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Since the seas have been rough and the fishin' has been slow down here lately, I don't have any good recent reports to share with y'all. But here's one from this past Labor Day Weekend. Looked for YFT on the north side of the Bahama Bank, Swordfished off Pompano Beach FL, and deep-dropped off Boca Raton... all in the same weekend. Enjoy!
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Saturday: f/v Certifiable, 36' Contender
By buddy Eric and I were invited to fish for yellowfin tuna out of Fort Pierce, FL with Ray and two of his buddies, Steve and Larry, aboard Ray’s awesome 36’ Contender “Certifiable”. Left the dock at 6:30am and made bait on the cans outside the inlet. At this point, time and distance became irrelevant to me. I was along for the ride with a couple guys that have done this kinda trip before... hunting YFTs north of the Bahamas.
After a lot of water passed under the hull, we started searching for the birds. Found many flocks working the water, but most were on skipjack tuna. We kept a few of the first skippies, including one over 20lbs. Then started releasing ‘em left and right. Steve managed to bring a small blackfin to the boat amidst the skippies, but the hook popped as soon as I tried to lift it. Sure... drag and skip it across the water for 300 yards, but the hook falls out at boatside? Geez.
Finally found some yellas leaping 10-15ft out of the water. Trolled around ‘em with no luck, found ‘em again, cut the engines and put out the livies. Nada. Same with the next few schools. Made another attempt with the livies while I sent a butterfly jig down off the bow... BAM! You gotta be kidding me! It worked?!?! A few minutes later, and with the threat of an 8-foot shark circling the boat, I put a 6lb blackfin on ice... destined to meet the knife of my favorite sushi chef.
Kept chasing the birds and releasing skippies for a while. Finally, Ray and Larry got into a double-header with a pair of yellas! Although Larry’s pulled off, Ray got his in. About 40lbs. On ice. Looked for a while longer, but no more yellowfin hook-ups.
Deep-drop time. The day before, I had picked up a brand new Daiwa TB1000 (Dendoh Tanacom Bull) electric reel, spooled with 900yds of 80lb spectra from Tek at ReelProShop.com. Ray put us on one of his deep drop numbers in 1300ft of water. Steve sent down a Kristal 621 and I sent down my new Daiwa for its maiden drop. Of course, there were several jokes about the “little” Daiwa -vs- the big Kristal. Mostly jibes about it probably handling a stringer of rosies, but not a 20 or 30lb grouper. I honestly didn’t know if it could do the job either.
Touchdown. After a few minutes of bouncing the bottom, thump, and my drag starts peeling out... tighten the drag and power it up. After about 5 minutes of the Daiwa groaning away, I was quickly losing confidence in my new reel. Thinking out loud, “It’s gonna suck if this thing is having trouble with a string of rosies.” I quickly changed my attitude when 5 minutes later, a 60LB Misty Grouper reaches the surface! Holy ****!!! Coincidentally, it was also my very first “keeper” grouper of any species.
Steve drags the Kristal up empty.
2nd drop. Both rigs get sent down again. Few minutes later... thump thump thump. Not as big as the first, but whatever it is, the Daiwa was coming up full-speed with very little effort. 5lb Queen Snapper... also my first.
Steve drags the Kristal up empty, again.
3rd drop. We both struck out. Packed up the deep drop gear and went back to the tuna hunt. Another hour of skippies, then we settled in for the run back to Fort Pierce. About 30 minutes before we reached the inlet, we passed about 1/4 mile in front of one of these new NAVY "Sea Fighter" littoral fighting ships. Weird-looking vessel... but it was hauling ass!
Got a blast of 60-degree air from a storm cell within 2 miles of the inlet, but managed to avoid any nastiness. A few hours later, I was passed-out at home. End of Day 1.
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Sunday: f/v EmiJess, 27' Polar
Got a call from my buddy TJ to do a swordfishing run outta Boca Raton. Of course! Met him and a different Eric at the ramp just after 5pm. The ramp was a zoo! But that was to be expected on a holiday weekend. Dropped on my Barrelfish numbers on the way out to the sword grounds. Couldn’t find ‘em, but did pick up a couple rosies.
The rest of the night, we might have been better off trolling for dolphin and wahoo on the weedlines. The sword bite was off. Way WAY off. Not even a slash for us or several other boats in the area. Saw lots of critters in the water as our drift kept us near a weed line. Had a pesky cuda messing with our squids for a while, until Eric hooked him with a spinner. Released and didn’t bother us again. Saw several schools of mahi cruise by. Most small, but one was pushing 20. No hook-ups. A little while later, a wahoo came slinking around the light. TJ managed to feed it a bally, but it dropped the bait when he got tight. Probably about 15lbs judging by the bite marks. No more action, other than the dipnet bonanza of assorted weedline critters. Home at about 2am.
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Monday: f/v Uncle Buck, 21' Sailfish
I slowly rolled outta bed at the crack of 11am. Put my gear together and headed up to Boynton Beach (to my rack-storage marina) to splash the f/v Uncle Buck for some more deep dropping. I gave a call to Eric on the way south, and picked him up at Boca ramp at 2:30pm. Headed out to “Buck’s Humps” in search of the barrels again. First few drops only resulted in rosies. Eric decided to go “all-in” with my Tiagra 50w to see what manual deep-dropping in 900-something feet was all about. Mostly just to say he’s done it, I guess. He dropped twice, catching a rosie each time, but no barrelfish, yet.
I was determined to catch a barrelfish with crew on board. (I was solo the other times I’ve caught ‘em.) I moved a little north of my usual spot, then sent both rods down. A few minutes go by and BAM-BAM. We both hook-up on decent fish. I put the Daiwa on automatic, and motored the boat to assist Eric as much as possible. Got my barrelfish up and in the cooler, then focused on Eric’s fish. Barrel #2 and a bonus rosie on ice a few minutes later. Mission accomplished.
We moved over to Wilmont’s Hump to hunt tilefish. After the first double-drop and a few more rosies, the wind changed direction due to the late afternoon storms on land. (We both kinda laughed thinking about the chaos that must be going on at the ramp and within Lake Boca.) The conflicting current and wind made it impossible to control the drift with 2 lines down. I let Eric do his drops while I did the best to control the boat for bottom bouncing. He brought up another rosie, but no tiles. I sent the Daiwa back down twice more for a total of 1.5 miles of tapping the bottom. Got hung-up briefly at the end of the second drop, freed the snag, and pulled up a quad of rosies.
By then it was about 7:45, so we headed for the ramp. It was so nice to see the crowds had gone. A packed Lake Boca was now down to only 3 anchored boats. Final tally: 2 Barrelfish 18 & 20lbs, and a dozen Blackbelly Rosefish. A good haul for what sounded like a slow day for others offshore.
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Originally Posted by JMS-ILM
