July 2

This morning was one of those unexpected trips that just came together for all of us. I got to the boat about 7:00 am looking forward to doing some engine room work (one of my favorite thing to do) As I walked up to the boat I noticed 2 guys walking around the docks. So I asked them if I could help them with anything. They wanted to know if I knew of any boat that they might be able to jump on to do a little fishing. It just so happens I do I replied and with having said that we were on our way out fishing and not working in the engine room.

We had Fritz and his son Martin and they were from Blovhus Demark.

We went trolling down the reef and caught a box full of kingfish and bonitos. Than we worked our way to a ship wreck where we put out a couple of live baits to see what we could get to bite them. This took about 2 seconds and BAM we were Hooked Up. Martin ended up reeling in this monster barracuda. Fritz got a couple of quick pictures we got the hooks out of the fish and watched him swim away.

On this day I did not have my camera on me but Fritz assured me that he would e mail me these pictures. And as much as I would love to post a picture of this monster barracuda I am still waiting for the pictures. So as soon as I get them I’ll post them

Fishing has just been great so give us a call and lets go do some catching.

Captain Taco (954)764-4344

July 3

Today Cherron, Jermaine and Lewis all from Annapolis Maryland spent the morning fishing with us.

These guys wanted fish they could eat so we started out trolling the reef looking for some kingfish. It didn’t take long till we were caching one fish after another the bonitos were biting like mad dogs and it seemed 1 out of 4 bites was a kingfish so between the bonitos and the kings we were doing very well. After about an hour and a half of catching (not fishing) we decided to go off shore to see if we could find these guys some dolphin fish. After quite some time without finding any dolphin fish we headed back in on the reef and ended the trip by catching some more king fish and bonitos.

Thanks again guy we had a ball fishing with you and we are looking forward to seeing you guys again next month or two.

The king fish are here and they are snapping so give us a call and let’s get you and your friends Hooked Up

Captain Taco (954)764-4344

July 4

Today Berry, David, Chris and Mitch from Illinois jumped aboard for a day of deep sea fishing off the coast of Fort Lauderdale. The first thing I noticed was that there were a couple of guys missing. So I asked where are the other two guys at?
At that point one of the guys slowly lifted his head and with his blood shot eyes said that they were back at the hotel room sleeping. I could tell right away that these guys had a large time the night before. They had plenty of beer on the boat but no one seemed to want any. I wonder why?(LOL) I knew that if we sat still and did any live bait fishing with the boat just rocking back and forth these guys were going to start dropping like flies. So instead what we decided to do was some relaxing trolling down the reef and these guys could get a little needed rest. NOT SO MUCH I had no idea that the kings were going to be biting so well along with a hand full of bonitos thrown in their just was not much time for resting. Before I knew it these guys were have a ball and shortly thereafter the beers were going down dangerously smooth.

All in all they all had a good time and ended up catching more kingfish and bonitos then they wanted.

Thanks again guys and remember drink after you go fishing not the night before (LOL)

The kings and bonitos are biting so good it had been tough to stay away from them so the bite is on.

Come on down to South Florida and let’s get You Hooked Up.

PS Drink the night after the fishing trip!!

Captain Taco (954)764-4344

July 5

Today’s fishing blogs are going to be a little difficult to write due to the hand writing from our anglers. However it was a good day of fishing with a few reel nice fish being caught so I’ll do my best. Feel free to e mail me a correct the name if you like.

We had Bill and Miziam from Florida and we also had a few others on that day who never did leave their names. However on this date the Hooked Up team did help their anglers catch box full of kingfish a couple of big amber jack on the wrecks and one monster bull shark.

I sorry to say that I don’t have more details on this day but our paper got wet and washed away the names and the details.

All the same fishing has been great so give us a call and let’s get you Hooked Up.

(954)764-4344

July 9

Today we got a last min fishing trip we meat Westly and Kelly from Pennsylvania and they had some time to kill before getting on their flight home.

We knew that the kingfish and bonitos had been biting pretty good so we went right to trolling down the reef. Sure enough they were biting and it took no time to catch plenty of kings and bonitos and we also caught a nice barracuda.

Thanks again guys looking forward to seeing you again next year.

Summer is here and so are the kings so give us a call and lets go do some catching.

Captain Taco (954)764-4344

July 10

Today Ken, Jeff, Travis, Russell and our good luck charm Lauren all from Cooper City spent the morning fishing with us aboard the Hooked Up.

We started out trolling the reef hoping that we could get some kingfish and bonitos to bite. We did not expect them to be biting so good that we had trouble getting all the baits in the water at one time. We had a good hour of not stop CATCHING. After about an hour of this our mate JJ gave me this look and if looks could talk this one said it loud and clear ( I NEED A BREAK) and by now so did our anglers.

So the decision way made to go off shore and see if we could find some dolphin fish. We headed off shore and within 1 min one of our deep rods went off and we were Hooked Up again. Now this was not a very big fish so I did not even bother slowing down the boat while we were pulling in this little barracuda. Here is where things started getting interesting while we were bring this little fish in the other deep rod also got hit but the fish did not stay on the hook so we were bring the bait in to put a new bait on when I noticed a big sailfish was following the bait up to the boat. At this point JJ just kept teasing the fish with this bait while I hurried up and reeled in my high line and put it right in front of this monster sailfish and JJ pulled that old bait out of the water. Man was this cool this fish was so pissed off at this point he would have eaten a shoe if we would have put that in front of him. It only took about 1 sec and he was all over my bait and we were Hooked Up and just that fast he spit the hook and he was gone (RATS). Well there is a saying in fishing better to have had him on and lost him than to have not seen him at all. Everyone got to watch this whole thing unfold right in front of them and it really was cool to watch it so all in all we were all pretty happy about the whole thing.

And besides we still had plenty of time left to fish. After trolling around off shore for about an hour without any more bites we decided to come back in on the reef and try our luck at some kite fishing with live baits.

Once again we were in the fish we caught a few more kingfish and got reel lucky and landed a 28 pound black fin tuna.

What a great morning of fishing and summer is just getting started so give us a call and let’s get you Hooked Up

Captain Taco (954) 764-4344

July 17

Today Bruce and Brandon from Grand View Texas John and his son Vinny from New York and last but not least Adam from Marco Island Florida spent the morning fishing with us. We started out trolling down the reef looking to see if we could get a few kingfish and or bonitos to bite. Well we had no idea how well they were going to bite. We caught so many bonitos that we were trying to get out of them. It got to where no one wanted to reel any more of them in. Man do I wish I had this problem more often!

By this point I knew it was time to try something different so we worked our way down to a ship wreck and we put out one of these bonitos out on a wire leader with some big hooked in it. From there it did not take long. There was this huge splash the rod bent over and we were Hooked Up. Brandon wasted no time jumping in the chair and the fight was on. It took a good 10 min to reel this one to the boat but well worth the wait. This was a big barracuda and he was in a bad mood. It took a good 2 min to settle him down so we could get the hooks out of him so he would have a good chance to swam away and have a good chance of making it. Way to go Brandon.

For a better look at Bradon's fish go to photo gallery #4

John and Vinny see you guys tomorrow and thanks again for a great time.

Fishing has just been great so give us a call and let’s get you Hooked Up

Ok this fishing report is not about how many we caught or about how big this fish was or any of that it is about getting back to why it is I do what I do for a living.

Our morning trip was a good one and to boot I had my son Luis as my mate today and I don’t get to fish with him as much as we used to so we had a great time. It is now about 2:30 in the afternoon Luis had cleaned the boat and all the tackle has been put away. Luis asked me if he could go and get some lunch with his friend Kyle. I told him to go and get some lunch and I would cover the dock just in case any one came by that might want to go fishing. So off went my son with his friend and I sat down on the dock. About 5 min had passed when this car pulled into our parking lot. Here was this guy with his wife and they had a few hours to kill and wanted to know if I would take them out for an hour for a little boat ride. Well I’m not one to turn down money so I called Luis and told him he could eat later that we would be making money first. Two min later Luis pulled in and off we went for this one hour boat ride. I took the boat right outside of the port and thought I’d let them catch some little bait fish. I figured this way I could kill 2 birds with one stone. Things quickly changed Rynne and Pierre from Canada found them self’s having a great time and had no intentions of letting this good time to end so quickly. We ended up catching a bunch of live bally hoo and went off shore and Perrier caught his first big fish. Maybe not a big one by a lot of people standers but to them it was a monster. It was a bonito about 12 pounds. But if you could see the look on their faces and they could not tell enough what a great time they had.

What it all boils down to be it is not what you catch it’s when you catch it.

Pierre and Reynne thanks you so much for the very generous tip and more importantly thanks for reminding me why I do what I do for a living.

Give us a call and let us show you the time of your life!!!

Captain Taco (954)764-4344

July 18

Today we had a few repeat customers and one new customer on board to spend the morning deep sea fishing on the Hooked Up

We start out with John and his son Vinny from New York who spent yesterday fishing with us we also had Leon who fished with us last week and is fishing with us again Sunday morning from Ohio.

And that bring us to our new angler Rob from Canada who is a sports DJ on a radio show up in Canada. Rob is also fishing with us next week trying to catch his first Sword fish. His partner on the talk show Boomer said that Rob has the worst luck in the world and he never catches anything.

Well they had me live on their show last week via phone and Rob and I did a pretty good job of trashing Boomer on the air so now it is time for me to put his fish where my mouth is. The pressure is on.

We started out trolling the reef to the south. We were on our way to a ship wreck that is down about 7 miles off the coast of North Miami. I was trolling a little faster than I usually would due to the fact that I had so far to go. But we ran into a little problem the king fish were biting so good that we were having a hard time making any head way. We had only caught a few bonitos unlike the day before when they were everywhere but the kingfish were biting like mad dogs. I don’t know how many kings we caught but I can tell you that it was a box full and Rob caught the biggest one a 21 pounder.

As we were finally approaching the wreck we got one more bite and this one was a 4 to 5 pound bonito. Perfect size to put a big hook with a wire leader. That’s what we did and it took about 3 min and something big ate this bonito.

At first we did not know for sure what it was but I quickly pulled the boat away from the wreck so this monster could not pull us into the wreck and break us off. Once we were a safe distance away from the wreck Rob jumped in the chair and the fight was on. This one was not coming to the boat so easily but after about 10 min Rob finally got this MONSTER Barracuda to the boat. This thing was over 50 inches and as big around as a telephone pole.

So much for Boomers stories about Rob having bad luck.

For a better look at Rob,s fish go to photo gallery#4

At this point we were far away from our port and I was ready to start heading back. However Captain Greg was working the cockpit today and he wanted to try something new. He took a bonito and cut the rib cage out of it and hooked it to the leader to see if he could make it swim as if it was still alive. So he did and sure enough when we slow trolled it looked like it was alive. He let out about 30 feet of line and connected the line to a down rigger and dropped it down about 60 feet. It took about 15 min of dragging it around but sure enough BAM it got nailed and we were Hooked Up again.

This time Lean jumped in the chair and the fight was on. This one took about 5 min to get to the boat but it was almost as big as Rob’s fish. I could believe the luck we were having.

By this point we had to start making our way back toward our port. We went out a little deeper at a higher speed hopping to catch little Vinny a Wahoo or a dolphin fish.

Ended up catching a couple more bonitos.

Guys I can’t thank all of you enough HAD A BALL Lean see you Sunday, Rob see you next week and John and Vinny I owe you one big one see ya soon.


We have just been having a ball fishing down here in South Florida can’t believe they pay me for doing this. Come on down and get in on some of this!!

Captain Taco (954)764-4344

July 20

Today John, lea, Lauren, Ryan, Gil and David all from Coral Springs Florida came to spend a day of fishing, drinking and laughing on the Hooked up.

These guys were really looking forward to having a fish fry at the end of the day. So we started out trolling down the reef just trying to catch whatever we could to throw a few fish in the box. Bear in mind this was a Sunday the weather was perfect and there had to be about 1,000,000 boats out there fishing and the pressure was on to produce some fish.
We did manage to catch a good 6 or 7 kingfish and a couple of bonitos but this was not the kind of eating fish these guys were looking for. They really wanted some dolphin fish.

So we decided to do some live bait fishing. We didn’t have much wind but we did manage to get 1 light kite to fly with a couple of live baits suspended from it and a couple of shark baits out.

Once we got all the baits out the trap was set. But we had another problem there was a problem with the toilet on the boat and one of our guests Lea was not feeling to good so Captain Greg was down stairs fixing it when out of the corner of his eye he seen a fin swimming toward one of the kite baits. He ran outside of the cabin just in time to feed this hammer head shark. JJ who was driving the boat while Greg was fixing the toilet went ahead with the boat John jumped in the chair and we were Hooked Up.

It took John a while but he did finally get the fish to the boat. Greg and JJ got a quick measurement of the fish so John could have his trophy mounted and we all watched the fish swim away to fight another day. Things were looking up for us now but we knew they really wanted some good eating fish so Captain Greg made a decision to go to a ship wreck and do some deep drops to see if he could find some snappers for them to have their fish fry.

As we all know the price of fuel is hurting all of us now so instead of running to the ship wreck Greg was trolling his way over to the wreck. Now bear in mind pretty much all day Lea had been laying down inside in the A C she still was not feeling well. For some reason she decided to come out for a few min for some fresh air. Well I guess that was all it took the second she came out side BAM we got Hooked Up and this was while we were trolling in shallow in green water not that ocean blue that dolphin fish like. As soon as Lea got in the chair we could not believe our eyes a dolphin fish stated jumping out there. We never expected to catch a dolphin fish in on the reef on a Sunday with a million boast around. It only took Lea a few min to reel in HER dolphin fish and back inside she went.

Things were really going well for us and if these snappers would bite we would end up having a banner day. We got there dropped our first rig and the second it hit the bottom the rod started bouncing. (YES) They were biting!!! We ended up catching a box full of snappers, one Hammer Head Shark, a bunch of Kingfish a couple of Bonitos and one nice Dolphin not bad we were all pretty happy and Lea the second we hit the dock she wanted the perfect cure for sea sickness A BEER and a Swimming pool (LOL)





The whole gang went next door to the Bahia- Cabana had got in the pool and had drinks while we cleaned their fish for them

Guys thanks a lot and on behalf of the crew on the Hooked Up thank you very much that was the biggest tip my crew has gotten this year.

Fishing has been good and we seem to have all different kinds of fish around now so come on down and let’s get you Hooked Up

Captain Taco (954) 764-4344

July 26

Today we had Carlos who lives right here in Sunny South Florida came walking down the docks looking for a boat to charter to entertain some of his clients that were in town from Bogota Colombia. Carlos has his own boat docked here at our marina and had taken his guests out the day before without much luck and he really wanted his guests to catch some fish.
When Carlos, Juan Carlos, German and Felipe arrived at the boat I walked up to introduce myself I found that Carlos’s guests did not speak English. Much to Carlos surprise I speak pretty good Spanish. So we were off to a good start. And as it turned out only one of the guests were really into fishing and that was Juan Carlos and man was he into it. It would not have mattered if we could not have understood each other because he was so into everything that we were doing. He wanted to know what our planner did why our leader was so long and so on. I’m sure he leaned a couple of thing that he’ll try back home.
Anyways back to the fishing trip. When Carlos had told us all he wanted was steady action for his clients. Having said that we were just hoping that the kingfish and bonitos would bite. We started out heading south down the reef. I spoke to some of the other fishing boats on the radio and they had told me that the kings were not really biting very well. So we were going to head down to a ship wreck and see if we could pull something out of the wreck once we got there. Much to our surprise we were having a hard time making any head way toward our wreck because the king fish and bonitos were biting all the way down there. Not a bad problem to have. By the time we got to the wreck we were heading for we had a box full of kings and bonitos good thing because nothing was biting at the wreck once we got there.
It turned out to be a great trip I don’t think Juan Carlos ever caught so many fish in one fishing trip and for Carlos well he could not have been happier. Carlos thanks again and looking forward to seeing you again soon.
Kings and Bonitos are snapping so give us a call and let’s get you Hooked Up
Captain Taco (954)764-4344

(Click to enlarge)

July 29

Today we started out our morning fishing with Robert and Dillon from St Louis. We started out trolling south on the reef hopping the kingfish and bonitos would bite. And they did while we only caught 1 kingfish the bonitos were biting like mad dogs. I’m not sure how many we caught but we ended up with a box full
.
That same afternoon we had kind of a special trip we had Rob from Canada who had fished with us 2 weeks before. This time he did not go on a shared charter he brought his wife Frankie. Both of them were here on vacation from Canada with their children but tonight they had a baby sitter and we were going to catch Robert a sword fish.

You might remember Robert he is the radio D J from Alberta Canada. He has a talk show on the air with his partner Boomer. You remember Boomer the guy that said that Robert never catches any fish. Well last week we proved him wrong by catching Robert a monster barracuda but this time we had a bigger catch to get.

We headed out at 6:00pm and ran about 17 miles to the south east of Ft Lauderdale. We got there just in time just as the sun was setting. Captain Greg started putting out the baits. He already had 2 of them out and as he was setting the third bait he told us to get ready he thought we were getting a bite. Sure enough he was right we could not believe this we just got there and we were Hooked Up. Robert and Greg were clearing the other lines when the line with the fish on went slack (RATS) we pulled the hooks.
So we went right back to setting all the lines out there.
The next bite did not come for a few hours but it did finally come and this one stayed connected. It only took about 10 min to get him to the boat but there he was a SWORD FISH the fish we were trying to catch. It was not a monster but it was our targeted spices and we got him. We all decided that this fish was going to swim away to fight another day when he was bigger.

Robert and Frankie thank you so much we really enjoyed fishing with you and we are looking forward to fishing you again next year.

As for Boomer (HOW U DOING) no fish for Robert well how about no fish for Boomer (LOL)
Guys we got all kinds of fish biting now so give us a call and let’s get you Hooked Up
Captain Taco ((54) 764-4344

July 30

Today we had some local folks from right here in Fort Lauderdale looking to do a little fishing and try to catch some fish for dinner. We had Franklyn, Luciana, Jerry, Edwin and Vanessa. We started out trolling the reef hopping to catch some kingfish and some bonitos just to get a few fish in the box before we went looking for dolphin fish. The thing about dolphin fishing is you can either be a hero or a zero. If we find one we will most likely find a hole school of them but if we don’t find them will then you end up empty handed. So we wanted to make sure we got a few fish in the box first. So we managed to catch a couple of kingfish and started heading off shore.
It did not take long of trolling for dolphin fish when we decided that no one was finding them and we had not seen one so it was time for a new plan we decided to catch some good eating fish we would do some deep drops on some of the ship wrecks.
As it turns out we made the right choice we caught a bunch of snappers and a couple of amber jacks
Guys thanks again for a fun morning on the water and enjoy dinner.
Bottom fishing is going off right now so even if you don’t live down here and got nowhere to cook your catch we got you covered. We’ve got a restaurant right on the water next to the boat that will be happy to cook your fish for you.
So come on down and let’s get you Hooked Up
Captain Taco (954) 764-4344

July 24

Today we got to the boat and we had a Braxton from Midland California and Nicholas from Bakers Field Texas looking to do some deep sea fishing. They really did not care what they caught they just wanted some steady action. So that was just want we gave them we went trolling down the reef and the kingfish and bonitos were as we say it down here in sunny South Florida (SNAPPING).
It was pretty much none stop action and we were having a hard time getting all the baits in the water at one time. We kept trolling our way to the south on the reef and we knew these guys had caught more than enough kings and bonitos so we were going to see what might be hanging around one of the big ship wrecks we happen to be close to.
We started out trolling some little jigs around the wreck and caught some smaller bonitos and put them right back out over the wreck on some big trouble hooks.
It did not take long and BAM we were Hooked Up. It took a good 10 min to get the first one to the boat but well worth it a monster barracuda. It seemed we could do no wrong today so we figured let’s try that again and Bam another one. This one was a little smaller but still a stud by anyone standers.
Braxton and Nicholas thanks so much and see ya again soon.
The time is now to catch all kinds of fish down here so get yourself on a plane, bus, car or train but come on down and let’s get you Hooked Up
Captain Taco (954) 764-4344

July 22

This morning we got to the boat and Antonio along with his friend Sara from Minnesota were getting out of their car when we noticed three eager little people jump out of the car and ran up to the boat and could not wait to get on the boat and do some deep sea fishing. These 3 little people were Ashley, Vanessa and Marco and someone must have given them a big bowl of sugar before they got to the boat or they really could not wait to go fishing.
We knew we were going to have our hands full with these guys and all we could do was praying the fish were biting.
We knew that our best chance of catching a lot of fish and keeping these kids entertained was to go trolling the reef and hope the kings were biting. Thank god they were and they were biting real good. We trolled our way to the south and it took no time till we had a box full of kingfish, bonitos and a boat full of happy little people. These kids were well behaved and they were all listing to how JJ was telling them to reel in the fish so we were going to give Big Game Fishing a try.
We got to a ship wreck and trolled around it till we caught a couple big bonitos at the same time. Here the tricky part JJ unhooked these big bonitos and hooked them onto some big trouble hooks and put them right back out He just started letting it out when BAM we were Hooked Up and I mean Hooked Up this was a monster. I can’t recall witch one of the little people jumped in the chair but the fight was on. This fish did not come in as easy as the kings did earlier in the trip but after about 15 min of fighting this sea monster we did finally get him to the boat. It was a huge barracuda over 50 inches long. We were all proud of the catch but we had 2 little problems you guessed it 2 of the other little people were just sitting there watching everyone high fiving and jumping around.
Could we do it again?
We went for it and once again caught another live big bonito put him right back out there on top of the wreck. This time it was not an insta bite we had to troll him around for a while than all of a sudden a huge splash where our bait was and we were Hooked Up again.
Once again the fight was a good 15 min but YES another monster barracuda.
Two down one to go could we do it again yes we can and yes we did all three little people caught BIG fish.
We were about 7 miles from our inlet and started heading back toward home when we all realized that one person on the boat was without a big catch. We were so into catching all the little people big fish that we forgot all about Sara.
We decided to stay a little longer this time we put out our fishing kites with some live baits suspended from them and in no time here comes this sailfish. We could not believe the luck we were having but sorry to say the sailfish was not eating and just swam by and kept going.
However we did manage to catch Sara a huge kingfish about the same size as the barracudas we had caught. Everyone was as happy.
Well it does not always happen this way but man it sure is nice when it does. Antonio thanks so much and we’re looking forward to seeing you guys again next week.
We have some great photos of this trip and as soon as Antonio sends them to us we will post them.
Fishing’s great weather great so give us a call and let’s do some deep sea fishing.
Captain Taco (9540 764-4344

July 27

Today Justin, Mike, Amanda, Dave and Megan all from Chicago spent the morning fishing aboard the Hooked Up. We started out trolling the reef and caught some kingfish and bonitos afterwards we got some live bait to see what we could get to eat them and we made the right choice.
We slow trolled the live baits over a big ledge and it only took a few min and there was a big splash next to one of our live baits and BAM we were Hooked Up.
We had this fish hooked on a small spinning rod so we knew we had our work cut out for us. So we just took our time and slowly wore down this sea monster and finally got him to the boat.
It turned out to be a monster barracuda.
Way to go guys and thanks again for a fun morning of fishing looking forward to fishing you guys again soon.
Summer is here and so are those big monster barracudas’ so give us a call and let get you Hooked Up into one of the South Atlantis’s tigers.
Give us a call at toll free (877) SEA-4344
Captain Taco