Conditions are Key

Report Date: March 22, 2013

I have frequently talked about how the right conditions can give you a red-hot bite. On the other hand, the wrong conditions can mean the bite will be slow that day. For the past two weeks the conditions have not been ideal. We have had a lot of south current, mostly green water and some days wind and some days not. These conditions have affected the sailfish bite and there have been a few days where we have not even seen a sailfish. Luckily the majority of the trips we did catch 1 to 5 sailfish per day (with the exception of yesterday where we had the right conditions and caught 8 out 13), but luckily even with the slowdown in sailfishing, we have had other species come in and save the day. The past two weeks we have caught quite a few cobias. Most of the cobias we have caught have been on the bottom rod (live bait near the bottom) but we have also caught quite a few cobias on the kite baits and also on spinning rods that we cast a live bait to a cobia swimming on the surface. The cobias have all been decent in size from 25 to 50 pounds. We also have had some great days catching mahis while kite fishing. The mahis have mostly been large schoolies from 5 to 15 pounds although we did catch a few over 25 pounds. Mix in some kingfish, a few sharks and a ton of bonitos, and you can see that most of the days there has been quite a bit of action.

The slowdown in the sailfishing has definitely been due to the current conditions but yesterday we had decent north wind, strong north current and blue-green water. After catching bait, we headed out and running down the edge from the tower, we spotted a tailer (a sailfish surfing down the face of a swell). We turned on the fish and cast a bait, but the sailfish kept going. Although we didn’t get a bite out of this fish, we knew there were fish in the area. We set up the kites with live baits and within 15 minutes had a double header of sailfish on. We had a husband and wife and their twin 13-year-old daughters on board. The girls had never caught a fish before and the husband and wife had caught fish, but had never caught a sailfish. With mom and dad on the doubleheader, soon they both had their first sailfish. We spotted some more tailers and managed to get bites from them and by the end of the day we caught 8 out of 13 sailfish and now not only did the twins catch their first fish, but they caught their first billfish as well. We ended the day by catching a few mahis as well.

With the conditions improving, I’m sure we will continue to see some great sailfish action. March is almost gone and April is nearly here. April just so happens to be my favorite month to fish in South Florida. Besides sailfish, there are so many species to catch including mahis, big kings, the soon to arrive blackfin tunas as well as more cobias and hopefully some wahoo. April is also a great month for tarpon along the beach as well as daytime swords. April is about 70% booked, which means there are still some dates that are open. Join in on the variety of fish to be caught and book your trip today!

Tight Lines,
Capt. Dean Panos

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