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Mandich
"Mad Dog" Fishing Classic
5/2010
Tired
and beat up with the 2 day tournament we decide to give Miami
a go with the charter... I had to strategize with the limited
rods we're allowed to fish and a 3 fish per species limit....
We head out of Hillsboro at 5:15am and make the long trek South
to Government Cut. Pick up the clients at Miami Beach marina
and head out for a 7am checkout. I made the call to head up
to Boca where I know there's big Kings and tunas... We make
it there in 1 hour and 15 minutes and set up a drift with only
6 lines allowed we flew two Kites with 2 baits each and 2 flats....
On the menu for the Kings were Sardines, Gogs and Pilchards.
First drift yielded two weigher Kings... 2nd drift was the big
boy King and last drift in Boca yielded 1 more King to knock
out a smaller fish and 1 missed Tuna... it is now 10:30 and
we have over80lbs of Kings with three fish and I make the call
to run offshore in some snotty crap..... 1 hour and 20 minutes
go by for a pounding run out and we put out the spread. 20 minutes
in and Tommy spots a frigate.. Here they come.. Couple of peanuts
and one decent weigher. Trolled for another hour trying to get
another weigher and couldn't find her or him.... 2 hours to
go and we're 18 miles off, crank 'em up and head off Haulover
for a late tuna bite... Water is green and we hook a sail..
Wrong species, crank 'em up and run South till we find blue
water... Right out front off Haulover we put them out and get
a nice 21lb Blackfin... No more time and call it... Estimated
100 to 110lbs in the box and putting us at around a top 5 finish.
Get to weigh ins and find out we have 1st place Kingfish, Top
Fish Overall, 1st place Double Dekker Calcutta and 2nd place
overall... with 116lbs, King weighed in at 37lbs
Pompano
Rodeo
5/2010
After
a very successful 2010 Pompano Beach Fishing Rodeo we were chartered
to fish the Mandich Fishing Classic out of Miami and once again
were very successful. Recap:
Day
one fishing rodeo resulted in Four nice Kings and 5 Tunas although
you're only allowed to weight 4 per species... We were sitting
pretty behind Frick and Frack with 214lbs of fish and I had
Top Angler for the day.
Day
two added for some tough fishing for us.. 3/4 of the fleet were
either in our spread, under our spread etc... Boats were picking
the Kings and Tunas around us and we couldn't buy a Tuna bite...
Needless to say my batteries were a bit weak and had to run
the motors all day. Well, times going by and we have approx
60lbs of King in the boat.. Taking an utter AZZ whooping and
will not hold our lead when suddenly in 80ft of water the short
middle kite sardine gets exploded on by what we estimated a
50+LB King not once, not twice, but three times this mammoth
gets airborne with the steel embedded down his throat... "We
Hope!" Long story short, we get the fish within gaff range
and I stroke him only to have the grip shoot left in my hand
and the gaff dangling from the living trophy we were impatiently
awaiting.... 2nd Strike and the fish is aboard. Frick and Frack
was right next to us as we began our celebration.... I've caught
many big Kings and this was by far the biggest.... "I thought"
Only problem is, this fish spawned a few days prior.. Ended
up with top fish the entire tournament for a whole 10 minutes
until Living the Dream came in and beat us out by 7ounces. However,
we did ok... Ended up with Top Kingfish 48.5LBS, 2nd overall
Big fish, 2nd place daily for Friday, 4th place calcutta and
4th place overall
Another
Great Day
02/28/2009
My
brother inlaw is in from Arkansas for the weekend and wanted
to fish badly. Kevin on the Skirt Chaser suggested we take the
family and friends on his boat for the day (36' Jersey"For
Sale") So three fishing teams become one, Makin' Time,
Skirt Chaser and O-Sea-D. Our sights were set for day-timing.
We run to our usual area and deploy our rig, same setup as mine
except Kevin has a 130 Penn Int'l, mine is an 80. We hit bottom
and the anticipation begins.... No more than 30 seconds go by
and by Bro in law says "Ohh look at that pretty fish.."
Steve and I look back and say HOLY *#^%! 45Lb.+ Dolphin swimming
behind the boat. We throw in a few liveys and WHAM, annihilates
a sardine... 4 more appear and utter chaos in the pit erupts.
We end up hooking a quad of 30lb to 45lb fish... Meanwhile the
sword rod is on the bottom and right now is an afterthought...
Due to this we can't spin the boat or chase anything!!!! So,
that being said I'm doing 360s around the riggers and clutter
galore on the boat and end up back in the pit with the 3 other
fish tight only to see Steve doubled over with the sword rod
and peeling drag.... That's right we now have 5 fish on including
a Sword. Lines get crossed on a pair of Dolphin and end up breaking
the Big Boy off 45LB+.... Trying to get these fish to cooperate
during our NOW sword battle was like taking my three kids to
dairy queen and then going to church and trying to keep the
quiet... "NOT!!" LOL.... We end up getting my Bull
and the two Cows in the boat just after unclipping the weight
on the Sword. I'm now scrambling to get the harpoon rigged and
ready cuz DA Fish is comin' in HOT!!! Finally rigged and armed
without a poly ball and launch is called... Damn 2 inches above
the dorsal SSSSSSStrike ONE.... Fish sounds momentarily and
second shot is approaching. I am not going to be denied this
time. Threw the poon and stuck solid.. Fish is half out of the
water on the surface thrashing about.. I'm not giving an inch.
Kevin comes in for the assist and bring her to two straight
steel shots and the fish is Bagged baby... It is now 9:30 in
the morning and we have a 36lb. Bull, 28Lb. Cow, 26Lb. Cow and
200LB. Sword in the boat... NOICE... Capt makes the call to
go in and Steve and I mutiny and suggest one more drop. Well,
didn't even hit bottom and I'm tight, fight the fish for a good
10 minutes and this fish is definitely beefier but ended up
pulling her off...... Now we head in and make one Tile drop
"gotta go for the slam" end up getting one to eat
after 10min of drifting and 2500 feet of line later... On the
small side but still very tasty "10Lber" Call it a
day and it's only noon.... I'll post another report after next
weekend, have a 3 day charter... Tight Lines everyone.....
DAYTIME SWORDFISH CHARTER
02/09/2008
with
the boyzzzzzzzz................. Early start @ LHP marina
for fuel by 7am. The long trek began due Southeast on an absolutely
gorgeous South Florida "winter" day! Alright guys
we are there, lets send em' down, hang the weight and "try"
to begin the descent....&^%^%&% just lost the $%^$^&&
weight!!!&^%^&%**^%.... Lose one rig one... That's
not supposed to apply to the weight. Anyways, get er down
and wait and drop and wait and drop, what seems to be an eternity
was really only about 10 minutes and Todd and Jim says fish....
Hmmm, I didn't see a bounce. However, a minute goes by and
the rod slowly doubles over and drag suddenly rips off the
reel and slows, couple cranks and there she goes again, zzzzzzzzzzzzz,
after a few minutes of tug "o" war the infamous
hook pull... "SHARKED" Alright currents scrreaming
need to make a run to the south lets go 15minutes of cranking
can be awefully exhausting. 2nd drop yields a tap tap and
no hook up.. Strike two. I open my phone and see 2 voicemails,
boys we gotta run west for phone service, call the wife makes
sure everythings ok "she's 9 months pregnant on our third
child and due the 13th of Feb... I know, I'm dumb for going
out there and risking her going into labor." Everythings
fine??? I'm gonna kill whoever left me those voicemails, run
6 miles back to the east and reset...Alright same as last
week, 2 drops two bites, simultaneous Jim and I say third
times the charm.... Indeed it was!!!! I know this story is
dragging so let me speed her up, Fish gets hooked and again
screaming on the bottom for a solid 5 minutes without stopping
her...... Damn Thresher again!!!!! Wait a minute, she's coming
up, I didn't feel pulled hooks, winding for the next 6 to
7 minutes, "very exhausting trying to play catch up"
1800ft. mark, 1200ft. mark, 600ft. mark ooohhh there she is
pulling a little kept gaining going straight up. Meanwhile,
I have Mario on the Waterproof heading over to take a couple
photos, let him know I need a little room, don't know where
this fish is, somewhere up top with alottttaaaa line out,
Mario takes a hard left "Thanks Bro" Get the fishto
about 250 straight up and down and Finicky comes over to take
a few shots, he hangs for about 10 minutes and realizes the
fish isn't budging so he takes off and makes his set....I
gain a hundred, fish would take a hundred, this went on for
almost two hours when finally our opportunity is at hand.
Todd's on the helm, I'm on the reel, Kenny's on the dart,
Jim's on the gaff and Doug's on 2nd gaff. We're ready and
she's a comin' in hot! Darting around under and beyond the
boat and Todd's working the helm like a freaking magician,
alright here's our shot boyzzz. Fish is twenty feet down and
I say Kenny Throw it straight down lit up puple neon "PIG"
Well, Kenny decides to take a couple practice swings like
he's teeing off in golf. A throw and a miss by a couple of
feet, I said #*&% it's ok Kenny DO IT AGaIN!!!! THROW
IT!!!!! Strike two he, decides to ask for a mulligan Fish
shoots under the boat and Todd maneuvers and says un uh not
going there big girl.... Fish comes up and slaps the hull
with her tail. Jim stick her, tail shot no prob, Doug gets
a gaff in her and Kenny comes around like revenge of the nerds
javelin throw and finishes her off.... Fish in the boat. Well,
Todd and Jim third times the charm again!!! Ran west called
the wife, hun we got a donkey are you in labor???? Nope, have
fun.... Two more drops and not a bite, called it a sword day
and tried dropping for a few tiles... NADA, to much current.
DAYTIME
SWORDFISHING
01/24/2008
I've
had a charter scheduled for weeks and we finally had the weather
window to accomodate. With a light Southeast wind we set our
sights due Southeast for a 25 mile trek with our sights on
a broadbill in broad daylight.... We arrive at our location
of a known productive area, first drop we get tight after
15 minutes of waiting.. Fish is peeling drag then decides
to dart to the surface, come tight on the fish again with
600ft of line still out and the hooks pull... Bum deal. Leader
is all tangled up in the mainline and the squid is mawled.
Second drop with a bigger bait yields a bite before reaching
bottom.. Fight the fish for 30 minutes and several jumps later..."Exhilirating"
says the customers and 180lb. fish is boated. 2 more drops
net 1 more fish that was released to fight another day....
As long as the seas cooperate we can definately put you on
the daytime swords....
HYDROGLOW
SWORDFISH TOURNAMENT
12/03/2007
Little
late with the report been Last boat to sign up again, thanks
Drew! Well, almost thanks.... Anyways, had 2 clients from Iowa
and my mate Kenny. We made the long run with squidies and Gogs
and set up on the 03 and the 49.3. Got the full spread out and
waited 15 minutes when the 300 balloon sang a tune. Fortunately
the fish was on the bentbutt so it never left the rodholder
After clearing a couple of lines the fish started coming up
when the long balloon sung that same tune.... Well, here we
go with a double with the Iowans. Straight butt 80 sent the
other gentleman Tim with the harness.... This fish seemed to
be quite meatier. Few more grueling minutes for Mike and the
52" Swordy was in the boat, 1st fish of the tournament
and 1 place out of the money... Knew she wasn't a money fish
anyway, although the fish on the end of the double might be
her!!! Long story short, after numerous rod switching and hearts
pounding the clients opted to try and get the fish up.... After
2 hours I put Kenny on the rod to turn up the heat.. Fish did
not want any of that and didn't stick his nose above the thermocline
yet opted to descend at warp speed. After taking 500 yards of
line within 1 minute note"this after battling straight
up and down with a few good runs for 2 hours" I clipped
the 80 with another 80, just about when she was gonna go splash........
SLACK!!!! SH!T, REEL......REEL...... Nothing...... Please come
back without a hook, puhlease........ Sure enough, it appears
as if Mr. Mako has elluded wants again..... Thankful there wasn't
a hook.... That definately passed some time of a relatively
slow night. Reset around 9:30 and nada the rest of the night....
Had both bites on ribbonfish, unfortunately I only brought two!
The positive of the night was that Mike and Tim had the time
of there lives....
SOUTH
FLORIDA SWORDFISHING
2007-08-23
12:45:32
Captain Matt White
Fort Lauderdale, Florida - Saltwater Fishing Report
swordgrounds
The
past two weeks have been on and off. Fished the Swordlords this
past weekend with mimimum results. Fishing was very slow "barometer
was low" We've had steady action besides that night with
fish ranging from 75lbs. to 160lbs. Pulled one off over 200lbs.
30 minutes into the fight... Bummer... Getting most of the bites
on squid 100ft. down on the far balloon right at dark! Let me
know if your in town and want to go swording. We'll get tight!
SALTWATER
SHOOTOUT REPORT
2007-05-14
11:06:14
Captain Matt White
Fort Lauderdale, Florida - Saltwater Fishing Report
Monument buoy north....
The
annual Pompano Beach saltwater series kicked off on a positive
note. 120 boats and a decision to run south was a crapshoot
against numerous top teams heading north for the big kings.
Fortunately, a decision to run south payed off for a third place
overall finish with a catch of 4 tunas, 2 kingfish and one weigher
dolphin to total 126.9lbs. of fish. We were unable to live chum
due to tournament rules although we did chunk as much as possible
and that definatley produced a consistent bite throughout the
day. Quite a few sailfish were in the mix too releasing a total
of four "big" fish. I haven't seen sails that big
in a long time and I'm talking two were pushing the century
mark!!! Most of the action started right from the get go and
tapered off until the early afternoon. I f you can, get out
there and get em' while the actions hot these next couple of
months....
Senorita
Shootout II in Ft. Lauderdale
2007-04-28 11:26:28
Captain Matt White
Fort Lauderdale, Florida - Saltwater Fishing Report
Fowey Light north to Haulover inlet
It was a very hot and steamy day for the 4 lady sluggers. Looking
for a few big Kings in the slick calm water was hard to do.
I had to be diversified under these current conditions and pull
out the downriggers and slow troll our targeted area. Lines
in were at 8am and we arrived at around 7:45. Deciding to head
against the current for approx 1 mile and throw chum after chum
and sardines mixed in. We turned north and kept our chum line
heading when lines in was called. However, fishing deemed to
be quite slow.... A 20lb. Jack Crevalle decided to show up on
our kite bait and fight like a tuna... Ugggghhhh....
We ran south to Haulover and put lines in where the water looked
a bit more fishy. First bait gets whacked by a toothy critter.
Alright Kings are here. We get tight and bring our 3 weighers
in the boat within the next hour. Trying to find bigger fish
we head south to Fowey. Few more dinks were released and headed
offshore for dolphin. Skipjacks busting everywhere 6 miles off
and send a gog way back with a stinger zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.......
Nicole comes tight and the infamous charge back to the boat
occurs.... Slack and hooks pull. Damn wahoo, bait sliced in
half and stinger kinked up. Happened right in the middle of
all the Tunas busting.... You know what he's feeding on.
Tried
for another hour and nothing came back in tho the ledge for
the afternoon bite to no avail. We did have a 50lb. swordfish
cruise off the bow of the boat. Chased him for 1/4 mile throwing
gogs at him and all he did was sniffed, circled and resurfaced
for a bit of sun.... After the wife keeps bellyaching about
us fishing for her and the tournament and not "swordfish"
we reset and nada. Back at the weigh ins we find out about
the 4th place finish and top family. We are currently leading
the overall series by a fraction so the final leg is going
to be a battle........
South
Florida Dolphin are here!!!
2007-04-23
16:26:31
Captain Matt White
Fort Lauderdale, Florida - Saltwater Fishing Report
San Remo, Boca area
Had a really hot bite this past Saturday with a party from
New York. Fished off San Remo with an assortment of Gogs and
pilchards on kites and flatlines with a couple deeps.
Started a drift from 375ft. in to 80ft. Strong NE winds kicked
up pretty good in the afternoon. Caught 10 Dolphin ranging
from a 30lb. bull to a couple in the lower 20's and one 15lber
along with a few schoolies. Last drift produced a monster
of the sea that one the battle of will. Hooked this fish in
300ft. of water on the deep gog. #6 wire with a stinger for
that lovely Hoo' Unfortunately, when this fish hit we knew
she was more than a Hoo'. Ended up almost dumping my TLD20
b-4 we caught up to her and finessed for quite a few hours
with a few sizzling line spooling runs. Joe fought this fish
like he was possessed and his will would not break.
I ended up bumping up the dragevery 15 to 20 minutes since
we weren't gaining a damn thing. She was headed Southeast
into the current cruising at about 3knots. I was maneuvering
every which way possible to try and lure this fish to the
boat and she would not be had. After 3-1/2 hours of a grueling
battle the #6 wire kinked an d the fish won this battle. After
investigating the leader I can only assume this had to be
a 150lb. plus Yellowfin. The mono above the wire was smooth
as butter so that leaves a sharky out of the equation. Oh
well, this is just another fish story that I can tell with
no evidence.
2007-04-17
09:42:42
Captain Matt White
Miami, Florida - Saltwater Fishing Report
Fowey Light
April 14th, 2007. Is a day not to be forgotten anytime soon.
The ladies had a phenomenal day catching and releasing 7 of
12 sailfish numerous Dolphin "Mahi" and a few snake
Kings with quite a few cutoffs. The weee hours of the morning
were proven to be the hot bite!!! Set-up on a quadruple header
sailfish and double dolphin right off the get go. You can imagine
a 12 rod spread with four lady anglers and 6 hooked fish.......
Wow.......... Needless to say two sailfish and 1 dolphin were
caught from that catastrophe. Fortunately it was a weigher and
the one that was lost was 20lbs+.
Next drift produced a bite right off the bat and fought for
30minutes on a 20lb. conventional. My personal lady angler "wife"
fought this fish and assumed it was a shark.... We see color
and lots of it, 23Lb. Bull hooked right in the tail. Never even
jumped! Ended up catching one more weigher dolpphin that was
good enough to place us in 2nd. Throughout the rest of the day
it was single after single with sailfish. Where were they for
the Miami Billfish??? Note* I am using all wire also....figures.....
Way to go O-Sea-D crew. Next report will be Senorita Shootout
Ft. Lauderdale.
2007-03-14
11:09:26
Captain Matt White
Fort Lauderdale, Florida - Saltwater Fishing Report
Deerfield Beach
Dolphin
up to 25lbs were caught late last week 3/09 with a few small
Kingfish mixed in. This past weekend was a bit slow with a few
kings and 2 sailfish releases Saturday and one release on Sunday.
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