Frank Bottitta of Lantana has fished with me several times on the L&H and we have always enjoyed great success. The highlight, although there are several, has to be the 500 pound swordfish we caught during the day with my brother Freddie as the mate. Today was a very important day for Frank because it was the first time his wife Mary joined him to fish on the L&H. If we had a good trip, Frank would have a new fishing partner for the rest of his life, on the other hand if Mary left unhappy Franks fishing career might get cut short. Their friend Bacillio Holguin and his daughter Brianna joined them as we got an early start. Greg and Wes crushed the pilchards in the castnet and after we aquired a few larger biats we headed for the edge. We put the kites up and started getting bites right away. Kingfish and bonitas were eating everything we put out and we often had three or four fish on at a time. In the middle of the mayhem Frank hooked a sail and did a super job fighting the fish from a dead boat. I chose not to chase Franks sail because it would take us out of the kings, but before long he had the fish alongside the L&H for a few quick photos and a healthy release. When the action slowed I ran to the south and found better water but the ever bottersome houndfish. The hounds would kill every bait we put out and forced us to move. When we started fishing again my wife called on my cell phone with an emergency but the area we were at the service was shaky at best. I had to run several miles to get phone service and it took fishing time away from us. While I regrouped we pulled the L&H over a shipwreck to try some bottom fishing. The amberjacks were ravenous and every one took turns pulling on the muscular brutes until we had our limit. Again we put the kites out and again my cell phone started ringing. This time with much better news. My good friend Alex Adler who was in town practicing for a sailfish tournament was just above us and told me there was a big pack of sails headed our way. We were in perfect postion and I told everyone to get ready. Then it happened! First the right middle, then short, then the long and all the left side baits as well, there were at least ten sails behind the boat. Fish were jumping everywhere and we had seven sailfish on!! More fish were back there but we were just unable to get baits to them. After some unbelievable work by our anglers and mates we managed to release six of the seven fish. It was truly a sight to behold as I stood alone in my perch in the tuna tower so very happy and proud to be part of such a well oiled machine. For the rest of the day we continued to have good action with sails bonitas and kings. We finished up with eleven sails, and limits of kings, amberjacks and heaps of bonitas. Mary caught her first sail and amberjack and had a wonderful time much to the delight of her husband! It was truly a special day and I will be looking forward to the next time the happy couple comes for another successful day of sportfishing on the L&H!
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