Ready for Action

Report Date: August 22, 2013

August, especially the latter part of August with all the kids going back to school and families getting back on their schedule has always been the slowest part of our charter season, and this month is no different. Although we have been fishing 2to 4 times a week, it is not the busy schedule I am so used to. On the other hand, it opens up some time to take care of tackle and the boat. I just had the boat detailed, and now with a fresh coat of wax and a thorough cleaning she is looking like new. Also did all the maintenance on the Mercury motors and they are performing flawlessly as they always do. I was also able to do the reel maintenance on all my spinning reels and all the Alutecnos conventional sailfish reels for the upcoming season. I will have to say that the Alutecnos Veloce 20 reels are absolutely incredible. I take them apart, clean, lube and address any issues once a year. The last time I did that was last August. When I opened them up this year, they looked like they were hardly used. That's hard to believe when they have endured daily use for a full year. Still, I cleaned them up, relubed everything and put brand new Sufix line on them. They are ready to go and are a truly remarkable reel. BTW- most people ask me how often I change line and a lot of it depends upon how often it is used but I change line as frequently as every two weeks if the line is used often and a lot of fish are caught on it, but rarely will go over a month and not change it. The key is to monitor the line and when you feel a bit of abrasion on it, either cut it back, and if you have to cut back too much, then you have to change it out.

As far as the fishing goes, it has been OK but not outstanding. Mahi fishing is a bit up and down. One day you are lucky enough to find something floating in the water and can usually catch some mahis under it, and sometimes you don’t find anything and end up coming back to the edge, The edge has been producing quite a few bonitos, some kingfish and a fair amount of sailfish. The sailfishing has been pretty consistent with one or two sails per trip. There have also been some wahoos on the edge as well.

I also did one daytime swordfish trip on one of my clients boat. We had one small bite in the morning. That fish never came back to eat the bait. The moon was going down at 2pm and right around 1:45pm we got a wicked bite and the rod bounced once and then just doubled over. We struggled to get back any line Every time we would gain 10 feet the fish would surge and we would lose 20. With this stalemate going on for 5 minutes or so, I guess the fish really woke up and all of a sudden started screaming line off the reel. It must have pulled at least 600 yards of the reel. I was in gear trying to keep up with the fish as line was screaming off the reel when all of a sudden the line went completely slack. The braided line broke but it was not the fault of the line. The line on the bottom of the spool was not wound on tightly and was loose so it wrapped underneath itself and simply created too much tension and the line broke. My client nor I were not too happy about it as he had the line put on the reel when he bought the reel a few months ago. Tackle failures are one of the only things we can control so a lesson was learned. I took the reel home, pulled off all the remaining line put on brand new Sufix 832 braid. I took my time and made sure that all the line was applied properly on the reel. I also put on a new windon leader so we are set to go for the next monster that decides to bite.

August, along with its hot weather and rain is almost done and the arrival of September will bring better fishing and slightly cooler weather. September is a great month for swords and can be good for sailfish as well. About half the month is already booked, but that leaves almost half open, so call now and lets get that trip lined up!

Tight Lines,
Capt. Dean Panos

Back to Main Fishing Report Page