Our friends from the Cruz family have been following us on Instagram (@LANDH_SPORTFISHING) and decided to come fish with us for the day! Driving down from Orlando, the family and friends passed hundreds of other charter boats so we wanted to do everything in our power to make sure the trip was worth it for them! Looking for action on the edge of the reef to start the day was the first order of business. Moments after the first lines were set, they were bit. Only minutes after getting started, the Cruz crew boated a nice kingfish. Continuing to work the area, bites kept coming and the family and friends enjoyed good action most of the morning with nice sized kings and smaller bonitos. Suddenly a frigate bird swooped down to the surface of the calm blue water. Up in the tower I could see the dark color of a feeding sailfish underneath the whirling frigate. Quickly, James presented a bait, but unfortunately the sail was not interested in what we had to offer and slowly sunk out. By now the action on the reef edge had slowed and it was time to head further offshore and begin our search for pelagic gamefish in the vast gulf stream. After a while, I spotted a big piece of floating debris off in the distance and was very optimistic about what might be lurking below! Much to our dismay, the possible "fish haven" was completely barren, void of any life, bait or gamefish. Seeing that, it was time to switch gears and try a different technique. Not far from an area where our crew had enjoyed some successful deep dropping, that seemed like a good spot to start. Conditions were fair as our baited hooks plummeted to the ocean floor far below. Bites came rather quickly, but we were having trouble hanging on to them. Finally the stout rod warped over and bounced violently from the tug of a nice sized fish over thirteen hundred feet below. The team worked the fish to the surface and much to the delight of even-one aboard it was a nice barrel fish! Things were looking up as we ran back to the spot to hopefully find another. This time as we waited for a bite on the bottom, the surface bait went off. One of the Cruz group set the hook and a beautiful mahi mahi took to the air! I quickly ascended the tower to get a better view of the situation, hoping to spot another fish! "More Fish!" I shouted down to the cockpit, and no sooner had the words left my mouth, more baits were presented! All of the sudden we had a few nice mahis hooked up and our team worked together to avoid tangles and get the fish to the boat. Everything worked out the way we hoped and all of the colorful, tasty mahi mahi made their way to our variety filled fish box. With all the attention to the surface action the bottom rod was getting good bites, seemingly unnoticed! It was time to take it up and find out what was on there this time. From the strain on the reel it was obvious that we were tied into something good. This time a variety of great big rose fish and barrel fish. We made a couple more drops and added a couple more barrels for good measure before starting to fish our way home. By now the wind had really picked up and the seas were building. On the way back the Cruz's boated a couple small tunas for good measure. Even though we were faced with some adverse conditions, our friends made the best of it and ended up with a great variety of good eating fish. Back at the dock after a long day at sea, we took some pictures of the catch and filled the cooler with bags of fillets for the family to enjoy back home in Orlando!
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