August 1
Ok so July is behind us along with most of the hurricane season and the kings and bonitos are still biting like mad dogs.
We started out August fishing with Paul from Minnesota and Wendy from Montreal Canada.
Once again we trolled the reef with 2 planner boards running deep and 3 baits skipping across the surface.
Once again the planners were the big hit. While we did catch a couple bonitos on our surface baits it was the planners that produced all the king fish and most of the bonitos.
Guys thanks again for fishing with us aboard the Hooked Up and hope to see you guys again in January when the sails are running and when it’s cold as heck up there. (LOL)
Captain Taco (954) 764-4344 or toll free (877) SEA-4344
Aug 4
Today we started out our day with a shared charter with Bob and Sam from DeKalb IL and Scott and Ken from South Florida.
And yes once again the reef was producing fish in great numbers. While we only caught a couple kingfish we filled the box with bonitos one after another.
I think we kept the boys a little busy today. (LOL)
As we got back to the dock we had a young family from Bogota Colombia Andres, Sylva, Juan and Daniel waiting for us and eager to give their luck a shot at some deep sea fishing aboard the Hooked Up.
And yes the king and bonitos were once again biting but this time after catching a bunch of kings and bonitos we decided to try a bit of wreck fishing.
Once we worked our way down to a ship wreck about 7 miles south of Port Everglades we set out a live bonito and as soon as we got the bait out there Bam the water exploded the rod bent over and line was peeling off the reel Andres grabbed the rod and the fight was on.
Now I’ve got to take a second to say that I watch so many dads take their sons fishing and I know that they are doing it all for their sons BUT you would not believe how many dads forget that their sons are even on the boat when there is a big fish on the other end of the rod. (LOL) I guess it is just a man thing. But I must say that Andres did do a great job working this fish away from the wreck and the kids were cheering him on.
After a good 15 min back and forth tug a war Andres finally got his big barracuda to the boat for a couple quick photos and we watched him swim away in good shape.
To all of our anglers today that’s for a great day of fishing.
Captain Taco (954) 764-4344 or toll free (877) SEA-4344
Aug 5
Today we were invited on a convention with some of the other local charter boats here in Ft Lauderdale and we ended up with John from Atlanta Georgia, Steve and Bud from Houston Texas, Matt from Boston and Marty from Park Land Florida.
We decided to go trolling south on the reef off the coast of Ft Lauderdale but in hindsight it was a good move and a bad move all at the same time.
You see the Navy was conducting some kind of research just outside of where we were trolling and we had been informed that we could not move off shore any further than we already were. I’ll get back to this in a min.
So off we went trolling our way down the reef with our 2 planners running about 45 feet down and our 3 surface baits skipping across the surface. We were catching bonitos and kings all the way down. Our convention coordinator had arranged for us to pick up a dozen goggle eyes on our way out. (Live baits)
Since we had the live baits along with the fact that we already had a box full of king fish and bonitos we decided to bring in the trolling great and set out 2 kites with two live baits suspended from each kite.
That’s when it happen!! All of a sudden out of nowhere popped up this 5 to 6 foot hammer head shark and he was hungry. Once he got a scent of our baits he was on it in no time. We were Hooked Up and we had a good shot at catching this fish because Captain Greg had put on wire leaders due to all the king fish that had been around.
At first things looked pretty good for us but then the shark decided he did not like this sport fishing game so much and headed off shore right toward where we were not allowed to go.
(O @#%#@%&*what to do??)Really there was nothing we could do. We tried tightening up the drag as much as we could without breaking the line but that never even slowed him down and before we knew it BANG we were out of line and he was gone. (RATS)
Ok back to fishing we set the baits right back out there and managed to catch a few more kings and bonitos.
Then all of a sudden one of our kite baits went down but no one seen what grabbed it. All at once this big sailfish came jumping out of the water and we were Hooked Up again. This time John jumped in the chair and the fight was on. This fish also headed off shore a bit but we were able to turn him around and after a good 15 min fight John had his big sailfish to the side of the boat. They got a couple of photos of the fish in the water and we set him free.
Way to go john.
Guys please send me the photos I would love to post them.
That’s all for now but stay tuned for tomorrow’s big game action off the coast of Ft Lauderdale.
Captain Taco (954) 764-4344 or toll free (877) SEA-4344
Aug 7
Today we had the family from Kansas City aboard for some deep sea fishing. We had Khyle his son Logan and his mom Pat we also had Dan his daughter Jordan and his wife whose name we never got (sorry)
Today before we started trolling we stopped and caught some live ballyhoos so we could do a little sail fishing after trolling.
Once we caught our live baits we went to trolling and while we did manage to catch a few bonitos, kings and one nice barracuda trolling was a lot slower then is has been so we cut it a bit short and set out our live ballyhoos hoping to run across a sail fish.
After a good hour and a half with no luck on the live baits we ended the trip trolling once again and catching another king fish.
Khyle we know you guys had a ball but honestly fishing was a bit slower than it has been so we are looking forward to fishing with you again tomorrow to make it up to you guys.
Thanks again and we’ll see you in the morning.
Captain Taco (954) 764-4344 or toll free (877) SEA-4344
Aug 8
Today we had Jim from Ohio and his son D.J. and their close friends Jim and his son Princess that’s right princess and if you seen this BIG guy you know he may be a lot of things but Princess he is not but that’s what his dad Jim called him and that’s what he said his name was so who am I to argue. (LOL)
Anyway back to the fishing. We trolled the reef with our 2 planners running about 45 feet deep and three surface baits skipping across the surface.
And once again the reef produced kings and bonitos. We ended up catching 8 kings and 2 bonitos.
As we pulled back to the dock we had John from Panama City and Michael and his son Lucas waiting for us.
And once again we went right to trolling the reef catching 8 nice king fish.
Thanks to all of our anglers today for fishing aboard the Hooked Up.
Captain Taco (954) 764-4344 or toll free (877) SEA-4344
Aug 9
Today we had Jim and his son D.J. our again for a few hours of deep sea fishing again.
Today Jim let us know that they had caught plenty of kings and bonitos yesterday and today they wanted to try landing a big fish like a shark, sailfish, tuna or anything big.
We went right out to 350 feet of water and set our 3 big dead bonitos. One 350 down on the bottom one about 150 feet down and a 3rd right on the surface. I wish I had a great ending to this story but we never did get that BIG bite we were hoping for.
So we ended the trip trolling the reef and catching a few more king fish.
Jim and D.J. thanks again for fishing aboard the Hooked Up and we hope we get a chance to fish with you guys this January when the sails are around.
Captain Taco (954) 764-4344 or toll free at (877) SEA-4344
Aug 10
Today we a special treat we had our old friends Reese and Jeff from Ft Lauderdale and Joe and our old fishing buddy Jacob from Michigan.
We stopped off at the marina on our way out and picked up a dozen goggle eyes (live bait) and went right off shore in about 150 feet of water to do some kite fishing trying to catch a sail fish.
Once we got all 4 live baits suspended from the kites all hell broke loose.
A king fish went after our right short kite bait while J.J. was trying to hook him another one was on our left long. Then still another one on the right long and before we knew what had happen we got 3 out of the four baits were chopped in half and all we had to show for it was one king fish. (RATS)
That was enough of that at $6:50 per bait I knew it was time to move out to deeper water where hopefully the kings would not eat us up.
Once we got into 300 feet of water we set the kite baits right back out there the only problem was that now we were getting no bites at all.
After a good hour and a half without a bite we decided to bring in what we had left of the live baits and set out our trolling gear.
Now we were catching not just fishing.
It only took about 45 min to catch a good hand full of kings so everyone got to catch a couple fish.
Thanks again guys as always enjoyed the heck out of fishing with all of you and lets do it again soon.
Captain Taco (954) 764-4344 or toll free (877) SEA-4344
Aug 11
Today we had Mario and his son Jonathan and their close friend Jack all from Montreal Canada our for a few hours of deep sea fishing aboard the Hooked up off the coast of Fort Lauderdale.
Today we were just looking for some steady action and by god that is just what we got.
We set out our 2 planners running about 45 feet deep and three surface baits skipping across the tops of the waves.
Once again the planners were tearing them up catching kingfish bonitos and even some barracudas. But all of a sudden we got a big bite on one of our planners and at the same time one of our rigger baits got hit.
It turned out to be a couple 20 pound Wahoo’s. Our mate today was Kevin and he was all over these fish. Just as the Wahoo on the rigger got within gaffing range BAM he was in the boat. But I’m sorry to say that the other Wahoo on the planner shook head one last time and cut thru our line like it was hot butter.
Well that’s fishing but one out of two Wahoo’s on mono leader is not bad.
All together we ended up with 5 small barracudas, 4 kingfish, 5 bonitos and one 20 pound Wahoo.
Not a bad morning of fishing way to go guys.
Captain Taco (954) 764-4344 or toll free (877) SEA-4344
Aug 13
Friday the 13 that’s fight and today we’ve got Rene and his sister Rikki and two very close friends of the family Vicky and Diane all from Texas down here in Sunny South Florida to watch their brother Roger Huerta AKA (El Matador) fight at Hard Rock. As it turned out Rogers’ fight was canceled due to his opponent getting hurt in practice. But if you get a chance goggle this Roger Huerta he is one bad ass that has finally hit the big time in fighting.
Since they were already down here they figured any kind of fight would do so how about fighting a fish or two.
I’ve got to say that a finer group of people you would be hard pressed to find.
We trolled the reef with two planners running about 45 feet down along with three baits skipping across the surface.
While we did not get much action on our surface baits the two planner rods were on fire.
We were catching kings and bonitos one after another and the bantering back and forth was just about as good as it gets.
Vicky and Rene were at each other the entire trip and they just had the rest of us in stitches.
Thanks again guys for great time fishing and for all the laughs.
Captain Taco (954) 764-4344 or toll free (877) SEA-4344
Aug 15
Today we had Eddie the baker from Publix where shopping is a pleaser and his girl friend Marge from Pompano. Eddies brother Greg and his wife Annette came down to visit from Mississippi.
Now Eddie has had this trip planned for over a month now and I run into him every couple days at Publix and I knew how excited they all were about this fishing trip so to say the pressure was on an understatement.
Seeing I was under the gun to produce fish I knew that trolling the reef was going to be my best bet to put plenty of fish in the box.
We set out both planners running about 45 feet down and three bait on the surface skipping across the surface.
BUT much to my surprise today the reef was just not producing many bites. We did manage to catch 1 bonito and three small barracudas but that was it and it was time for some fast thinking.
Plain B we brought in all the trolling gear and sent down two chicken rigs to the bottom. A chicken Rig is 5 hooks in a row with a lead at the bottom and is used for catching snappers.
Plain B was a big hit!! The snappers were biting like mad dogs and we were now not only catching but we were catching some great eating fish. Things were going pretty much as we would have hoped for when all of a sudden Eddies rod started bending over a bit more than the rest of the times and we knew we had something different on this time. When Eddie finally reeled his fish to the surface I could not believe my eyes he had caught a 5 pound yellow eye snapper in 170 feet of water.
For those of you that don’t know what a yellow eye snapper is well let me just say that it is one of the best eating fish you can put on a plate. The funny part is that these fish are usually caught anywhere from 350 feet of water out to 600 on the bottom but never have I seen one in 170.
We ended up with more than enough fish and I am sure everyone had a ball. Thanks again guys and Eddie you owe me a box of your special donuts. (LOL)
As we got back to the dock we had our afternoon party waiting to give their luck a shot aboard the Hooked Up.
This afternoon we had a shared charter with Kevin and his son Bryson from Westin Florida and their good friend Greg from Pembroke Pines Florida and last but not least Wendy from Minnesota who had fished with us last week.
We decided to once again try some trolling and then hit some snappers once we got down to where we had caught them earlier. But this time the reef was going off and the kings and bonitos were biting like crazy. I’ve got to take a second to say that I’ve been fishing the waters off the coast of fort Lauderdale since 1974 and once I think I’ve got it figured out I find out that you just never can quite figure out mother nature. This morning the reef was dead and this afternoon we can’t even get all the baits in the water. (GO FIGURE)
Anyways back to the fishing we loaded the box with king fish and bonitos but once I got down to where we had wacked the snappers earlier but now all we could catch was 2 little snappers.
All in all everyone aboard the Hooked Up today had a ball and we can’t thank you guys enough for fishing aboard the Hooked Up.
Captain Taco (954) 764-4344 or toll free (877) SEA-4344
Aug 16
Today we had Melissa and Aaron the honeymooners from Lansing Mi spend the afternoon fishing aboard the Hooked Up.
These two were just out to have a good time no matter what. You could have put them in a mud puddle and they would have had a ball. We started out trolling the reef with 2 planners running deep and 3 baits skipping across the surface and when we got our first bite I had to turn around you would have thought we had a 1000 pound blue marlin on by the way they were yelling and just having a ball.
Somehow they got me all caught up in their excitement and we were all yelling and just trolling down the reef. The other boats must have thought we were nuts. But the fact is we were having a ball and the kings and bonitos were biting the bottom out of the boat. We were not fishing we were catching and having a ball at it.
Aaron had told me that what they would really to catch was a big fish to hang on their wall to remember their honeymoon with.
So we trolled our way to the south off the coast of Hallandale beach Florida where there was 3 big structures on the bottom that sometimes holds some big barracudas. Just before we got there we had hooked into a nice 8 pound bonito and we decided to keep him alive and set 3 big trouble hooks in him and see just what kind of sea monster we could pull out.
Things were going according to plan till all of a sudden BAM we got the bite BUT we did not get the hooks into whatever sea monster it was that took half of our 8 pound bonito. (RATS)
Now here we were 7 miles from our inlet running short on time and no live bait.
I made an executive dissension and we ran all the way back to a buoy in front of our inlet and set out a couple of dead bonitos on the bottom and hopped for a big shark.
Aaron had come up on the bridge with me after we got the baits set out and asked how much longer we had. I told him we only had about 25 min left but that the good news was it only takes one second to get the bite. All of a sudden our bait that was connected to a balloon took off and we were Hooked Up.
Melissa jumped in the chair and the fight was on. She would gain 10 feet and the fish would take 20 back and forth. After a good 15 min she decided to make this a family affair and Aaron jumped in the chair. And once again as soon as he would get the fish close to the boat off it would go again at will.
Now we do this fishing thing everyday and most of the time we know what we are fighting and we were sure this was a big sand bar shark but after a good 35 min of back and forth tug a war up popped this 94 inch Hammer head shark. What a great surprise and at this point the shark was tired and all wrapped up in the leader so we decided to slide him in the tuna door to get a quick measurement and a couple of pictures to have a replica trophy made of the honeymooners catch.
What a great way to end the day. Melissa and Aaron thanks sooo much and have a great time in the Dominican Republic.
Captain Taco (954) 764-4344 or toll free (877) SEA-4344