the wind started blowing pretty good. Since the ocean started getting pretty rough and these guys were out for a good time and not into getting their bouts kicked we decided to try our luck fishing inside the inlet where the water was flat calm.

As it turned out it was a great idea. We anchored up in the intercostal right outside where one of the rivers empties out into the intercostals.

We put out a couple of live goggle eyes and from there it did not take long till our first Hook Up. It took a while to reel this one in because the boat was anchored up and we had no way to back down to the fish and help our angler out. But at last we got this monster barracuda to the boat side. NICE going we got a few quick pictures and watched him swim away. One down and at least one more to go.

On our second bite was a little different than the first one. All we seen was a big boil on the bait. When we came tight with this monster there was no second guessing what this was. It was a big tarpon and man did he put on a show. This fish was up in the air jumping more that he was in the water. This one took a little longer to get to the boat but well worth the fight. We estimated this tarpon at about 80 pounds.

Cam and Tim thanks a million had a ball fishing with you guys and we are looking forward to fishing you guys again soon

Captain Taco (877) SEA-4344

June 5

Today Richard, Darius and Michael from Denver Colorado spent the day fishing with us.

We started out the day trolling down the reef and got quite lucky catching kingfish bonitos and a nice dolphin fish. Than we thought we’d try our luck at some big game fishing so we put out a couple kites with some live baits suspended from them and a couple of big dead shark baits down deep.

We had little to no current and after listing to the radio and not hearing of any of the boats getting lucky with sails or sharks we decided to change plans.

We took the boat over to where there was a big ship wreck on the bottom about 210 feet down and dropped a live bait just to see what might be hanging around there. As it turned out it was a good move. On our first drop we caught a big amber jack. We figured what the heck if it worked once we’d try it again.

This time we were not so lucky we did get a nice bite but whatever bit our bait had teeth and we lost our hook. So we thought we’d try this one more time and this time we put a wire leader on the hook. It was the perfect move we got the bite and this time he was not getting away. We hauled up a big monster barracuda.

We ended up with a box full of kingfish, bonitos, one nice dolphin a monster amberjack and one BIG barracuda.

WAY TO GO guys thanks again for a great day.

Give us a call and you bring your food, drinks and a little LUCK we’ve got the rest.

Captain Taco (877) SEA-4344

June 8

Today a couple of our regular customers Clark and Robert who both live down here in Sunny South Florida.

We started out trolling down the reef toward North Miami. The kingfish and the bonitos were snapping so good that we ended up catching so many they no longer wanted to reel them in. That’s a problem that I wish we had more often.

Once we had caught our limit on kings and more than enough bonitos we decided to try something a little different. Captain Greg took the boat over a ship wreck that no one seems to know about except him. Not even me YET.

He was trying to catch some good eating fish and today Captain Greg made the right choice. We ended up catching plenty of good eating snappers but we also got Hooked Up into something a little bigger than a snapper. The whole time we were fighting this fish we were sure that the hooks were going to pull out of the fish mouth. We were using little snapper hooks and this thing was pulling like a freight train.

Clark wasted no time getting into the chair. He ever so gently eased the fish toward the surface. After reeling the fish up most of the way we thought the fish had gotten away because the line went slack. But Captain Greg knew better. What had happen was the fish got filled up with air from coming up from the deep. Holly Cow gets a load of this one. Why to go Clark. Up pops this monster grouper. For a better look at this fish go to photo gallery #4

What a way to end the day!! See you guys again next Sunday.

Guys’ fishing is just plain old good right now so give us a call and let’s get you Hooked Up

Captain Taco (877) SEA-4344

June 8

Ok today we have an interesting charter. We’ve got Roger from Morrison Colorado and his daughter Cami from Texas.

They booked us for a 6 hour trip on the 9th a 6 hour trip on the 11th and an 8 hour trip on the 11th .

The 9th started out with Captain Greg and captain JJ taking them fishing. They had trolled the reef for the whole 6 hours and caught so many kingfish and bonitos that not only were they very satisfied but much worn out by the end of the day.

So they decided to take the next day off for a little R and R and DRINKING.

On the following day I arrived at the boat first thing in the morning and they were all ready there eager to do it again. But they kept reminding me what a great day of fishing they had on Monday the day that I was not there. So needless to say I had something to prove.

So I started out trolling just like they had the previous fishing trip and I matched all the kings and bonitos that they had caught with Greg as Captain.

But that was just not good enough for me so we put out the kites and almost immediately hooked into a monster and I do mean a monster black fin tuna.

Cami jumped in the chair and this fish proceeded to kick her bout she was still worn out from the previous trip but now she had a true conpeter on the other end of the line. It took Cami a good 20 min to reel this one in but I’ve got to give her credit she hung in there and got the tuna to the boat and JJ wasted no time getting this one in the boat.

As you cam imagine by now Cami was not giving me quite as hard of a time about her trip with Captain Greg 2 days before as a matter of fact I thing she was starting to warm up to me a bit. I’m not sure if it was due to the fish we were catching or it had a little something to do with the 100,000,000 beers she somehow got to fit in her stomach. I will say this she could drink me under the table and somehow maintain like she had only had a couple beers.





Things were going pretty good for the whole trip but we still had a couple hours left to fish and we had to think of something else to do now. I must admit that it was not my idea it was JJ’s idea to set out a couple shark baits between a couple of ship wrecks.

This was one of those days where we could do no wrong. It took about 45 min till the bite happen but when it happen holly cow what a bite it was. Cami and Roger looked at each other like who the heck was going to try to reel this one in. Buy this time Cami had found lots of courage in those beers she had been drinking so she jumped in the chair.

I’m not sure if she sounded like a woman giving birth or if she sounded more like a very pissed off truck driver but whoever it was she was yelling at she seemed to mean every word out of her mouth. (LOL)

It took a good 45 min of back and forth fighting yelling and screaming but I could not believe it she did it. She got this monster BULL SHARK to the boat.

There he was at the side of the boat and neither Roger nor Cami could believe the size of this monster. Well there was no question in Cami’s mind she wanted this fish hanging from her wall back home. So now we had to try to get a measurement of this fish and try to get the hooks out of his mouth to give it a good chance of making back in the wild.

You would think that after a long fight like this the fish would be pretty tired and calm enough to do this. That was not the case this fish was one of the hardest fish we’ve ever tried to get a measurement of but at last we did get a good measurement and watched swim away. HOLLY COW way to go Cami.

The following day we decided to try something a little different Roger went ahead and charted the boat all day and we were going to go way off shore and try to fill the box with dolphin fish and maybe some Wahoo. Than our plan was to do a few deep drops down 1850 feet to the bottom and see if we could catch a sword fish.

When I write these fishing reports I of course like to write about good fishing trips. But I also like to be honest about what I write. I am sorry to say that we only found one little dolphin fish and never did get a sword fish bite. We like to think that we are one of the best charter fishermen out here and we do know where to go and what to do but the bottom line is that the fish do have the last say so on what happens. (THAT’S WHY THEY CALL IT FISHING NOT CATCHING)

However I did seer the tuna that we caught the day before and rolled it in sesame seed and sliced it reel thin. We dipped in some soy sauce and we all had a killer lunch.

While JJ and I were feeling pretty bad about not catching them a sword fish or any dolphin they seemed to be taking it a lot better than we did. They said they would not have changed a thing. And by the tip that Roger gave us (the biggest tip I’ve gotten in over 5 years) I am sure we will be seeing you guys again soon.

Roger and Cami thanks so much loved fishing with you guys.

Captain Taco (877) SEA-4344

June 9

Ok today we have an interesting charter. We’ve got Roger from Morrison Colorado and his daughter Cami from Texas.

They booked us for a 6 hour trip on the 9th a 6 hour trip on the 11th and an 8 hour trip on the 11th .

The 9th started out with Captain Greg and captain JJ taking them fishing. They had trolled the reef for the whole 6 hours and caught so many kingfish and bonitos that not only were they very satisfied but much worn out by the end of the day.

So they decided to take the next day off for a little R and R and DRINKING.

On the following day I arrived at the boat first thing in the morning and they were all ready there eager to do it again. But they kept reminding me what a great day of fishing they had on Monday the day that I was not there. So needless to say I had something to prove.

So I started out trolling just like they had the previous fishing trip and I matched all the kings and bonitos that they had caught with Greg as Captain.

But that was just not good enough for me so we put out the kites and almost immediately hooked into a monster and I do mean a monster black fin tuna.

Cami jumped in the chair and this fish proceeded to kick her bout she was still worn out from the previous trip but now she had a true conpeter on the other end of the line. It took Cami a good 20 min to reel this one in but I’ve got to give her credit she hung in there and got the tuna to the boat and JJ wasted no time getting this one in the boat.

As you cam imagine by now Cami was not giving me quite as hard of a time about her trip with Captain Greg 2 days before as a matter of fact I thing she was starting to warm up to me a bit. I’m not sure if it was due to the fish we were catching or it had a little something to do with the 100,000,000 beers she somehow got to fit in her stomach. I will say this she could drink me under the table and somehow maintain like she had only had a couple beers.





Things were going pretty good for the whole trip but we still had a couple hours left to fish and we had to think of something else to do now. I must admit that it was not my idea it was JJ’s idea to set out a couple shark baits between a couple of ship wrecks.

This was one of those days where we could do no wrong. It took about 45 min till the bite happen but when it happen holly cow what a bite it was. Cami and Roger looked at each other like who the heck was going to try to reel this one in. Buy this time Cami had found lots of courage in those beers she had been drinking so she jumped in the chair.

I’m not sure if she sounded like a woman giving birth or if she sounded more like a very pissed off truck driver but whoever it was she was yelling at she seemed to mean every word out of her mouth. (LOL)

It took a good 45 min of back and forth fighting yelling and screaming but I could not believe it she did it. She got this monster BULL SHARK to the boat.

There he was at the side of the boat and neither Roger nor Cami could believe the size of this monster. Well there was no question in Cami’s mind she wanted this fish hanging from her wall back home. So now we had to try to get a measurement of this fish and try to get the hooks out of his mouth to give it a good chance of making back in the wild.

You would think that after a long fight like this the fish would be pretty tired and calm enough to do this. That was not the case this fish was one of the hardest fish we’ve ever tried to get a measurement of but at last we did get a good measurement and watched swim away. HOLLY COW way to go Cami.

The following day we decided to try something a little different Roger went ahead and charted the boat all day and we were going to go way off shore and try to fill the box with dolphin fish and maybe some Wahoo. Than our plan was to do a few deep drops down 1850 feet to the bottom and see if we could catch a sword fish.

When I write these fishing reports I of course like to write about good fishing trips. But I also like to be honest about what I write. I am sorry to say that we only found one little dolphin fish and never did get a sword fish bite. We like to think that we are one of the best charter fishermen out here and we do know where to go and what to do but the bottom line is that the fish do have the last say so on what happens. (THAT’S WHY THEY CALL IT FISHING NOT CATCHING)

However I did seer the tuna that we caught the day before and rolled it in sesame seed and sliced it reel thin. We dipped in some soy sauce and we all had a killer lunch.

While JJ and I were feeling pretty bad about not catching them a sword fish or any dolphin they seemed to be taking it a lot better than we did. They said they would not have changed a thing. And by the tip that Roger gave us (the biggest tip I’ve gotten in over 5 years) I am sure we will be seeing you guys again soon.

Roger and Cami thanks so much loved fishing with you guys.

Captain Taco (877) SEA-4344

June 13

Today a Coach from a South Florida’s swimming team Coach Andrew took out some of his main swimmers for a morning of deep sea fishing aboard the Hooked Up.

Chelsey, Brain, Danny, Sanchez and Ethan all from South Florida. This was their senior year and they were all going to collage next year and this was his way of saying thanks to all him swimmers.

The first thing I did in the morning was to get out the life jackets just in case anyone fell overboard. (LOL)

We started out trolling and things worked out pretty good for us we ended up catching a box full of bonitos and kingfish.

Than we put out the kites with some live baits suspended from them and a couple of big dead shark baits down deep.

The bite was a little slow we did manage to catch one nice barracuda but that was it. As we started bring in all the baits we got a last min bite. And this time it was the Coaches turn to reel in this one. It turned out to be a silky shark. Way to go coach.

Thanks again for a fun morning of fishing.

Captain Taco (877) SEA-4344

June 19

Today was an interesting change for fishing we had 2 girls that wanted to go fishing and a husband that did not want to go but got talked into going.

Dave and Theresa live down here in ft Lauderdale. And Dave’s sister Carol came down from Huntington West Virginia.

The way it was supposed to be was the girls were going to spend the morning fishing with us and Dave was going to have a relaxing day away from the girls. Well that’s not the way it worked out. When Dave drove the girls down to the boat they just would not take no for an answer and he was talked into going.

So off we went for a relaxing day of fishing. We started out trolling down the reef in search of some kingfish and bonitos. I’ve got to say they were not biting real well but whenever we did hook into one you could hear the girls screaming a mile away. These girls were just having a great time. I was not satisfied with just a few kings and bonitos so I worked my way down to a ship wreck down off the coast of North Miami.

On our way down Carol did catch a nice barracuda and things started looking up for us. Than once we got to this ship wreck we dropped live bait down about 210 feet down. The bait was not down there more than a min when BAM the rod bent over and we were Hooked Up.

Carol wasted no time jumping in the chair and after some moaning and groaning she finally got the fish to the boat. A nice Amber Jack way to go.

At this point we were about 6 miles from our inlet so we had some ground to cover to get back to our inlet. So we started trolling our way back to port.

We caught a couple small bonitos on our way back but just as we started bring all the lines in BAM we got Hooked Up again and this time it was Theresa’s turn in the chair. She ended up boating a nice barracuda too. What a way to end the trip.

I’ve got to say these girls had a ball and somehow I know Dave had a good time himself even throw he really was not into fishing.

Thanks again guys had a ball fishing with you and looking forward to fishing you again soon

Summer is here and the ocean is flat calm so give us a call and lets catch some of these dolphin fish And summer time sails that are around!!

Captain Taco (954) 764-4344 or toll free at (877) SEA-4344

June 20

Today started out with a shared charter. We had Justin and Hamilton from Maryland and Carl and Bill from Myrtle Beach.

The weather was beautiful and the ocean was flat calm. Since it was so calm we figured we could cover some ground and troll our way down toward North Miami. We caught a box full of bonitos on our way down. Once we got to North Miami we went over a ship wreck and slow trolled some live baits around it to see what might be hanging around.

As it turned out there was something hanging around and it turned out to be a big barracuda. What a fight this fish did not like this sport fishing stuff. We finally did get him to the boat got a few quick pictures and watched him swim away.

We had a long way to go to make it back to our port so we did some high speed trolling on the way back. As it turned out that was a pretty good idea we ended up catching a couple of nice dolphin fish that way and one more nice barracuda.

Nice going guys thanks again and we’ll see yaw again soon.

Fishing is good guys so give us a call and let’s get you and your friends Hooked Up!!

Captain Taco (954) 764-4344

June 21

Today Matt from Baltimore, Matt from New York, Henry from Organ, Henry Sir from Sebastian Florida, Kevin from New Jersey, And Mike also from Sebastian Florida spent the morning fishing aboard the Hooked Up

We went trolling the reef and ended up catching a box full of king fish and a couple of bonitos

Thanks again guys for a fun morning of fishing.

That same after noon we had a wild bunch on the boat. We had the crew that sells the Miami Dolphin tickets for Pro Player station (Joe Robbie Stadium)

I knew thing were going to get a little wild when the first thing I saw as we were backing in from our morning charter was this crazy bunch of people holding up this BIG taco bell hat that they wanted me to wear. The second thing that gave me a clue about this wild bunch was the BEER and I mean lots of it.

O BOY what the heck am I in for!!

We had John, Adam, Scott, Brooke, Shawn and Patrice all from right down here in sunny South Florida.

I’ve got to say that I did not think that a few bonitos and kingfish was what these guys were looking for. I knew it was going to take a BIG fish to satisfy this group.

So we went right to kite fishing with some live baits suspended from them and a couple of big shark baits down deep. Now usually when we fish live baits out of the kite we use mono leaders so if a sailfish tries to eat the bait he won’t feel the wire. Today I looked out and seen a big hammer head shark coming at one of our kite baits like a freight train so I yelled down at Greg to lift the bait out of the water so the shark would not eat that one and just bite threw the leader as if it was hot butter. Well I guess Greg knew something I didn’t because he just stood there and watch this sea monster eat the bait. I yelled down NOW WHAT Greg just smiled and turned around and said I thought I’d put wire leaders out today.

Well there you have it we were feeding the shark and we really had a chance of catching it to. Yes we did have wire leaders out but we were fighting this fish with a TLD 25 in other words a very small rod and reel for a fish this big.

This one was not so easy to catch it took over 45 min to get him to the side of the boat but at last we got the fish close enough to cut the leader close to his mouth so there would not be any string dragging behind him and we knew that the hook should rust out in no time. Great the fish swam away in great shape and we got everyone pumped up o yea and mention we had a lot of beer on board?

Ok so back to it we put the kites right back out there and one of the guys said he really wanted to catch a sailfish so he could reel it to the boat side to get a measurement of his catch he really wanted a sailfish hanging in his APT.

I told them that the Miami Dolphins had a better chance of winning the Supper Bawl this year than we had of seeing a sailfish today.

All I’ve got to say is put your money on the Miami Dolphins this year because about 5 min after the words came out of my mouth there was a sailfish jumping behind the boat. We never did see him coming and never really got a good hook up so he shot us the fin and swam away.

At least that was pretty cool we all got to see one. But wait 5 mi n after that we seen another one just jumping behind the boat for no reasons what so ever. O Well that’s pretty cool we got to see two and now all that beer I was talking about earlier well it was now about gone and they had broken into my after work stash and time was running out.

We started reeling in all the baits when YEP you guessed it another one and this time we seen it before he got a chance to eat the bait. So this time we feed him good let him run with the bait came tight and BAM we were hooked up FINALLY got the fish on and all the other rods were already cleared and we had a good feeling about catching this one.

We got all ready to take a measurement just about to grad the leader and well don’t want to point any fingers but someone was more interested in watching this beautiful sailfish jumping and forgot to keep the line tight by reeling. (THAT’S WHY THEY CALL IT FISHING NOT CATCHING).Yep it got away right next to the boat but that’s alright everyone got to get a good close look at the fish and now they all got to come back again before football sea starts to get their revenge.

Thanks you guys soooooo much for a great time.

Well the fish are biting and the laughs are flowing so come on down and lets have some laughs and a great day of fishing.

Captain Taco 965-764-4344

June 22

Today Ralf from right down here in Ft Lauderdale had reserved the boat to entertain some of his clients coming into town from out of the country. For all of you critics out there I am going to do my best to spell these names right. We have Yoshiake and Hiroki from Japan and Jesse from the Philippines.

Ok now here what Ralf wanted us to do for his clients first of all they all liked to eat fish so we needed to catch some eating fish than he really wanted them to have a shot at catching something BIG.

Not an easy task to do in 4 hours so we decided to go after some eating fish first so we went trolling down the reef and caught 4 nice kingfish. Ok plan #1 went well now for the hard part (BIG FISH)

We went out to 350 feet of water and set out a couple of kites with some live baits suspended from them and a couple of bloody bonitos down deep and the trap was set. Now it was all up to luck. It took a good 45 min when BAM our deep rod bent over and line started peeling off the feel and the rod was bent over to where the rod tip was almost touching the water. You wanted to fight something BIG well here you go. The moral of the stories is watch out what you ask for you just might get it. This one was not coming to the boat so easy. It took a good 50 min just to get this SEA MONSTER next to the boat. We got a few quick pictures and got 2 out 3 hooks out of this giant hammer heads mouth and watched him swim away to fight another day.

Mission accomplished thanks again guys and we are looking forward to fishing you again next year.

As you can see we have all of the fish groups moving threw now so give us a call and let’s get you out there for some good old fashion fun fishing.

Captain Taco (985)764-4344

June 23

Today we had a shared charter of 5 different people from all over the US. We had Kaysaundra from Iowa, Derrick from Mutton Oklahoma, Saundra and Philip from Illinois and Reggie from Miami. Since we had all these different people on board and they all wanted to just catch fish and have some laughs we decided to go after numbers and not really try for anything big. We went trolling down the reef hoping the kingfish or bonitos were going to bite for us. Thing cond’nt has worked out any better than they did. Not only were the kings biting but they were biting like mad dogs. Everyone had a ball and we filled the box with kings in no time.

Thanks again guys for a fun fill fishing trip.

Summer is here and so are the kings we sure are glad to have them biting like this so come on down to Sunny South Florida and let’s get you and your family Hooked Up.
That same afternoon we were looking forward to getting right back out there and see if we could catch the kings like that again. When we got to the dock our afternoon trip was there waiting for us and they all got to see that the fish were biting and we were all looking forward to this trip.
We had Philip and Saundra from Shiloh IL their daughter Kaysaundra from Cedar Falls IA and her friends Derrick from Tulsa OK and Rev Reggie from Miami Florida.
So we got everyone on board and headed down to the south where we had caught all the kings earlier that day. Once we started trolling we got a bite pretty quick but then the bite seemed to shut down. You never would have known that fishing was slow by listening to our group down in the cockpit. These people were just having a ball and just glad to be out here on the water. The 2 girls were talking like two school girls that had not seen each other in a year and Philp and Derrick were down in the cockpit just laughing and talking none stop and I had Rev Reggie up stairs with me and he was just about as happy as one man could be to be riding around out on the Atlantic ocean. The only 2 that were not having such a great time was Greg and I we knew that the fishing was slow even though we had a few kings in the box it was nothing like the morning bite.
We were nearing the end of our trip and we had not had a bite in over 30 min and I was trolling toward our inlet and I guess I really was not paying much attention to where I was going or maybe Rev Reggie had something to do with it but I was talking to the Rev and telling him all about fishing out here off Fort Lauderdale and what it was like to do this for a living and so. I did not notice that we were in very shallow water about 45 feet. When I seen one of our deep rods got hit I turned around to see how deep we had gotten this bite in when I thought O know I’ve got us hooked on bottom. How wrong I was if this was bottom than Derrick was going to reel the bottom up (LOL) it turned out to be a real nice Mutton Snapper. This is the first time I’ve ever caught a mutton snapper while trolling.
This was a great way to end the trip we’re not sure if I get credit for putting us on this snapper or if the Rev gets credit for it but either way we all had a great time laughing about it and of course Derrick had the best time catching it.
Sometimes it takes a trip like this to remind me that I’m not fishing for me. I’m here to fish and to show my guests a good time. We may not have caught a lot on this trip but we did catch a boat load in good times.
Thanks again Saundra for the pictures and for the great time.



Captain Taco (954) 764-4344

June 24

Today we had a shared charter and all of our anglers were from Texas. We had a police officer Juan and his son Juan from San Antonio Texas and we had Lisa and Philip from Fort Worth Texas.

We started out trolling the reef hoping to catch some kingfish and some bonitos. Trolling was a little slow we ended up catching only 2 bonitos. We had little to no current so we decided to switch plans and put out some live bait to see if that would change our luck and it did. We were at it for over an hour when out of nowhere popped up this big dolphin fish. We let him eat our live bait for 10 to 20 seconds and then we went ahead with the boat to get the line tight on him quick. It worked we were Hooked Up and what a sight it was to watch this beautiful fish jumping all over the place truly was a sight to see. Juan JR wasted no time jumping in the chair and the fight was on. We knew that fishing was slow today and ever bite counted so we ever so gently worked the fish closer and closer to the boat. Finally the fish got just a little too close to the boat and BAM got him. (Way to go Juan) As a charter boat Captain I get to catch a lot of fish all the time but I’ve got to say one thing you never seem to get tired of is watching the face of a person light up after catching a nice big fish.

Thanks again to all of our anglers for a fun morning of fishing.

Captain Taco (954)764-4344

June 28

Today Mark from Lee center New York and Melissa, Rob and Eric from Pompano Florida spent the morning fishing with us. We started out trolling the reef and caught so many bonitos and king fish that we all needed a break. I’m not kidding we could not even get all the baits out at one time. They truly were eating anything we put in the water. After a good hour and half of this I knew I needed to make a move to try something else.

So we decided to go off shore to try to find some good eating dolphin fish. But the dolphin fish were not biting like the bonitos as a matter a fact we could not find any dolphin fish and we had been at it for over an hour now. So time to make another move. We knew we did not want to get back into the bonitos and kings we had more than enough. So we decided to fly a couple of kites and suspend some live bait from them.

We had our live baits out there no more than 5 min when there was a giant splash near one of our live baits. The rod bent over and line started peeling off the reel we were Hooked Up. At first I thought we had a big bonito on but after about 20 min of fighting this thing I knew it had to be something else. And we were right it turned out to be a black fin tuna and a real nice one at that. It weighed 31 pounds Holly Cow what a monster!! We also ended up catching a hand full more kingfish and bonitos out of the kite. What a day of action fishing has just been great so give us a call and come on down and be a part of it.

Captain Taco (954)764-4344

June 29 Sam's B DAY

My Daughter Sam's Birthday Trip
Ok let me set the scene for everyone. I’ve been doing this for a long time but I’ve got to say that this trip will stand out in my mind forever.

Also bear in mind that there are a lot of people that e mail me and call me on the phone to let me know when I’m a little behind on my blogs and fishing reports. They also like to let me know when I miss spell a word or when my grammar is a little off.

Well my best friend Jeff out of Jacksonville is my biggest critic so I told him this report is on him.

Ok so his grammar and spelling is a little better than mine but I am a much better fisherman then him.

Also I want everyone to know that at the end of this big fish battle it was very important to me that this fish that made our day week and probably year had to swim away unhurt and I made sure of that.

In closing the pictures on this blog cannot be enlarged however I also posted them in photo gallery Titled Sam's Birthday well worth looking at.

Ok take it away Jeff.

Once In a Life Time Birthday





Today was a very special day for Captain Taco. It was Taco’s daughter Samantha’s 16th birthday and one of Samantha’s birthday wishes was to go fishing with her Dad, her brother Luis, and to bring along a few of her friends on her Dad’s boat. Jessica, Sasha, Kailie along with Brandy (Samantha’s horse trainer) and her husband Angel joined the Hooked Up at 9:00 a.m. at the dock. Off we went.

Now I must tell you that Taco’s kids, Luis and Samantha learned how to catch fish before they could ride a bike. Luis at 18 years old is already a talented fisherman and Samantha now 16 years old has caught more Sailfish than most of us will in a lifetime. There was one thing Samantha had never accomplished…wiring a Sailfish. For those of you that don’t know this term, it is the end of a fight where the fish is tired and you have to “hand line” the fish to the boat with your hands because the leader is at a point that the angler can no longer gain line on the reel. Of course Samantha had witnessed this 100’s of times and was trained on the do’s and don’ts. Fish sometimes seem to play possum at the end of the fight and can fool you that they are tired but will light up when they get close to the boat. This is a very important fact to know when wiring a fish.

The fishing stage is set. Captain Taco takes the Hooked Up over to an anchored ship off Port Everglades. Samantha and her friends are having fun in the sun laughing and joking when in a few minutes of letting the baits out, Fish On! The girls are on the bow and bridge of the boat so Angel, who is in the cockpit, grabs the rod. After 10 minutes or so the fish (a Kingfish) is at the side of the boat. Somehow the hooks fall out and we all scratched our heads looking at Luis...Luis was the first mate on this special trip.

The ship happens to pull anchor as we make another pass by her and Captain Taco decides to go further off shore to find better looking water. We’re heading out and the boat is scaring up Flying fish which is pretty common. I ask the Captain about the Flying fish when he tells me to look 300+ yards to the right where there was something else scaring the Flying fish out of the water. He makes a hard right and we head for that spot. Before you know it, Bam, fish on! By the time I could turn around, I hear “Sailfish” and Samantha’s friend, Jessica jumps in the chair and the fight begins.

Here’s where the unbelievable begins. Luis recently bought an underwater camera and had taken some underwater photos while fishing in the Bahamas for a few weeks. Samantha is in the cockpit, Dad is at the helm asking Luis if he wants to get some underwater photos, and at the same time yelling for Samantha to “wire the Sailfish”. Samantha already had the gloves on and was ready. Samantha brings the sailfish to the boat like a pro. Luis grabs his camera as the Sailfish gets to within 20’ of the boat. Luis gets the loud word from his Dad to get in the water. Samantha is holding the fish off the back of the boat when Luis dives in the water like Tarzan with his camera in hand. Captain Taco has to keep everyone safe maneuvering the boat to keep his son and daughter out of harm’s way. Luis get’s his shots and all of the sudden the Sailfish goes crazy on top of the water. Jumping in every direction, the Sailfish jumps and lands on top of Luis’s back. Because Luis was deeper than the Sailfish and Samantha was holding the fish away from her brother, he was never touched. Samantha wires the fish to the side of the boat and Dad flies down to the cockpit to release the fish. The Sailfish, a little tired swims away; Luis (Tarzan) jumps back on the boat after photographing his first Sailfish underwater, Jessica smiles as she has just caught her first Sailfish, Samantha, after wiring her first Sailfish is still smiling today, and lots of “high fives” are going on around the boat.

Taco, being in the fishing business for most of his adult life has experienced just about everything you can imagine fishing but this experience was one in a life time. Father, Son, and Daughter on a beautiful birthday, fishing with friends, catching, wiring, and photographing a Sailfish underwater was one hell of a family affair and a day that all of us will never forget.

Happy Birthday Sam…what an incredible day!