end of may/early june trout

did some inshore fishing this past week, and the trout are thick. lots of 12"-13" fish and some keepers as well. here are a few pics.

5/12/12- first trip of the year

had the pleasure of taking family and friends out for the first trip of the year. we headed farther south than most of the fleet, as they were hunting tuna, but we were after mahi. after finding a nice weedline, we set out the spread. it did not take long before we had our first taker- a fired up bull that came racing out from under some grass. unfortunately we could not come tight on him and we missed our first bite of the year. oh well, we were a little rusty. we can also blame the rust for the next couple of missed fish. eventually we remembered how to do it, and stuck the gaff in a nice bull. we caught a few more and managed to lose a few more, before heading north to join the rest of the fleet in looking for tuna. after trolling a little while with what seemed like 5,000 other boats, we decided to head in. final tally was 6 nice dolphin. absolutely beautiful weather, fresh ceviche and good company made for a fantastic first trip of the year!

8/17 nearshore surprise

had a father and daughter today. it was the young lady's first time in a boat in the ocean, and she did well. she did say that she didnt feel great for an hour or so, but soon got over it. we tried bottom fishing, but the current was running pretty strong, so we decided to troll. didnt take long before we were hooked up, and this fish was a surprise- a beautiful mahi, less than three miles off the beach. unfortunately he was the only one of his kind around, but we did find lots of bluefish to keep everyone busy.

8/16 bottom fishing

had a great group of guys today from PA and a really nice day as well. we spent the day bottom fishing and caught too many to count. we had sea bass (including the biggest one i have seen this summer), calico bass, bluefish and sharks. one guy really had a hot hand catching rays; i think he ended up with 7. after the last one, his shoulders were tired, so he gave up!

7/2 seabass

what a beautiful day it was, but thanks to a certain someone, jamie, luck was not on our side today. that certain someone managed to lose a nice mahi as soon as i hooked the fish and passed the rod off to him AND managed to lose a very nice wahoo at the boat. as much bad luck as jamie was, i had a card up my sleeve. seabass season had just come in, and i knew where some big ones were. fortunately jamie kept his bad luck to himself and the rest of us started working on our limit of seabass. we ended up a few shy, but also found something unexpected- a big flounder. with some meat in the boat, we set a course for home. it could not have been a nicer day as far as the weather goes, but leave that bad luck at home next time jamie!

6/26/2011

for once the weatherman got the forecast right and it was a beautiful day. once we got the lines out, it didn't take too long before we got our first hit, followed in rapid succession by numbers two, three and four. with only two people in the boat, we found ourselves with fish on four rods. one came off pretty quickly, so we were down to three now. we stuck the gaff in one and then another, and lost the third at the boat. we had two skipjack tuna lying on deck. re-set the lines and work the area a little more, but nothing, so we continued south. shortly thereafter two lines get hit, but we managed to lose both of those. we are now just two for six. re-set again and we are bit again, but this time only on one rod. we managed to lose this fish right at the boat as well. we managed to land one more skipjack before we decided to go find some better water. unfortunately we could never find the good water nor the mahi, but we had a good day anyway, and some fresh tuna for fish tacos!

5/7/2011- mahi and sea bass

well, pirate's life charters fished for the first time for the 2011 season. we had our first fish of the season-a nice gaffer mahi- in the boat within 20 minutes of putting our lines out. unfortunately the weather man missed the forecast and we decided to head in and see if we couldn't find anything on the bottom. upon finding some structure at our first stop, we decided to drop down and see what was down there. it didn't take long before we found out that we had discovered a cache of "endangered' black sea bass. we made several drops and pulled up several nice sea bass each time, but had to release them as the season is currently closed. the current was screaming and the seas continued to build, so we headed for the dock. not the best day fishing, but it was nice being out there after a long winter off!

as always, check out http://www.pirateslifecharters.com/ to book a trip.