Its Warm Again, and the Fishing is HOT

Report Date: January 17, 2010

There has been a lot of cold weather in the United States, and the cold weather even found its way down to South Florida. We had at least a week and a half of what felt like the Arctic North for us Florida boys. Usually our cold fronts drop the temperature for a day or so and then the warm weather comes right back. The past fronts lingered and we had cold temperatures (lows in the 30’s and 40’s) for a week or so. The good news is that that the cold is gone and we are back to our normal temperatures in the 70’s. The cold fronts did spark up the fishing though.

The sailfishing has been absolutely great. We had two days last week that we went into double digits and every trip last week we caught at least 3 sailfish per trip. Our best was 10 sailfish out of 14 hook ups. Most of the people we had this past week also got to experience their first billfish ever. As a guide, it is always special to put people on their first sailfish. As good as the sailfishing has been, I think it is going to get even better. We had very little current and even with the lack of current we got to catch a lot of fish. From the reports down the line, there is north current on the way and north current is usually what can spark up an epic bite. There is also a minor front coming tonight, so I am excited to get a good week of sailfishing in this week.

I also had one daytime swordfish trip this week. We don’t do a lot of daytime sword trips this time of year as the weather can be problematic and the sailfishing is so good that we tend to stay and fish the edge. I had a great client and friend of mine (Vince) call me a week or so ago and ask if I had Thursday open. It happened to be the only day I had open so we went ahead and booked it. Vince has been swordfishing with me quite a few times and we have always had good luck with catching fish, but we were never able to score on a big sword. Vince really wanted a swordfish over 300 pounds. Thursday came about and the weather was perfect. It was also the only day that was fishable for swordfish for that entire week. We headed out to my first spot and did a drop with no luck. I decided to run farther south, and ran to a spot that has produced fish for me in the past. Our first drop we got tight on a fish as we were letting the line down. Halfway up, the fish came off, which is very typical for swordfish that you hook while the bait is going down. Our second drop we got hit a few times but never got tight. It was still only 10:30 am and we did our third drop in this area and within 5 minutes of hitting bottom we were tight! The fish fought well on the bottom and we struggled to get her up off the bottom. The fight in the middle zone was really uneventful, but the fish was still fighting. Typically a really big swordfish will fight on the bottom and then race to the top. The smaller ones tend to fight you the whole way up so the way this fish was acting, I really thought it was going to be another smaller fish for Vince. Closer to the top, the fish was definitely swimming down sea and started to show a bit more muscle. Once we got her to the top, my mate spotted her first and yelled Big Fish. This put everyone on board in high gear and within a few minutes we got her close enough to bring on board. It was a struggle to get her in the boat as this swordfish was not very happy as to what was going on. After a bit of a boat side battle, we got her on board and it was high fives for everyone. The fish was somewhere between 330 and 350 pounds and Vince was able to get his first big sword with us. The smile on his face during the whole ride back is what makes this job so great. He is a great client and friend and I was very happy to get him the fish that he always wanted.

We have quite a few trips booked for the rest of this month, but do have open dates for February and March. We are fishing the next sailfish tournament, The Mayors Cup, but I do have open dates for the sailfish tournaments in February and March. For those that have never experienced a sailfish tournament, although they are a lot of work, they are also a lot of fun. There are also plenty of one day tournaments this year. The following tournaments are either one day tournaments or are offering one day tournament within their normal tournament.

Feb 20th – The Billfish Challenge
March 20th – The Fort Lauderdale Billfish Tournament
March 27th – The Miami Billfish Tournament (One Day Tournament or 3 day Tournament).

Let me know if you are interested in fishing a tournament or simply want to go fishing and have a good time. The fishing is good so let’s go get them.

Tight Lines,
Capt. Dean Panos

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