| Feb 4
Today was kind an important fishing trip for Kevin from South Florida he has decided to get married this Saturday to Lisa. So one of Kevin’s best friends Will gave me a call from New York and was asking me about taking him ,Kevin, Ed, Mark and Keith for their last fishing trip as a single man.
We started out with a little trolling down the reef in search of some kingfish or bonitos. At first we noticed that Kevin was quick to jump in the chair whenever we got a bite. He had reeled in a couple of kingfish when I noticed he was no longer drinking any beer and was not quite so aggressive to jump in the chair. So we just kept on trolling for a while giving the other guys a chance to reel in a couple of kingfish. After catching plenty of kings we decided to try our luck at some kite fishing with live baits. So we set out our kites with live baits suspended from them and the trap was set.
We were waiting for a bite for a good 30 minutes when I noticed that we had a nice slick behind the boat as if we had a chum bag hanging over the side to let out a cint. As it turned out there was no chum bag hanging over the side it was Kevin. I guess he was just trying to help our odds of catching a fish or maybe his nerves were a little shuck up in anticipation of the big day or maybe he just got a little SEA SICK (LOL).
Shortly after Kevin was so nice to put out this nice slick in the water for us up popped a sailfish on one of our kite baits. (Holy cow this slick thing works).
I can tell you that if there is one way to get rid of being sea sick is jump in a chair and fight a big fish. That is just what Kevin did. It took a good 20 min to finally get the big sailfish to the boat but well worth it. Way to go Kevin we got a few killer pictures of the fish and watched him swam away in great shape.
Wait we are not to the end of this fishing report yet. Once we got back to the dock one of the guys I think it was Keith asked if we would clean the king fish for him. Well we would be happy to Keith how many of them would you like we asked? All of them he replied. We told him that he was more than welcome to them but let him know that this kind of fish really does not freeze well. As it turned out he had no intentions of freezing these fish. These fish were going right into a smoker to make some fish dip for a cruse they were all going on after the big day.
You might be wondering why I bothered to mention all this about the kingfish and dip and so on. Well let me tell you I am in the fishing business and I am around all kinds of different fish recipes and different kinds of ways of cooking fish smoking fish and so on. Keith had brought along a bowl of his famous fish dip. (All I can say is WOW) this stuff was off the scale and if he sold this stuff he would make a mint. As Keith let us try his dip at the dock all the other Captains noticed something was going on and they all wanted to try some. Keith somehow your big bowl of dip came up missing sorry (LOL)
Kevin and Lisa best of luck and to the rest of you guys thanks a bunch if really was a ball fishing with you guys.
Feb 6
Today was kind of a special trip for me we got to take out a friend of ours Robert from Tenn. On this fishing trip Robert brought along his son Bobby and of course they can’t go fishing with (The Neighbor) Robert also from Tenn.
We knew that there had been a few sailfish around but that was not what they were after. They wanted to catch some good eating fish.
They really did not care for king fish and the dolphin fish has few and far in between so we thought.
So we decided to hit some bottom spots. Captain Greg knew a few and I knew a few so we thought we would hit them all. The first spot we hit was producing some snappers so we hit them pretty good there. After hitting the bottom there for an hour or so we decided to try some other spots. We fished 4 different spots and ended up 4 miles from where we had started with no luck. We decided to go back to our first spot and try one more time there. We made the right choice we ended up catching more than enough. Before we knew it we had plenty of snappers and we also had a well full of live baits.
We decided since we still had a good hour of day light we would set out our kites with live baits suspended from them have a few beers and hope for the best. And the best is just what we got. Once we got our live baits out there it was not long before we had a dolphin fish on and Booby jumped in the chair and we had him in the boat in no time. Right after that we had another bite and this time Robert (the neighbor) jumped in the chair and yes another dolphin fish. We had our kites up till the sun was down and now it was dark and time to reel them in. Just as we started to clear our lines Captain Greg yelled out hold on one second. I looked down at Greg because I could not see any of the baits and was wondering what he was up to. Much to my surprise Greg had one of the rods in his hand and looked as if he was feeding a fish. Then he yelled out for me to go ahead with the boat and up came a sail fish jumping. No sooner did the fish come up jumping that I heard Greg yell out a couple of words that I’ll not repeat. (RATS) got away. About two seconds later I heard Greg yell out there is another one.
This time I went ahead with the boat hard and we were Hooked Up. Bobby waited no time jumping in the chair and the fight was on. This was a big sail fish and by this point we were fighting him in the dark. We managed to get all the other lines in so we could concentrate on the one fish and nothing ells. Finally we were gaining line on the sail fish and soon enough we had him close to the boat. Greg reached out and just touched the leader to make it official a catch. Than the fish pulled out about 20 to 30 more yards of line and Bobby was trying to get him back to the side of the boat for some quick pictures and a quick measurement for a replica trophy to make of his catch.
But just as Captain Greg was reaching out to grab the fish the line broke right at the sail fish mouth. While we never did get to get any good pictures of the fish it was a catch and we were pretty happy about that and besides we had plenty of snappers in the box.
To Robert, Bobby and the neighbor thanks so much and thanks for dinner and the drinks after the trip.
Looking forward to hunting with you guys up in Tenn. in Nov
For a better look at our catch go to photo gallery # 6
February is here fish are biting and better yet spring is right around the corner so give us a call and let’s get you Hooked Up
Captain Taco (954) 764-4344 toll free (877) SEA-4344
Feb 7
Today was one of those days that make me feel good about being a charter Boat Captain in South Florida.
We had a morning trip with a family from Pittsburg Pa. Dan and his whole family were getting together to go on a 7 day cruise. But they got in town a day early so he decided to make the most of his day in Fort Lauderdale Florida and spend the morning fishing aboard the Hooked Up. Dan brought along his your son Nate his dad Rick and Gordon.
Weather conditions looked good for kite fishing so we started out by stopping at the live bait boat and loading up with some live bait so we would not waist a bunch of time trying to catch live bait.
After we got our bait we went out to 150 feet of water set out both our kites with four live baits suspended from them. The trap was set and we started waiting for our shot.
It was not long before we seen a big swirl by one of our kite baits. Nate was up stairs on the fly bridge bragging to me about this buck he had shot with antlers on one side of his head and none on the other so he was out of the cock pit and Greg had to hand the rod to Gordon who was right there next to Greg. Once Gordon got in the chair this big dolphin fish came jumping out of the water and the fight was on. It took Gordon a good 5 minutes to finally get his fish within gaffing distance for Greg. Once we got the fish in the boat and I got done giving Nate a hard time about bragging about this deer that he got and I’ve been trying to get for over eight years now he spent the rest of the trip down stairs next to Greg.
Good thing to because from there it was not long before we had a big king fish jumping over six feet in the air trying to eat one of our kite baits. We finally got a hook in this king but since we had monofilament leader we figured he would bite threw the leader and second now. But as Nate’s luck would have it he was hooked in the corner of the mouth and we managed to get him in the boat. Talk about a lucky kid. (I hate you) (LOL)
After some hand shaking and high fiving we got the baits right back out there. Within 5 minutes we had another kingfish skyrocketing another one of our kite baits. This was a big kingfish and we knew that this one would for sure bite right threw the leader but once again we hooked him right in the corner of the mouth and this time Dan got in the chair and yes once again we got him.
(Talk about a lucky family)
While luck was on our side we still had not seen a sail fish and we knew that there were some around.
At this point we were out of time and we knew we had to get back in for our afternoon trip. We just started bringing in our kites when all of a sudden out of the blue popped up this monster sailfish. I could not believe the luck we were having. This one was for Dan’s trophy room if we could just keep him on the hook long enough to get a measurement. We brought in the rest of the kites and all the other lines so we could devote all of our attention on Dan’s fish. It took Dan a good 20 minutes to finally get his fish to the boat. By the time we got him to the boat the fish had settled down enough to hold him get a couple quick pictures and watched him swim away in great shape.
Thanks again guys for a fun filled morning of deep sea fishing and hope you guys have a great time on your cruise O and by the way Nate while you were bragging to me about your deer the dolphin fish that Gordon caught weighed 18 pounds (LOL)
Once we got back to the dock we had Buddy the post man and Bob and old rock and roll singer there waiting for us. They were both from New Jersey and they were glad to be out of the snow. We had taken Bob and Buddy fishing the day before on a shared charter and fishing was a little slow in the morning and they never got a chance to reel in a fish. So I had told them the day before that I had a shared charter going out today and if they wanted to come along I would cut the price down real low for them to try to make it up to them. As it turned out we waited for the other half of our shared charter to show up for an hour and they never did show up. They called and we had a bit of miss communication and they were coming another day. Talk about feeling stupid I did not know what to say but Bob decided he would pay a little more and get the boat for just him and his son-in-law.
NOW THE PREASURE WAS ON. I had to find these guys some nice fish.
Here is how our trip started out. Greg put bait on the hook than he threw the bait in the water and handed me his rod tip so I could connect the line to the kite to send it out. However when I got the line in my hand and tried to connect it to the kite I thought Greg was pulling on the line and I could not get it to the kite. All of a sodden Greg yelled let go of the line. We had a 15 pound dolphin fish eating the fish from right behind the boat. Buddy jumped in the fighting chair and we were Hooked Up.
It took Buddy about 3 minutes to get his dolphin within golfing range Greg reached out gaffed the fish threw him in the box and we had only been fishing for less than one minute.
I was starting to wonder if our morning charter was as lucky as I thought it might have been Greg and I that had all the luck today we could do no wrong.
At this point not all the pressure was off of me but some of it was and I was feeling LUCKY. We got all 4 of our live baits suspended from both of the kites and right after that here comes another dolphin fish and this one was even bigger than the first. This time Bob jumped in the chair and started fighting our second dolphin fish. After about 5 to 6 minutes Bob got his fish with in gaffing distance and Greg gaffed this one but this one did not go right in the box. He hit the deck and all hell broke loose. We let the fish ware himself down and we got him in the box.
Now I’m feeling good so good that I go ahead a call Buddy’s wife on the phone and let her know that we made up for the day before. Now the beers were flowing and a great time was being had by all.
We got the baits right back out there and this time we did not see the bite but there was a big swirl by one of the baits. We came tight with the fish and Buddy got in the chair. After a few minutes Buddy reeled this one in a big bonito. Way to go and keep them coming I yelled down.
As if things could not get any better here comes this sailfish and he’s trying to eat one of our kite baits. We went ahead with the boat and once again we were HOOKED UP
Now the old Rocker jumped in the chair the fight was on this fish pulled out a ton of line but Bob hung in there and about 25 minutes later we had his first sailfish next to the boat. We were letting the fish swam next to the boat so we could get some nice pictures of the fish when of all things we see a tag sticking out of the side of the sail fish. Someone had caught this fish before. Greg reached over and cut the tag out. What a LUCK filled day Once we mail the tag in and get the info back we’ll let you know where the fish was last time he was caught.
We still had a bit of time left in our trip so we got the baits back out there cracked open some more beers. Greg had yelled up to me something about he had to go to the bath room.
Greg was gone for 2 seconds and that’s right you guessed it we got another bite. So I ran down stairs grabbed the rod and got Buddy in the chair. At the same time Bob ran up stairs and started driving the boat. This was not planned or talked about he just thought it was the right thing to do. I had no idea Bob could drive. It turns out that Bob has a boat of his own in New Jersey. By this time Greg comes running out but he sees right away that we’ve got it under control so he just sits down and enjoys the show. It turned out to be another bonito. We only had 2 baits left on the boat by the end of the day.
Once again I want to thank all of you that fished with us today and I’m sure we will be seeing you guys again soon.
That’s what we call a banner day and this time of the year we have lots of them so come on down out of the ice and snow and be a part of all this great fishing in Sunny South Florida.
Captain Taco (954)764-4344 or toll free (877) SEA-4344
Feb 9
Today we set out for a morning of deep sea fishing with 4 guys from Russia as far as their names I could not say. They told me their names but really I could not say them. (LOL) We had one heck of a language barrier but I’ve got to say that made the trip even more fun.
When you’re sitting there waiting for a bite it was almost imposable to communicate but as soon as we got a fish on everyone paid attention and we seemed to get threw it just fine.
We started out trolling down the reef with 2 deep lines on planner boards and 3 baits on the surface. At first these guys kept thinking that we had a fish on one of the planner rods because of the bend in the rod caused by the planners but once we caught our first king fish they seen how it worked and they knew just what to do when we got a bite.
We ended up catching 4 nice king fish and 2 big bomber bonitos on the reef. Then we went out a little deeper to see if we could find any dolphin fish. It wasn’t red hot off shore but we did manage to catch 3 nice dolphin fish and missed something that crashed one of our top lines but we never got a chance to see what it was but I will say whatever it was it was a SEA MONSTER. I guess that’s what fishing trips are about the one that got away.
That same afternoon we took out Chip from Westchester New York and his good friend Walter from Long Island New York.
This trip we went right to it we set our kites out in 350 feet of water with 3 live baits suspended from them and one dead bonito also suspended from the kite. We also set out a dead king fish down about 150 down and another king down on the bottom.
It did take some waiting but we got a bite on our deepest bait on the bottom and Walter jumped in the chair the fight was on. It took Walter about 15 minutes to reel his fish to the boat. It was a nice hammer head shark.
Way to go Walter now it is Chip’s turn so we set all the baits right back out there and the trap was set and the wait began. We waited for over an hour and we were just starting to reel the lines in to go and try something else when it happen. Our deep rod had a BITE and I do mean a BITE line started going off the reel so fast and the rod was bent almost in half I thought it was going to break. We left the rod in the rod holder for a couple minutes to give the fish a chance to settle down a bit. Once the line slowed up a bit we got Chip and the rod in the chair and the fight was on. There was a back and forth tug a war for at least an hour before we finally got the leader up to the boat. But this was just the beginning of our problems you see when you’ve got the leader to the rod tip and you’re looking straight down into the water and you still can’t see the fish that means just one thing THRESHER SHARK. Their back is almost a dark blue to a purple and with the deep blue sea under him it is almost imposable to see the fish. And to make matters worse Chip has a trophy room at his house and we somehow need to get a measurement of this fish so he could have a replica trophy made of his BIG catch and add to his collection.
Jay Jay finally got the leader in his hand and started pulling and sure enough up popped this MONSTER Thresher shark. The only good news was that this shark had been fighting for so long that he was beat.
Once Jay Jay got it right next to the boat he opened up the tuna door and just slid him right in on the deck. We got a quick measurement and a few quick pictures and just slid him right back out the door.
Way to go Chip and Jay Jay nice job. Ten foot 3 inches THAT’S A NICE ONE!!!
We may not have caught a lot of fish on this trip but if we weighed our catch we caught plenty.
Chip and Walter thanks again and looking forward to fishing you guys again.
February has just started and some of the bigger sharks are already showing up so get the heck out of the cold ice and snow and come on down here to Sunny South Florida for a few days and is a part of this Great fishing.
Go to Photo Gallery #6 for a better look at this SEA MONSTER
Captain Taco (954)764-4344 or toll free (877) SEA-4344
Feb 10
They say that when you’re on a roll just go with it and we are on a roll.
Today we had Steve from Flint Michigan, Troy from right down here in South Florida, Dave from Vancouver BC, Chris and Kristie from Conn. The day started out with trying to find live bait. We just had a big fishing tournament this weekend and no one was selling any live bait so we had to settle for very small live baits. But all the same we set out our kites and suspended our live baits from the kites and started waiting. It did not take long till the first dolphin fish showed up. Soon there after another one showed up and than another. Things were looking pretty good for when all of a sudden we had a big swirl by one of our kite baits and this was no dolphin. Jay Jay jumped on the rod and let the fish slowly walk away with the bait when he noticed anther fish on one of the other kite baits. This one he seen and it was a sail fish. Captain Greg went ahead with the boat and ended up hooking one out of the two.
Steve wasted no time jumping in the chair and the fight was on. It took Steve a good 15 minutes to finally get his fish to the boat. We got a quick measurement of his fish in order to have a replica trophy made of his catch took a couple of quick pictures and watched him swim away in good shape.
We ended up with plenty of dolphin for everyone and one big sailfish.
Way to go guys and Chris and Dave we are looking forward to catching you your sailfish next month.
The fishing reports speak for themselves so get your but out of the cold and snow and come on down to Sunny South Florida and let’s get you Hooked Up
Captain Taco (954)764-4344 or toll free (877) SEA-4344
Feb 11
WOW what a week of Deep Sea Fishing Off the coast of Fort Lauderdale.
Today we set out for a morning of deep sea fishing with Mark, Jayson and Sean all from Sullivan Illinois. We stopped at the bait boat and picked up a dozen live baits (witch were hard to come by) than we worked our way out to the fishing grounds. About half was out to where we were going Captain Jay Jay came up on the fly bridge and told me the bad news. It turns out that Captain Jay Jay had cleaned our live well out yesterday with bleach and forgot to rinse it out. We had all the baits we needed the only problem was that all of them were sleeping. (RATS)
So we turned around and picked up some more live baits and back out we headed. We went right to 350 feet of water and set out both our kites with live baits suspended from them and we also set out two big dead bonitos one on the surface and the other one down on the bottom.
As soon as we got the baits out there we got covered up with dolphin fish. So we were looking pretty good at this point and we had a good two and a half knot current to the north and I felt real good about getting a big bite.
After waiting about a half an hour it seemed we got our deep bait snagged on the bottom (Or so we thought)
After Jay Jay trying to get it unsnaged I went down stairs to see if I could get it unsnaged. Jay Jay did not care for the way I was trying to do it so after a couple of words I decided ok big shot come on down here and show me how it should be done. Jay Jay started reeling of the reel and I was trying to hold the boat in a way that it would help him out a bit. Then I noticed Jay Jay tell Sean to get in the big fighting chair and Jay Jay placed the rod in the chair and buckled a harness around Sean and on to the reel. I could not help but to ask Jay Jay if he was getting our customer to try to reel it off the bottom for him. No sooner did the words come out of my mouth when the rod bent over and line was just screaming off the reel.
I said O yea I knew that. We had a fish on the whole time and the fish had no idea he was hooked nor did we. But we were all quite aware of it now.
The fight begins and this looked as if this was going to take some time. Between the hard current the big waves and a very big fish on the other end this was one hell of a fight. I’ve got to give Sean credit he really did a great job and he kept doing a great job for one hour and 15 minutes. Finally up popped our leader and looking down we could not see the fish which gave us a real good idea of what we had on. We only get these fish off the coast of ft Lauderdale for a very short period in Februarys and the beginning of March. Thresher Sharks and that was just what we had on Here and this was a full groan one. We had one thing in our favor this fish was beat and for as big as he was it was pretty easy to slide him in the tuna door to get a quick measurement and a few pictures of this SEA MONSTER and then slide him right back out the door. And yes he swam away in good shape.
WAY TO GO SEAN
Mark, Jayson and Sean thanks for a morning of fishing I won’t forget.
Ok all you snow birds up there in the North East time to get the heck out of the cold and get down here and be a part of some of this GREAT fishing down here in Sunny South Florida.
Captain Taco (954)764-4344 or toll free (877) SEA-4344.
Feb 12
Today we set out with Lindsay and Rob from Washington DC and their good friend Chris from West Palm Beach Florida.
We started out trolling the reef and catching a few bonitos and a black fin tuna. We had worked our way to the south off the coast of North Miami and since we were so far to the south we decided to try some deep drops on a ship wreck. We trolled around the wreck first to catch some small bonitos to use for bait. We dropped our little live bonitos down 225 feet down to the bottom hopping to catch a big grouper or maybe an amber jack. The current was going to the north at three knots so doing these deep drops were hard to do and it was all we could do just to try to keep the live bait on the wreck for about 30 seconds at best. After three different attempts at this we knew that this just was not going to work.
So we thought we would try to use this strong current to our advantage. We put a big dead bonito on the bottom about 350 feet down another one about 150 feet down and a third on the surface. We figured that with all this north current that the smell of our baits would get out quick and we might get a shot at a shark. After about 45 minutes of waiting we got the bit. It came on our bait that was 150 down. Line started peeling off the reel and the rod was bent over good. This was the shot we were waiting for. Rob wasted no time jumping in the chair and the fight was on. It took Rob about 20 minutes to finally get his catch to the boat. It was a 7 foot bull shark. Way to go Rob.
We got a couple of quick pictures of Rob’s catch and released the shark.
Thanks again Lindsay, Rob and Chris looking forward to seeing you guys again this week.
Captain Taco (954)764-4344
Feb 13
Today we started out our day fishing with Barry his wife Lisa and their two children Aaron and Andrew all from New York City. We also had Tim from Wisconsin with us.
We were looking for some good eating fish so we thought our best way to target some good to eat fish like king fish or some dolphin fish would be trolling. We started out trolling the reef hopping for some king fish first. We never did find any kings but we did manage to catch some bonitos. After trolling the reef we went off shore looking for some dolphin fish. We never did find any dolphin fish but we all a had a good time fishing and catching some bonitos.
That same after noon we took out Dave his dad Si his two sons Noah and Max and their good friend Michael all from Boston.
We started out flying a couple of kites with live baits suspended from them in hope of seeing a sail fish or maybe some dolphin fish.
After a good hour of kite fishing we started losing our wind and the kites would no longer fly. So we needed to find any kind of fish to keep these guys into it. I started trolling the reef without any bites till I trolled past a ship that was anchored up off the coast of fort Laudable beach. As we trolled past this ship we got two bites at the same time. Noah got the first one in the boat and then Max got the second. We had found a school of bonitos and we were not going to leave these fish.
While we never did catch any good eating fish we ended up with a box full of bonitos and a boat full of happy anglers.
Dave sorry the fishing was a bit slow today but I’m glad your guests had a good time and we’re looking forward to fishing you guys again soon.
Captain Taco (954)764-4344
Feb 14
Today we took out Amy and Bruce from Cape Cod Ma, Amy and Alex from New Hampshire and Kathy from Boston Ma.
Fishing had been slow for all the boats this morning so this afternoon we thought we would try something a little different. Since we had a live well full of live baits we set out our kites with four live baits suspended from them but this time we set up in real shallow water 80 feet. All the other boats were fishing in 150 to 350 feet of water. We stayed in shallow for over an hour without a bite. So I decided to slowly work our way out to deeper water. As we were drifting out deeper we put out two more lines. One down about 150 feet and the last one down on the bottom.
All of a sudden we saw our 150 deep line that was connected to a balloon as a bobber popped. Seconds later the rod bent over and we were Hooked Up. Amy jumped in the chair and the fight was on. It took Amy a good 20 minutes to finally reel her fish to the side of the boat. It turned out to be a monster Silky Shark and this fish was pissed off. Captain Greg kept trying to grab the leader to get the fish close enough to try to get a couple of the hooks that were swinging behind the fish out. But every time he would get the fish just out of reach this thing would go nuts and peel off more line. After about 5 minutes of this the fish made one more quick run and was spinning and finally got himself unhooked. (Thank God)
No we did not catch a lot of fish on this trip but we caught a big one and we also caught one hell of a fun time.
Amy thanks again and we can’t wait to get the chance to catch you a LOT of fish next time. See ya soon.
Captain Taco (954)764-4344
Feb 17
Finally fishing has taken a turn for the better. The last couple of days fishing has been a little slow but I guess what we needed was some anglers with some good luck to change our luck.
We had Ralph from Vero Beach Florida and Chris and his wife Gretchen from Conn. All of our anglers were fishing on the Hooked Up complements of New York Life insurance company. We started out catching some small bonitos. Then we took these small bonitos to a ship wreck and dropped them down on a ship wreck about 210 feet down. We did manage to get one bite on the wreck but never did get a hook in the fish that tried to eat our bait. So we decided to change fishing methods.
We set out both of our fishing kites with live baits suspended from them and from there it didn’t take long. We had two sailfish pop up at the same time. We managed to get a hook in one of the two of them. Ralph jumped in the chair and we were Hooked Up. It took Ralph a good 15 minutes to finally get his fish to the side of the boat. Captain Jay Jay got the hook out of Ralph’s fish got a quick picture and watched his swim away in great shape. (Way to go Ralph)
After some hand shaking a some high fiving we got the baits right back out there. This time we waited and waited without any more bites.
It was time to reel them in and head back to the dock when at the very last second here comes another sailfish. This time Gretchen jumped in the chair and once again we were Hooked Up. Gretchen did a great job and got her fish to the boat in just about the same amount of time that it took Ralph.
Thanks so much for a great fun morning of fishing.
Cold fronts are moving threw again and so are the sailfish so come on down to Sunny South Florida and let’s get you Hooked Up.
Captain Taco (954)764-4344 or toll free (877) SEA-4344
Feb 18
This morning we started out our day fishing with bill and his wife Shelley and their two children Maddie and her brother Cullen all from New York.
We started out trolling around one of the bowies out in about 100 feet of water Maddie caught a nice rainbow runner and Cullen caught a little bonito. We decided to try dropping Cullen’s little bonito on a ship wreck first thing in the morning before any of the other charter boats fished it. At first we did not get a bite but after about five minutes of slowly dragging his live bait around the wreck Captain Jay Jay yelled up at me to go ahead with the boat. He felt a fish trying to eat the bait and he wanted to make sure that when the fish finally got the bait down that we would be able to drag the fish away from the wreck before it got a chance to get us back into the wreck.
Sure enough as we pulled away from the wreck the rod bent over and line started peeling off the reel. Cullen was supposed to reel in this fish but at first we were thinking that this one might be a little too big for him to reel in. Well he showed us and you could see by the determination in his eyes that this was his fish to catch and no one else was going to reel this one in but him.
With a little help from his dad this little guy hung in there and ended up reeling in this MONSTER Amber jack. (WAY TO GO CULLEN)
This afternoon we picked up Debbie and Paul from England, Jim and Tracy from Houston Texas, Mark from Salt Lake City and Charles from Toronto Canada.
This afternoon we went right to live bait fishing. We set out our kites with 4 live baits suspended from them and the trap was set and the wait began. We did not wait long when all of a sudden we seen a nice dolphin fish eating one of our kite baits. Ok no problem right? All of a sudden Captain Jay Jay started yelling at me go ahead with the boat and fast!!
I never seen this one coming but we now had another BIG dolphin eating one of our long kite baits. Both rods bent over and line started peeling off of both reels at the same time.
Jay Jay got Debbie in one chair and Jim in the other and the fight was on. It took Jim a good 10 minutes to get his fish within gaffing range but once he did Jay Jay reached out there and gaffed the fish perfect and went to throw him in the fish box but missed. Now we had one pissed of big Bull Dolphin all over the deck going NUTS and Debbie’s fish was getting closer by the minuet. No time to waist Jay Jay reached out and gaffed Debbie’s fish and this one went right in the box.
(WAY TO GO Debbie and Jim)
Debbie your fish weighed 21 pounds and Jim yours was 26 pounds.
Thanks again to everyone today for a fun great day of fishing.
OK all you guys and girls up there in the North East get the HECK OUT OF THE COLD and get down here to SUNNY SOUTH FLORIDA and let’s get you HOOKED UP
Captain Taco (954)764-4344 or toll free at (877) SEA-4344
Feb 19 Golden Boys
Ok now we remember the T V show the golden Girls well these are the Golden Boys from Lauderdale. Well start out with the youngest and the biggest trouble maker in the bunch. We’ve got Allen from as he clams right here in Fort Lauderdale Florida (however due to the way he seeks I would guess he is from way up in north Florida somewhere around NY) but that is just my guess. Second we have Herb also clams to be from Fort Lauderdale but Herb seems to let Allen get him in all kinds of trouble so once again I just don’t know for sure where Herb is from. Than we’ve got Joe from Boston and Toney from Malvern PA. Throw in some BEER a boat some fishing rods and a little bait and you have the perfect formula for TROUBLE.
I knew it was going to be a long day when Allen started our day out by saying that we had to salt the water to catch fish. He then threw a $100 dollar bill over board.
Back to the fishing; we went trolling down the reef because we knew we were going to have to get some good eating fish in the boat for this crowd. However the kingfish just were not biting very well. We ended up catching one. Than we did some deep drops on a few ship wrecks hopping to maybe catch a grouper or some snappers? Once again NO LUCK. Ok off shore we go hopping we can find some dolphin fish (RATS) no luck and by this point we were out of time. But I had one more bottom spot I wanted to try and YES we finally found them. Nice size snappers. Sorry about getting you guys in so late but no one seemed to mind.
Guy’s thanks again for a very special morning of fishing and enjoy dinner see you guys again in the next couple of Months.
Captain Taco (954)764-4344
Feb 21
Today we spent the day fishing with Karl, Steve, Phil, George, Kevin and Cathy all from Baltimore.
We started out our day trolling down the reef looking for some kingfish and or some bonitos. We had trolled all the way to North Miami and caught some kingfish. Once we got to where we wanted to fish for Big Game we brought in all of our trolling gear and set out a couple of kites with four live baits suspended from them. Things started out pretty good when we had caught a dolphin fish right off the bat and we also seen a boat fighting a sailfish.
We felt sure that we would get our shot at a sail or two. We finally got our shot at a sailfish but as we were letting him swam away with the bait I could see that the fish was shaking his head and I knew that he knew something was not right. We went ahead and tried to get a hook in him but sorry to say that he came up jumping and spit the hook on us.
We stuck it out as long as we could but I really wanted a shot at trolling off shore to try to see if we could find some dolphin fish.
So we brought in all the live baits and started trolling our way back. We did find one more dolphin and we also got a nice black fin Tuna.
These guys drank more beer than I’ve seen a charter drink in a long time and they had a ball. After the trip I was talking to them saying that I wish fishing had been a little better. Much to my surprise they all said (what are you talking about) they let me know how cold it was back home and they just had the time of their lives.
Guys thanks again for all the laughs and looking forward to fishing you guys again next year.
Captain Taco (954)764-4344
Feb 25
Today we had a couple of our regular customers/friends from Canada Scott and Sal they had a few of their good friends down from Canada John and his dad John they also had HAIRY CHEST Edison and the NIGHT RIDER Mike.
Trust me when I say this is one FUN group to spend the day fishing with. It all started off trying to get all the beer on the boat. Getting it off the boat was not a problem because I don’t think any was left except the case they brought for me. (Thanks again guys for the beer)
We got out into the ocean and we all decided to go right after BIG GAME. Last time Scott and Sal fishing with us we had caught them a couple of big golden amber jacks and this time they wanted to fight a big shark or sailfish.
While we never did see any sharks or sails a couple of their guests did get to catch a couple of real nice dolphin fish for their fish fry tonight.
Sal Scott we are looking forward to seeing you guys by the end of March.
BIG SHARK I promise.
For a better look at these dolphin go to photo gallery # 6
Ok all you snow birds the weather is great down here in Sunny South Florida and we’ve got spring right around the corner and spring time in South Florida means GREAT FISHING. Get on down here.
Captain Taco (954)764-4344 or toll free (877) SEA-4344
Feb 26 fishing the Guys from USI insurance Co
Today we had a group of guys from the USI insurance company out for a day of deep sea fishing off the coast of Fort Lauderdale . We had Howard, Randy, Jose and David all from down here in South Florida.
We started out trolling the reef looking for some king fish and bonitos when after a while of fishing we noticed that one of the guys really must have wanted to catch some fish real bad because it looked as though he was praying over the side of the boat to the fish gods.
As it turned out if David was praying it was not fish he was praying for it was for a ride back to shore. (LOL)
So we went ahead and gave David a ride back to the dock and headed back out for our fishing trip. There was not much biting on the reef so Captain Jay Jay decided to set out a couple of kite with some live bait suspended from them. It turned out to be the right thing to do. They ended up catching a 20 plus pound king fish out of the kite on a monofilament leader. Talk about luck this fish was hooked right in the corner of the mouth and if he would have shaken his head one time he could have cut thru the leader as if was hot butter.
We also ended up catching a nice dolphin fish. And at the end of the day we ended up with the biggest fish out of all four boats they had chartered.
Thanks again guys and looking forward to fishing with you again next year.
Captain Taco (954)764-4344
Feb 27
Today we had Forrest and his wife Sandra from Alberta Canada out for a few hours of deep sea fishing. They had just gotten back from a two week cruse threw the south Caribbean and had one more day here in South Florida before heading back home.
Both Forrest and his wife do quite a bit of hunting back home and Forrest really wanted a shot at catching something big.
So we set our kite out with our live baits suspended from them and we also set out a couple of shark baits trying to better our odds at seeing something big.
We never did see any sails or sharks but Forrest did catch a couple of BIG dolphin fish. One weighed 18 pounds and the bigger of the two weighed 28 pounds.
Thanks again guys.
Captain Taco (954)764-4344 or toll free (988) SEA-4344
Feb 28
Today we had our good friend and old customer the one and only Pete Pillone and his mom Barbra out for a few hours of deep sea fishing. Our target today is eating fish.
We went 8 miles off shore trying to find some dolphin fish. We trolled for over two hours without a bite. Ok time to change plans. We decided on bottom fishing while it may not be the most exciting fishing if they were biting we would catch some fish for the table. (THEY WERE)
We ended up catching more than enough snappers.
Pete thanks again and we’ll see ya soon.
Well that wraps up February 2009 and I must come clean and say that while we did have some good days of fishing we did have some not so good days also. To all of our customers we do hope you take advantage of our offer to you on your next trip and we are looking forward to fishing with all of you again soon.
Here comes March again and that means BIG DOLPHIN and LOTS OF BIG SHARKS so give us a call and hang on for the time of your life deep sea fishing this spring aboard the HOOKED UP.
Thanks again for reading our fishing reports and stay tuned for some of the best fishing here in
Sunny South Florida the next few months.
Captain Taco (954)764-4344 or toll free at (877) SEA-4344
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