Fishing Reports
The Wind Is Finally Gone
Report Date: February 8, 2018
2/8/18
We went through some of the windiest days I have seen in a long time. For about a week and a half it blew 20 to 35 knots almost everyday. You know its pretty bad when you are happy when the forecast says NE winds 20 — 25 knots instead of NE 30 -35 knots with gust over gale force. We had a bunch of cancellations but also fished in some pretty rough stuff. All I have to say is that my 37 SeaVee did remarkable in those crazy seas and never once did we feel like we were in any kind of peril. We never took any waves over the bow and the ride through the seas was fine and sitting on the big sea anchor made fishing very possible. With the rough seas I would have expected a great sailfish bite but we are still looking at 2 to 5 sailfish bites per day. We even had one day were we didn’t get any sailfish bites but the water was puke green with south current. The very next day the current went north, the water turned blue with a great edge in 130 feet and some boats had up to 8 sailfish. So things are improving and the big run of sailfish in Miami is about to begin. If I were a betting man I would say by next week we are going to start seeing some double-digit days. There are other fish biting when the sailfishing has been slow. There have been some kingfish, mahis and a few wahoos caught. We even deep dropped in Miami and caught some tilefish.
The real hot news has been the epic swordfish bite during the day. Obviously no boats went when the wind was howling but once it clamed down a few boats did go swordfishing and almost everybody caught multiple swordfish per day. The best I heard was one boat with 6 swordfish in one day. Now that is red-hot swordfishing! A good friend of mine, Bobby Boyle, is looking at some manual reel swordfish tactics and I have talked to him in great detail about it and its going to be very soon that we are going to have fully manual daytime swordfish charters. By spring -time we will dial this technique in so get ready for some hand cranking on big swordfish. We will still over the electric/manual reel options as well.
More news is that this June I am going to be taking the Double D to San Salvador Bahamas to go marlin fishing and some yellowfin tuna fishing. I used to take the 39’ SeaVee “Ruthie” to San Salvador practically every summer for the past 5 years, but this year we will be going on my boat. That being said, I have several of my best clients flying in while we are there to sample some epic marlin fishing. We will be pulling dredges and teasers as well as lures and dead baits looking for blue and white marlin. I have just a handful of very specific dates still open. If this is something you are interested please email me or call me and I can provide you with a lot more info. Fighting a blue marlin in a harness on a center console is an absolute thrill.
February is definitely getting booked and March is close to full. Now ids the time to book your winter trips in sunny South Florida and also look at your summer schedule and see if fighting a blue marlin in San Salvador Bahamas is on your bucket list!
Tight Lines,
Capt. Dean Panos