Fishing by day or night!

As the day time temperatures begin to decline just a bit the night time fishing remains "hot". The Swordfish fishery off our South Florida shores is phenomenal to say the least. Although every trip, unfortunately does not result in an adrenaline battle of wills, but the majority are just that. The anticipation of battling this gladiator is, in and of itself, an experience. At any moment that reel can start creeping and you had better be ready. At the present time I am fishing Tiagra 50w's and with the size of some of the fish being taken now many are opting to go to 80w's and even 130's. The majority of the fish are still in the 80-100# range but it is normal to hear of fish in the 200 and 300 pound class. One particular case was of a group who had a fish hooked up to an 80# class setup for 11.5 hours resulting in a broken line. We are coming into the winter season which shows larger fish on average but the weather and the seas are our arch enemy during this time.

My last 4 Sword trips were typical of the yin/yang of this fishery. 2 of the trips resulted in bites, slashed baits, pulled hooks and no fish actually making it to the boat. Matt & Jim fished with me on a Friday and Saturday night. On Friday the fishing was a bit slow and the winds didn't help the drift. We did, however, catch 1 small 30# "pup" which reached the Swordfish "goal" for Jim. Saturday nights trip was an effort to reach Matt's goal now. Saturday nights trip, however, resulted in exactly 1 hour of fishing time. We setup right before dark and in that hour we had 3 bit/slashed baits, 1 fish on which pulled the hook, 1 "pup" of 35# caught & released and a nice 75# fish taken. They pulled the plug on the trip, satisfied at reaching their goals, and one nice delicious fish to take home with them to Philly, Pa. I had mixed emotions. It was nice returning to the dock at 10 PM and getting a full nights sleep but on the other hand, this was a night that dreams are made of. Oh well, there will be other nights.

The day trips have been few due to the hot weather and the fishing has been anything but hot. My last day trip was a good trip with the catch being fair but the company being great. I fished a regular client from Indianapolis and we tried a few different things including live baiting. The total catch for the day was 4 Bonito, 4 Dolphin, and a couple of big Barracuda. For the rest of this month I have only day trips booked so we will see soon enough if these fronts have pushed any of the better fish down our way.

I just returned from fishing a WorldCat owners function in Ocracoke N.C. We had an absolute blast. The Wahoo fishery off North Carolina is incredible to say the least. I was in awe! We fished with Capt. Troy Pate and his mate CL on his 330TE WorldCat aptly named "Water Damage" out of Beaufort N.C. Capt. Troy and CL are extremely knowledgeable of the waters and the most productive methods for catching fish in their area. I was totally impressed with the amount of lines they pulled efficiently, up to 12 lines and 2 teasers, while trolling. We ended up over the 2 days with 5 nice matching Wahoo in the 22# class, 12+ Dolphin (lost count) up to 16# and some small Blackfin Tuna and a large Barracuda. Many cutoff rigs, short strikes and several lost fish (lost count again) are normal when dealing with Wahoo. We did have 1 fish that smoked about 100 yds off an 80# bent butt planer rod with about 35#'s of strike drag. Good grief! Capt. Troy, CL and I could only look at each other with disbelief! That fish would've been a "picture taker", for sure. If you are ever in the Beaufort area of N.C. and looking for a good trip with a great Capt. and mate, give Capt. Troy Pate a shout [url]www.waterdamagecharters.com[/url] and see if you can't get hooked up to some of those Wahoo.

Until the next report, consider making a trip to sunny S. Florida where winter can truly be a billfish dream come true by night or day.

Capt. Jim
305-233-9996
[email][email protected][/email]
[url]www.beastcharters.com[/url]