March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb

Report Date: April 7, 2011

This old saying was right on point this year. With winds blowing out of the east at 30-35 kts for three days straight ,fishing was on fire. I managed to fish two of the three days with very good results.

The first day bait fishing was very hard to come by. That always seems like the case when the fish are biting. We managed to scoop up about 20 blue runners and 15 threadfin herring. Luckily my brother had a bunch of fresh bonita chunks ready to go. We started out way down south and drifted up north with the current. We couldn’t even get the first bait out before we had a fish on. It was a nice dolphin. From about 8a.m. to 3 p.m. was nonstop action.Mahi mahi littered the water with shades of blue and green as far as you could see. You would pull up one fish and there would be 50 more right with the hooked on. As fast as you could put the baits out was solid fish. We ended up with 60 nice dolphin and 7 for 14 sailfish. On the way home, chugging slow, we also saw a big white marlin tailing that wouldn’t eat.

  The day before there was a fair share of marlin also seen and caught which is rare in south Florida. The L and H caught one white marlin and missed another , a boat called the High Standards managed to catch three whites in one day, and a private boat caught a blue marlin in the hundred pound range. That is some great fishing.

The next day I fished aboard a private boat in the Bob Lewis Challenge. There were only about 20 boats but the fishing continued to be excellent. The day started just like the previous. First bait in the water was a sailfish. Then after dolphin, dolphin, and more dolphin. It seemed like the sailfish were mixed in with the dolphin. When you got out of the dolphin you got out of the sailfish. We managed to catch 10 sailfish, 40 dolphin, and a white marlin. The coolest thing of the day was a 500 lb. bluefin tuna we saw swimming very slow to the south. It was so close you could see its yellow finlets glistening in the sunlight. What a sight! Unfortunately we didn’t win the tournament but my brother's boat caught 21 sails to take the victory along with top angler. Hats off to the team of the Jichi.

Later on in the month the winds slowed down and so did the fishing. Before it died completely the sailfish continued strong but the dolphin vanished. I had two of my best days of sailfishing back to back in mid March. One day we caught 28 and the second we caught 21 and saw a 300 lb blue marlin that wouldn’t eat.
As far as charters were concerned I only had a few this month.

  The first one was with a couple from Georgia. Bob and Deidi were lucky enough to go towards the end of March when the winds died completely. It was like glass. We filled the wells with sardines and headed south to the wrecks. Bouncing from spot to spot we managed to catch a mix of almaco, amberjack, and some nice mutton snappers. We later tried to put the kites up in the afternoon in pursuit of a sailfish but unfortunately had no luck. We did manage to catch some nice kings up to 35 lbs. and some beautiful snappers on the bottom rod. It was a beautiful day filled with lots of nice fish and good memories.

  A few days later we took out my friend Tim, his cousin Brian, Lisa, my wife Mirta and our two kids Hayden and Jody. We blacked out the wells with pilchards and went on our way. The water was so flat it was like a mirror. After throwing in a few chummers we began to throw our lines out. Four lines out, four fish on. It stayed this way until we ran out of bait. The water was so clear you could actually see the fish eat your bait right under the boat. Bonitas, king, sails jumping by the boat, It was nonstop action. These boys and girls had sore arms by the end of the day and were hesitant to grab the rods when they were bent over.

  The two best months of the year are coming up and I have a few openings left. Come and reserve your spot so you can witness the action yourselves.

 

Back to Main Fishing Report Page