Swords and Sails

Report Date: March 20, 2006

We have been fishing practically every day since the last report. The two days off I had were used to take care of tackle and maintenance on the boat. The fishing has been fairly good. Sailfishing has been a little bit up and down. We caught at least one sailfish on all our trips but one. That was the first trip without a sailfish in quite a while. The conditions have been rather good with clean blue water and north current. We had those same conditions today and managed to catch 4 sailfish for a good customer of mine. Last year he brought along his daughter to catch her first sailfish (which we did) and today he brought along his wife so she could catch her first sailfish as well (we did that too). Besides the sailfish, there have been quite a few kingfish around. The kings have really been all over the place. One day you?ll find them in as shallow as 30 feet of water and the next day they may be in as deep as 150 feet. They have also been anywhere from a few pounds up to about 35 pounds. The only problem has been the porpoises. If the porpoises find the school of kings, they will quickly decimate the school including any that you manage to hook. They will literally bite your king right off the hook, often leaving you nothing but the kingfish?s head. We have also been catching a few dolphin on almost every trip. Most of the fish that have been catching have varied in size from real small (released) to 15 pounds. There have been a few nice dolphin caught by the fleet. The size has been all they way up to 45 pounds. These big dolphin have been mostly caught with live baits on the kite.

The nighttime fishing has been good for us as well. In the last two weeks we managed to sneak out for three swordfish trips as well as two tarpon trips. We have been successful on all our night trips. The tarpon trips produced one tarpon of about 120 pounds one night and two tarpon on the next trip (60 and 80 pounds). Our first swordfish trip we caught two out of three. Then this past Friday night we caught 3 out 5. On Saturday night we caught one. The swordfish have been averaging about 120 pounds. We did get a leader release on one sword that was at least 200 pounds. Unfortunately for us and fortunately for him the hook pulled after we got leader a few times. The good news about the swordfish trips is that our new Alutecnos Reels have performed flawless and have actually been awesome to use. They feel great and have an outstanding drag. Theses reels hold an enormous amount of line and just incredible to use.

This is the time to start thinking about your summer swordfish trips as well as your summer Bahama trips. I still have the Key West Sailfish tournament open and as of right now do not have any commitments for the summer swordfish tournaments. If you are interested in any of these trips just give me a shout and let?s set it up!

Tight Lines,
Capt Dean Panos

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