Showing posts with label kingfish. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kingfish. Show all posts

Monday, June 21, 2010

Max and the Mutton Madness


Lucky Max strikes again and this time he even surprised Greg and I. The weather for the day was a bit questionable so after catching bait we decided to try a spot close to home. As soon as we got the kites up Max hooked and quickly landed a twenty-five pound kingfish. From that moment on we never went more than fifteen minutes without catching a nice fish. After Greg and I reset the kites I dropped a bait to the bottom and the rod bent over instantly! The way the fish was fighting everyone was sure it was a nice bottom fish and a short time later we put a ten pound mutton snapper in the boat for Max. That is the way the entire morning went. Max and his friend Rick were either pulling up mutton after mutton after mutton from the bottom (sometimes double headers) or they were catching nice sized kingfish on the kite. With the weather getting better all the time we decided to stick it out. The afternoon fishing was almost better than the morning if that was even possible. The mutton snappers continued to bite and we even managed to get a few big yellowtails for Rick (much to the delight of his female companion). Late in the afternoon Max and Rick each landed a big blackfin tuna, both of which made spectacular strikes on the kite baits. With almost twenty mutton snappers, a few big yellowtails, a limit of kingfish, an amberjack, two big blackfin tunas, a big shark, and some bonitas, the fishbox was looking very good and our anglers very tired! Just before we pulled the lines in, Max landed a big sailfish that, like the tunas, took a live bait dangling from the kite. The sailfish put and exclamation point on what was already an unbelievable day of fishing only a few short miles from Max's backyard!

Friday, May 28, 2010

Pompano Rodeo


For the past twenty plus years I have enjoyed fishing the Pompano Beach Fishing Rodeo. It is a fun, family oriented tournament with many ways to win. This year the fishing was spectacular. We always fish on the Frick and Frack which is the 27 conch that I own with my brother Fred. Our team consisted of my wife Debbi, son James, daughter Laurel, long time fishing buddy Mike Welter, my mate Greg Braswell and his brother Chris. It was windy and rough and the fish were biting. This tournament does not place a limit on the number of lines you can fish so we had fourteen or fifteen baits out at all times and everyone on our boat was busy from start to finish both days. At the end of day one we weighed our limit of kingfish and tuna and Debbi added a nice cobia to give us 225 pounds with nine fish and put us in first place, giving us the daily! The second day was nearly as good as we again weighed our limit of kings, three tuna and James added a nice dolphin for good measure. It was good enough for second place overall in the tournament and the second place daily for the final day. The highlight of the tournament for me was the success my children Laurel and James had. Laurel won first place in the small fry division (kids 10 and under) and it was one of the greatest moments of my life watching her face light up as they called her to accept her first place tropy!!! James, as usual made his father proud, by winning the junior division (kids 11-16) by a landslide. Not only did he dominate the juniors, James was named second place angler in the entire tournament beating out nearly four hundred other anglers most of them grown men and women. We also won top family and Debbi and I were named top husband and wife. It was truly a successful tournament for us and one that I am very proud of! I would like to give a special thanks to Greg, Mike, and Chris for all of their hard work and without them none of this would have been possible.