ROUGH seas & bad JU-JU!

WOW! We have been spoiled by all the calmer days we’ve fished so far during this Sailfish season. Sunday, was a horse of a different color! The winds were recorded at 20-23 knots dead out of the East. The seas were every bit of 6 feet for the entire day. It was the kind of day that keeps me pretty much pinned to the helm and Devon working his rear off in the pit!

We met Ethan and Lael Shapiro at the dock, quickly exchanged pleasantries, and then unleashed The BEAST. We caught about 2 dozen Hardtails quickly then headed for the Ballyhoo patch. As we were traversing the Bay, they told us of their last year’s trip in Islamorada where they fished 10’ seas for a whole day and only caught 1 short Mutton Snapper. Ethan and Lael expressed that they wanted to bring home some Kingfish for their Mother for dinner. Devon was quick to comment that The BEAST has good karma with Mother Ocean and getting a few Kingfish at the least, should not be a problem at all. Be careful of what you speak, grasshopper!

We arrived at the bait patch and the ‘hoo came up plentiful and quick. We caught about 4 dozen “hookers” and put them in a separate live well. I tossed the Calusa net twice and topped off the other well with the Blue Runners. I’d love to say we blasted out to the “edge” but the waters inshore were capping and rough so we took our time motoring out at about 20 mph. We arrived on the “edge” to find a 3-5’ washing machine chop with 6’+ ground swells and a strong north current. This was going to be “Sporty” to say the least. These conditions meant we will be working in the ditch for a good part of the day! Thankfully, my WorldCat 330TE provides a stable fishing deck, that makes this type of fishing possible.

We put out 3 top lines and one down line. Shortly thereafter, we had a taker on the d/rigger but it came unpinned. Devon reset the d/r and once again we had a bite. The line took a short run and then this fish too, shook the hook. OK! It’s going to be like this, huh? Devon pulled out a Horse ‘Hoo from the “hooker” well and sent it down to 80 feet. I idled this spread around for about 20 minutes in the area where we got the last 2 strikes. The Horse entices a strong bite. This one is hooked and hooked solid. Ethan jumps on the rod and quickly realizes this is going to be a fight. He is on the rod for almost 10 minutes when he passes it off to his brother, Lael. We razzed him about the switch off. Another 5 minutes and we can see some color but not make out what it is or even the shape of the fish, only seeing flashes of it about 75 feet down. The fish begins to take drag again and we are now chasing him. The whole crew was distracted with this fish when suddenly, Devon notices the right rigger has popped and the line is paying out. With half of the spool spent, he quickly begins retrieving it. Sailfish on! Ethan grabs this rod since he has never caught a Sailfish. A long belly in the line and the fish airs out! We had to convince Ethan to keep reeling until he came tight on the fish. We were using circle hooks and when he finally came tight on the fish, it went acrobatic again. This fish was huge, the largest Sailfish we’ve hooked this year.

Now the dilemma begins. It is really, GAME ON!!!! Both fish are heading SW and taking drag so I bump up the throttles. This scenario is going too well at this point and I guess the Sailfish realized this and changes course to the NE. Isn’t this a peach?!? We have both anglers, fighting BIG fish, and each taking line 180 degrees from the other. I put the boat in neutral as there is little I can do to help either angler at this point. The “Mystery fish” is on 50 pound braid so I tell Devon to put the heat (drag) on that fish. It isn’t working and the line is melting off both reels. Meanwhile I have to contend with 2 boats that begin crowding me. They aren’t listening to the radio so I yell to the one that I have a very large fish strung out right behind his boat, and thankfully, he heard me and powered out of our way. The saga gets hairy right about now! As the 300 yards of braid is almost gone on the “Mystery fish” and the Sailfish has taken ¾ of the line on the 20# spinner, we have to make a choice. We are guessing the “Mystery fish” is a shark, since it is acting as if we are hooked to a submarine. We chose Ethan’s first ever Sailfish! Lael begins to add thumb pressure to try and stop his fish as the braid continues to leave the spool and we are now on the mono backing. Before anyone comments that we should have put a float on one of the rods and tossed it over, I will tell you that we don’t throw $400 worth of equipment over the side, on The BEAST!!!!

Down to the nitty gritty, I turn the boat slightly toward the Sailfish and begin gaining line, one painful rod pull at a time. The Mystery fish is steadily taking line and then it ends with Lael almost falling onto the deck as the line parts with about 30 yards of mono left on the spool. Crap! We tried everything, but we just couldn’t stop him! Dejectedly, I start tracking toward Ethan’s Sailfish and bump up the throttles again to recover some line and notice the second boat is real close and about to cross my strung out fishing line. As I motioned to him, to give me room it is too late and he crosses our line only 50 yards from our boat. I grabbed Ethan and told him to stick the rod completely under the water, straight down as far as he could. Thank the Lord, it worked as the line passes the other boat cleanly. That was too close for comfort! The rest of the fight was down and dirty and after 35 minutes, we finally have his fish to the boat for a tag and release. We estimated this fish to be about 75 pounds and about 72” LJFT length. She was tired and in marginal condition due to the lengthy fight, so we revived her for over 5 minutes until she regained her mobility and swam away! The topic of conversation for the next hour was that of the lost “Mystery fish” which, unfortunately, overshadowed the event filled fight and incredible size of Ethan’s monster Sail.

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Later, we tried for some Muttons and were marking the fish on the recorder but they wouldn’t eat. We did catch a big Caribbean Spotted Mackerel, aka Barracuda, while dropping the bottom. As the day wears on, we managed to catch 3 Bonito on speed jigs, and a small sub-legal (1 inch short) Kingfish on a hair jig / bally combo. The witching hour arrives and we are still working hard when Ethan says he saw something near the left rigger bait. The line pops out of the line clip, Lael takes the rod and is into a Sailfish. This time it was a routine catch and we had the fish to the boat in 10 minutes. We finished the day with another strong bite on the d/r which pulled the hooks after a few minutes.

We tried everything we could to get them a meat fish. Devon and I were flabbergasted! The rougher the day the better the fishing, usually, but it was sort of slow for us! Bummer! A cloud of bad Ju-Ju was definitely hanging over the Shapiro brothers!!! Lael and Ethan reassured us that they had a great time and that is just their luck on almost every fishing trip!

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

S. Florida is off the hook!

This past Sunday I took out a group of brothers, Scott, Ben, Sterling, Billy and their Dad, Wayne. We all met at the dock at 7 AM, Devon stowed their gear, food, and drinks. We pulled the strings on The BEAST and motored out into the Bay under placid conditions. Very little wind and very calm water is usually a sign of good boating and crap fishing. I throttled up the 600 ponies and we were off. We coursed the Bay and into the patch reefs to find the exact same conditions there. Oh well, we’ll try to make the best of it.

We arrived at our favorite bait patch and deployed the chum and within minutes we started seeing bait. We put 3 guys on the bait rods and started catching our days bait. About 15 minutes into it and the tide is starting to go toward slack. Oh boy?!? The bait started to get finicky and confused, moving in and out trying to lock in on the chum scent. I threw the net, but the mirror-like water let them see it coming. Each and every one of them successfully dodged the 10’ net. We had to work them with the rods some more. We finally had enough bait for the day and as we were securing the rods the bait came in to the chum, feeling secure. I loaded the net again and thanks to my old duck hunting days, I led the school just right with the net toss. Now we are definitely good to go!

We pulled off the edge and put out our customary spread. About 15 minutes into the day and the d/rigger went off. Billy brings an average Kingfish to the boat. Several minutes later and Ben has one on. After boating that fish it was Wayne’s turn.

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With 3 Kingfish in the box within the first 30 minutes, the current really starts ripping to the north. Things are looking up. Shortly after the strong current began we had the right rigger pop off. Scott is hooked up to a Sailfish. Several nice jumps and a down and dirty fight for 15 minutes and the fish is led to a swift tag and release. This was his first completed Sailfish catch. Not a bad start for conditions on the ocean that more resembled the water of a secluded pond. The fishing is much better than we anticipated. As we’re BS’ing a bit, I caught something out of the corner of my eye and yelled, “Left rigger!” Before anyone could get to the rod the fish goes skyward, ejecting the bait . Too slow on the reaction time there, boys.

We hit a bit of a lull for about an hour or maybe a bit more. We all had enough downtime to eat some lunch. Devon and the other guys began pounding the water with speed jigs and jig/bally’s. They managed to pull out 3 Bonito and a Blackfin to stay busy.

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As the afternoon moves along and the sun is up on the calm water I noticed fish marking deep and it looked like balls of bait. We dropped the d/rigger to 75’ but nothing happened. We checked the bait and Devon said let’s go to 80’ or so. I dropped it to 100 feet. 5-6 minutes later and we have a bite on the d/r. The fish is coming up! Yahoo, another Sailfish! As the fish moves to the right, the left rigger goes off. He brought a friend… Double! The right rigger goes off and yet another friend… Triple!!! No wait, fish #2 spits the hook so we are down to a double. Fish # 1 goes airborne and lands on the line of #2 and snap, we are down to one. That doesn’t happen too often! We brought the fish to the boat, removed the hook and placed a tag. Release #2.

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Devon gets the cockpit back in shape and sets out another spread. Yup, d/r to 100 again. It worked last time, maybe it will again. No more than 5-10 minutes elapsed and the d/r goes off. The fish is coming up! NO WAY?!? Yes way, another Sailfish and he brought a friend that eats the right rigger. Double! The fish are heading right at another boat, so I hailed them on the radio, and they politely gave me room. Thanks guys! The second fish is a monster. He clears the water twice and then #1 begins to jump and catches the line of #2 in his mouth as fish #2 is coming down. Can you believe this. Fish # 1 has jumped up into the line of fish #1 and pop, it’s a done deal. We are down to one fish and once again they bring it boatside for the tag & release. I am dumbfounded that this oddity happened, not only once, but twice in one trip. Un-flippin‘-believable!

OK, we regain our composure and set up another identical spread. As we pass some underwater structure the d/r once again pops off and Devon and I look at each other, totally stunned, as the fish is coming up to the surface. You’re kidding me? We realized there would we no third time when the fish stopped about halfway and then worked Billy hard. Maybe a nice Blackie? Nope. Instead we see color and realize it’s a Jack of some kind. As Billy works it almost to the surface we can see it is a 10# Horse Eye Jack. We boat him for a quick photo and release.

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With time running out, we packed it in and pointed The BEAST for the corral. There were plenty of smiles to go all the way around the deck. We managed to go 3 for 7 on Sailfish, 3 Kingfish, 3 Bonito, a Blackfin Tuna, and a Horse eye Jack. Devon and I kept the entire crew busy, most of the day. Not too shabby for a ¾ day trip. The fishing is off the hook… in S. Florida.

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and a prosperous New Year, to everyone!

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

Fishing and the birds!

On Monday my brother-in-law, Michael, called to see if I was available to fish on Wednesday. He wanted to take 3 of his employees fishing for the day. I was open and we did go fishing, sort of.

Michael, Mike, Robert, and Rolando arrived an hour late so Devon and I quickly, untied the snarling BEAST and made our way to the bait patch. The bait came up quick but they were skittish and to add to that, it was nearing slack tide. Everyone, with some coaching, got on the ball and began putting bait in the livewell. We lost Mike to that queasy feeling about 15 minutes into the process. I managed to coax the bait close enough to get 2 throws with the cast net and we were set for the day.

The seas were fairly good size, a solid 3-4’, and the winds were steady out of the East at 13-15 knots. We made our way to the edge and put out our usual spread. In very short order we had a small, sushi size, Blackfin Tuna on the speed jig. Anticipation was high as the fish tend to feed much better in the slop. But that’s not what was happening. We picked a sub-legal Kingfish. There seems to be an abundance of these small kingfish this year. Then the fishing seemed to shut down. Oh boy! I checked the celestial predictions for the day and surmised we would have to wait until about 1 PM to get into a good bite again. The wind and seas began to rise, reaching 18-20 knots and the seas were 5’ now. One by one we were losing our crew! Mike was out for the count and Rolando was next, followed by Robert. Rolando and Robert were taking turns leaning over the rail as Mike slept. Michael was the only remaining angler.

Around 1:30 the dinner bell rang and we began getting one bite after another. Robert would pop up to catch a fish but most of the time it was Bro-in-law, Michael, working the rods. The next 2 hours or more was non stop action, unfortunately, it wasn’t all fish. The sky was full of hungry Frigate’s, Terns, and Gannets. We were lucky enough to avoid the Gannets as that is usually and instant hook up, Normally, the Frigate birds aren’t fooled by hooked baits but they were on this day! The terns were relentless and poor Devon was getting a workout! We had lines picked up by the birds, only to drop them across the other 3 or 4 lines. If it wasn’t the birds, it was the wind. We even fouled the starboard prop twice, had to clear it, and hung the d/rigger ball in one of those deepwater lobster pot buoys. We pulled in the 4th line, only running 3 now, to keep the tangles to a minimum. But during all of this the fish kept coming. Michael was working a jig/ballyhoo combo and getting bit often. Meanwhile the d/rigger was going off. The surface baits were silent. Finally we had a good fish come on one of the top baits and we suspected a nice tuna. As we were nearing a visual on it, the fish screamed under the boat. It must’ve pulled the line into the running gear and it was gone. By 3:30 or so the fishing went slack and the birds left the area, for the most part. We had gone through a bunch of bait. As the witching hour began, we put the last of the lively baits out. Once again, we were screaming at a hungry Frigate that was hell bent on eating the left rigger bait. Suddenly the right rigger goes off and Michael is into a Sailfish. Yes sir! He worked it like a champ and brought it to leader twice for a legal catch. As I was attempting to stick a tag in him, I saw him turn his head towards the underside of the boat and he was off to the races and the line parted as we tried to regain our position on him. No tag, but it was Michael’s first Sailfish catch, none-the-less!

We packed it up and pointed The BEAST westerly, towards home. While running in we recounted the day. Although we never had time to get the camera out, we discussed the catch for our memories. A bunch of Kingfish, a couple of Cobia, a Blackfin, a Bonito, a Mutton Snapper, a Red Grouper, and a Sailfish. We had numerous mangled baits and the teeth marks held the explanation. Small fish! For some odd reason, many of our fish were not legal size that day. All were released except 5 Kingfish and the B/F Tuna. Hey, it was still fishing and catching, just not much eating! Just for giggles, we took a picture of Robert with some Kings for the smoker and the small sashimi Tuna.

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Mike said he would never set foot on a boat again, and Rolando was nodding his head. Robert who actually fought off the sickness for a good portion of the afternoon, during the melee’, actually wants a repeat trip. All in all they were a great bunch of guys with a good sense of humor. Oh yeah… that little Tuna never made it past the filet table!

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

The 3 F's... Family, Friends, and Fishing!

Friday… I took my bud, Trollin’ Tom out for a day of live bait fishing. We met at the dock about 10:30 AM and shoved off. Our intent was to get some more Kingfish for the smokers. We coursed the Bay and climbed onto the patch reefs to find seas looking like a we were on a lake. After a short run to our favorite Ballyhoo patch we pulled up and started bait fishing. They were thick as fleas on a hound dog. We hook and lined a bunch and then I went for the net. Crap, I forgot to put it onboard, today! Not a big deal, we simply spent a few more minutes with the rods and we were set.

We ventured off the edge in the glass like water and set out our spread. The fishing was a bit slow but we pecked away at them. The fish were not on a blitzkrieg feed, that’s for sure, but their size was above average. We managed to catch a 6, 12, 15, and 22 pound Kingfish and a small football Blackfin Tuna. We never saw a Sailfish or Dolphin and as the sun began to set, we called it a day. Tom and I always have a good time, fish or not!

Sunday… My wife Sharon and I met Devon, Amy (the newlyweds) and Uncle Al at the dock about 8:15 in the morning. Our agenda was a leisurely day of family fun fishing with some pictures and videos if possible. We unleashed The BEAST and the day began. First order to fill was catching our bait. Our bait patch was not quite as productive as on Friday but there were plenty of them all the same. Today I remembered my cast net. We collected more than enough baits so we left the patch and sauntered out into the blue water. I was not real optimistic as we were on a pre/post condition as a front was due sometime around noon. I were hopeful that things would turn on at some point, most likely later that afternoon.

Once again the water and winds were calm with bluebird skies. We put 4 baits out on top and 1 down. A short time into it as we see the small front line coming, and we have a Sailfish up on the long rigger bait. Sharon gets on the rod as the fish eats the bait and it is “Game on”! This fish was an acrobat and unfortunately we missed a bunch of video due to a malfunction of the camcorder. We broke out my camcorder for the remainder of the day. Sharon expertly worked her fish to a tag and release even though she hasn’t been fishing in almost 18 months.

The next 3 fish to feed were some average sized Kingfish and we took turns catching them. Then the small frontal line pushed through us with a slight drizzly rain for a few minutes.

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The skies cleared, the temps dropped, and the wind and seas picked up a bit. So did the fishing! The action became fast and furious for the last 3 hours or so, of the day. We caught another Kingfish and Cero Mackerel.

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We had a pleasant surprise when a 10# Mutton Snapper crashed a bait fished at 75’ in 125’ of water. This happens from time to time but not too often.

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Uncle Al and Devon were working speed jigs and Al got hooked up to a couple of Blackfin. Al wasn’t much of a believer, but the last 2 trips have sold him on those speed jigs!

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We also caught a pair of Cobia on the down rod and each time a group of them would follow the hooked fish but they were all undersized, not by much, and returned to the water to grow up.

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We had a Blackfin crash the long flat line and I took the rod. A few seconds later and Uncle Al hooks up to a Sail on the long rigger. We quickly boated my Blackie so I could post up on the helm to keep Al on his Sailfish. It was a very large fish, much bigger than average. Al has only caught one Sailfish before and jumped one off on a recent trip with us, so we were hell bent on getting him this Sail. He did a fine job and after 25 minutes on the 20# spinning rod, he led his fish to a perfect tag and release.

As the sun set we turned The BEAST towards the barn. We were in a holiday mood but instead of “visions of sugar plums…” we had “visions of Sailfish dancing in our heads“!!!

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You can also see condensed footage of the trip through the videos! 1st link is condensed of the trip, or if you prefer, the second link is only the Sailfish action with all the acrobatics!





This year we are experiencing an above average Sailfish season. I think the continuous back to back fronts are the main reason, but whatever the case, I am loving it. We have reduced our rates to reflect the decrease in fuel costs. So… Give us a call and come join in on the action this winter while the expectations are high and the fuel prices are low.

The crew of The BEAST wants to wish each and every one, Happy Holidays!

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