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do not have any pics but they will soon come..
got into ft lauderdale around 4pm and got off the plane and walked out into an over cast 68 degree day in florida. got our rental car and off we went to the hotel to check in and unpack. had to make everything quick as we had a lot of stuff to do and people to visit but most of all fishing.. went to dinner at the families in delray and back to the hotel after a good dinner and some cocktails to get some sleep for the next day..
alarm clock goes off at 530am and it is that time. jump out of bed, shower up, get dressed and look outside to a small wind blowing. or so we thought a small amount of wind. got down to the boat "mirage" at pga marina in palm beach gardens and were greeted with a nice 15-20 breeze. a little chilly but not that bad nonetheless! We were staring down a beautiful 43 viking express with great lines and a beautiful bright white and a kick ass layout!! I COULD NOT BELIEVE MY EYES!! there has been a ton of hard work put into this boat and the hard work and craftsmanship really has shined thru!
we had some coffee and waited by the dock for the captain and the owner to show up. a few minutes early we were so i did not expect them to be far behind and i turn around and there they are. Captain paul (deep c) and the owner charlies come walking down the dock. after a few hellos, how are yas, and hand shakes we board the boat and it is our time to shine. wee untie to baby after she warms to a nice prrrrrrrrrrrr. all the rods are out and we are ready to pick up some bait and rock and roll.
come out of the slip and slide down the icw and towards the parker bridge. wait for the opening and the sun begins to come up over the water with a beautiful glow! make our way thru the bridge and off we go. come out of the main icw and run down the bay towards another bridge. pick up some live goggles for some bait along with our 2-3 dozen freshly frozen hoos and we are turning the corner to the inlet.
the throttles begin to be pushed foward and the 43 viking express jumps up and out of the shoot like a true machine! she turned into the seas and pushed through a decent chop with fire in her eyes. she was trying to get wet but she just could not do it to herself! she just plowed her way through.
after a quick 3/4 - 1 1/4 mile run to the edge we decided to stop and try our luck.. after a little while we were picking at some mahi here and there when out of the corner of my eye i see the left long goggle freaking out and diving deep!! the rods begins to dip, pops the rigger, pops the wire line holder, and as i grad the rod it becomes slack... i reel my ass off to catch up with the fish and as i come tight the fish is about 10 ft out of the water coming straight as the back of the boat with fury in its eyes and its mouth wide open.. we had this large kind on for several minutes on 20lb spinning gear and 40 lb mono leader with light wire circles when we got him up to the side of the boat and grabbed the leader to get him into gaff range he finally chaffed through the 40 lb mono and he set himself free!!
it was not time to set things out again and see what we can do.... slowly we begin live bait trolling when the left long begins to dance again. this time is was a pointy little sob... he picks up the bait and pops the clips and i feed him good. goggle should have been coming out of his butt by now but he was just holding onto the goggle and not eating it.. let him turn with the goggle and when i came tight he would just hang onto the goggle and let it go.. i would stop and free it back to the sail and he came back a second time but just would not eat at all.
he slowly turned away and swam into the depths to eat another day. after that is kind of slowed a little bit but soon enough we had a nice mahi come flying up to our flat goggle and try to tear it up but missed it.. i grabbed the rod in quick order and put that goggle right into his mouth and wham!! that baby was on and starting flipping like he was a circus freak!
we started trolling dead baits after the goggle just completely died off and we found plenty of mahi. everytime i turned around another rod was getting knocked down.. there was no more than a 20 minutes break between hits and the mahi were flying into the boat! they were all nice eating size and man did they taste good.
we ended the day going 0-3 for sails and it was all because the fish were so damn lethargic they didnt want to eat anything. but caught our selves a nice fat king which was released! got a nice little fat bonito. and got ourself 11 mahi for the day!
i must say that fishing with captain paul (deep) was a true pleasure. he letme run the entire pit myself and i had an awesome time doing it.. if you are thinking twice about chartering him your are crazy!!! worth every dollar.. and make sure you invite the owner charlie.. man what a good freaking guy!! he just hung out and watched and was so happy to see fish come into the boat as i was more than happy to make it a complete and utter bloody mess for him!!
all in all the first day was a great one and i got plenty of pics i am waiting to upload and i will put up a small slide show for everyone!!
the most sails we saw released that day up north was 2 fish.. but i did find out that down south off of miami was on fire with 1 guy releasing 21 sails on saturday.. but thats why they call it fishing!! these fish are all over.. just not our day but it was one of those days i will truly remember and i will never think twice about fishing with two such wonderful guys like deep and charlie.. they were very accomodating and some of the best guys to deal with!!
like i said pics to follow!!
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Originally Posted by Deep C
