Beiträge von The BEAST

Some of my customers brought me a gift from the frozen north… a chest and sinus cold which has me a bit under the weather still. With that in mind, I’m not going to get into an involved discussion about our crazy weather since everyone reading this is already aware of it or are simply oblivious. The weather is not the only thing out of sync. Fish patterns are out of whack as well. It appears that spring time patterns have arrived 3-4 weeks early in our area. This is not a bad thing because it offers many more opportunities to catch fish, be it for sport or table fare.

Since my last report I’ve been out several times with one of those being one of our beloved “fun” trips. Before Easter we had trips with some really nice guys and all were short ¾ day trips. Most of our short trips can be described as either, time restrictive, possible “chummers”, or people who hold a spinning reel upside down. Many of these trips are people who just want to catch fish, with the only criteria being, BIG!

Jon falls under the first category I mentioned…time constraints. Being one of my favorites, he is an excellent angler who fishes with us all the time. He fishes often by himself, and generally wants to catch only Sails or Swords. He was fishing a short day, unusual for him, but we managed to hook him up to a Sail, 3 Kingfish, and a Bonito.

The next trip was Pete, Jeff, and Fred who also did a short day as did the other trip with Charles, Don, and Johnny. These trips fell under the other categories but I will leave the explanations at that. Pete, Jeff and Fred, managed to have a nice day getting hooked up to a Sailfish, 2 nice Kingfish, and 3 Amberjack to 60 pounds. We also managed to catch 7 fat Mango Snapper while trying to make bait.

Charles, Don, and Johnny weren’t so lucky with the sea conditions as the previous trips. Mother Nature had issued them some huffing winds and standing seas in the morning. They fished for an hour trying for a Sailfish and losing a mystery fish on a blistering run. They opted to go a few rounds of “mano y mano” on the wrecks. They had a blast and were absolutely worn out after wrestling 8 of those large AJ’s. They were so worn out that Don and Johnny each took a nap in the bean bags on the way in. Johnny caught the largest A-Jack that day, a solid 55 pounds. Notice the broken stand up rod visible above my shiny bald head. These fish are tackle busters.

We gave it one last shot for a Sailfish and dropped the down rod almost to the bottom. Don finished the day with a dinner sized Mutton Snapper.

This past Saturday Devon, Amy and I decided to go out for a fun day and try a few new ideas. When we do these “fun” days, nothing is regimented from the time we meet at the dock until the time we say good bye. We all arrived around 7:30 and began loading the boat.

We got underway and as we left the Marina we began collecting our live bait by tossing the net on some small schools of mullet. We also gathered some Hardtails and Ballyhoo on hook and line as we made our way offshore. We were trying everything that came to mind on this day. The 3 of us love to fish these no pressure days and we always seem to have considerable success. Staying busy was the motto for the day. Since we are all decent anglers, we ran a spread that covered it all. We had 3 Ballyhoo on flat lines, a Mullet and a Hardtail flying off the kite, a Ballyhoo mid depth on the down rod, a Mullet on the bottom rod and Devon jigging a hair jig/hoo combo.

First up was a nice little Bull Dorado on a flat lined Ballyhoo. Shortly afterwards a smaller Cow ate the Hardtail flying off the kite. 15 minutes after resetting we had a Sailfish eating the kite riding Mullet. We missed a few Kingfish bites and lost a Cero Mackerel at the boat. As the day progressed and the bite slowed, we ventured offshore to one of the deeper wrecks. Several drops using Hardtails on one rod and Ballyhoo on the other produced us 3 Amberjack in the 30 pound range and 6 Mutton Snapper. WOW! Enough of that! Catching AJ’s is too much like work!

We pulled off the wreck and went back to drifting on the 1-2’ seas. We continued to catch fish all day with the bottom bite being excellent. We did have 2 more Sailfish attempts but never got the hook up. We called it a day with only 2 Hardtails, 1 Mullet, and 2 weak Ballyhoo baits left in the live wells. We tallied the 3 Sailfish bites, 2 Dorado, 3 AJ’s, 15 Mutton Snapper, 3 Sand Tiles, 1 Bonito, and a Queen Trigger. We pointed the bows of The BEAST towards the barn and throttled her up. We arrived at the Marina, with a full fish box, tired and grinning from ear to ear!

Anytime you get to have a day on the water with the family, it is like having cheese cake for desert. When you have a day like we had it is like adding fresh raspberries on top of that cheesecake.

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

I recently took a pair of New Yorkers, Jason Carter and his son Jordan, on 2 days of fishing. They wanted to do a full day of Sailfish and a night trip for Swordfish. I told them at the time of the booking that the Swordfish were not “on fire” right now and they might rather do 2 day trips instead. We left it at a “play it by ear” type second day.

They met up with Devon and I on Thursday and, once again, reiterated the desire to do a full day trip and a Swordfish night. I forewarned them that the Sword fishing was slow and could possibly end up being a bust, but they stated that they had made day commitments and wanted to have the night Sword experience, if for nothing else. With that decision etched in stone, we headed off to catch our bait. The bait was a bit persnickety but we managed to get enough for the day. After catching bait we made our way to the edge, on flat seas, to begin the day of fishing. Good grief! I hate calm seas when it comes to fishing, but it is what it is, and we must make the best of every situation.

Putting out our usual compliment of 5 rods, the day started off with a Kingfish on the down rod. After a bit we boated a nice chubby school Dolphin during a short tirade by these fish that seemed more set on harassing the baits than eating them. I talked to Dennis on “Mutuna” via VHF for a quick report. He as many had begun their day chasing these finicky Dolphin but that was the extent of their day so far. We continued watching the surface lines for activity while the Kingfish were keeping us semi content on the down rod. On one occasion we caught a Kingfish and as we had it boat side, about to bring it in for a release, an extremely large Barracuda came out from under the boat and bit off 1/2 of the fish. Devon told Jordan to drop the rod again to see if we could hook up this large ‘Cuda. Once again it came out from under the boat and ate the other 1/2 but unfortunately his mouth was so big it engulfed all of the wire and caught part of the mono leader…game over, boys! We caught and released another Kingfish and to our surprise another Barracuda. OK, enough of this, with 1 King and 1 Dolphin in the box and no Sailfish showing their snoots, we decided to go test the boy’s metal on some bruiser AJ’s for a few hours.

Arriving at our favorite “angler testing wreck” we sent down a couple of hardtails. KABOOM! It didn’t take long and Jordan was being taught a lesson in Amberjack 101. We finally had to break out the shoulder harness to keep him from flunking out of this school. His Dad and he, passed the course with a 66% rating with the top fish being 45 # on the scale.

We left the wreck with tired anglers and fishing time growing short, but hoping for a Sailfish in the last hour or so of the trip. It was not to happen this day as Jordan unexpectedly called the trip due to some plans he had made with a college friend. Total tally on Day 1 was 2 of 6 Kingfish, 4 of 6 Amberjack, 1 Dolphin, and 1 Barracuda.

I will make this part of the report much shorter since our night was mundane at best. Jason and Jordan arrived on Friday evening for their Sword trip. They were about an hour late (traffic). I wanted to have lines set up on the drift, right before sunset, but that was not going to be the case. Oh well. We made 2 drifts of 10 miles each, one deep and one shallower. The baits were hanging beautifully but nothing doing. We didn’t have a smack, whack, or bite the entire night. Not even a pesky night shark. The Hydro-Glow light didn’t pull in the usual assortment of baitfish. At 2 AM Jason called the trip. He remarked that I had forewarned them that this could very well be the outcome, yet the experience was still amazing.

All too often, many tend to lose sight of the absolute beauty that surrounds us. It takes someone like Jason and Jordan to remind us that there is enjoyment in the experience, the vivid colors of the sea, the sun or moon rising brightly over the water, the aroma of clean ocean air… success should not be measured solely by the pungent smell of fish in the fish box.

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

Milchner (Uwe),

I'll be honest with you... I have eaten so much Dolphin over the years that I really don't care for it as much as some other species, anymore. I smoked the Jacks that we caught that week and it is incredible. I make a mean smoked fish dip. I eat both as snacks and in sandwiches. I gave most of the Dolphin to neighbors who are not as fortunate as me to have fresh fish readily available. There is nothing like eating fresh fish... so fresh most were swimming only hours ago. I haven't decided how I'm going to prepare the Cobia yet. It is a firm, dense meat similar to that of a shark, but better.

I eat so much fish that I believe I am growing gills.

Steffen,

If you read this... I will try to remember to bring some smoked fish on board The BEAST, for you and Silmara to snack on, when you return to fish on May 1 + 2

Capt. Jim

The BEAST

Another couple of weeks have gone by with the usual unseasonably warm weather and then a surprise we got a cold front. The 2 days right after the front passed showed a dramatic Sailfish bite, but as luck would have it, I had no trips during that time. This winter has produced a very sporadic season at best which truly defines the phrases, hot and cold, on and off, yin and yang. This is frustrating when people come from all over the globe, most trying to get a shot at a Sailfish. I’m sure many of my fellow fishermen can relate to these slow conditions.

The past 3 trips prior to today were a struggle. One day the bait was almost jumping in the boat and the next day we had to make up little tricks to fill the wells. The trusty old downrigger was silent for the most part. Why? Your guess is as good as mine. The Kingfish were so fast and loose, but now are lacking. They were our “stay busy” species while waiting for the more desirable Sailfish bite, of which we only had one in the last 3 trips. We did manage to catch a Bonito, a couple of Cero Mackerel, 2 or 3 small, sub-legal Kingfish, and a small Dolphin or two.

We spent too many boring hours with no action. The only thing that kept me from second guessing myself was the fact that everyone else was having the same struggle as us. Being disappointed was becoming commonplace. At some point on most of our trips, we went to one of our favorite wrecks. The Amberjack and Almaco Jacks were in good numbers and willing to pull on our fishing lines. We did have an encounter with a large Hammerhead. I’m not kidding when I say large. This Hammerhead was every bit of 10-12 feet in length. The dorsal fin rose 2’ above the water and the head was over 3’ feet across This monster took a full minute to eat my kite bait and we were hooked up… for about 30 seconds.

The day of this writing Devon and I met Jon at the dock at 7 AM. The biggest problem was that the rest of the group wouldn’t get there until 11:15. We took our time and ventured into the bay to get some bait while we were waiting. Things were going good as we chummed up some Hardtails and Ballyhoo on a spot east of the Marina. We fished our live wells full and headed back in. Perfect timing! As we arrived at the dock, the guys were getting out of their car. We exited the Marina and I pushed the throttles down heading straight out to sea. Our game plan was to begin by putting these guys on some AJ’s first and wearing them out. I immediately changed that plan when I heard some of my boys having triple header Sailfish action as I was coming across the patches. One quick click on the VHF and Donny confirmed it for me. Stiff winds out of the SE had the waves on the reef all slopped up and the reef edge had 5’ standers. My 600 pony powered World Cat 330TE punched through all of this at speed.

First lines in and 5 minutes into fishing and we have a double header of Sailfish going. One is hooked up and the other knocks the bait off. A good bit of jumping ensues and the fish takes my angler “down and dirty”. With some coaching we get the leader touch just as the fish pulls away from the boat again. The angler was fairly new to fishing so I tried to teach him how to cup the spool to give added pressure when needed and to release the spool when he felt the fish pulling. This was a mistake. I should have left well enough alone. He didn’t have the feel for this and the 20# line parted. No big deal, it was a legal catch, we just didn’t get the tagging done. I consoled him by remarking that it was a good thing since the fish wasn’t tired out and we could get back to fishing. The action slowed some so I put out a kite with one bait. The downrigger was quiet, as usual here lately, when suddenly it pops off. This is not a Kingfish by all indications of the fight. No sir, instead we boated a 30 pound Cobia. NICE!

A short time passes and the kite bait gets hit and we are into a nice Dolphin. As we work this fish to the boat we see it is the Cow and the smaller Bull is about 15 feet to the outside of her. An errant cast, trying to put a live bait out to the Bull, almost costs us the hooked fish. Devon sticks the gaff into the Cow and 30 pounds of Dolphin slides into the fish box.

One of the guys has to make a flight at MIA so we get the word to dump the live wells and prepare to button up the show. We had plenty of bait and dumped all of it at once. Within minutes the ocean came to life with Kingfish skyrocketing out of the water and a Sailfish taking the kite bait. Bada bing! A quick hook up! It ended just as quickly with a bit of angler error when he didn’t come tight on the line quick enough after the first jump.

Keep in mind that the half day trip the day before only resulted in a Dolphin and that Hammerhead bite. This next day, although short as well ended with 1 for 3 shots on Sails, a 30 pound Cobia, 30 pound Dolphin, a small “snake” Kingfish, and a Slippery Dick. This just goes to prove what a difference a day can make!

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