Beiträge von The BEAST

I received a phone call from Josh Bailer whose friends were in town. They had but one afternoon available to fish before they had to fly out that same evening. He had 3 days to put this together and wanted to know if we had that day available for him. We did and of course we said sure! I never recommend doing a ½ day because it’s like putting handcuffs on Devon and me. Half days still require the same run time to and fro, and it limits your fishing time to 3 hours or less. We are not clock-watchers but they had a flight to make at 9 PM so we had to be back by 6 PM for sure. We do realize that people often have time constraints and a ½ day is all they have time for. We do our absolute best to accommodate them and make the day successful as well.

Josh and his friends, David and Scott, arrived and we loaded them aboard. We shoved off the dock at 1 PM and headed into the Bay. I stepped on The BEAST and made way for one of our favorite bait stops. The Hardtails were there and willing to play with us. We spent about 20-30 minutes collecting 15-18 baits. That’s plenty! I quickly turned the bow towards the offshore water and spanked those 600 horses into a gallop. I conferred with Josh about going to the Grunt & Sweat wreck to show these Oregonian Salmon fishermen what S. Florida fishing was all about. He agreed.

I arrived at our destination and the seas were fairly calm but the current was moving quickly to the north. Devon readied one of our larger baits and I quickly sent it down. While I monitored that rod Devon sent down one of our new speed jigs. Less than a minute passes and Devon says the bait isn’t dropping, so he flips the bail and it is game on! Scott takes the rod and we know almost instantly that we have a tuna type on the line. A few minutes later and we lift a nice little 5-pound Blackfin into the boat. Sashimi! We ran up and set up for another drift. Where are the big’uns?

We drop again but the current is really moving and we’re having trouble controlling our depths. OK shut this drift down and regroup. Devon put on a much heavier weight as I settled in on our drift point. I lowered the Hardtail and Devon sent a speed jig down. KaPow! The down rod doubles over and Josh grabs hold of it. This fish is no slouch and Josh is struggling. More than a ¼ mile from the wreck and we are finally seeing some color. Holy Guacamole! Look at the size of that Almie! The fish thuds to the deck and we have a beautiful 30-pound Almaco Jack joining the sashimi football in the fish box.

The wind was coming up and the seas were growing. The next trip through the drift line and Bam, the speed jig gets nailed again. C’mon, no Bonito, be another Blackie, Sure enough, David winds in another 5-pound football.

It seems that with every pass we are producing a fish, but not this time. Bam! Boom! We have a double folks. I don’t even remember who caught yet another Blackfin, but I do know that Scott took the bait rod. This was an adult AJ for sure. He fought and fought this fish the suddenly passed the rod off to David. WHAT? David put some fresh muscle into the rod and the fish was moving up. The fish was almost visible when Scott retakes the rod. No way! The fish comes aboard and jerks the scales down to the 42-pound line. For your information… Just before we took the picture of Scott with this fish, Devon and I revoked his man-card!

We made a couple more drifts, missed a fish on the jig and lost a live bait and hook to a toothy critter. The seas were getting larger and the marks on the sonar were disappearing with each drift over the wreck. We decided to make one last drift so we sent down a live bait and had 2 speed jigs going. Bingo! Double on the speed jigs! Lines were crossing, over under, forward backward, and we’re still on. The fish came to the surface at the same time. It was the Blackfin twins, Soy and Wasabi. These fish were the 10-pound brothers of the previous 3. Good job guys!

With about 45 minutes left we decided to end the wreck fishing on a good note and pull some tried and true plastics around for some Mahi. There wasn’t any debris in the water and no birds in sight. As time was running out we had a knock down and hook up. It was a micro Bonito. As we were reeling it in we see some small Mahi chasing behind it. The right rigger went down and the right flat hooked up too. The Dolphin on the rigger line was smallish but when the other fish jumped we knew we had a keeper. Scott had empty hands so he grabbed that line. One more jump and it was gone. The Bonito worked its way loose also but Josh brought the small Dolphin in. We could tell by looking at the fish that he was about ½” short of legal so Devon tossed him back in to grow up.

Now we were running a little bit over on Josh’s time schedule. Devon and I quickly squared away the gear and pushed the throttles down to a fast cruise. We discussed the afternoon‘s action. One thing that impressed us were the vertical jigs we had just gotten from Jesse at Victory Lures. The 4 oz jig was a daisy that afternoon, catching Tuna on almost every drift. In 3 hours or less of fishing we tallied 5 Blackfin, an Almaco Jack, an Amberjack, a Dolphin, and several other good bites. You got to love it when a plan comes together!

When we arrived back at the dock, Devon immediately took the fish to the filet table. He made filets quickly and precisely, wielding his filet knife like Zorro! The trio thanked us and grabbed the bags of Tuna and Almaco Jack, leaving us the Amberjack. Great! No seriously, that’s great!! Tomorrow night I’ll be snacking on my smoked Cajun Spiced Amberjack. I can’t wait. My mouth is watering already!

Capt. Jim
The BEAST
305-233-9996
beastcharters@aol.com
http://www.beastcharters.com

A very good customer of mine, Jon from Atlanta, booked an all day trip with us to acclimate his kids to offshore fishing. Jon has fished with me well over 50 times dating back as far as 1998. I’ve fished with his wife, Melissa, a time or two but this was the first time I ever met the children. I remember when the kids were born and now Ryan is 11 and Caroline is 8. I must be getting old! His plan was to see how the kids could handle the blue water scenario before he took them to Costa Rica in April.

Jon, and his squad, joined us at the dock at our usual 7 AM start time. Devon unleashed the snarling BEAST and we made our way to our favorite spots to collect some bait. We began with the kids yanking on some Blue Runners and they had a ball. The bait came easy. When had more than enough, we pulled up lines and made way for another reef patch to grab some worms. The chum bag went over and shortly thereafter our targets began to arrive. The Ballyhoo were hungry and we hook & lined a dozen or so quickly. The worms got stupid and came closer to the boat with each passing minute. The next thing they knew, a 10’ Calusa cast net was hitting the water on top of them. We had plenty of bait so Devon and I made the boat ready for the day.

We made the short run offshore. As I settled The BEAST down, Devon and Jon spotted some Sooty Terns working another ¼ mile out. By the path and pattern of the birds we knew we had some sort of Tuna working so we hurriedly put out small plastics to troll through them. Bingo! The first fish were some small Bonito and the kids were already having fun. This happened again on the next set, like looking in a mirror. Devon asked if he should put down a deep rod since we were in these bait sized Bonito. I nodded yes. I swung around and closed in on the birds yet again. Bam! The next fish up was a decent football Blackfin Tuna. Sashimi Brudda!

I stayed on the birds and kept working this school. Devon thought he heard the down rod chirp so he retrieved the bait and realized his suspicion. We missed that one. We were hoping to stay in the action and collect some more of those Blackies. We got nailed again but this time it was a larger Bonito. The long rigger tripped and we were into another fish. We had another Tuna on but this one was a Skipjack. This is classic, the mixed Tuna bag.

We reset the lines again and as I was bearing down on the birds the deep rod sounded off. No missed bite here, this was a decent fish. We worked the fish by keeping pressure on it both with the rod and the boat. As the fish neared we could see the blue-black stripes of an Ono, El Tigre, or as we call it, Wahoo! The Wahoo wasn’t a big fish but it was a good fish weighing in around 18-20 pounds.

We continued to stay on these birds catching small Bonito and keeping the kids busy. The down rod sounded off again and we were thinking another Wahoo. Not a Wahoo this time, it was a Kingfish instead. The fish had quit fighting about ½ of the way to the boat and we feared it was only going to be a piece of fish on the hook. Surprisingly, the fish was complete, with nothing missing. Well that’s not quite true. On the left side it was apparent that either a very large Wahoo or Smoker King had tried to make this 11-pound Kingfish its lunch. Look at the size of that bite! I wanted the fish that wanted that fish!

We kept finding and working this school of small Bonito hoping for another big bite on the down rod. We missed 1 more bite down below and picked up a small Barracuda on top. I decided to give the kids a rest and do some live baiting especially since we saw a free jumper Sailfish while we were busy catching fish earlier. Jon agreed.

We set up the live bait spread, 4 up and 1 down. Things got slower but we still had a missed strike or two on the rod below. This is a good thing because it also teaches patience to the children. Caroline was a busy little bee on the boat during this slow down though. Man, can that girl talk. She became my best friend. Hold that thought we just got a bite! The down rod was tugging and we were excited. The Hardtail we sent down had obviously attracted a visitor. The fish came up and we were surprised to see this large Caribbean Spotted Mackerel in an area that we hardly ever catch them. Devon held the 20-pound Barracuda up for a photo op with the kids and then released it.

The action was definitely slower than the morning hours but it was steady. The Moon Jellies were everywhere, which undoubtedly had an effect on the surface bite. Caroline was having conversation with me and anyone else who would listen. Too funny! That girl is socially oriented. She got interrupted as a small school of peanut Dolphin harassed the bait. We managed to catch one of these little guys. A few minutes later the down rod popped off again and this was another decent Kingfish that pushed the scales up to the 13-pound marker.

Slightly passed 3 PM, Jon and Melissa were having a pow-wow in the cockpit. Thunderstorms are growing to our East and moving toward shore so they decided that it was best to head in. Not a problem and a wise decision. It is best to have the kids leave while still wanting more. Devon and I buttoned up the boat and then headed for the house. We had a potpourri of fish in the fish box. We tallied the day at 1 Blackfin, 1 Skipjack, 12+ Bonito (lost count), 1 Wahoo, 2 Kingfish, 2 Barracuda, and 1 Dolphin. That was a fun day in anybody’s book.

When we arrived at the Marina channel, I had a good time getting to know Ryan and Caroline better. As Devon cleaned and bagged the catch, Caroline hung out at the boat with me as I cleaned up. We said our goodbyes and I told Jon that I bet the kids, particularly Caroline, wouldn’t make it to the hotel. He laughed! 15 minutes after he left, I got a text with this picture embedded in it.

That is what it’s all about. Paying it forward! Take the time, in this rat race we call life, to take your kids fishing. It’s an excellent way to spend quality time together. You will love it and they will love you for it!!!

Capt. Jim
The BEAST
305-233-9996
beastcharters@aol.com
http://www.beastcharters.com

I have no idea what happened this month. Traditionally we have a great Cubera bite in September but everyone seemed to want to fish in August this year. I’m not sure why this is especially with a full moon coming up this weekend. The congregations of fish have done the bulk of their spawning ritual and now they are on the feed trying to recover their strength after their yearly ordeal. Oh well, it is what it is!

Jorge had already booked his second trip for this season. Devon was out of commission for this run, so I phoned up my buddy, “Uncle Al”, to come work the mate position. Al is Devon‘s uncle, which is where his nickname “Uncle Al” comes from. We met up at the usual time and Jorge arrived solo on this occasion. He brought along his own rod and reel, a nice bent butt with an International 70 loaded with 150# Power Pro. A bit of overkill but if he is more comfortable with his own gear, he is welcome to bring it.

We turned The BEAST out and made our way to grab a few quick Hardtails for backup bait. That happened with relative ease and in short order the Zuke 300’s were running for our Cricket patch. Although Uncle Al and I are, for lack of better terms, a senior crew, we managed to grab enough bugs in a reasonable time. Uncle Al may have a few years on Devon but he is still a bug snatching maniac. Since Jorge also brought along a custom jigging rod with 65# braid on a nice shiny Shimano Stella reel, we decided to give the “Grunt & Sweat” wreck a tryout.

We arrived at the G&S and made several drops but only had 1 or 2 bumps and lost a couple of the jig hooks. I made the decision to try another wreck but the same thing seemed to be the case at that area as well. OK! We headed south to Nastyville and made 1 or 2 drops with the jigs. There was nothing doing on the jigs that night. Darkness was still about 45 minutes away, but I told Al to go ahead and drop a cricket. The sonar was pretty much blank as we made several drifts but as the darkness settled in the screen became more active. Each pass showed more and more marks. Boom! Al yells that we have a bite but Jorge was not on his game and before he could get to the rod it came unglued. Another couple of passes and the bait gets crashed again. This time I cranked down on the fish and as Jorge got to the rod, the tipped popped up signaling another miss. We kept making passes sliding deeper and shallower and I decided to stay around the drift that produced the first 2 bites. The sonar screen was lit up like the “Jones’” neighborhood at Christmas. The next bite was so fast that the rod doubled over and snapped to attention so fast no one had a chance to react. Jorge was on station at the rod when the next bite came. Bite… let go… drop back… bite… let go… hold… a few tense seconds and Bada Bing! The line comes tight and the rod is bending toward the water when, you guessed it, once again the fish came unpinned. What the H? These must be smaller “buck” snapper because we lost two baits totally, one bait came up covered in fang punctures, and this last one was almost torn in half.

The searching for active fish was over. Adjusting the drifts was easy because, surprisingly, we had the whole area to ourselves that night. I made an adjustment that worked out perfectly and I had now honed in on the same drift line that had been producing the bites. A couple of short, uneventful drifts went by. I had them pegged and at this stage in the game there was no need to make long drifts. On the next drift I saw the active fish on the sonar and told Jorge to stand guard. Kaplooey! This was not a bite like we had been having. This was Big Mama! She bent the rod tip to the water and was stripping drag. That was a feat in itself because 2 drifts earlier I checked his drag and I couldn’t pull the 150# braid off the reel with my hands. OMG Bro! This fish may break our boat record of 76#’s. About 6 or 7 minutes into the fight and Jorge figures he has the fish off the bottom far enough so he backs off on the drag about ¼. After another 2 to 3 minutes and 2 more solid runs, the line goes limp. NO WAY! Yes way! She is gone! When we brought the terminal rig to the surface we did a quick inspection to find that Big Mama had straightened out our 4X strength hooks. She was obviously hooked up solid. This was the classical “damned if you do and damned if you don’t” scenario on drag settings. If we wouldn’t have had the drag tight she would’ve taken us to the bottom and cut us off. Having the drag a bit too tight can cause other failures, as was our case. Loosening the drag after moving the fish well off the bottom was the correct thing to do but the damage was already done. All I can say is that this fish was a behemoth.

The BEAST fell so quiet that you could’ve heard a mouse peeing on cotton. Several minutes passed and then we discussed what happened in detail. We came to the conclusion that you can’t win ‘em all. We made several more drifts and Jorge began losing focus allowing his bait to drag on the bottom, hanging up 3 rigs and losing the lead. He was totally dejected at this point and was ready to call it a night. Hold on! The sonar is going quiet and the bite has slowed down but I had a good feeling. C’mon Jorge, one more drift. I don’t know why I had that feeling but I’m glad he said OK. About 1 minute into the last drift and the rod tip bumps. Jorge remains calm and the tip bumps again. Easy does it! The 3rd bump and the rod tip pulls down past the gunnels, and Jorge makes 5 or 6 hard cranks on the reel. Hooked up! This was our average respectable fish and Jorge took the battle over and won this fight.

Jorge thanked me for insisting on that last drift and we called it a night. We went 1 for 6 but we had action through most of the night. I’ve replayed that night over and over in my mind and came to some conclusions. There was nothing much I would’ve done differently to catch that big fish, but I have come up with some ideas to eliminate those missed hook ups.

The season will probably draw to an end after this weekend’s moon phase. With no plans for this week, Devon and I will be putting up the gear next week and turning our focus towards live baiting for Dolphin, Sails and Kings. That was apparently our Cubera 2012 Finale’. It’s all good! A fitting end with the big fish that got away. Keep looking over your shoulder, Big Mama, because we’re coming after you again next year!

Capt. Jim
The BEAST
305-233-9996
beastcharters@aol.com
http://www.beastcharters.com

I got a call from my Brother-in-law, Michael, who wanted to set up a day to go fishing with his daughters and their friend. He wanted to get his girls out for an afternoon of fishing before they went back to school. I told Mike it wasn‘t a problem and we set up an afternoon run. Afternoon trips can be tough during August with daytime temps reaching 90+ degrees but he said that Berkeley doesn’t do mornings very well. I told him I was sure we could put them on some big fish. OK, let’s do 3 PM to dark. The night before the trip, Mike called and said he had to hurry out of town on business the next day but the girls and their friend were still anxious to fish with Uncle Capt. Jim.

My nieces arrived on time and we were ready and waiting. Berkeley, Paris and their friend Greg were very excited. We loaded their gear and I fired up The BEAST. As we headed down the channel I took that time to refresh my Uncle status with my nieces and I also got to interrogate Greg as well. It turns out he is a very nice kid! Sorry Greg, I can’t negate that protective fatherly instinct when it comes to the girls in my family. During this time, we also caught plenty of Hardtails for bait and the group was already a pile of smiles. After we loaded about 2 dozen Blue Runners into the wells, I pony’d up the Zukes and made the run offshore.

Since Greg and Berkeley are attending UCONN they don’t get much chance to catch big fish up there. I told them that Devon and I would definitely target some big fish that will test their will. We arrived at our “Grunt & Sweat” wreck and immediately started dropping baits. The current was light and conditions were great. Devon was working a speed jig for them and the live Hardtail was down below drawing attention. Devon’s speed jig got tapped first and Paris, the smallest of the group, jumped up and ran to take the rod. She is so tiny that I was a bit worried that me might have to hold on to her so we didn’t have to fish her out of the drink. No way! She manhandled the smaller Almaco Jack to the surface and as quickly as we had started, the skunk was off the boat. We slid this “eater” into the fish box.

A minute or so into the next drift and the speed jig connected again. Berkeley took the rod and was onto a little better fish. Berkeley brought her fish to the boat and it was a smaller Amberjack. The fish was well over the legal possession limits but we decided to release it after a couple of quick photos.

We had bites on the Blue Runners but for some reason we were not connecting with solid hook ups. We missed a couple of fish. I think the fish were a bit too small to eat the sizeable baits we were dropping. Well… that’s my story and I’m sticking to it! At this time the only staying hooked up were the fish that ate the speed jigs, but they were the smaller kind. Another nice Almaco (25 lb) ate the speed jig. I don’t remember who caught it because the action was quick and at times they were tag teaming the fish. Once again, we missed another on the live bait. C’mon… really? We reset again and on this drift the sonar screen was showing me that the big fish had awakened and were ready to play. The Hardtail was taken and this was a better fish. Oh boy was it! Double! The speed jig got whacked again and hooked up another small AJ but the Runner had enticed a nice 44 lb fish into eating.

The live bait was doing the job now and Greg was into a good fish. Greg was doing pretty well at raising the fish when suddenly it grew about 200 pounds. Greg thought he had lost the fish but remarked that there was still something there. I laughed. Yeah, the head! You just got sharked. When he brought the remains to the boat we could see that it was a very big “Guard Dog” that had been keeping watch on us. He had waited to pick out his perfect sized fish. A done deal in one bite!

The next fish just piled onto the Blue Runner and was trying with every fiber of its being to get loose, and there was plenty of fiber to this one. I believe all 3 of them took a turn on this one. The fish was big and it took them a good bit of time. We finally saw color about 75’ below. Holy Guacamole, that’s a nugget! We put this one on the scale and she pulled it down to 75 pounds. Nice fish. Devon suggested that we release this big breeder since we already had a couple in the box to eat. Everybody agreed and Devon vented her and tossed her overboard. We watched her swim away into the blue.

Everyone was ready to take a break so I asked Devon to set out a trolling spread and we would see if we could get some Mahi or something else. We pulled the baits for a short time when I saw a flock of birds working and for the next 35-45 minutes we kept getting double and triple knockdowns and hookups by large Bonito. I worked our way inshore hoping to get a Wahoo on the down rod. We missed a couple of bites and right before dark the rod sounded off. All right! Berkeley woman’d up and took the rod. We were anticipating a Wahoo after the second good run and then we saw color about 40’ out. Rats! It’s a 20-pound Caribbean Spotted Mackerel. Oh well, that ‘Cuda was a good fight, anyway.

Daylight was gone son I turned the nav lights on and pointed the bow toward the barn. We had boated 4 Amberjack, 2 Almaco Jacks, 10 Bonito, and 1 Barracuda in about 4 hours. They were a bit tired but all I saw were their smiles. I really had a great time fishing with my nieces, Berkeley and Paris. I would love to do it again, soon! Oh yeah… you too, Greg!

Capt. Jim
The BEAST
305-233-9996
beastcharters@aol.com
http://www.beastcharters.com

We did 2 more follow up trips to “Nastyville”. El Nasty had made a chump out of us on the last trip and we were into these trips for redemption. Of course we wanted to get our customers on Cubera Snapper as well. The last 2 trips were a struggle with heavy current and foul weather.

Ryan and Matt met us at the dock at the usual time and they were pumped up to get after them. I warned them of the 2 previous trips but let them know that the conditions were much better and no matter what, we would give it 100% effort as always. The Briggle Brothers had fished with us before so they already knew that about us. Even though we had a fairly rocky start to the season we were exuding confidence as we unleashed The BEAST and made our way out for bait.

We began collecting “crickets” and Matt was throwing a very small speed jig. He had a good hook up and dragged in a very nice Mangrove Snapper, which he put in the livewell. The bug collection went off without a hitch and we took our time to make sure they reached their limit. This is the main focus when preparing for a successful night of hunting Cubera Snapper.

We stowed all the gear and I headed for some Yellowtail. We arrived and set out the chum while we readied the baits. The current was like the winds on that night… light. It was nice to see this soft leisurely current for a change. The B Brothers had a little fish wager going on and I believe they tied at 4 nice Yellowtail apiece (8 total) and they also boated 2 nice Cero Mac’s. With darkness settling in, we pulled anchor and headed out to deal with this Cubera issue.

Arriving at the spot, we were pleasantly surprised to see that we were alone. That was especially nice that nobody was anchored up making it harder to affect a good drift. The current was 1 knot or less. Awesome! We began our drifts and 30-40 minutes passed by when suddenly the rod tip thumps hard and then bends over violently. FISH ON! Ryan grabs the rod and we are counting our chickens before they hatched. Shhhh! Too late! We got the leader to the rod tip and the fish is just under the surface as Devon reaches for the leader. Ryan lets out a shout, “IT’S GONE! @#$%^&*()_+ !!!!” Devon grabs the leader and sure enough. No fish! Not a good start!

Time passes by extremely slow when the bite comes late. This night was exactly that, especially since we already blew a shot on a good fish right at the boat. 11:00 PM and I can see severe dejection in Ryan’s face. I asked him what he was feeling and he said something like “Here I am on The BEAST and I can’t get another bite. Bad luck just seems to follow me.” I told him that we weren’t done yet and sometimes it just takes more time. About 15 minutes later Devon saw the rod thump and called out to Ryan. By the time he got to the rod it had doubled over and the fish was straining to get away. To keep from repeating the outcome of the first bite that night, he remained intent on not giving the fish a split second of slack. This worked out very well for him as he boated a respectable fish.

The bite had fired up now and we ended up missing one or two more before Matt had his turn on a solid hook up. He and his brother Ryan witnessed this bite and Matt jumped on the rod. He was working up a sweat while working up the fish. Ryan and Matt now have had a crash course in how tough these fish really are. He managed the rod and negotiated the fish to boat side. Nice fish… pretty work!

We kept working but missed another bite or two and then the feeding mode shut down. A few more drifts and nothing. Unfortunately, we realized that we had our chances and now it was over as the fish went back to doing what Cubera do in August. We ended up the night, catching 2 fish out of 3 that were hooked up and missed 4 more bites. The best night out this season so far, both in conditions and active bites. We packed it in and I turned The BEAST for the barn. The B Bros were happy and considered the outing a success.

Our next trip out was with a very regular customer from New York. His Mother and his friends call him Eddie but we call him “Gimpy”. It’s a long story! To book this trip he must’ve made 37 phone calls to me and many of those calls were non-specific. I think he’s just getting lonely and wants someone to talk to! Devon and I are trying real hard to like Gimpy!!! I’m just kidding y’all. I know he is watching intently and waiting patiently for this report of his trip. I figured I’d take this chance to bust his chops, once again. If you knew the Gimp you would understand fully.

He and his mates met us at the dock, exchanged pleasantries, discussed the previous trip, loaded up and pulled out. Everyone was hoping for a repeat of the last trip, at least in the form of good conditions. We blasted straight out to get our crickets and that we did. We had plenty of them in the live well and then headed for a nice Yellowtail area. We anchored up and began the chum slick, tossing in some Glass minnows to sweeten the chum line. We didn’t have a stellar night on the hook but we did manage to catch about 8 or 10 nice Tails. When it got dark we closed up the chum and small rods and broke out the heavy gear. I cracked open the throttles and headed for Nastyville.

Arriving in Cubera City I quickly noticed that 2 boats were anchored on either side of the main drifts. It appeared that they were working together in some way or another and were fishing for Mutton or Vermillion Snapper, not Cubera’s. This was bad for us because the current was once again rolling through the area at over 2.2 knots. Not good, not good at all! I couldn’t get a drift line that would split in between the other boats because of their anchor rode, so I worked all around the town, from shallow to deep. There were times that I actually passed really close to the anchored boats trying to sniggle a bite out of the mass of fish I saw on the sonar in that area. Nothing was working very well. The anchored boats didn’t seem to be doing so great on their mission either.

Finally around midnight, they simultaneously pulled anchors and left. I took advantage of this and immediately moved into that area. I desperately wanted to contact some of those fish that I knew were there but couldn’t reach until the boats left. The screen was lit up with a good aggregation of these Snappers. On the second drift the rod doubled over and Big Tom began getting a lesson in Cubera Snapper fishing. Tom was remarking about the power of these Pit Bull Snappers. He took command and in short order, it’s a done deal. Tom is on the boards.

Well it appears the bite is on but for how long. I hoped we didn’t miss too much while we tried to outlast the other 2 boats. A few more drifts and the screen is getting lighter as the fish are disappearing from the sonar. Oh Crap! A couple more drifts and Kerplooey! Da’ Gimp knocks everyone out of the way as he busts a move towards the doubled over rod. Every man for himself is the way he rolls! He’s on it. Oh Lord… This may be too much for the Gimperella. I had to turn my head away as he is fishing with Rodney (rod holder) and double handing the reel crank. Folks, this was not pretty! A few minutes later and Gimpster finally puts the old Marine Corp manhandle on this fish. Well… He says he is a US Marine from New York, but I’m thinking he is actually a retired Merchant Marine from Jersey! Ok… He muscled his way through his friends and regardless of how ugly it was; in the end he had his first Cubera. Sorry… I had to get a couple more shots in on him! I can’t help myself!

OK… That’s 2 fish for 2 bites! We made a few more drifts and the large congregation of fish is all but gone now. We stayed and plugged away at it for another hour or so, and then I threw in the towel. Could we have done better if we hadn’t had to contend with the 2 anchored boats? Maybe yes, maybe no. It is what it is and we dealt with the situation the best we could. The guys had plenty of groceries to take home with them including lots of lobster tails. Oh Yeah! Hey Gimpy! Where are those special New York bagels you said you were going to bring down to me! Hey… that’s how he rolls!

Hopefully T.S. Isaac will not mess things up for the remainder of the season. We still have some availability for the upcoming full moon period if anyone is interested in giving it a try.

Capt. Jim
The BEAST
305-233-9996
beastcharters@aol.com
http://www.beastcharters.com

Devon and I were excited to begin our Cubera charters. We were fired up and ready to go. All reports we had heard from friends who had been out there previously, were that the fish were not there or not biting. Several reports came to us of guys fishing 2 straight nights to catch 1 fish. Oh Boy, this does not sound good.

Brian and his friends, Mike, Brett, and Phillip met us at the dock at 3 PM for our scheduled start. Our hopes were high even though we had those very pessimistic fishing reports and the skies were filled with rain cells and strong wind. We unleashed The BEAST and made our way out to a bait spot to grab a couple of Blue Runners to take with us. We got a bonus as Devon spotted a massive Crocodile sitting on the bank in the mangroves.

We quickly boated a couple of Hardtails. I pushed the throttles down and headed for the reef so we could catch some “crickets” for the night. We picked out a generic spot and began the collection process. An hour and a bit later, we had 15 legal bugs on board. Good deal! That was almost too easy. The boys had decided to do some Yellowtail fishing so I turned toward the south and throttled up.

We arrived at our favorite ‘tailing spot and anchored up. The chum went over and they began fishing. The area came alive and Cero Macks were flying out of the water. As a matter of fact, we had one Cero that cleared both motors as it nailed some Ballyhoo that were eating at the chum bag. We had a good time and the fishing was pretty good. As the sun began to set, we wrapped it up with 10 nice Yellowtail and 2 good sized Cero in the box. Alright! Let’s get after those “Nasties”!

We arrived at Nastyville and I did a quick scout. The marks on the sounder were not any where close to normal as in years past. The wind was howling at about 15-18 knots and the seas were reaching 4’ at times. To go with those conditions the current was blasting at 2.5-2.7 knots. This is crummy! Oh well, it is what it is! I got my drift set up and we dropped our first “cricket” down into the inky black depths. Nada! Drift after drift with Nada damn thing happening! This scenario played out for over an hour. Going on a hunch I moved in very shallow and found more fish marking on the sounder. It took me a couple of drifts to get a good starting point. As we made the next drift, I was watching the rod tip when suddenly I see the bite. As I ran over to the rod it doubled over, so I quickly made about 10 cranks on it to hook up the fish. There he is, no doubt about it! Phillip jumped on the rod and began working the fish up. After a grueling fight the fish broke the surface and we had "El Nasty" in the boat.

Yahoo! The BEAST is on the boards with the first "Nasty" of the 2012 season. We continued on and several drifts later we got another bite but missed the hook up. The lobster came up split in half and the carapace looked like someone drove an F-250 over it. No worries! Well get ’em! We made a few more drifts and Mike (I think) got a bite. Bada BOOM! Hooked up, Buddy! He worked the fish and we now had "Nasty" #2 on board.

We worked this area to death without another bite, As time grew thin, I decided to go to another area well to the north that holds fish as well. We marked fish but they were not chewing. Overdue on time with a huge rain cell closing in on us, we called it a night. I turned to the west and made my way for home. The outing was far from fantastic catching 2 smaller male Cubera Snapper out of 3 bites. The guys had Lobster, Yellowtail, and Cero Mackerel in the box, as well, and I think their smiles were genuine!

The next trip out was with a Cubera regular, Jorge, and he brought along Ricardo. The conditions were much better with less threat of rain and much lighter winds around 12-13 knots. The seas were light at about 2 feet. We tried for some Blue Runners but struggled to catch 3 this time. Jorge said “Let’s go.” I bagged the Runner spot and headed offshore to grab some bugs for the night. After catching 10 bugs Jorge was getting antsy and when the 11th cricket came aboard he once again said “Let’s go.” You can still catch one more for your limit but, OK. He opted to go for AJ’s rather than Yellowtail fishing.

I ran out to the “Grunt & Sweat” wreck and set up our drifts. The current was, once again, a fast 2.2 knots out there. Devon was demonstrating how to work the speed jigs when he hooked up a fish and passed the rod over to Ricardo. He almost had it to the boat when a humongous ‘Cuda hit it, but didn’t take it. The fish was small, less than the legal 28” size limit. We regretted having to release this wounded fish even though the wounds were slight. It swam down and away. Within minutes the fish was hauling butt to the surface with the ‘Cuda in hot pursuit. A huge splash and it was over. Jorge got a hook up on his speed jig and this was a much better fish. The fish grew larger as the fight went on and then got lighter. When Jorge got the fish to the boat there was only a large head left on the hook. This one was eaten by very big shark. It was very apparent by the size of the bite. “Mother Nature‘s” ocean is hard and cruel. Even though we had another 45 minutes to an hour before dark, Jorge said “Let’s go catch Cubera!” OK, it‘s not really time yet but we’ll head out and give it a shot.

Devon got the big rods ready as I milled around looking for the fish. The current was a stiff 2.2 knots. We made our first drift & drop well before dark. This scenario went on and on. I worked in and out, shallow to deep, and nothing at all was happening. Jorge began saying that there were no fish there. I kept showing him the sounder and telling him that it would happen but only when THEY were ready for it to happen. The drifts added up and the time ran down without a bite. It was more evident now that Jorge had given up. I suggested that we try a few drifts at the other spot. We made the run northward to see if they were biting. The current was somewhat better there, about 1.7-1.9 knots. We weren’t even 2 minutes into the 1st drift and Jorge pulled the plug on the trip.

Could it be possible that someone had spiked Jorge’s rum bottle with “Impatience”? Devon and I were still game because we don’t take defeat easily. Jorge has had 5 or more incredibly successful trips with us in the past. Matter of fact, it was his group that caught our boat record, 76 ¼ pounder. I really don’t understand what went on that night and have replayed that trip in my mind, over and over. Maybe it was simply, bad conditions… OR… could it be that, Jorge and The BEAST, had to pay their dues at Nastyville.

Capt. Jim
The BEAST
305-233-9996
beastcharters@aol.com
http://www.beastcharters.com

The last 2 of our day trips were right before “Bug” season opened. They were pretty productive and had our guests smiling. John brought his wife Vicki, son Cam, and daughter Katie along for a ¾ day trip. We blasted out at 7 AM and made our way immediately for some bait. We caught plenty of Hardtails but the Ballyhoo were trouble. We stayed a bit longer than usual because there were some really nice Mangrove Snapper in the chum. We did manage to catch 5 of them before we left.

The Dolphin (Mahi) bite was on the slow side from the reports we had heard so the crew decided to pull on some wreck fish instead of wasting the short day hunting Mahi. The current was dead slow, the fish were marking on the sounder but they were slow on the bite. Our first hook up was Katie on a nice Almaco Jack.

The waters were very calm to go along with the dead current. We worked the area for a couple of hours, sparking up some bites. We did have a good time wrestling 3 big Amberjack out of the 5 or 6 bites we had.

I noticed that they were smiling hard through all the sweat and tired muscles. I suggested we go try for some Mutton Snapper to finish the day out. That was not as productive as I had hoped. It was easy to cover the spot on the slow drift and our live ballyhoo were perfect baits. The lack of current, however, had the Mutton‘s on lock down. We did manage to sniggle out 1 small fish of about 18 inches that we tossed into the box with the 5 nice Mangroves.

The day was nice and easy but the smooth water and slow current made it a good day for a boat ride. We did manage to eek out some fish on a slow day. They thoroughly enjoyed their family day on The BEAST.

Another day trip we did was with Manny of MD Turbines. He brought along his friends Alex, Linda, Etta, and Mike, who I knew through the World Cat owner’s forum. Dolphin(fish) were on the menu since we were doing a full day. We left the dock around 7 AM and headed for our bait spot where we caught 3 or 4 Hardtails. I took an easterly heading and blasted off to the deep water to hunt some Mahi. We spotted some weed lines in 550 and 660-foot depths but I continued on. I kept a mental note of them in case we needed to return to them later. I found a beautiful weed line in 1200 feet and it looked good and alive. We put out a spread and started our leisurely troll. Wow! We live bait so much that it felt really good to troll for a change. 15 minutes down the weeds and a reel sounded off, then another, and another. There is something about that sound.

We worked this path of weeds and the bites were there but the size began to diminish after a while. I pulled up and made that run back to the other weed lines on my mental notepad. We hooked up a big “Bonehead” (Bonito) and then I finally said enough is enough when we caught one of the smallest Mahi I’ve ever caught.

We had caught a dozen Dolphin so Manny was happy and we all decided to switch it up and let them pull on some Wreck Donkeys. Mike is from the Left Coast of Florida and we wanted to show him some of our really big, bruiser AJ’s. The best we could pull out for him was a 39#er. We caught a couple of good Almaco Jacks to throw into this mixed bag day.

We made one more stop before the day was over to try and get a Mutton Snap or two. The wind was blowing across the current and anchoring would have been a tedious process so we made a few drifts with the slack current. The drift was wrong also and although we had a few bites all we caught was 1 Sand Tilefish. OK! Stick a fork in us… we’re done! Plenty of fish in a mixed bag, a lot of World Cat talk, and beautiful weather, made for a really nice day!

We have begun our Cubera Snapper season and I will be writing those reports as soon as I get some time. If you want to give it a try we do have some openings around the next full moon.

Capt. Jim
The BEAST
305-233-9996
beastcharters@aol.com
http://www.beastcharters.com

Steffen and Silmara, our favorite husband/wife team from Munich Germany, booked 3 days with us. Steffen wanted to do 2-day trips and a night trip for Swordfish on the 3rd day. On Day 1 they arrived at the dock fashionably late. We were ready and waiting, so after a few “How have you been?” moments, we turn The BEAST out to begin this trilogy. The day was eerily flat, not a breath of wind, virtually a dead sea. We did the Hardtail bait thing first, as usual. After collecting about 15 baits, we ran out for some Ballyhoo. As mentioned above, the ocean and reefs looked like a mirror. We could actually see small reef fish milling around in the corals, 35 feet down. This was going to be tough. Let me rephrase that. This was going to be almost impossible, and it was. We hit 4 different spots and after gathering about a dozen ‘hoo, we pulled out to go fishing.

Devon put out our normal spread and we worked the area for some time. It became evident that the surface bite was not going to happen on this dead calm sea. A short discussion resulted in us jerking in the lines and heading for the wrecks to get some action going. The current was slow, very slow, moving at a minimal ½ knot, but thankfully it was moving to the north. Devon dropped a live bait and then began working a speed jig. We dropped again and then again. Bam! We finally we got the bite and Steffen was hooked up to a nice little bruiser. 12 minutes later a decent 35 Amberjack breaches the surface.

Devon and I continued to drift and drop but the AJ’s just wouldn’t wake up. OK… on to Plan B. Plan B was to troll south and try to collect some Bonito for bait and then work another wreck for some Mutton Snapper. We put out a 4-line spread and caught 3 football sized Bonito. Coming up on the next wreck, we find others anchored on it. I wasn’t going to try squeezing in on them so it was off to Plan C. We made the run to try our luck at some Permit. Steffen has tried for a Permit each spring for the last 2 years, hooking them up but never landing one. I just happened to have a half dozen crabs with us. We made a drift or two and nothing doing. As I was setting up for the next drift, Devon spotted the fish down below and I moved up current. Drop… feed line… chomp, chomp! Lock the bail down, reel, and Steffen is into a Permit. The drag is screaming and Steffen is straining! Will the 3rd trip be the charm? About 15 minutes pass with a give and take battle of strength and will. It looks like he won’t lose this one to the wreck. Yes sir! Steffen is on the board with his first Permit as Devon lifts the 16-pounder aboard.

Congrats were passed around as I repositioned the boat and Devon baited the hook. Round 2. The next drift resulted in another bite and this fish was a bit more taxing. Steffen worked the fish with abandon and doing his best to keep it out of the wreck. Good job! When the fish reached the boat we all realized that this one was a “nugget”. This fish tipped the scale at 26 pounds.

The next drift had a taker but it was a bait thief, stealing the crab and missing the hook point. While that was going on Devon had given Silmara a quick lesson in speed jigging. The following go round showed a hook up for Steffen and he was working hard to keep this one out of the wreck. Suddenly we heard a sharp, girly like yelp from the front of the boat. Silmara obviously paid complete attention to the jigging lesson because she was squarely hooked up to a fish. We had a double working and within minutes Steffen’s fish wrecks him. Silmara worked her fish from bite to boat and earned the smile and photos of her Jack Crevalle.

Often the local fishermen here in S. Florida turn their nose up at Jack fishing, even when using speed jigs. I’m not sure why that is. It’s hard to beat that moment when your fast moving jig suddenly stops dead, and a micro second later the fish is trying to pull you into the water. They ‘re tough gamesters that fight you all the way to the end, testing every fiber of your being. WE love it! To us, it beats catching Bonito off a kite. Enough said about that. Well, we worked the wreck until our bait ran out. Steffen managed to catch another Permit of 24 pounds. He ended up going 3 for 4, so the Permits are now off of his bucket list.

We moved into another area to finish up the day, trying to catch something on the live baits again. The winds have picked up a little and the seas were a ferocious 9 inches now. We got a bite on the down rod and it turned out to be a 4’ shark. Right before quitting time we had another bite on the down rod and this fish was giving Steffen a true workout. He fought the fish for almost 30 minutes, never seeing it, and the leader finally parted. Oh well, we have tomorrow to do it again.

The forecast for the next day was increasing winds, a 5-6 foot sea, and cloudy skies with 50% chance of rain. At 5:45 AM Steffen called and said he had twisted his bad knee the night before and wanted to cancel the trip so he could rest his leg. He asked if we could leave around 3 the next afternoon to do some fishing before we headed out for the evening Sword trip. The next day was “supposed” to be better weather too. Yeah right! Weather forecasters… what other line of work can you have where you can be wrong 50% of the time and still keep your job? Just sayin’!

We all met up at 3 PM and the winds were blowing. We caught a few Hardtails to take along for Sword bait and then made our way offshore. The sea was running about 3-4’ and it was cloudy but no rain. We decided to try to troll up some Dolphin or Wahoo on the way out to the Sword grounds. Devon put out 2 top baits and a down rod. 30 minutes into the troll and our down rod trips. There was no fish on the line but when they cranked the bait in we see that it was cut in half, just missing the hook. Another 30 minutes pass and we get a strike on one of the top lines but this time the entire bait is gone. The sea was a solid 5-6 feet and the wind was cranking now. Another 30 minutes pass by and the down rod goes off again. Hook up! This time we’re hooked solid and Steffen horses the fish in. Nice! A 22-pound Wahoo comes to the boat and meets the steel.

It seemed like we were on a schedule. Every 30 minutes we got a bite and every hour the sea and winds increased. Yup! 30 minutes after the last fish and the down rod starts screaming. This is a good one! A couple of good runs and Devon and I are thinking it’s a better Wahoo than the last. No Wahoo, but it was a very respectable 31-pound “smoker” Kingfish.

The winds were blowing around 30 knots and the seas were now standing 7-8 footers. Steffen looked at me and I could see the question in his eyes. “No we’re not going Sword fishing tonight.” With a sigh of relief, he told me to wrap it up. We battened down the hatches; I throttled up the Zuke 300’s, and headed for the barn. When we got to the dock, we talked about our trips and the Yin/Yang weather. Steffen was very happy just to catch those Permit that had eluded him for the last 2 years. Not getting out for a Swordfish simply gave him another reason to come back again… as if he needed one. Anytime Steffen. You and Silmara are always welcomed guests on The BEAST.

Cubera season is about a month away and the calls and reservations are coming in. Don’t delay, your day away! Give me a call if having a fun evening catching “El Nasty”, the largest of all snappers, is on your list.

Capt. Jim
The BEAST
305-233-9996
beastcharters@aol.com
http://www.beastcharters.com

I have been extremely busy the last few weeks and finding time to sit down to write my fishing reports has been next to impossible.

The month of May was pretty weird to say the least. So far, June is not doing much better either. We have run the gauntlet in regards to the weather. We’ve had record rainfall to bluebird skies, gale force winds to no breeze, strong current to barely moving current, and big rough seas to slick calm water. Each of the extremes requires a bag of tricks to pull off a good trip.

Fred booked a day with us and brought his friends, Dave and Dave. When they arrived, we loaded their gear and cast off the lines. Our first stop as usual was to get some Hardtails for bait. We hit 2 different spots to collect the baits I wanted, and then put the throttles to cruise to try and find some worms (Ballyhoo). The seas were calm that morning and the hoo’s were in short supply. We hit 3 different patches before we managed to pull up just a few. Digging up worms was taking more time than I care to think about. When we finally had a dozen, we bagged this bait process and went out with what we had.

The short run offshore was uneventful in the light seas, Devon set out a 3 up and 1 down spread. Time was ticking by and we hadn’t even gotten a look. It was time to change up and hit the wrecks. I headed for the “grunt & sweat” wreck to get a little action going for the guys. The drift was fair and consistent and the bite was pretty good. We dropped a live bait and worked a speed jig on the first pass. Although we did get a hit on the jig, I was just off the mark a bit. The line went limp and when we retrieved the jig, it was missing the hook. It was obviously had a visit from a toothy critter. The second pass produced a hang up in the wreck and another whack on the speed jig. Dave jumped on the rod. This was a good fish and they are tough fighters on a spinning rod. Dave gave out about half way through the fight and passed the rod to the other Dave. He finished the job and a nice AJ hit the deck.

We weighed the fish (39#) and took another picture with the first Dave too. I asked the guys if they wanted to keep it for dinner or for smoking and they said yes. Into the fish box it goes. We regrouped and returned to my drift point for another go round.

The winds had increased ever so slightly as we made the next drift. This was just enough to throw off my drift line, so I had to readjust once again. The 3rd drift was on the money and most of the fish were located downstream of the wreck. Wait, wait, I’m marking good fish now! Ka Boom! The big Hardtail on the live rod gets hammered and Big Fred takes the rod. It’s another AJ with big shoulders for sure. Fred is no small man, standing 6’ 9” and weighing over 300 pounds. He might have had a couple of shaky moments with this fish, but he did a good job of manhandling it to the surface. We weighed the fish in at 41 pound and loaded it into the box with the other.

I asked them if they wanted to continue, but they opted to move on to something else. I quickly decided to head to a favorite spot for some large Mutton Snapper. This spot should produce real well with the conditions and baits that we have. As I was getting closer I saw a Sportfish boat, which was probably fishing the same place. As I approached the area to join in on the drift, I realized that he had actually anchored right dead on top of the spot. OK… I play fair and he was there first. Let’s go try for some Permit since I had made a quick stop at F&F bait early that morning to pick up some crabs.

It took me about 15 minutes to make the run and another 30 minutes or so to locate the fish and figure out their depth and direction of movement in that area. The Sportfish (name withheld) from the Mutton spot, came steaming in and dropped anchor right dead on the spot and started bottom fishing. Unknowingly, they had actually helped me by setting up close to my target species. His permanent position made it much easier for me to set up my drops. We made a drop & drift with 2 crabs. Nothing! We dropped and dropped again and then suddenly, the bite turned on. Bam! Fish on! This fight only lasted about 3 minutes before he pulled the hook. As I motored back toward our spot, I noticed that now the Sportfish had put out a kite with 2 baits suspended off of it, on the very side I was trying to work. Are you serious? I’m not going to be intimidated! I refused to give it up and continued working crabs in the area, often within 25’ of his kite baits. Bada Bing! Hooked up! Dave was mesmerized by the power of these fish, rivaling the fight of an AJ that is 2-3 times their size. He worked the fish hard and after about 10 minutes it was at boat side. Devon lifted a nice little 12 # Permit aboard. We revived the fish and sent him back to his buddies.

It seemed like every other drift resulted in a bite. We missed another bite and then…Ka POW! There he is! The guys were enjoying this as another fish is tugging on their string. This one gives us a bit more of a tussle but gives it up in the same ten minutes as the first fish. Devon eases this 18 pounder over the gunwale. We hurriedly took some pictures and released this fish to go back and do whatever it is that a Permit does.

We made several more drops and had a few more pickups but no more hook ups. It appeared that the bite had turned off as certainly as it had turned on. I told Devon to toss the last crab over as a peace offering to the school for allowing us to play with them. The guys wanted to see a Barracuda so we made a few laps around the area and picked up a small ‘Cuda for them. That’s enough of this… let’s move on.

I made another short run north to finish our last couple hours trying to pick up a Sailfish, Dolphin or Blackfin. We also dropped one down for a Kingfish. Devon kept good baits on the line but the weather was just too calm to work the top. We saw a second free jumper Sail about 15 minutes before quitting time. This gave us hope so I worked the area well past quitting time. There were a few “swing and a miss” strikes by Kingfish and Fred did manage to catch a last minute Bonito of about 10 pounds.

We packed it in and looked toward the west as the Suzuki 300’s came to life on the journey home.

Cubera season is only 60 days away. We are accepting reservations for this 2012 season now. If catching a big, “bucket list” snapper is on your agenda, drop us an email or give me a call to set up your date.

Capt. Jim
The BEAST
305-233-9996
beastcharters@aol.com
http://www.beastcharters.com

This past Friday we met Chuck and the boys, Mike, Justin and Gerry at the dock. 7 AM rolls around early and they were a tad bit late but who’s counting? Devon and I were ready and waiting and as soon as we got them loaded we unleashed The BEAST for this ¾ day trip. As we headed into the Bay, the winds were coming from the E at about 10-15 knots. We quickly hit a couple of Hardtail spots and got a dozen or so baits. OK. Let’s go see if we can get some ‘hoos real quick. I put the whip to the 600 ponies and we were up and cruising the reefs.

Holy crap! The reefs look like split pea soup as we made our way to the bait patch. This isn’t good. We sat there for about 20 minutes and nothing came up. I mean nothing, not even the Bermuda Chubs. I gave Devon the word and he pulled the chum so we could make a run further south. We pulled up to the next patch and it wasn’t any better. We don’t have enough time to waste trying another spot even if the bait came up in 5 minutes. I made the call to go with what we had. We had already quizzed them and it seemed that they were used to catching largemouth bass in the sweet water. What we had in store for them was just a bit stronger fish than even the respectable trophy 12 lb’er they spoke of. OK… Here we go!

As we ran off the edge a 2-3 foot sea with an occasional small 4 footer greeted us. I noticed that the water was stained and on the green side of the color spectrum. This is not a problem when you are going to wrestle some arm bustin’, back breakin’, Amberjacks. I figured we would warm them up for an hour or so before we went after something else. The first drift is always a trial set to see how and where we are drifting. While Devon readied a live bait rod to drop I tossed a speed jig and gave it a whirl. Boom…Fish on! Before I could hand the rod off the fish became unpinned. Devon grabbed the other jig rod and gave it a go. Bada Bing! We put Mike on the rod to see if all that working out at the gym worked for him. He learned quickly that these fish are tough and fight you all the way to the top.

Now I have my set & drift information I needed to work the wreck properly and moved back downstream to a starting point. This drift missed the mark by enough that we missed the bulk of the fish but Devon once again scored on a speed jig. Chuck took his turn on the rod and about halfway through the fight to the surface he passed the rod off to Justin.

I made a slight adjustment to my starting line and noticed that we had lost Gerry. He must’ve missed his buddy Ralph because he called out for him a few times while hanging over the rail. This time Devon dropped a jumbo Hardtail down to the bottom and sent a jig over the side as well. You guessed it. Double! Chuck and Mike got another workout on this pair.

We gave it another drift with the same setup. Devon had shown Justin how to work the jig so he could feel the strike as well. Both rods got whacked and they were into another brutal match. The fish were fighting for freedom and the guys were fighting to stay aboard the boat. True to form both of the live bait rods produced the largest fish. We vented and released 5 of the 6 fish, keeping 1 for them to enjoy fresh that night. A lot of people scoff at eating AJ’s but if eaten fresh they are delicious.

We pulled off the wreck and ran to another area to set up for some different fish. The seas had quieted down to 2 feet and comfortable now. We put 2 baits out on the surface and Devon dropped one on the down rod. The water was somewhat blue but still stained up. Bap! The down rod lights off and Gerry, who came back to life during the run, grabs the rod. He’s working the fish but it doesn’t take long to realize that we have a snaggletooth Cuda and not a very large one. That’s all right. The guys haven’t caught any of these species before, so it is all-good. We would rather be busy catching fish than dragging baits.

I worked the area in and out. The tide was rolling off the edge and forming a ridiculously incredible color break, due to the super-moon. I meandered into the area figuring the predators would like this as much as I did. I noticed the color break was crowding out deeper as I slowly paralleled it. It was approaching our favorite Permit area and I just happened to have stopped at F&F Bait that morning and picked up a few crabs. I told Devon to pull the baits in and get the jigs ready. They are there but they are down about 80 feet. Devon, as always, read what I was thinking and already had a jig and crab ready to go. He handed me the rod and I set the crab adrift while he readies the other rod. A minute or so goes by and I feel the pickup. I engaged the reel and raised the rod. Oomph! Fish on! I passed the rod off to Mike and the fish put the power to him. We tried everything but couldn’t turn this barnburner and in less than a minute he made his way to an obstruction and popped us off. We set up for another run at them and this time we hooked Justin up. I was determined to land this critter so I turned The BEAST toward the dirty water and managed to drag him passed the color break. This fish is ours! Sure enough, the trick worked. Although the fish fought Justin valiantly, we had him now and he was a nugget, an oversized garbage can lid that weighed 32 pounds. We snapped a few quick photos and put this beauty back in the water to swim away.

We gave it a couple more attempts with 2 more takers. One of which hooked up but gained his freedom before I could pull him into the color change. Then the dirty water got too far offshore and covered our area. This caused the bite to turn off like as if someone threw a light switch.

We pulled lines again and made another run north where we set out our spread for Sails, Mahi or whatever. We putted around slowly with the live bait. Devon grabbed a small speed jig on a light rod and worked it for a few casts. The rod comes tight and we are hooked up. Add a Bonito to the species count for the day. We continued working the baits when a Sailfish popped up in the spread. He followed the bait for a minute or so and then disappeared into the depths. Window shopper. The guys are tired, we are out of time, and Gerry has had enough ocean for one day. As we are pulling in our last bait a Sail comes tailing behind the boat heading for the edge. Too late!

We got everything stowed away and made the run back to the barn. It was a short day but we had a very fishy day and stayed busy for most of it. It’s always nice to go catchin’ instead of fishin’!

Capt. Jim
The BEAST
305-233-9996
beastcharters@aol.com
http://www.beastcharters.com

I got a call from a friend of my good buddy CL up in North Carolina. Carlton, his dad Carl, and his sister Sarah, wanted to come down and give our fishing a go. Our buddy CL told them to hook up with Devon and I on The BEAST. We were scheduled for this past Saturday. The weatherman called for winds and rain. They flew in from NC just for the weekend and were leaving early Monday afternoon. They came just to fish with us so we met at the dock on Saturday morning at 7 AM anyway. It wasn’t raining, it was pouring with thunder cells, lightning everywhere, and the winds were cranking at about 25 knots out of the East. This was not pretty and we never even loaded the boat. The rain and wind we can deal with but I don’t play around with lightning. Sunday was supposed to be less rain (no lightning), but stronger winds out of the SW. I was available on Sunday and the 3 of them were avid offshore fisherman so we decided to give it a try in the morning.

We met at the dock at 7 AM again on Sunday. The sky was clear and the winds were light out of the SSW. As we entered the Bay the winds began blowing a bit more and as we got out to the offshore bait patches, the wind was up to 20+ knots. By the time we caught our bait for the day the winds were blowing 25-30 knots and the reefs had 3-4’ water. We made the short run out to the edge. The seas were coming in from the SSE and the wind was howling now at 30+ knots out of the SW. Water was standing about 3-5’ and kind of sloppy but it was fishable on The BEAST. Devon set out our standard 4 top / 1 down spread.

We were on standby as we waited for our first scaly customer to bite. Quick rain showers passed to our south and the down draft coming out of the passing rain was gusting 35 knots or better. 15 minutes passed by and BOOM… the down rod starts singing. Sarah grabbed the rod and was into a good battle. She fought the mystery fish for 15 minutes and then the hook pulled. Hey, it happens! We reset the down rod and within 15 minutes it was in play once again. This time Carl grabbed the rod and fought the fish to submission. In the area we were fishing this should‘ve been a Kingfish but it turned out to be a Caribbean Spotted Mackerel (Barracuda)! Devon reset our lines and we plugged away at it a bit more until the seas fell more inline with the winds. I couldn’t work this exposed area as I like to, so I told Devon to pull lines and we headed north to another area. I was hoping we could get a little windbreak from the keys and make working that area a bit easier.

The ride north was by no means a dry one. Any water kicked up above the gunwale was pushed onto us by the wind. We arrived in the area to find green water and the seas weren’t even remotely smaller. As it turned out, there wasn’t much windbreak there either. We put the spread out again and gave it a try. Shortly after setting the lines, we got the nod on the down rod again. Carlton got after it and brought the fish to boat side. DANG! Another Toothy Torpedo, a.k.a Barracuda. There was a blue water line forming out deeper so I sidled out to get into it hoping to see some Dolphin (Mahi). I made it out to around 250’ but nothing was happening except building seas solidly in the 5-6’ range. Enough already! Devon pulled the lines and I pointed The BEAST northward again.

As we covered half the distance we began to get some slack in the seas. As we arrived at the next area, the wind was still blowin’ hard but it had shifted due West. We got the break I was looking for with the water at a comfortable 2-4 feet. We put out new baits, yet again. Finally! I was able to work this area over with considerably more control of the spread lines. The crew was in the pit with Devon and I whirled around by the sound of a popping rigger clip. (Yeah… I can’t hear my wife talking to me, but I can hear a rigger clip pop off in 30+ knot winds. Selective hearing I guess.) FISH ON!!!! The crew scrambled as I came tight on the hook and handed Sarah the rod. “Good one!” I yelled to her. In seconds a beautiful Sailfish heads skyward. This is her first Sailfish, Carl tells me. The fish made 4-5 jumps and flips while taking off half a spool of line. I turned the bow and slowly allowed Sarah to gain her line back. This fish never sounded to fight her down and dirty. It was an acrobat! The Sail made another 10-12 jumps through the course of the 20-minute battle on the 20# spinning rod. Devon reached out and grabbed the leader to make her first Sailfish catch legal but the fish wasn’t done yet. It made me maneuver the boat for another 5 minutes while it did 3-4 more jumps before Devon could grab the leader and ultimately bill this fish. Devon hoisted the fish for a quick picture before he released it. We watched this beautiful fish swim away! As the self-appointed head judge of the BEAST acrobatic committee, I gave him a 9.85 overall on technique and routine.

As the high fives/congratulations were given all around the boat, Devon was busy setting out the spread once again. I worked the area over, shallower, deeper, North and South. Devon dropped the down rod to just off the bottom. On one pass into the shallower depths the down rod goes off. Carlton gets this go round and we began contemplating what it was. He is working against a strong, steady pull with some good tail beats. About 5 minutes pass and Devon sees color, dark color. NICE! Devon reaches over the side and brings aboard a beautiful 18# Black Grouper. Oh Snap! Devon and I look at each in a pregnant pause. Without any words to each other, we knew we had to tell the crew that grouper season doesn’t re-open for another 8 days. We took some pictures and Devon vented this beauty to send her down from where she came. Instead of smiles and high fives on this one, the frowns were rampant. Even though the devil was screaming “KEEP IT!“ in our ears, we obey all fishery laws on The BEAST. I must admit… Releasing that one really hurt! It was the test of all tests!

We set out the baits again as the day was drawing to a close. Nothing else doing even when we dumped a lot of the live baits for chum. We worked hard in these crappy conditions and still managed to hook up 5 fish and catch 4. We all decided to call it a day. With everything stowed away and all gear secured, I pointed the nose of The BEAST into the howling winds and headed west to the barn. We had only seen 2 other boats out there. One was making way back in as we were headed out and the other came out, turned around, and went right back in. The ride home was uneventful, soft and dry. I heard several comments about being glad they were out there in a big WorldCat. I was too! It was unanimous that at no time during the day, did anyone feel that they weren’t safe and secure. The BEAST looked Mother Nature dead in the eye and kicked her azz… The BEAST - 4 / Mother Nature - 0.

Capt. Jim
305-233-9996
beastcharters@aol.com
http://www.beastcharters.com

A very frequent customer who has fished with me more than 50 times, called me last week because he heard the Dolphin were moving through the area. He was going to be in town right before Turkey Day and wanted to see if we had any time available to get him out for a “mental health day“. That is Jon’s term for taking an extra layover day to get out on our boat, catch some fish, and forget about work! I told him that we could hook him up on Tuesday.

Jon arrived on time as usual. The winds were a bit strong and the Bay was choppy. We made the run to hit one of our good Blue Runner spots for bait. There were no premium 6-8” Runners there but we did pick up 6 or 8 “Jumbo”, full grown specimens. Enough of that because we knew our preferred baits were thick on the reefs. We’re off!

The reef was turned up and green but we could see our quarry darting around in the face of the waves. I continued on to one of our spots that usually has clearer water in these conditions. We set out the chum and the bait was a bit slower to show than I had anticipated. When they came into the chum line, they came with a ravenous appetite. We spent about 30-45 minutes getting some good small to medium baits on the hook. A group of ballyhoo eventually worked their way to within “easy net range” of the stern. This enticed me to get out the net. 2 tosses of the net and we had more than enough bait for the day, or so we thought!

I decided to forego any long runs to our more distant areas and simply meandered off the edge. The winds were strong out of the east and the waves were standing about 4 feet. The water was too green to suit me so I continued out until I found some water with more blue to it. The color change was in our preferred depth so I pulled back to idle speed, and Devon started sending out the spread. 5 minutes after we got everything set, the Dolphin, Dorado, Mahi-Mahi or whatever name you prefer, crashed our spread. I think we got 3 out of the 4 that hooked up. We set the spread out again and this scenario went on for the next hour and a half. Singles, doubles, triples, and a few quad hook ups, kept us on our toes. All were good sized lifters. We decided quickly that we weren’t going to bother keeping anything that was even close to needing a measurement. We finally had a 20-30 minute lull so I made an adjustment to deeper water and we were in them again.

This action continued on for the rest of the day. There was no time for pictures. The only thing that slowed down were the weather conditions. The winds lightened as it changed to the SE, and the water laid back to 2 feet with an occasional 3 footer. We had a few more breaks in the action, between the Kamikaze waves of these hungry southbound fish. We even caught one fish that had recently been attacked, probably by a Wahoo. The tail lobes were cut off cleanly and he had cuts in his head area. He went into the fish box. Around 3 PM we were noticeably running low on bait. Yeah, we thought we had more than enough bait. We sure didn’t anticipate this much action.

We dipped out the smallest of the Hardtails hoping we might find a Wahoo. We had to trim his tail down to curb his power so he wouldn’t pull out of the downrigger clip. Devon sent him downstairs. There’s a shark chasing our rigger bait. Jon really didn’t want to waste bait catching him so I kept pulling the bait away from him. It was a Silky about 4’ long. He finally lost interest and we reset the line. The downwrigger popped off and we had a strong fish working. A minute or two later we were all guessing that the shark submerged, doubled back, and ate the big Hardtail below. When we got him to the surface it was a shark but it wasn’t that little Silky. This was a 6-7’ big bodied Sandbar hooked up on 20# test. When the shark saw the boat, it turned and burned for the depths. Seconds later, the leader was no match for those teeth.

Only 3 Ballyhoo left and Jon decided to call it a day, a bit early. We had a busy day and his limit of fish. We probably had 40-50+ fish attack our spreads, hooked up 35 or so, and caught about 28. WOW! We were all tired but it was a good tired! A good day like this parlays into a fair amount of work at the dock, fileting fish and cleaning the boat. Since we hadn’t taken a single picture all day, I snapped off a quick one just to show the average size of the fish.

Devon wanted to cash in on some of that action for himself. He loaded up his boat, called his Uncle Al, and went fishing yesterday. They started fishing at 11 AM and quit fishing at 2PM. In those 3 hours they caught their limit of 20 Dolphin and also added a Blackfin Tuna, a Kingfish, and a Sailfish to the catch count. Good job, Devon and Al.

The economy is taking the long route coming back and it is frustrating for all of us. Trust me, I know it too well. I can’t relax on a boat while at home worrying about my financial situation and I can’t catch fish by reading these fishing reports. We can either try to make the best of the situation by doing something that makes us happy, or we can be depressed sitting around thinking about money all day. Just ask yourself 1 simple question. Couldn’t I use a “mental health day”?

I hope everyone had a deliciously fattening Thanksgiving Day!

Capt. Jim
The BEAST
beastcharters@aol.com
http://www.beastcharters.com

Last Friday I was down at the dock doing some maintenance and prepping The BEAST for our trip on Saturday. The day was sunny with a very light breeze and pleasant temperatures in the 80’s. By evening some cloud cover had moved in. Saturday morning Devon and I arrived at the dock to find 20 knot winds. As daylight broke we saw gray skies that threatened rain. What’s with this? I thought the forecast was for this front to push through overnight and winds of 13-18 knots. Well… It is what it is!

Matt and Ryan Briggle arrived at the dock with their Dad, Jack, and Uncle Forest. Forest told me that he was the photographer on the first photo shoot in which World Cat used The BEAST. That was 1999. Small world, huh? I told Forest that he was going to experience, first hand, what the catamaran hype was all about.

I fired up The BEAST and we headed off into the gloom. Our first agenda was to stop for a few Hardtail baits. We hit 2 spots and all we could find were a couple of cupcakes, very small Blue Runners. I pushed the juice to the outboards and off we go for some Ballyhoo. The reef area was choppy with solid 3 footers but we never slowed down. I realized that the wind was bucking the currents so our favorite ballyhoo spot was not possible. I turned the wheel south toward another good spot. We arrived a few minutes later and set out a chum block. We spent a good while finally caught about 3 or 4 Bally’s. No more in sight anywhere. I’m not waiting this one out! Reel ‘em in boys and let’s head farther south and more inshore. Reaching that spot, I freshened the chum pot and waited what seemed like an agonizing eternity. The ’hoo had finally found the scent and were coming up in good numbers. Unfortunately, the Moon Jellies were coming in large groups with each passing wave. The guys were picking off the ’hoo with hook and line as the ballyhoo were dipping and diving to dodge the jellyfish. I was itching to get a net on them. They were in good numbers behind the boat but so were the moons. If I toss the net and get a few jellies in it, they will fry the baits as we gather the net. I loaded the net as Devon kept a visual on the bait and jellies. When we had a group of ’hoo in range and clear of the jellies, he gave me the green light. I pancaked the Calusa net and we hauled in about 3 dozen baits. Teamwork paid off. We caught a few more on the hook and then bagged the bait ritual to head offshore.

Our starting point looked like a blue water washing machine with 5’ waves. The winds seemed to be increasing and the clouds were getting heavy with moisture. Devon and I opted for a 3 up and 1 down set on this blustery day. We had 2 bites on the top rods but when we retrieved the lines we found the telltale mackerel bite. Our next bite resulted in a hook up for Matt. He worked the small fish in and as we expected it was a nice Cero Mackerel. A light rain began to fall. It wasn’t enough to get out the rain gear but it was just enough to be annoying. We missed another couple of bites and these baits came back in looking more like some sort of tuna bite. Finally the left rigger pops off and we have a solid fish ripping line off the reel. I was anticipating a Sailfish to go airborne but it didn’t happen. This fish wanted to stay deeper so I began bringing the boat around so Ryan could fight the fish off the bow quarter. Suddenly the line went limp. Ryan didn’t make a mistake, no slack line. When he brought the bait back to the boat, it appeared we had a tuna bite again. The problem was that the hook had turned and went back through the bait. This left only the point of the hook visible and obviously the hook never passed the barb. That’s a tough break. We spent another half hour with nothing happening. I suggested we try some wreck fishing with the speed jigs. Matt and Ryan agreed because they wanted to see our speed jigging techniques.

As we pulled up on the chosen wreck the wind was blowing in excess of 25 knots. The wind push on the boat was defeating the current which allowed me to keep the boat in good position with little drift. We dropped 2 lines. Devon was working one rod, showing Ryan the rhythm. Matt, on the other rod, was doing a pretty good job of mimicking Devon’s style. Ryan was watching Devon when the jig gets hit and Devon passes the rod over to Ryan. A few seconds later, Matt’s jig gets whacked too! The Briggle Brothers were on a double and working their fish toward the surface. At the snap of your fingers, Matt;s fish is gone. Judging by the cut off hook and scraped up leader, it was a dang shark! Ryan brought his fish up and it was a fine specimen of a Yellow Jack. Nothing was marking on the sonar so after a few more drops with nothing happening, I suggested we try something else. Before Devon and I could get everything squared away to move on, I got the WORD! “Let’s head in.” Ryan said. It’s only 1:15 and I tried to get them to hang on until the major feed time or at least until we set lines and chummed out all the live bait we had left. Ryan had been fighting off seas sickness for a good bit and everyone in his crew had forgotten to bring rain gear, except Forest. The conditions had taken their toll on my guys and turning green was definitely not on Ryan’s agenda. They passed on my suggestions.

I pointed The BEAST toward home and grabbed a handful of throttles. We arrived as the rain began coming down now, light but steady. I realized that no one had taken a single picture. None of us wanted to pull out our cameras, in the rain, to take pictures of this stellar catch. At this point in time I think we were all really glad that we had come in early. Matt and Ryan said they had a good time learning some of our techniques and they wanted to do it again. I explained to them that my experience has shown that a cloudy, low pressure pre-frontal condition has always seemed to be slow fishing. We give 100% effort and can control most everything but we can’t control the weather. It is what it is!

I’m not the kind of Captain that only reports on my good trips. However… Writing reports about our less productive trips is definitely not my favorite item on the “Things to do” list. Thankfully these trips don’t happen very often!

Capt. Jim
The BEAST
305-233-9996
beastcharters@aol.com
http://www.beastcharters.com

The other day we had a trip with a very good repeat customer, Ed Conway, a.k.a. Gimpy. Of course he brought along our amigo, Julio Sr ( 78 ) a.k.a. Poppi A lot of our customers earn a nickname when fishing on The BEAST. It’s like a badge of honor! Ed got his a.k.a. on his first trip when he arrived sporting a full leg cast and a limp. This time he brought along his nephew Jeff and Poppi’s friend Anthony.

The foursome was waiting at the dock when I arrived. They had already been there for 30 minutes. Anxious? Devon and I loaded our gear and let them onboard to arrange their lunch, drinks, and personal items. We turned The BEAST out and made our way into the Bay.

Gimpy and I picked a gorgeous day, following 2 days of rain, but there was not a breath of wind, slick calm water, and it was getting hot quick. I hoped my choice, when picking this day for Gimpy, turned out to be a good one. I hit 2 Hardtail spots and only put one small Jack and 2 large Runners in the well. Off we go for some Ballyhoo. We pulled up to our spot of choice for this day and the ’hoos were showing up before the chum bag was in the water. The crew started catching them and putting them into the other well. We had about 2-3 dozen in the well and I decided to toss the net. The bulk of the bait was tight against the motors making it difficult to throw the net without lassoing the motors. The day was so clear that they spooked as soon as I let go of the net. I got 4. Man, that sucked! 3 more tosses and nothing, so we spent a few more minutes with the rods to fill the wells. If you have the time the hookers last a lot longer than the netters do in the wells.

We strolled across the reef in crystal clear, flat calm water. You could see the fish and corals on the bottom in 45 feet of water. Uh oh! This makes for good boat riding but is usually a recipe for disaster when it comes to catching fish. We eased out into the blue water and set out some lines. 10 minutes later and Gimpy had a small Cuda on the line. We reset the down line and moved slowly about the area when the down rod sings out again. Not another Cuda, please. Jeff was working this fish but it wasn’t thumping the rod like we expected. As the fish got closer, about 50’ down, Devon notices it is an African Pompano and happily pulled the 31” fish aboard for Jeff. Nice!

This is a pretty good start with 2 fish caught in less than 30 minutes. Devon reset the rod again. Yes! 10 minutes later and the line is ripping off the reel this time. I think this is one of our “Spotted Caribbean Mackerel” Yup, sure enough! Good job Poppi! Anthony wants to keep all of the Barracuda, so we tossed it in the box for him too.

We were in the process of resetting the down rod when the long rigger popped the clip. Jeff jumped on the rod and a Sailfish took to the air. Unfortunately the fish was heading toward the boat and Jeff never got the hook set into the fish. I worked that area in and out for another hour but the bite had turned off. I made the decision to go hit the Grunt & Sweat wreck to see if the Big’uns are still around. Let’s try it and see if we can keep these guys busy while we watch them sweat. Devon dropped the bigger Hardtail and in less than a minute the rod doubled over. They’re still here! Anthony jumps on the rod and I think this fish was a bit stronger than he had anticipated. Meanwhile Devon had tossed a speed jig and was working it to the top. Bam… it gets hit and he hands the rod to Jeff. This was not a Wreck Donkey like Anthony was trying his best to just hold on to. This had a fast tail beat. A nice football sized Blackfin appears and Devon quickly dispatches it to the ice. Anthony is still on his fish and asks someone to take over, so Jeff grabs that rod. This 30+ Amberjack had no chance with this big, young dude.

We made 2 more drops and Gimpy hooked up to a bruiser for 10-15 minutes when it finally broke off. The hook was missing and Devon inspected the remaining roughed up leader and surmised it to be a shark. Since we are out of deep baits now, I headed for another spot to try for some Muttons. We made several drift/drops and ended up with 2 nice fish.

The afternoon was growing long and my group was hot, tired, and getting very quiet. When Gimpy gets quiet, that is the cue to try and get one more fish and call it a day. We set out a spread for some surface fish and hopefully another Sail. Time is dwindling and we get the word to wrap it up. Devon had 3 rods in when I see a Sailfish rapidly tail walking toward the boat. Sailfish! Sailfish! Devon thought I was joking until he sensed the urgency in my voice. He’s on the down rod. This sneak had taken the bait down deep and surfaced without the slightest indication. Gimpy grabs the rod and he’s hooked up. As usual with Sailfish, there is always a fire drill. Devon notices the line has wrapped around the down rigger line and the fish is pulling the weight up. OMG! I don’t know how, but Devon takes the rod and with 2 quick passes around the d/line, he frees up the fish. That was too close! Gimpy works the fish in and Devon bills the fish for a quick photo op and release.

Now that is the way to end a day! We buttoned up the boat, grabbed a drink, and I headed west. As always, it was fun fishing with Gimpy, Poppi, and his crew. We tallied 1 for 2 on Sailfish, 2 Barracuda, 2 Mutton Snaps, 1 African, 1 Blackfin, and an Amberjack.

The second front of the season will be here this weekend. The bait is arriving in mass as we evidenced that morning seeing huge schools of finger mullet, pilchards, sardines, and ballyhoo. The arrival of baitfish means the predators are only a tail beat behind.

Capt. Jim
The BEAST
305-233-9996
beastcharters@aol.com
http://www.beastcharters.com

Jorge Marquez seems to love going Cubera fishing with Devon and I. Matter of fact, he booked his first trip with us in ’08 and the very first fish that night was a 76 ¼ pounder. I don’t know who was hooked deeper, the fish or Jorge! Ever since that night, he books two trips with us every season. Since we had to cancel Saturday night due to residual effects from H’cane Irene, we were determined to get this trip in on Tuesday. We weren’t going to let a chance of rain and/or the moon jellies stop us.

Jorge arrived at the dock on time. He was alone. The rest of the crew had bagged out on him but he focused on the “Nasty’s” even if he had to do it by himself. We hung out at the dock for about 30 minutes while the last of the afternoon rains passed through. We turned out The BEAST and made our way to catch a few live baits. One stop and we had a half dozen or so Hardtails and we blasted off to the reef to get some of those delicious “crickets”. We spent less than an hour collecting bugs and we had plenty in the live well.

We still had about 2 hours to kill before darkness settled in. Jorge was so psyched up that he didn’t want to catch Yellowtail or warm up on big AJ’s. We just played around with the speed jigs at a local wreck for a little while but only caught a couple of humongous sized, full grown, Hardtails. OK… enough of that. We decided to make the run to our final destination and try a few drops before dark.

Arriving at the spot, I find the drift was slow, the winds were light, and the seas were about 1 foot. There was nothing much marking on the sonar but, I told Devon to make a drop anyway. Devon sent down a small Runner and Jorge got hung on the bottom, losing the terminal rig and weight. I set up again and Devon fired another small Hardtail down. Nothing down there but it did get bitten in two on the way back up. Alright Bud, we don’t want Barracuda messing with us, so send a bug down on the next drop. About 10 minutes until the sun slid below the horizon and we sent the first bait down. Oops… that’s bottom again Jorge! We were hung up and lost the whole rig. The second drop went down as the sun is only a sliver on the horizon. Dang! Hung up again! We lost this rig too. OK… let’s regroup.

As I made my way around the area I was starting to see a few fish marking on the sonar. This drop went to the bottom and I was giving Jorge a refresher course on how to “feel” the line. As I turned to move back to the helm, I felt that initial bite. Whoa, there’s a fish! The fish took the bait and I made a few cranks on the reel and the rod began to double over, then popped right back up. I quickly made an adjustment and the fish came back on the bait and nailed it. Three turns of the handle and it was fish on at 8:18. Jorge was very familiar with the drill on how to get these big snapper to the boat. He did a good job and we were on the boards with a nice 36” fish in the mid 20# range.

The excitement died down and I motored up to make another drift. I was marking fish but not where I expected them to be. I made a major adjustment to my drift and Devon sent another bug to the bottom. The drift is still slow and I reach the point where I had detected them. Bam! Fish on, Bro! Jorge jumps on the rod and this fish has a little bit more oomph to it. The fight was as expected and we boated this not quite 30 pound fish for a photo op as well. Now it’s only 8:42 and we are already 2 for 2.

On the following drifts we had changing winds, current fluctuations, and several drift adjustments were needed. Despite all that, I managed to stay on the fish. Bada Bing! Hooked up and lost a better fish at 8:55. At 9:05 Jorge hooked up a real nice fish and lost that one too! Once again at 9:17 and Jorge is on a big’un this time. Oops… he lost that one too. Don’t sweat it Jorge, the bite is on and we have plenty of bait. Boom! The bait gets hammered at 9:27 and this one is a bruiser. Jorge is gaining and is just passed the halfway mark when the rod tip snaps to attention. What?

Several more drifts went by and the bite had obviously shut off like someone flipped a light switch. They were there but very complacent. We tried to get Jorge to adjust his delivery to try and finesse these fish into biting. It wasn’t happening because he, unlike the fish, couldn’t stop using the “feed mode” technique. He did manage to get one more bite but it sucked his bait off the hooks only bending the rod about a foot. The clouds were beginning to grow over the edges of the mainland and cloud to cloud lightning was beginning to put on a show. We continued on until 11:00 PM and Jorge was ready to head in. I offered to do a couple more drifts but he declined.

We packed everything up and I turned the bow toward the barn. We were 2 for 7. Losing the other 5 bites was a bit frustrating for Jorge, but hey… that’s fishing. We reached the marina where the bottom fell out of a cloud and it came down on us. We all had a good time and Jorge even went home with a bonus… a fist full of Lobster! You can’t beat these Cubera trips. If you don’t use all of your bait, you simply melt some butter and eat them!

Capt. Jim
The BEAST
305-233-9996
beastcharters@aol.com
http://www.beastcharters.com

We did another 3 days with our good friends from New York City, the Harbor Club. It’s always nice to see Chief, Yalkin, Frank, and this time they brought along Rich. They are the guys that brought the bananas last year and we dubbed them the Banana Club. Yalkin is not an early riser so I knew when he called Thursday night that they wouldn’t be there before 9 AM. It turns out that their plane was late and they didn’t make it to the hotel until 4:45 AM. They arrived at the dock at 11 AM. Oh Boy! Not a good start, but it is what it is, and Devon and I will make the best of it.

We made way to catch bait. We hit a couple of spots and had a good number of Hardtails. Let’s get some Ballyhoo. The conditions weren’t great but the Ballyhoo did come up and we scored plenty to do the day. It’s almost 1 PM and we made our way offshore into the 15 knot ENE winds. The seas weren’t as big as the Bonito Bonanza trip but they were 3 feet or larger. The blue water was actually a little on the green side. Devon put out a spread. About 5 minutes into it and the down rod sounds off. Rich puts on a valiant effort, for a few minutes, but the fish manages to spit the hook. Devon quickly resets the line and after a few go rounds, the down rod is screaming. Franky, a.k.a. Soulie, jumps on it this time to give Rich a lesson in how to catch a 30+ pound Barracuda.

The spread is reset and we give it a concerted effort but the surface action was dead. Time is of the essence as the seas are rising. I suggested that we head over to the “Grunt & Sweat” to let the crew pull on some donkeys for a little bit. We arrived at the site and I made a quick drift to get my bearings. A light current at 1/2 knot made it too easy. Drop’em Devon! As we passed over a portion of the wreck the bait was ignored. Give it time. Let the baits get down current of the wreck before we pull them. Kapow! Down goes the bait rod and we are hooked up. There is just something about going up against these bruisers.

As we worked the wreck, it came alive with each, successive pass. We spent the rest of the afternoon giving them a couple of rumbles each. We backed off from the area even though the sonar was lit up with these agitated and hungry fish.

We tried the surface bite for another hour and called it a day. The guys were spent from tussling with the AJ’s and the lack of sleep the night before. They vowed to come back the next day renewed, refreshed, and ready.

The “better late than never” guys said they would be there at 9-9:30 AM. Yeah right! Devon an I know them too well by now. At 10:05 they came rolling in. Well, that’s an hour earlier than yesterday. The BEAST was chewing at the dock lines, so we hurriedly loaded their gear and shoved off. The Hardtails were hard to come by so we grabbed about 8 or 10 and headed out for some ‘hoos. They weren’t on fire either but they did get stupid enough for me to get a good throw on them with the net. We’re outa here.

The seas were much calmer than the day before and we had the dreaded, south current. I decided to try an hour of surface fishing before the sun got too hot. Too late, nothing going on! The day before, Chief had expressed his desire (about 20 times) to try and catch a Hammerhead. Let’s give it a go. Devon set up 2 of the rods they brought and we put a down rod out to catch a Barracuda for bait. I slowly motored over the ‘Cuda hole and we quickly picked up a monster. Devon tossed it in the box while he finished readying the lines. Devon cut the Cuda into baits and used the rest of it for chum. We set a live bait out on the surface as well. 20-30 minutes into the set, when Devon yells out, “Sailfish on the flat line!” Sure enough. Rich grabs the line and we instruct him to reel hard until the line comes tight. Hook up! Rich is loving the scene as the Sail goes airborne. This goes on for several minutes. The fish sounds for a few seconds and comes skyward about 6 feet out of the water and we see the bait go flying in the opposite direction. Crap! A big disappointment but as we all know, you can’t catch them all. Another 30 minutes passes. We are about to pull the shark baits up and try something else when Devon spots a dorsal fin approaching the surface bait. Gulp! Yalkin jumps on the rod (his rod) and I looked around wondering why the Chief didn’t get it. Oh well. Yalkin is putting the heat to this shark with his fancy harness, and expensive, 4 piece, 50-80# custom travel rod with an accurate twin drag winch. 10 minutes, the fish is below the boat, and suddenly we hear a SNAP!

The boat is full of laughs, chides, and short one line comments. The Chief helps Yalkin by holding the rod so the line doesn’t bind in any of the “leftover” parts. Believe it or not, we got the fish.

The general consensus was to finish the day working the surface for Sails, Dolphin, Tuna, or whatever. We worked the waters northward and had a few bites but no solid hook ups. The tip of the down rod pops up and it immediately makes a deliberate power run. The Chief takes this one and it goes into a slow and steady tug o’ war. I think you got your shark Chief! 5, 10, 15 minutes and the Chief has his hands full on 20# test. After another 10 minutes we see color. OK, Chief, it’s not a Hammer, but it is a shark.

We fished a little while longer and the group called it a day. They told us that tomorrow they would arrive at a better time to tackle a full day for a change.

The last day and the Banana Boys arrived “almost” at their decided time. What is the term… fashionably late! Devon and I were ready. We unleashed The BEAST and made a beeline for the bait but it was a tough bait morning. I had to hit 3 different spots to get enough for this quasi full day trip. After we left the bait patches, they opted to troll awhile for some Dolphin, etc., looking for some food fish. I ran out to 1400 feet and we didn’t see anything that looked the least bit fishy, so I made a turn more to the south and inward toward an area of scattered weeds in 1000 feet. I really hate calm days. We put the lines in and worked the scattered stuff until we saw a mat, using the term loosely. Nothing. About a ¼ mile north of the mat the lines went down. 4 Dolphin and everyone is engaged in the proverbial fire drill. We picked away at a small school and ended up with 3 legal fish. Ugh. We played around offshore for a while longer and nothing much was happening. Very little weeds, no debris, no flying fish, no birds, nada, zilch, nothing! That brings out the prankster in Devon and I. Rich has a bucket list, but does he have a bucket fish. He does now!

Alright, enough already, we’ve wasted a good part of the day, so lets bag this and go drop on the bottom for some groceries. Arriving at our new destination, Devon readied 2 rods, one bait and one speed jig. The first drop and the bait rod goes thump, thump. I quickly take up the slack and Franky removes the rod from the holder. C’mon Soulie, move it. There are fish down there that want to eat him as much as you do. Get him in the boat, then play with it. I see PINK, it’s a nice Mutton. The weight is aboard and as I grabbed the leader, a flash comes from nowhere. Our catch just became a Barracuda snack. The remainder was still a legal length but we just lost 1/3 of a good 9-10 # Snapper.

Several unproductive drifts and nothing was going on especially with the speed jig. Yalkin is slowly bringing up a bait from an unsuccessful drop when, WHAM, the rod doubles over and he says “This is an AJ… Want it Chief?” The Chief takes the rod and feels the power of the fish. It’s not an AJ. Now we see color and it is definitely not an AJ. Grouper? No. It’s a CUBERA! It’s not just a Cubera, it’s a 43 # Cubera Snapper. Sorry Yalkin, that’ll teach you to hand off the rod. Good job Chief!

After the excitement died down on the boat and the “We’ll be back for Cubera in August” comments subsided, we got back to dropping. The guys missed a couple of bites. Not too much longer and Rich gets another thump on the rod tip. I told him to crank it up as fast as he can so it doesn’t get halved. He is working the fish and suddenly feels a temporary weight. Not this time. The rod is still showing the tail beat. Devon takes the leader on a beautiful 14 # Mutton that almost lost his tail.

With enough fish for a few meals and anticipating the time to clean/bag the catch, the guys called it a day. They had packing to do for their flights home to New York. Will we see them again this August or September? I don’t know the answer to that one but I will venture a guess we will see them again next year.

Cubera season is fast approaching. Weekend nights book quickly and 2 are already reserved. So… If fishing Cubera with us, is in your plans this year, you might want to drop an email or give us a call.

Capt. Jim
The BEAST
305-233-9996
beastcharters@aol.com
http://www.beastcharters.com

Zitat von Pargo

Jim, you are a Master. Thanks for your fine report!
Most codially from Angola,
Jan

Jan,

Thank you so much. I look forward to your replies as much as you like my reports. You make and "old salt" feel recognized and appreciated!

Steffen and Silmara Jahn from Munich Germany returned to fish with us again this year. They decided to book 3 days of fishing (6/3,4,+5) before heading off for the rest of their vacation. Steffen has fished in many places throughout the world but ultimately loves fishing with us in S. Florida.

The duo arrived about a half hour late due to the rental car GPS being set on city streets. I guess the rental company wants to avoid the automatic “by license plate” toll charges. We loaded their gear and headed out. Winds were blowing 20 knots out of the ENE. The waters were a bit on the rough side but The BEAST can handle it

The bait was excellent and we had several dozen Hardtails and several dozen Ballyhoo in the live wells. In short order we were headed out for the blue water to get them hooked up. The first bite of the day was on the down rod and it came unpinned. Apparently a large fish by the way the line peeled off and the terminal rig was mangled. Devon re-rigged and dropped the down rod again. A few scant minutes later and the line is off to the races again. This time Steffen keeps the fish hooked up and in short order Devon puts the steel to a nice 12# Kingfish.

Devon readjusted the cockpit and reset all lines. I made a few passes around the area to see if we could pick up another King. The down rod pops off again and we are on a big fish. Uh oh! To many head shakes to be a Kingfish. Several minutes passed by and we see color. Look at the size of that “Caribbean Spotted Mackerel” (Cuda). This Barracuda was of the larger variety. Devon removed the hooks and made a good release on the fish.

Once again we reset lines and I moved from the area looking for more desirable fish. We managed to get into a school of “Grasshoppers” (schoolie Dolphin) and caught 2 keepers out of 4 fish. Then we got nailed by 2 “Boneheads” (Bonito).

The action was a bit slow and the seas are up to 5+feet. We decided to do the wrecks for a little while. Several drops produced 2 Almaco Jacks on the speed jigs and 1 Amberjack on the live bait. We left the wrecks to finish the day off doing some more live baits on the surface. A Sailfish came up and ate the long rigger bait. Before Steffen could get tight, the Sail sensed something, went skyward, and spit the bait. Well, almost a fitting end to a good day.

Day 2 and our dynamic duo arrived at 7 AM and we pulled away from the dock in good time. We began bait fishing but the bait was slower this morning. What a difference a day can make out there. We managed to grab enough bait for the entire day and headed off to the deep blue.

The day was non stop action. We could barely keep the baits in the water. We got nailed by a small school of “micro” Dolphin. The Boneheads were out in record numbers, a virtual Bonito Bonanza. They were all full grown, very large fish. We hooked up so many that we lost count and actually boated 18 of them. During the day we made a quick stop at a wreck to take a break from the Bonito Barrage. We got 2 of 3 big Barracuda, and a nice Almie on the speed jig.

We spent the final hours working the surface water to the north. The Bonito were everywhere, and you could see huge schools of them tailing in the 5’ waves. During the Bonitofest, we did manage to hook up a shark on the down rod. Unfortunately after a lengthy fight the trace wire finally broke. As time wound down and running low on bait, we saw 2 Sailfish tailing. They wouldn’t take a bait. We had 3 more Sails come up in the spread but they were just window shopping.

Day 3 arrived. The winds had come down quite a bit and the bait was even slower than Day 2. We did get enough for the day and off we went. Devon put out his spread and the action wasn’t as hot as the day before. We got into a school of small Dolphin but “eagle eye” Devon spots a larger fish in the mix. He casts a bait to the fish and it eats. Get’em Steffen! A few minutes later and our German couple have a nice little bull dolphin for dinner.

The Bonito Bonanza was still going on but not as hot as it was the previous day. We boated about a dozen or so.

We were working a nice current rip and at one point we had 3 fish on. A shark was on the down rod. Steffen took the shark at first but suddenly 4 Sails came up on the top baits. A Bonito plunges in and takes one bait from a Sailfish. Silmara takes that rod and Devon and I try to bait up the remaining 3 Sails. 2 of the Sails lost interest but we managed to get the last one to eat. Steffen switches over to the Sailfish. Silmara is still on the Bonito and we left the shark rod in the rod holder.

Steffen, was hooked up to the Sailfish and the fish went deep. LOOK! The shark is getting awful close to Steffen’s line. As the shark neared the 20# fluorescent line, it parted without a tug. Are you kidding me? That shark just cut the line. Steffen, switches back to the shark on 20# line. Silmara boats the Bonito and Steffen, with much effort, wins his battle. We pulled the shark close for a photo op and release.

The day progresses and it’s well after quitting time. We have had some good excitement but it finally went stale. I announced that we’d give it 15 more minutes. At the 14 minute mark I spot a pallet floating a few hundred feet off the rip. I maneuver The BEAST over to put the baits around the pallet. Devon is tossing a speed jig hoping that a Wahoo may be lurking below. At 14 Minutes and 59 seconds we notice the long rigger line is going out. Grab it, Steffen, and reel until your tight. Bada Bing! The line comes tight and a Sailfish goes skyward. Steffen is nervous because he has tried all weekend to get his Sailfish again this year. This time he succeeds and we have a good release on his fish. Good job Steffen.

What a weekend! We had many hookups and boated a wide variety of fish. The smiles on Steffen and Silmara’s faces were priceless. I also want to give credit where credit is due. A well deserved shout out to Devon who, in my book, is one of the best mates in S. Florida.

Capt. Jim
The BEAST
beastcharters@aol.com
http://www.beastcharters.com

I’m a little behind in my reports so I’m going to double this one up and make it short and sweet.

David Aurbach and his friend Jarrett had fished Cubera’s with us before. This time they brought some new blood in Gayle and Gayle Jr. We made bait quickly and headed out. During this trip the Permit were still working good so we also took 10 crab with us.

Our first stop was to hit the Permit. We couldn’t get a visual on them so I had to find them with the electronics and drift the baits to them. 1 missed queue and hung on the bottom (????). I guess the angler was feeding his line out a little too liberally. The other 9 crab got eaten but every one of the Permit found some structure to cut them off.

OK… off to try some live baits on top. The seas were too calm, almost like a lake so the action was dead. We worked it hard for a couple hours then decided to head to the “Grunt & Sweat” wreck to put some hurt on these boys. That is just what we did.

We spent a few hours dropping some very large baits down and speed jigging as well. David and his crew got bit by some respectable AJ‘s.

We still had about another hour or so left in the day. Since Devon had brought along some dead crab that he had in his freezer. We decided to give the Permit a try again. Nothing beats a live crab, but those garbage can lids had a hearty appetite earlier and maybe they would still be hungry enough to eat a dead one. We made a few drifts to locate fish and suddenly David came tight on a fish. This fish made a mistake and headed away from the structure so I followed him. When the fish tried to double back I had the boat in position and we put the heat on him. I love it when a plan comes together. Several minutes passed as David and the fish played give and take, but the game was drawing to an end. OMG! Nice fish! We just beat one of the older wiser ones.

An awesome end to a fun day! I believe they had a good time, once again.

We also had our repeat friend from Gibraltar Spain, Ivan Alman, who brought his son this time. The last time he came to see us he had booked 5 days but this time he had time constraints and only had time for 2 days. Sweet… Let’s do this.

We blasted out and caught bait. The water was a bit choppy but not too bad by Beast standards. As we were finishing up catching bait I noticed the boy was getting a bit green around the gills. UH OH!

Ivan had read some of last years Permit reports so this was on his agenda. We gave it a try and they were there but a bit slower to chew. A few drifts and nothing happening. I was manning one rod while Devon did some jigging and Ivan was attempting to man a crab while checking on his son who was getting a lighter shade of pale by the minute. Tap, tap, tap, and my line started moving off. Bam… here ya go Ivan! He was hooked up and I’m not sure who had who for the first several minutes. He worked the fish to the boat and we had a catch.

I had to get the boat moving in hopes to revive his son, so we left that area and headed for the House of AJ. Let’s get the boy pulling on something. We made a few drops with the speed jig while I set up my drift. I located my drift line and we sent down some baits. Double Bam! Devon grunts as a fish strikes his speed jig and he hands it off to Ivan. Less than 5 seconds later the live bait gets whacked. I begged the boy to just come over and crank it in from the rod holder. He rose from the dead long enough to bring in this good fish. He stood by while his Dad finished off his fish.

The poor kid gave it his all. Shortly after catching that fish, the extra adrenaline pumping through his body made holding his stomach impossible. UH OH! In record time, Ivan whirls around and lets go of his lunch as well. Some people can’t watch another hurl and it turns them sour as well. It doesn’t bother Devon or I because we see it quite frequently. After a few sips of water, the father son team give me the word. We’re headed home early. As we idled down the home channel we got the second word. Ivan decided that this vacation was for his boy and he didn’t want to make him do it again the next day. We told him that we could go outside just long enough to catch a Cuda or 2 and then go shark fishing on the inside if he wanted. Ivan decided against that. He paid me and tipped Devon out, telling us to enjoy our day off! Thanks again to Ivan, that was very generous and refreshingly out of the ordinary.

Stay tuned for the next report from this past weekends 3 day event with our German friends Steffen and Silmara.

Capt. Jim
The BEAST
305-233-9996
beastcharters@aol.com
http://www.beastcharters.com

Wow! It’s been a good while since I wrote a report. I’ve been extremely busy in all aspects of my life for the last several months. I went into one of my local bait shops the other day and the owner said he had heard from 3 or 4 guys that I stopped doing charters and sold my boat. Well… that’s news to me! Matter of fact, the bank keeps taking my boat payments every month. This recent statement has reminded me to take a little time to sit down and pound out some reports. We’re in the worst economy I’ve ever seen and BP tried to kill the fishing business last year, BUT… The BEAST is still here!

Many of the local guys around South Biscayne Bay may know a guy who runs one of those red & white boats with the TowBoatUS name on the side. He works around the Feather Beds and Boca Chita. His name is Carlos. Carlos and I have been friends for a good while now and we were talking one day about catching Kingfish. He was asking me how I managed to have such good success with them. Rather than explaining the entire process, I told him that we should get a day together and go and get them. That way he could see for himself. When that day came, Carlos and “Uncle Al” joined me, but we all opted for a late start.

We untied the snarling BEAST and headed out to collect some baits. After a few stops we had enough different baits to really enjoy ourselves for several hours. We headed out in search of our quarry and deployed a spread. We decided to fish for whatever would bite but the top bite was slow. The wind and seas were calm. I made a few adjustments and began targeting the Kings to give Carlos some hands on lessons. Within minutes of this change we had a hook up. Carlos took the rod and quickly landed a “snake”.

We missed a few bites. My guess was that the fish were on the small side. Then the rod began to sing. We didn’t miss this one! Carlos once again jumped on the rod and he was off to the races. A bit longer fight than the first time but Carlos overcame the odds and landed a good fish.

The action had slowed down again and Al was tossing a small speed jig around when he got hooked up. He was putting the heat to his little 15# setup and scored a pretty Blackfin Tuna.

After that we decided to call it a day. We had some fresh “sashimi” and Carlos had plenty of Kingfish meat. It was a good day with good friends!

Another trip we had was with a long time customer, Jon Clement, and his friend. Devon and I met them at the normal 7 AM shove off time. The winds were good and the seas had enough chop to get the fish going. We ran out and did our normal bait routine and then headed offshore.

Devon set out our normal 5 line spread and we were fishing. We had pretty good action most of the day. Jon’s friend, who’s name escapes me, hooked into a nice Sailfish and it was game on! There were several minutes of some incredible aerial antics by the Sailfish. A little more time was spent with the fish dogging him deep and then he got the fish under control. Shortly thereafter we had the fish at the boat for a quick photo op and good release.

We stayed busy on Dolphin, Kingfish and Bonito, when another Sailfish came calling. This fish seemed to do the opposite of the first Sailfish of the day. It dogged us deep in the beginning portion of the fight and then went ballistic at boatside.

Another good release and we set out the spread once again. We had a double hook up but it only lasted for a short time. One of the fish came unpinned. Several minutes went by on the remaining fish and we began to see the tell tale gold of a Blackie. Yes sir!

Well there ya go! That is the way to end a good day. Jon and his buddy tallied 2 Sails, 6 Kings, 10 Dolphin, 2 Bonito, and a nice Blackfin. The mission was accomplished and followed up with a good ride home.

Yep… The BEAST is still here!

Capt. Jim
The BEAST
305-233-9996
beastcharters@aol.com
http://www.beastcharters.com

Tuesday we took out a trip with Georg and Christian Funke from Germany. They arrived at the dock and we exchanged introductions. We stored their gear and iced their lunch and drink. That morning the weather was anything but lovely and my 33’ WorldCat would have to do the job that I knew she could. The day began with winds out of the North at 20+ knots and the skies were completely overcast with thick rainless clouds. We unleashed The BEAST and made our way into a moderate/rough chop on the Bay. Our first stop was to see if we could get Hardtails for bait before heading outside.

We arrived at the mark and made our attempt to catch some baits. A few passes back and forth through the area and we managed to boat 3 small Runners to throw in the live well. OK, not quite the start I was hoping for, so we went to another spot. Doing the same routine as we normally do, we managed to get 1 or 2 more Hardtails that were a little larger than at the first spot. The next pass and we get a much stronger hookup, then another and another. These fish were taking some drag on our small 12# bait rods. The next thing I heard was Devon saying, “Can you believe this?” I turned to look as he pulls in a Bonito, then another, and the third was the same. We laughed so hard as neither of us has ever caught a Bonito on the West side of Biscayne Bay. It’s going to be one of those days, Mate! Let’s get out of here and go find some Ballyhoo.

I pushed the throttles down, making way for our favorite patch reef. As we headed offshore the seas inside of Hawks Channel were not much worse than the Bay, but as we got farther out onto the patches they began to grow. My concerns were that my customers were going to get seasick since they normally fish on placid lakes or streams in Germany. We arrived at the patch and set out a chum bag and got the slick going. The ’Hoo were a bit slow in coming. They began to come in and we started to peck away at them with hook and line. After 45 minutes we had about 30 in the live well and the swarm moved in with reckless abandon. They were almost sucking chum out of the bag now, so I broke out the 10’ Calusa cast net. One pancake toss was all it took and Devon and I both pulled the net aboard. A fair estimate would be 60-70 baits are now in the other live well. Let’s get out of here, guys!

We made our way offshore and the condition weren’t too bad. Seas were a 3-4’ washing machine, the sun can’t burn through the clouds, the winds are blustery, and the eel grass is everywhere. We pulled up a short distance past the edge and put out a 5 line spread. Soon we see a nice blue/green edge offshore of us so I work our way out to it. On the way out Devon was kept very busy keeping the grass off our baits. We arrived in the area to find that the color line was not as defined as we thought and the waves were considerably larger. I worked the area to the south, riding with the winds. The wind is only thing that is bothersome at this point. There wasn’t much happening. I decided to make my way back in to find some Kingfish to try and get some action going. As I got to the edge we began to get hits on the down rigger. Bam… miss… Bam… miss! Can you believe this? After 3 missed fish we managed to get Georg hooked up to a “Snake” Kingfish.

Through the course of the next several hours, the grass has blown out and the winds have turned out of the NNE and were beginning to howl. These German guys are tough as nails. No seasickness for them! We missed 10 Mack bites on the down rigger. Add in a couple of baits cut in half on the top lines. Devon says again “Can you believe this?” We did, however get Christian and Georg another “Snake” King and a Cero Mack in the process.

That blue water edge was looking better so I sidled my way out there once again. Wow! Looking good with a mess of grass forming a solid line. I ventured into the blue water side. The waves were a few feet larger, the wind was blowing about 30 knots now, and not one ray of sunshine. We could see Flyers getting up and some activity around but nothing was taking our baits. I started to get frustrated so I made a move back into the green side where the waters only had 4’ waves with wind blown tops. As I made my way towards the north in 180’ of water Devon hollers out “Sailfish on the flat line!” This fish is small, taking 3 attempts with some fancy bait work before the circle hook found its mark. Georg got him hooked up. On the first jump we realized how small he was but Georg didn’t care. About 8 minutes passed and Georg has the fish boat side when it catches a second wind and Devon releases the leader. A minute later and Devon has the leader and a grip on the bill. We pulled the fish aboard for a quick photo op and then made a good release, watching it swim away as if nothing happened. We told Georg it was only about 15 pounds but Georg didn’t care as he remarked that he has never caught a Mackerel or a Billfish of any kind. OK Georg, now you have!

I worked my way in to a favorite wreck to see if we could get them on some fast action before time ran out. The current was running to the south and the winds were gusting to 32 knots. Still no sun! I had to keep the bow pointed north and both Suzuki’s at 900 RPM just to maintain a position. Can you believe this? We only got one bite on a small speed jig (lg. Blue Runner) and couldn’t even get a snaggle-toothed Barracuda to eat a live Ballyhoo or a small Hardtail. Now I’m shaking my head with complete disbelief as Devon screams out for Christian to come tight on the right flat. Christian does, and the circle hook finds home. Baboom! Sailfish on! A couple of great aerial displays, a few runs, in the first 4-5 minutes. The fish is going down and dirty on him, taking the fight deep. Suddenly the tension on the rod tip releases and the fish is gone. OMG! Can you believe this? It’s about quitting time but we set out another spread anyway. I worked the area hard as Devon chummed the waters with the remainder of our live baits. Another 30 minutes passes by with no action, so we call it a wrap.

Devon and I are still bewildered with the days events. I don’t think we have ever said “Can you believe this?” that many times in a month let alone in one day. We turned the bow toward shore and made the lumpy run back to the calmer 2-3’ waters of the Bay. After saying our good byes, Devon and I just looked at each other and shrugged. That was tough conditions and tougher fishing, at its best. Devon confessed that the one thing he could believe is… He wouldn’t have wanted to be out there on any other boat besides The BEAST. Me too, Bud… Me too!

Capt. Jim
The BEAST
305-233-9996
beastcharters@aol.com
http://www.beastcharters.com

Zitat von PanamaJack

Great report and pictures Jim!

Um ... I'm starting to worry about Dave (Irving); the onset of old age? First Paul (Fisicaro) has him 'fluff chucking' at Tarpon, then he goes Marlin fishing in Mexico - albeit from a kayak - NOW bait fishing for Cuberas. Next thing .... I wonder if he'll be selling his Popper and Speed Jigging gear?

That's too funny! Matter of fact, he only brought 1 jigging rod and only used it for about 10 minutes. I think it was more about the conditions and the location he had to use on the gunnel. We only fished one rod most of the night. Although he did say something about getting older and jigging was more like work now! I guess when I see him again he will be using electric reels! :blush2:

That was a great bunch of guys, or Mates, as the Brits put it. :uebel: :uebel: Dave and his guys are welcome back anytime

Friday night we took out Paul, Dave, Ping, and Trollin’ Tom, my friend and Paul’s brother-in-law. Paul had heard Tom speak of the Cubera fishing we do, so they just had to try it. We met up at the usual time and loaded everything onboard. El Nasty was on the agenda, for sure, this evening.

We untied The BEAST and headed out to collect baits. We began gathering the crickets and when we had 12 good, legal bugs, we made our way out to do some Yellowtail fishing. We arrived at the spot, dropped the hook, and started the chum slick while Devon readied the rods. A short while into it and we had some fish biting and a lot of Ballyhoo at the chum net. Devon caught a few of the ‘hoos and tossed them into the well. The down rod got thumped and Tom grabs the rod and works up a very large “Homer” (Nurse Shark). Devon dispatched the shark quickly and reset the down rod. We saw the Bally scattering in the chum slick so Devon pinned a live ‘hoo to a rod and pitched it out. Gulp! Fish on! Paul takes the rod and after a few decent runs and some muscle, a very respectable 20 pound Kingfish comes to the boat.

The guys caught a Bonito, a few Triggerfish, and some good Yellowtail as we passed the time. As twilight fell, they picked off a few Yellowtail that were almost in the “flag” category. We pulled up the chum as the darkness engulfed the sky. It was time to head out.

I powered up and made way for Cubera country. We arrived to find smoking current to the north. The water was ripping at over 3 knots and the winds were puffing at 12-15 knots on our beam. OK… Devon and I have our work cut out for us. We look at each other… It is what it is… Let’s get’r done! There were 2 other boats out there trying their luck as well. The evening started out very slow. The drifts seemed to change every 15 minutes and Devon worked hard to keep the baits in proper position. We changed up a bit and dropped the secondary rod with a fin fish. BAM! Ping jumps on it and fights this muscle bound fish. As it comes to the light we see it is 40 pounds of “Night Donkey” (AJ).

Well that worked for some action but not for our target species. Time is passing and BADA BING! Get on it Dave! He climbs on the rod and works the fish up to the boat. Now that’s what we came for, a pretty 20 pound Cubera comes over the side.

The bite is on! We missed one or two good bites and then on the next drift we hang up both rods. Devon and I both hustle to replace the terminal tackle on the rods. I had a feeling this was going to be a short bite. KABOOM! Paul gets the nod and is into his first Cubera. He works the fish to boatside. Devon wields another small fish, by our Cubera standards, over the rail. It pulled the scales down to 25 pounds.

Just as quick as the bite turned on, it turned off. Wow, that was a fast and furious 45 minutes! We worked for another 90 minutes or so but the fish had lockjaw and the sonar marks were disappearing. I suggested making a run to another spot and give it one more drop before we packed it up for the night. Everyone was in agreement.

Arriving in that area we found the conditions much better but the sonar was marking a ton of bait and not very many big fish. OK, one drop and we’re gone. I line up the drift and everything is going well. The rod tip twitches twice and then the tip moves quickly toward the water. There he is! Ping takes his place and this is a nice one. He tries his best to slowly maneuver this fish to the surface and 30 seconds later, the fish shakes the hook. Crap!

This night was a done deal. As usual the ride back home, with tired anglers, is very quiet! We went 2 for 5 on our targets and some additional good catches. We braved some adverse conditions and a few rain showers. Good job, guys!

Saturday we hooked up with Dave Irving and his mates, Ian and Rob. Dave is the mad Englishman who caught a Cubera on a speed jig with us 2 seasons ago. We shoved off at 3 PM and did our usual routine of collecting baits. This time instead of speed jigging while waiting for darkness, they wanted to catch some Yellowtail. We anchored up and began chumming in a fairly strong current. The ’Tails weren’t so obliging but the down rod did manage to catch a pretty little 25” Black grouper. Although he was legal to keep, we all agreed to vent & release this fish to grow some more. The Yellowtail we did catch were once again, some Fatties.

Devon and I were anticipating another night like last night with tough fishing ahead of us. Strong current on the reef edge and the wind is blowing 15 from the East with solid 3+’ seas. As the dark side drew down on us we made our way out to Nastyville. Wow! Saturday night and not another boat in sight. Are you kidding me? We have Cubera country all to ourselves. Other than the 3-4’ sea, the current is a very fishable 1.5 knots. This is doable! The fish are marking good and the first bait goes down. Nothing. This isn’t unusual because it sometimes takes several attempts for me to fine tune the drift. We’re working hard at it and nothing is happening but we had already anticipated a late bite again. Drift after drift and all we had so far were a couple of “almost” bites that turned out to be bottom hang ups. Devon had his “It’s going to happen” hat on. KATHUMP! The bite turned on and the rod bent over. Ian got on the fish and manhandled a smaller 20 pound fish to the boat. Nice! We boxed this fish because they wanted to keep one smaller fish for the table.

WHOMP! Missed it! The bug came up minus the front end of his carapace. BOOM! Hooked up! Rob got after this one and judging by the pull, it isn‘t a small one. He cranks on the reel and the fish pulls harder, After several hard fought minutes the fish comes to the light and Devon brings it aboard. There ya go, Mate! Now that‘s a “Nasty” fish. It scaled out at 42 pounds. We vented the fish and slipped it over the side to continue on with its intended purpose

For 45 minutes we had a bite on almost every drift and then it shut down. C’mon, we were just starting to have fun! By now, Ian and Rob have lost their sea keeping abilities and were laying down. The only time we would see them is when they were hanging over the side calling down to some fish they must’ve named “Ralph”!

I made a few calculated moves to keep us in the fish longer. Devon made a few major adjustments on his end in the pit. 20 minutes later a ferocious bite started. Every drift resulted in a bite as long as we stayed on our pattern. The only problem was that these must have been smaller fish as the baits were coming back with fang punctures in the carapace and a half dozen legs missing. Dave was hanging in there, confident he was going to get one. Another swing and a miss! There’s a bite! Crank down on him Dave! HOOK UP! We must’ve sifted through the leg nippers and found a real one. Dave puts the muscle on the fish and it comes to the top. The fish won’t give up and it takes a few minutes on the leader to quiet it down. We pull the fish over the side to take a quick pic and get the hooks out. This fish is well into the mid 30 range. Yup… 35 pounds!

Devon vented the fish and put it in the water for a release. Not this time. We’re not sure why but this fish was a goner. We gave it 100% effort, righting the fish and staying with it for 5 minutes. It isn’t going to make it. With only 1 fish in the box we decided we had to keep this one too! We had no choice, either keep it, or let it float away dead and that would be a total waste!.

The BEAST has a 2 fish limit in the box and a good release. Each guy has a Cubera notch on their belt, out of the 7 or 8 bites. It’s getting late now and little to gain at this point, but repetition. The 3 mates from the UK decided to toss in the towel instead of injuring another fish just for fun. Good decision and pretty work, Mates!

I pointed the bow toward the West and throttled up. Our 3 Brit friends were “out for the count” on the ride home.

Capt. Jim
The BEAST
305-233-9996
beastcharters@aol.com
http://www.beastcharters.com

Last night we took Mike, and his crew of little guys out for some Cubera fishing. The boys, Matt (13), Mason (10) and Kyle (8), were very anxious to do this. They are very interested in fishing which was evident by the hundreds of questions that Devon and I answered throughout the night. We didn’t mind the constant barrage of questions, because this is the future of sport fishing.

Devon and I were ready and waiting when they arrived. We loaded everyone on board and headed out to gather bait. We made a few stops for alternative baits and continued out to round out the bait wells. We found an area that looked good and Devon slid over the side to hunt some crickets. The boys got excited watching him dive down and come up with a bait. We used this time to also teach them the about the legalities, how to measure for shorts, and what an egg bearing female looks like. I continued the learning process onboard by showing them the differences in male/female crawfish. After we collected enough bugs for the night, we made way to find some Yellowtail.

We weighed anchor and came tight on the rode. Wow! The current was smoking to the north so hard that The BEAST was almost on a plane. We gave it a try but it was barely manageable so I made the call to move. After resetting in a better location we began to catch some fish. The chum was also bringing in a variety of bait fish. The boys got to see a Sailfish feeding on some of the farther bait fish, for a brief minute. We had been watching the electrical show of a couple of onshore storms which were slowly making their way offshore. I did one last radar check and it was clear for over 16 miles. OK, Boys! Time to go to Nastyville!

We arrived on site to find 6 other boats and a stiff current! Within minutes the winds from the SW storm started to blow but it only lasted for about 5 minutes. The storm to our north began putting out some very impressive downdrafts. I’m talking 25-30 knot winds and the seas kicked up quickly. I motored around to get all the information I needed to make a good drift. The winds were making this a bit difficult and uncomfortable. A look around and there were only 4 of us out there now as 3 boats ran for cover which was a smart move if you have a smaller craft.

Our first drift is usually more of the “let’s try it” type until we get dialed in. A few adjustments and the second drift was much better but uneventful. I made one more adjustment on the 3rd drift and shortly into the drift, my little man Kyle gets the nod! FISH ON, little buddy! Mason and Matt were so excited that they were right in on the action shoulder to shoulder with Kyle. We had to drop the reel into low gear so Kyle could move his fish up. The next 5 minutes were filled with a lot of grunting, huffing, puffing and exited chatter from the boys. Kyle got his fish to the surface and Devon handed him over the side. Way to go Kyle, you just caught a 28 pound Cubera Snapper! Pretty work, little Dude!

The winds were laying back now and we made a couple more drifts that were unsuccessful so I made some more adjustments. Drift number 6 was going real nice and we made yet another quick adjustment. Seconds later the bait gets thumped and the rod doubles over. Get ’em Mason! As the boys gathered at the rail with excitement, we dropped the reel into low gear so Mason could move the fish. Work’em boy! The fish finally pops up and Devon brings it over the side. That’s a nugget! Mason is on the board with a 35 pound fish. Good job, Bud!

Now we need to get Matt a fish, too! Conditions are changing rapidly and the bite is falling off. Devon and I worked hard, changing things up, making different adjustments with almost every drift. We went through quite a few drifts for the next half hour or so. Finally, persistence paid off and the front rod thunks twice. Crap, we missed him. No, wait a minute, he’s back. Thunk, thunk, the rod starts to bend over and I give the reel some cranks. FISH ON! Matt is hooked up. This fish isn’t a nugget, for sure, this is one is a bruiser. The rod is bent over to within a foot of the water and its throbbing under the weight of this fish. The fish either has Matt in a stalemate or it is taking line from him. I tried to move the fish a little bit with the motors as Devon races forward to give Matt low gear. The rod tip snaps back into place as the line parts. This fish made some bottom structure and won its freedom. Tough break Matt. It wasn’t your fault at all. That stuff happens occasionally especially when dealing with larger fish!

We continued to work hard using different types of bait to change things up. All 3 boys are lost to sleep when the bow rod gets hammered. Matt… Matt… MATT!!!! Mason arouses to keep the fish on until Matt, groggy from sleep, gets his bearings to take over. The fish surfaces and it is a 15 pound Horse Eye Jack. Before we could take a picture, Matt was already prone and falling back to sleep, so Devon quickly released the fish. You can’t blame them for being that tired. They played football that afternoon, came straight to the boat, had adrenaline pumping through their young bodies, and it is getting late. We made another 4 or 5 drifts but it was more than obvious to Devon and I that the night was over.

We packed it up and stowed the gear. I pointed the bow toward the barn and throttled up the 600 ponies. Other than the motors humming, the ride was quiet. The kids were asleep and there wasn’t a single question asked on the whole ride home.

This was an excited crew of kids that, I do believe, thoroughly enjoyed their night. Mike remarked that they will have some good stories to tell when school starts. Our kids should be a constant reminder that spurs us to conserve our resources. Abide by all regulations, take what you can use, and properly release the rest. Let’s leave our oceans and it’s creatures, better than we found it, for the sake of our future generations.

Capt. Jim
The BEAST
305-233-9996
beastcharters@aol.com
http://www.beastcharters.com

Cubera season started off a bit slow this year, even though the moon phases seemed to be perfectly in line. Opening day of mini lobster season we took Todd, Fernando, and their boys, out to give the Cubera a go!

The day started out with an unexpected delay in our 3 PM shove off. We motored out and got a handful of baits and then blasted out to the patches to see if anyone left us some bugs. Devon slid over the side and in an hour or so, came up with 9 good baits. That should be plenty, so we headed out to do some ‘Tailing.

Arriving on our Yellowtail grounds we put out the chum and began dropping lines back. We managed to get quite a few legal ‘Tails and just before the sun set, Fernando brought in a good’un. The fish was 26 ½ inches long and weighed 5 pounds. Nice!

Darkness falling, we headed out for the Cubera. To make a long story short, we dropped baits, and marked fish on the recorder, over and over again. The fish were there for sure but they had other things on their minds, obviously. Finally, after some frustrating hours of repetitive fishing, we got a bite on one of the live baits. It was short lived as the fish can unpinned. When we retrieved the bait is was obvious that it was our target species that bit. We fished past quitting time and never did catch one of these big snappers. This is not the start I had expected! It grew very apparent that these fish had a stronger sexual/mating drive than their appetite. After thinking about it, I wouldn’t stop mating, to grab a sandwich either!

Devon and I felt really bad for Todd and his son since they flew here from Jersey just for this. It’s fishing! They were there for sure but no matter what we did, even with little tricks and techniques, you can’t make them do what they don’t want to do. Sorry guys! At least there was Lobster and Yellowtail for dinner.

I was sitting home on Saturday afternoon looking at the weather. Lobster season opened on Friday and it was supposed to rain all day on Sunday, which it has! I picked up the phone and called one of my best friends, “Uncle Al”, and my good friend, Harry! “Hey Guys, what’s up? Feel like blasting out for some Nasty’s tonight?” The answer was a resounding… He!! yeah! We met at the boat in less than an hour and unleashed The BEAST. Stopping to quickly take on some fuel, we began discussing the game plan.

We powered up and cruised out to the patches for some crickets. Since this was a last minute deal we needed to get bait quickly. Al went over the side. In less than an hour he collected us a dozen, fat bugs! OK Boys, Let’s do a quick, one chum block Yellowtail session. Arriving in the area we set out the chum and shortly thereafter began bailing, nice, fat, keeper ’tails. With things going so well to this point, all I could hope for was a better performance at Nastyville! Uh oh! Hold your tongue Capt. Jim. Storms are moving offshore to the north and southwest. The north storm was a bad one with frequent lightning cracking down and making its way slowly toward us. My radar showed it to be 2 ½ miles from us. I hoped this storm would play itself out so we wouldn’t have to take an intermission to run from it. Thankfully the north storm began falling apart. We packed up our 15-18 Yellowtail and gear, then made our run to Nastyville.

When we arrived, the north storm came over us and we donned our rain gear. No electrical displays, thank God! As we waited for the rains to dissipate , I scouted the area. The winds went slack, the sea was slick, the current was slow, and the air was heavy with moisture. There were fish marking everywhere and all hope was that it wouldn’t be a night like the last outing.

We worked the area for a solid hour and then some, without a single look. Then I heard Al start yelling, “Uh… Uh… take it, eat it!” BAM… Fish on! Al has his hands full working this fish and has to throw the reel into low gear to move it away from the bottom. It’s coming up now and when it breaks the surface we see a respectable 27 pound fish. Wow! It’s about time we broke the ice. Cubera 2010! First fish of the season for us and In the box it goes.

The bite was on, unfortunately, we missed the next 3 fish. Just like that, the bite quits and we are back to square one, putting primo baits in front of preoccupied fish. Are you kidding me? Look at this sonar, Mate! Can you believe that none of those fish are hungry?

With a bait well full of prime bait we decided to stick it out until we couldn’t take it anymore. I kept looking for areas and places that I haven’t put a bait in yet. Several hours pass and I hear Uncle Al say, “That’s a bite.” A second later, he cranks the reel about 3 turns, and it’s game on. This fish has some shoulders and Al drops into low gear again. The fish is stripping 25 pounds of drag, repeatedly! This fish never said quit, continually fighting Al until it came over the side. Good job Uncle Al. The fish tipped our scales at 42 ½ pounds with double canine teeth on both uppers and one of the lowers. Now that’s a brute of a Snappa!

We worked the area for a little while longer but the bite never resumed. We hit the “I’m getting really tired” wall and reluctantly called it a night. Unfortunately for Harry, he didn’t get on the boards with a catch. Although he only had a few brief encounters with El Nasty that night, he has caught them with me before and he will again!

We did what we came for, going 2 for 5, limiting us out with a 27 and 42.5 pound fish. Everyone on board was spent, so I pointed The BEAST toward home and boogied.

If doing a charter with us to catch Cubera, the King of Snappers, is on your list of things to do… remember that the season can be short (30-60 days). Get your dates together and give us a call ASAP to reserve them. Weekend nights, especially, tend to fill up very fast.

Capt. Jim
The BEAST
305-233-9996
beastcharters@aol.com
http://www.beastcharters.com

We’ve had fun on our last 2 trips. The Dolphin have been plentiful but the majority of the fish have been ½ - 1 inch short of legal size. In other words, plenty of “schoolies” to keep you busy but nothing much in the way of notoriety. When the ocean only gives up limes, The BEAST crew does its best to turn the day into a Mojito!

We took Brian Mitchell and his crew out to fish the 26th annual Dick Fuhr Memorial Dolphin Tournament. We picked them up at Homestead Marina and took off. We planned to run and gun along with some trolling on any debris or weed lines we might find. Well, the best laid plans do not always come together. We ran and trolled every flock of birds we found, picking up 19 inch “schoolies” with regularity. We didn’t find any debris and only scattered weeds at best, covering almost 200 miles of ocean. We managed to catch 3 legal Dolphin, out of 15 or more that we caught. We were running away from them in hopes that the next flock of birds would yield a big fish. We even dropped 2 planer rods when deploying a spread and only ended up with 3 Barracuda. Yep, Barracuda in 1000’+ of water. The results at the end of the day showed 1st place - 21#… 2nd place - 13#... 3rd place - 10#. We took 6th place with a 4½ # fish. Since this heat wave descended on us, there have been plenty of fish around but nothing impressive.

Thursday we did a ½ day morning trip with Mike McCann, his wife, and twin 10yr old boys, Mike and Shane. We left the channel and made our way out to a Hardtail spot and collected up 8 baits for this quick trip. As we broke out of the islands we found the seas were comfortable at 1-2 feet. Our first goal was to try and get some Dolphin and/or Blackfins before the late morning sun began to heat up. We found a decent weed line in about 300’ of water and within minutes of putting out a spread, we had a hookup on the right rigger. Little Mike took the rod and we ended up with a nice little 5½ # “schoolie”! We reset that line and worked our way up the weed line. The planer rod trips but we only get a weak click or two of the drag. A better Dolphin takes to the air and Shane throws a leg over the gunnel to “ride the pony” and crank. The little cow is a long and skinny fish weighing around 9 pounds. Hey… with all the little grasshoppers swimming around, we were very happy with this one.

Devon reset and we trolled north a bit then crossed over to go south. After 10 minutes I crossed back over to go north on the other side again. 15 minutes without a strike and I got the word that little Mike and Shane were bored. Wow! The Xbox/PS3 generation is so spoiled by the instant gratification of video games that they have no patience. This is no reflection on little Mike and Shane. This is not the first time we’ve had young boys complain of being bored if they aren’t bailing fish one after another. Mike asked if we could go catch some little fish that would be more action for them. I suggested we do a wreck and at least they could get some bigger ‘Cudas that would impress them while keeping them busy as well. So we put the Dolphin gear away and broke out the down rigger and live bait.

We went to our top action wreck and put down a live Runner! While we bumped around the area, Mike worked a speed jig and got bit. He worked the fish to the boat and we were surprised to see a Horse Eye Jack.

We released the fish and continued working the area. The downrigger goes off and little Mike works the fish but grows tired quickly and Shane takes over to land this “Snaggletooth”.

OK… we put the d/rigger down again and it keeps getting tapped by these “Caribbean Spotted Mackerel“. The boys are having a ball now catching these big ‘Cudas! The line goes off and this is a better fish. Shane is working the fish when Devon suddenly spots a big school of Permit, well below the boat. While Shane is pressuring his fish, Devon readies a jig. Wow, it’s a nice sized ‘Cuda for a young 10 year old boy! Good job!

We release the toothy one and turn our gazes for the “rubber lips”. As I begin to make my way back to where we saw them, Mike tells me they had enough. His wife is not feeling well. Really? OK… put ‘em away Devon, we’re done for the day. Although Mike pulled the plug only a few minutes before actual quitting time, we were ready to stay a while and give the Permit a shot. Oh well, there is always another day, God willing! I turned the bow west and throttled up. As we ran the creek between the islands I spotted a dead turtle. What happened to him? I banged a U-turn to investigate. As I approached we could see that this turtle was a good 36 - 40” across the shell and it’s death was conspicuously apparent. He ran into a Tiger shark that was looking for a turtle dinner!

The raw power and bite pressure from those sharks must be incredible. The bite was completely through both sides of the shell and everything in between. This turtle was done in with 2 massive bites and the only remains were his hind legs. Take a good look at the size of those bites!

I don’t know about you, but I sure wouldn’t want to bump into that critter while in the water!

Capt. Jim
The BEAST
305-233-9996
beastcharters@aol.com
http://www.beastcharters.com

We celebrated Memorial Day weekend with a day of fun fishing with the regular “fun crew”! Uncle Al, Devon, Amy, and I met at the dock at 7 AM. Well let’s call it 7-ish as everyone was running a bit behind except Al. We loaded up and fired up The BEAST. We didn’t know what we were going to fish for so we ended up with 26 rods on board! Winds were calm and the seas were flat. Oh Boy!

Our first stop was to try and get some Hardtails but they were a bit slow and we only put 5 or 6 in the well. Next stop was to see if we could coax some Ballyhoo into riding along with the Hardtails. Only 4 would succumb to the baited hooks, so I threw the Calusa net until we had about 18 or so in the well. OK… we took a vote and the first stop was to try for some Permit.

Arriving at the wreck and no one is around. So much for the crowded holiday weekend we had anticipated! First drop and Uncle Al has a hook up, and Amy too! Amy’s fish gets totally sharked and Al’s fish is running to the surface. It’s either a Permit racing away from a shark or a Cobia! After a few more minutes the fish gives up and rises to the boat. Cobia it is!

Next drop and Allen again gets a hook up and Devon gets a strong bite on the speed jig. Both of them are dancing around the boat and Al’s fish gets heavy. Uh Oh! Yup. Devon brings his fish up about the same time as Al and we have 2 more Cobia. Well, Al had a small piece of his left. We released Devon’s fish and tossed the remains of Al’s fish over as well, hoping to satisfy the toothy fish below.

Back at it again and the action is HOT! Amy gets a hook up and loses the fish to the wreck! She’s getting frustrated so I lowered the underwater camera and she and I were enjoying ourselves watching the occasional Bar Jack swim by. Amy look quick, a Sailfish just swam through. She saw the last half of it as it moved out of frame. Crap, there goes a Sandbar shark. Looks like we are going to be in for more chewed up fish. Meanwhile Devon gets hooked up again and works the fish up to find it is another Cobia. This one is only 32” so we released it as well. Al gets another fish on a speed jig and it is the dreaded Barracuda. Another drift and Devon gets a bang on his speed jig again. Nice fish! This has some weight and after a few more runs it gains about 300 pounds. Maybe not, it’s still there. There’s that extra weight again and now he is pulling up a lot less dead weight. Crap! A beautiful African Pompano became brunch for one of those sharks.

OK, enough of that! We donned the trolling gear and began a quick hunt for some Dolphin or Wahoo. With a full moon occurring just 2 days before, we were not counting on this as a productive deal. I headed for deep water and then circled into another wreck to try for some Mutton’s. On the way, one of the deep rods goes off. Wahoo? No, another Barracuda.

A fruitless troll led us to the wreck and we stowed that gear and got out the bottom rods. Dropped a live Ballyhoo and Bada boom, I’m hooked up! If this is a Mutton, it has some shoulders. Finally we see some color about 100’ below and it sure doesn’t look like our target. Maybe a Grouper? Not even close. It’s a small Amberjack. We rarely catch wreck donkeys on a live ‘hoo! We made a few more drops and nothing much was happening on the Mutton bite. What’s next? Let’s give one of our deeper wrecks a try.

A few minutes run time and we arrive on site. 2 rods go over with bait and Devon flips over his speed jig. One, two, three…Triple hookup! These are wreck donkeys for sure. After several fire drills we manage to get all 3 aboard, vented and released 2 of them. Ok! No more of that! Let’s go back and see if the Permit want to play.

Back at our morning spot we begin to get excited. Only one boat on site and we can overhear them telling each other they see them. We found them, 100 yards away. Amy drops the cam… Yup, she saw them! A nice tight school and feeding! I’ve hooked up many Permit but always pass the rod off to one of my customers, so the crew want to see the Captain get one. Chomp chomp! Hooked up! The fish is racing to the surface with a shark hot on its butt! With the drag at max pressure I muscled the fish to the boat and Al takes a gaff shot! As the announcer says at the soccer game. SCORE! It’s not a big one, but it IS a Permit.

I’m going to try to load this short video Amy took. Maybe it’ll work!

Next drift and Devon hooks up and tries to get Amy to take the rod. She’s not in the mood, I guess, so Devon fights the fish. Done deal. So far we have managed to boat 2 for 2.

Once again, another drift, and Uncle Al is grunting. The fish runs for the surface and suddenly a massive splash. Missed him! Al is muscling the fish and the shark makes another attempt. Almost, but not quite! We boat the fish and find that the Permit barely escaped the jaws of death.

A few more drifts and things slow down a bit. We had 2 more hook ups but no catches. No sense in playing with these guys only to feed the sharks. The vote goes to try some live baiting as the afternoon draws toward evening. We put the gear away and break out the live bait tackle. Devon and AL put out our normal 4 line top spread with one down rod, so off we go. Time passes by and nothing is happening on the surface. Devon and Al stayed busy on the speed jigs, boating a small Bonito and a Bullet Bonito. The down rod goes off! About time! Uncle Al takes control of the rod and works the fish up. A sport model Kingfish comes boat side and catches some steel.

This group is tired. We had a Memorial Weekend Potpourri. I guess you could say we had a Wreck Grand Slam. I must tell you, that was a “FUN” day and well worth the price of admission! We turned The BEAST toward the barn and made the run. Another good point to this day… We had 2 cleaning the fish and 2 cleaning the boat. NICE!

By the way Folks… We will be taking reservations now for Cubera season. Book early and often!

There is NO oil in S. Florida!!!!!

Capt. Jim
The BEAST
305-233-9996
beastcharters@aol.com
http://www.beastcharters.com

Wind, wind, and more wind! That was the theme for The BEAST on her last 2 trips. The winds were howling from the East at consistent 22-25 knots. This produces stacked up water at a close interval. Thankfully we run a 33’ World Cat that eats them up and provides a safe and stabile platform to fish from.

Our first trip was with Charlie and his buddies, Yalkin, Frank, and Wally. They call themselves the Harbor Club but we call them the Banana crew. You might recall them if you remember last years report and picture of them all eating a banana on the way out through the channel. They were supposed to arrive at 7-ish but knowing Yalkin, it would be more like 8 AM. He didn’t let us down, as they arrived minutes before 8.

We loaded them up, stowed their gear, and took the reins off The BEAST. We made the run to find some Hardtails. The second spot produced an adequate supply. Now off to find some live Ballyhoo. This actually turned out to be an effort. The Ballyhoo have been finicky to say the least. We’ve had no problems raising them but getting them to bite the hair hooks has been the test. Getting them within net range is even harder. They tend to get very wary late in the season. We managed to get a dozen or so and we headed off to the blue water.

Our first stop was to see if we could catch some Permit on a wreck. We moved back and forth while looking for them from the deck and on the sonar. We ended up soaking 2 crabs with no bites. On to plan B.

Plan B was to do some live baiting around the vicinity, trying for some Blackfin, Kingfish, Dolphin, and Sails. The time dragged on! Nothing was working and the radio chatter was filled with the word “SLOW”. Suddenly the down rigger line starts to sing. Ok, we might be on the boards here! Up comes a Barracuda. Not quite what we had in mind, but it’s action. We kept working the water and got a visual of a fish on the surface. As we approached, the fish turned out to be a Hammerhead. The shark wouldn’t let us get close enough to try and pitch him one of our live baits and finally disappeared. The whole time we had 5 baits in the water as well. Nothing! We caught 3 more of those dreaded Caribbean Spotted Mackerel and we threw one in the fish box for bait because the guys were suggesting, to maybe do some shark fishing. I suggested to do some Jack fishing on the wrecks because we knew that wouldn’t be a long process to get them busy. All agreed.

We ponied up The BEAST and in short order we were casing the wreck. Oh yeah, they‘re there! Several drops and we were on them like fleas on a hound dog. The guys were getting a work out now. Several drifts in and everyone has a good 30-35 pound fish under their belt. When Yalkin’s turn comes around again, he pulls out his Accurate 665 on one of those high tech rods that he brought along. They are amazing how those rods and reels look like one you would go Bass fishing with, but it can pull a car off the ocean floor. We dropped the largest bait we had on his rod. BOOM! He is on! Yalkin is working the fish and it is another good one. He had to fight this fish in low gear for the entire fight. After about 35-40 minutes we see color. It’s another Donkey Kong! Devon gaffs the fish and both of pull it aboard. The guys are amazed at the size of this critter. The fish weighed in at 82.5 pounds.

After 8-10 of these fish, big seas, relentless winds, coupled with the factor that they didn’t get into town until late, and they called it a day. Even though the fishing was slow for our target species, we always have a good time fishing with the “Banana Crew”!

Our next trip was a ¾ day with Fernando, his son Nick, Todd, and his son Zack. They met us at the dock and the wind was blowing hard out of the East, once again. NOAA was forecasting for 3-5 foot seas. Can’t a guy get a break! Fernando and Nick are from Boca Raton, Todd and Zach are from New Jersey. Fernando wanted to show his friends a good time regardless of the forecast. All aboard, and Devon cut loose The BEAST.

We blasted off to our Hardtail spot. Not a bite. No worries! We went to our trusted spot and nothing doing! Uh oh! We tried one more spot with the same results. Not good! Off we go in hopes that the Ballyhoo would be on the feed. This was another lesson in humility as they came up but wouldn’t feed. They never got closer than 50’ from the boat. I wasn’t a collegiate shot putter, so throwing the 18 pound cast net that far was totally out of the question. We are spending too much time and this is a short day. Catch some of those Yellowtail and drop down for some Pig Grunts to use for bait. We filled the well with the bigger ‘Tails and a few Grunts to go along with the only 2 Ballyhoo we caught. OK. At worst we have some baits to drop on the wrecks and we already had crab on board. Off we go to make the best of this situation.

Our first stop was to see if we could find some Permit. The seas were every bit of 4-5 feet and getting a visual on the Permit was not to be. Nothing was hitting the speed jigs either. This is not good. Let’s try some live baiting for a bit. Devon put out the ‘hoo and we dropped a Yellowtail down. I meandered about trying to get some action going. Devon is working a speed jig and I hear his telltale grunt as it hooks up. He hands the rod off to Zach. This is taking a bit of time, what is it? Maybe a Blackfin or Bonito? While the fish is working him over, a small pack of “schoolie” Dolphin come into the spread. Devon baits them up and now everyone is hooked up. They’re small, but over the legal size limit. One by one, we picked off the little Dollies. One flipped off at the boat, but the other 4 were dispatched to the fish box. Zach gets his fish to the boat and it is a 25 pound AJ. Go figure!

With Dolphin in the area I decided to put out a spread and try trolling for some Dolphin, Tuna, or Wahoo. This might help Nick out too, as he is hanging over the side calling his buddy Ralph. I told him that Facebook might be a better way to reach his buddy. We hooked up and Zach got the call on this fish. In short order a Bonito is on the boat.

The word on the radio that morning was a few Sails being caught but generally slow. Let’s hit the deep wreck and get these kids, especially “Sick” Nick, on some bruiser fish. As usual, the fish didn’t let us down. A 20 pound Bluefish was the largest fish Todd and Zach had caught, so shock and awe were the key words for them. Todd is no little guy but he was amazed at the power of these fish. No monsters, but all averaging around 30-35 pounds.

The afternoon got going and our time was running short. The radio was telling of a good Sailfish bite, but we had no decent baits to try it. Let’s try for some Permit one more time, it’s on our way in. The seas over the wreck were getting big with some 6 and 7 footers coming through. This attempt proved better. I located the fish on the sonar and Devon got a visual on a them too. We dropped our baits and I felt a pick up. BOOM! Fernando is hooked up. A few strong runs and suddenly the fish races to the surface. The fish now is heavy as it goes down. Pop, the line parts. Sharked! I have the line on the fish and we make a few more drifts. We get another bite and Zach is on the line. Once again the fish races to the surface and leaps out of the water. Cobia! I can’t recall ever seeing one jump.

We made a few more drifts and Devon spotted a tailing Sail, but before he could get a bait to it, it turned invisible! Next drift and we had another hook up. This fish took Fernando to the wreck and was gone! I got carried away as usual and went way past time. We packed it up and turned the bow for the barn. Although the lack of bait was an issue, we tallied, 5 Dolphin, 5 Amberjack, a Bonito, a Cobia, and 0 for 2 on Permit.

Capt. Jim
The BEAST
305-233-9996
beastcharters@aol.com
http://www.beastcharters.com

About 10 days ago we did a fun trip with the usual members, Devon, Amy, “Uncle” Al, and I. We were meat fishing so we met up at 10 AM and tossed the dock lines. Wreck fishing was about all that Amy wanted to do, no Sailfish, Mackerel, or anything of that nature. Of course, the first stop was for live bait.

We proceeded out to the first wreck site. Drifting live shrimp pegged on a jig, we had a few bites but most all ended in a cut off. Those dreaded Caribbean Spotted Mackerel (Cuda) will eat anything. We did get a couple of good bites but one wrecked us and we thought we had played out the other when the hook straightened. OK, let’s go get some Jacks.

I headed for a deep wreck and we started dropping live ones as well as speed jigs. The jigs were working better on the Almaco Jacks, and then Uncle Al brought the first “wreck donkey’ aboard.

The lives baits did there trick and all of us kept catching fish until we had enough fun for one day, quitting early.

We did make a stop at the first wreck and tried the jig/shrimp deal one more time. Uncle Al hooked up a monster Blue Runner which attracted a pack of Cuda’s, right to the boat, and 2 big Sandbar sharks could be seen cruising the scene about 40’ down.

OK… we’re done! We only kept 3 around 30 pounds and 2 nice eating sized Almaco. The fish were very clean and filleted out nicely.

Yesterday, we took out our good customers, Skyler Smith, his dad Scott, and Skyler brought along his brother Ryan. He remembered the wreck fishing from last year and wanted to show his brother what strong fish they are. Skyler couldn’t describe an Amberjack fight, in Missouri terms so Ryan had to see it to believe it. The agenda was set for AJ’s.

The BEAST was tugging at the dock lines. They arrived late and we made the short run to the Hardtail spot. They were there, like a wolf pack in a feeding frenzy. Oh Lord! Averaging 1 ½ - 2 pounds or better, they were giving them some sport on the 12# spinners. I hoped they were ready for an all day, back breaker outing. I asked if he was sure he didn’t want to try for some Ballyhoo and do some slow trolling for Sails, Kings, etc? He was sure! OK, you asked for it.

After collecting about 4 baits, I throttled up and we made our way to Wreck # 1 for a warm up. We tried to drift some shrimp and crabs while working a smaller speed jig. Sklyer caught a small Scamp grouper on the speed jig which was quickly returned to the water. Nothing much doing on the live crusty’s so we pulled lines.

Destination #2 was a deep water wreck with a limited relief. Conditions were good and the drift was right. On the first drop we used one of the smaller baits, and speed jigs. Bang! The bait gets whacked and Ryan gets his first try at a “wreck donkey”! Sweat was beading up on the top of his bald head. How’s that? He grunts to us, “It pulls better than a 40# grass carp!” Laughter filled the boat! It’s only a baby AJ, only weighing about 25 pounds, you might be in trouble when we use the big baits.

Next drift was using the same set up. The speed jig scored a small Almaco and the live bait got the nod for Skyler. A more respectable sized donkey. You might be asking why we call them donkeys. They fit the name perfectly because trying to pull these stubborn fish away from the wreck is like trying to make a donkey go somewhere he doesn’t want to go.

We start using the jumbo baits and the size of the fish being caught increase. Scott is next and works a nice averaged sized fish to the boat. So far we are only warming them up on 25-35 pound fish.

We put the speed jigs down since they were not producing. Two live baits on each drift now. Several drifts later and these guys are in heaven. I made a call on the squawker to a friend out of Ocean Reef. He was doing well on the Sails and Kingfish with some Mahi mixed in. I suggested a break to get some live ‘Hoo and give them a try but nothing doing, not interested. These 3 guys were enjoying the non stop action, and saying “Uncle” is not in their vocabulary. . We haven’t made one drift. OK, you asked for it!

Devon picked out one of the biggest baits in the well and sent it down. BAM! Fish on! The rods bent over and Skyler can do little with this fish. The line begins to run out and a minute later it is over. The fish made it to the wreck. That was a big one! Devon reties a new leader as I reposition on the same drift line. OK, let her rip! He sends down the biggest bait as I send the other line down. We pass over the wreck and on the backside, the jumbo bait gets nervous. BOOM! The rod is bent over almost to the waterline and Skyler fights to remove it from the rod holder. It’s on! This is a good one boys! Skyler manages to keep the fish from reaching the wreck. Knuckle buster! Several times, the fish pins his hands to the gunwales. 600 ft from the wreck and we breath a bit easier. 10, 20, 30 minutes into the fight and this fish doesn’t even know it’s hooked. The line on the reel appears like he is still only 20’ off the bottom. Keep the pressure on him! Devon and I are watching the rod tip and it appears to be heavy, no action. Now we’re not so sure we have an AJ but are betting it could be a big shark. Possibly a Sandbar, or big Hammerhead? 40 minutes and he is gaining some line. 50 minutes and the fish is beginning to tire from the relentless pressure. We’re beginning to think shark with each passing minute. 60 minutes and over a mile from the hook up. We have color about 100’ down. It’s BIG! It’s not a shark! 25 feet and OMG! As it rolls over we see that it’s DONKEY KONG! Devon drops the smaller gaff and in 2 seconds has the big meat hook. I leader the fish to him, and he sticks it. It takes both of us to pull this monster over the gunwale. The fish hits the deck with a resounding THUD! We all stare at this fish and estimate her to be 100 pounds. Look! There, hanging in the fishes mouth, is the hook and the other half of the leader we just lost on the last drift! After we calmed down, we realized that we had over estimated the weight. The fish ONLY weighed 96 pounds!!!!!! Skyler’s fish had dramatically broken The BEAST’s boat record of 80 pounds.

Now, I asked once more if they wanted to try for something else as it would be tough to top that fish! NOPE! These guys were having way too much fun! I motored toward our drift line when I saw another boat ahead. He was on a “floater”. We approached slowly and there was a 40’ telephone pole adrift in the water. We pitched some small speed jigs and nothing. There were only 2 or 3 “micro” Dolphin, hanging around. The floater was was encrusted with barnacles, yet there were no Bar Jacks, Tripletail, or other fish. We quickly dropped a live bait down on a stinger rig for a Wahoo. No one home! Devon remarked “Imagine finding that pole, with the boat hull or motors, as we are running around in the dark, Sword fishing!” That is not something I want to think about

We made a few more drifts on the wreck but business was slowing down. We actually made a drift that didn’t get a bite so I suggested spending the last 2 hours on the Grunt & Sweat wreck to see if they were hungry. The group agreed as Ryan has yet to catch a fish over 30 pounds. So off we go!

This wreck has a bit more structure and we tend to get wrecked more often. The fish weren’t marking well but once again we get bit on each drift. Scott gets wrecked by a good fish. Next pass and he hooks up again. This time he posts up a 55 pounder. You got to be kidding me! There is the hook, leader, and several feet of our Power Pro that we just lost on the last drift! What are the chances of that happening, twice in the same day?

Next drift and the rod bends over. Ryan is on a nice fish and uses finesse to bring the fish up. That is a polite way to say he is muscle tired and has slowed down a bit. We have color and Ryan, finally, has a respectable 38 pound fish.

I know we used about 3 dozen baits, got wrecked by about half a dozen, and caught about 15 big fish. All were vented and released except one. We called it a day and I turned the bow toward home. The cruise is short, chattering about the “Big’un” in the box. We get The BEAST leashed up to the dock and it takes Skyler and Devon to get the big fish up on the cock. One more photo before the fish goes to the cleaning table.

We really enjoyed fishing with the Smith’s as they are good people with a great sense of humor. We joked all day, with Ryan being the main focus. The easy attitude of this group helped make it a very memorable trip. Of course a good fish bite, never hurts!

By the way… to those who talk down the Amberjack. That 96 was cleaner than most of the Red Grouper I’ve seen and it produced some large, quality filets! If you don’t believe me, that’s cool, leave them for us!

Capt. Jim
The BEAST
305-233-9996
beastcharter@aol.com
http://www.beastcharters.com

It’s been a while since my last report. It’s not by choice but rather this economy that has us tied to the dock more often than we’d like. Adding to that downside, the weather has been brisk and several charters have cancelled. On the brighter side, the weather and the fishing are now turning more towards our spring season. Fortunately we managed to get out last Thursday and Friday, which makes Devon and I happy because fishing is our passion.

One of my best friends, Major Kevin “Hoss“ White used to fish many tournaments with us back in the mid 90’s. He moved from Miami when he left the National Guard to go active in the Army. He did 15 long months in Afghanistan and is now living in Iowa and teaching ROTC at Iowa State. He called us last month to see if we could set up a trip for him and his oldest son, Garrett. Absolutely Hoss!

Hoss and Garrett met us at the dock at 7 AM and we turned The BEAST out. We spoke of old times as we idled out of the Marina. The years that have passed, simply melted away, and it seemed like only yesterday. As we entered the Bay I fed the 600 ponies and we were up and running to our first bait patch. WOW! Bay temps were only 64 degrees. We pushed through to the patch reefs and found them to be only 67 degrees. We arrived on our bait patch and the worms were sluggish. We managed to pick at the Ballyhoo with hook and line while Garrett was impressing us with his bait catching skills on the small Pig Grunts (Tomtate). Since we were on a time budget, I tossed the cast net and completed the process. We weren’t loaded but we had plenty for the day.

I pushed the throttles down and we made the short run to the “edge” to find 71-72 degree water temps, light westerly winds, and trickle of south current. Not the best conditions. This offshore fishing was new to Garrett, so he was observing and asking questions about everything we did. Devon deployed our normal spread and within a few minutes we had a Kingfish on the down rod, then another.

Then suddenly Devon yells “SAILFISH UP!” Garrett gets on the rod and Devon coaches him through the process. Hooked up! Garrett had his hands full as the fish jumped only twice then sounded to fight him down and dirty style. This went on for 15 minutes when the fish began to rise and suddenly the hook pulled. Dang it! Tough break for “Little Hoss”!

The downrigger was active for an hour or so and we caught and released several more Kingfish. The Kingfish shut off and we also missed a bite from a very small Mahi. SAILFISH UP on the short flat line! There’s another one on the other flat line! Devon fed the first fish but it just played with the bait. The second fish was just shopping, not buying! Double Dang! A father and son double would have been awesome!

The winds died down to almost nothing and the current slowed even more. We picked up a hitchhiker and it was evident now that the surface bite was done.

We pulled lines and moved off to some wrecks to put Garrett and Hoss on some big fish, and that we did. The first wreck was active for a short time but the fish kept breaking them off in the structure. Then the current went slack and so did the bite. We made a move to a deep wreck where there was a bit more current toward the north and it was forming a nice rip. Devon put a bait out on top while we dropped on the wreck. The speed jig tallied up Garrett’s first Bonito.

On the next drift the surface bait got nervous and we missed a decent 15# Dolphin (Mahi). We put out another bait and it got eaten immediately by his little sister.

The next drift and Garrett is hooked up to one of our bruiser Amberjack when suddenly the line gets heavy and pulls back with twice the power. Did he lose him? No, there’s still weight on the rod tip but no fight. Garrett learns that it’s hard to fight when your propeller is bitten of by a shark.

Hoss and Garrett had some fun working the wrecks and getting beat up by these stubborn Wreck Donkeys and their smaller cousins the Almaco Jacks.

The current and winds had died and we also ran out of time as Hoss and Garrett had to meet up with the rest of the family, later that afternoon. Garrett’s first time offshore fishing netted him some Kingfish, Dolphin, AJ’s, Almaco’s, and almost a Sailfish. That was fun but it was even better to see my old buddy “Hoss” again!

Friday we met up with John Dancer and his troop. They were celebrating John’s 70th birthday. We did the usual drill but this time the bait patch was not going to give up bait easily. Only doing a scheduled half day, we were in a hurry and the bait was not cooperating. The winds were a mere breath and the seas were flat. Luckily we had wreck baits left over from yesterday as we could only manage to get 3 Ballyhoo and a few more Pig Grunts. Well this will change the game plan. We went out to the edge and began by putting out all 3 of the Ballyhoo. About a half hour later I saw Richard on Good Life coming out and asked him how he did on bait. He had 7. Oh Boy! There was the slightest trickle of south current and it didn’t take long before we realized we could’ve had 0 baits and netted the same results. No current, no wind, and no fish activity. I looked forward and there sat another Tern on the bow pulpit, possibly the same banded bird from yesterday. I didn’t waste much time beating this dead horse.

We pulled the lines and went to a wreck to try a jig tipped with some jumbo shrimp. Bam! A slow southward drift resulted in a bite and a break off in the wreck. The next drift, another bite, and the same results. The third drift and we are hooked up and the fish stays up in the water column long enough to get away from the wreck. 10 minutes pass and it appears that we may have this one. NOT! We no sooner thought it was a done deal when the hook simply pulls loose. Action, but no catches, so far. The next couple of drifts were fruitless as the current went dead slack and the fish have lockjaw.

I made a move to the deep wreck again and found a 1 knot current and drift to the southeast. Not great but moving water of any kind is better than nothing. Devon drops a live one down and then starts a speed jig. Boom! The jig gets nailed and this fish has some shoulders. Austin fights the fish and the fish is fighting Austin. It took a while but he managed to get it boat side and the fish weighed in at 42 pounds. Nice!

The wreck was active and each drift produced at least 1 bite. John asked if I could extend the trip to a ¾ day for them. Of course Devon and I said “Yes.” We like to fish as much as you do. The very next drift produced a 28 lb fish for Kim.

We continued on and they were having a ball. The winds died and seas were flat as glass now. Everyone had several rounds on the rods. Live bait and speed jigs both doing their job with the speed jigs working best in the slower currents below. We finished up our day with Amberjack and Almy’s from 5 pounds to 42 pounds with the last fish pulling the scale down to 38 pounds.

Being from Michigan they don’t catch fish like this. They had been on a lot of party boats and a few charters but never had much success. We had a lot of smiling faces as The BEAST made her run for the barn!

Capt. Jim
The BEAST
305-233-9996
beastcharters@aol.com
http://www.beastcharters.com