Times Are Good

Report Date: March 5, 2006

It?s been a little while since the last report, but I have to say this has been my busiest season ever. Even as busy as it has been, we have A LOT of new stuff to report. I would like to thank Mason and Eros from Alutecnos Reels for placing us on his Pro-Staff. We have now taken our charter service to the next level and are sporting all new Alutecnos reels. Let me start off by saying that these reels are absolutely phenomenal. I am not saying this just because we are using them. I took quite a bit of time in selecting a replacement for our older reels. Not only are the Alutecnos one of the prettiest reels around, but they are definitely the best in craftsmanship and have the best features that the anglers in South Florida (and in all reality ? anywhere) need. As everyone knows, we do a lot of sailfishing in South Florida, and the reel you need must have a high retrieve ratio. It is important that once the sailfish eats, that you must come off the kite clip and get tight on the sail quickly. These Alutecnos have everyone beat hands down. They offer a 6:1 retrieve ratio and based on the retrieve ratio and the arbor of a full reel can pull in an amazing 52 inches per crank. I measured this myself on one of my new reels. They also hold an amazing 800 yards of 20-pound test. There are no more worries of running out of line or no more frantic yelling to REEL and get tight on the fish. They are no doubt incredible reels. We have switch out all our reels including the swordfish reels. We now have 80 wide 2-speed Alutecnos that hold over 1100 yards of line and are virtually indestructible. I am very excited about our new sponsor and look forward to providing our customers with one of the best-outfitted charter boats in South Florida.

Even as busy as it has been, I have gone through the entire boat and replaced or cleaned up anything that seemed to be below par. SeaVee has built a great boat and I didn?t have to do much but a few minor things such as electrical outlets etc. The boat is also scheduled for a complete detailing once we find some time. All in all, I believe we have taken our charter service to the highest level possible and look forward to fishing with all our old and our new customers for years to come.

I would also like to thank George Poveromo for selecting me to be one of the speakers in his Salt water Sportsman Seminar Series in Hollywood Florida. I attended this seminar yesterday and I had a great time. I hope that everyone that attended it got some good information from the speakers!

Now to the fishing! The sailfishing has been exceptionally good for the entire year. We have had only one trip since December that we haven?t caught at least one sailfish per day. This past week the wind was very light, but we still managed sailfish on every trip and often had 6 or 8 shots a day. We have been finding the sails anywhere from Pacific Reef to Government Cut. For the ones that have fished with me in the past, although gasoline at the marina is very expensive, we will run as far as it takes to put you on fish. This may mean we might not make that much profit, but hopefully you will return and stay a Double D Charters customer. There have also been quite a few kingfish around. One day this past week (Friday) you could not toss out a live bait more than 30 feet from the boat, without it getting nailed by a king. The kings haven?t been huge in size, but they are definitely here in numbers.

One more item that I need to mention is that now is the time to book your Bahamas trips. I am almost entirely booked for most of June already. I do have the full moon in May open for the muttons in Bimini though. Yellowtail fishing is also very good all summer long and I have dates open for those. This year we also plan on concentrating a bit more on the groupers and perhaps some of the shallow wrecks on the Bahama Bank.

I don?t have any other sailfish tournaments open this year except for the World Sailfish Tournament in Key West in April. If anyone is interested in that one please give me a call.

February was a phenomenal month. We ended up doing close to 40 charters that month (Best month ever). March is getting pretty booked up, but I do have open dates for April and May - so give me a call and lets go fishing!

Tight Lines,
Capt. Dean Panos

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