Old Hat Deep Sea Fishing Charters - Miami

Mild February

2012-02-27T16:15:00.000-05:00

February gave us some unusual winter weather. Hardly any cold fronts passed through. We had some unusually calm days fishing in South Florida's beautiful waters, along with some of the usual rough stuff we expect in the winter. In the beginning of the month the Kingfish vanished and some nice Dolphin showed up. We caught a few Sailfish during the month, but not the numbers we've been seeing the last few years.

I believe the weather has a lot to do with the lack of Sailfish. Normally the cold front pushes through, the wind clocks around S-SW-W-NW-N-NE, and while it's blowing out of the northeast and the Gulf Stream is moving rapidly to the north the Sailfish are migrating to the south.
This last month we had too many days when the Gulf Stream edge was way offshore, there was no current inshore, the Gulf Stream was running slow, or on some days the current was running to the south until you got 6 or 7 miles offshore. All of this affects fishing!

One calm day we caught this big Barracuda while live baiting for Sailfish.(a circle hook & mono leader)

Toward the end of the month the Kingfish showed up again. We caught some big ones.

Hopefully the weather will become a little more normal and our fishing in Miami will become a little more normal.
The last big run of Sailfish was a month ago, I'm ready for it to happen again, now!

Kingfish, Kingfish and more Kingfish

2012-01-31T13:39:00.000-05:00

The cold fronts stopped coming. The Sailfish stopped coming. But the Kingfish have returned. For more than a week all we can catch is Kingfish. I'm glad they're here but I would like to see a little more variety.

Record Sailfish Catch in Palm Beach

2012-01-20T14:01:00.001-05:00

The West Palm Beach Fishing Club recorded 1,174 sailfish releases among 46 boats fishing the three day 75th annual Silver Sailfish Derby! Get ready, they're heading our way.

Just like Clockwork

2012-01-13T16:23:00.000-05:00

It happens almost every time. The cold front passes through then the Sailfish start passing through.
We took a lady angler from Australia (Karen) sailfishing. She had caught Striped Marlin, Black Marlin and Blue Marlin. But for the past ten years, she had never caught a Sailfish!
The weather was perfect, but the western edge of the Gulf Stream wasn't. I was hoping for a distinctive blue/green edge but instead, there was a gradual color change. I trolled south until the color got a little better and then found a slight current rip in 265' of water. We put the kite up and the baits out and after a short wait we had 2 Sailfish on. Karen fished standing up and her friend Jennifer fished from the chair. The fish cooperated. They were each on different sides of the boat. Jennifer's fish came to the boat first, but took a long run after seeing us. Finally, Karen's sailfish came to the side of the boat. We brought it in to take out the hook and record video of Karen and her first Sailfish. Jennifer's fish was stubborn but eventually posed for a quick photo.

We put the kite back up in the sky, the live baits back in the water and started all over again. We waited a while until a Sailfish ate one of the baits, then it charged the boat, leaping and looking menacing, heading straight for the cockpit with 2 lady anglers terrified. I pulled the boat ahead quickly, before the fish could jump in. The fish shook his head and spit the hook. An adrenaline rush for everyone on board. A little while later we hooked up #4 Sailfish. This one was Karen's second Sailfish catch & release. We also caught a Dolphin and jumped off another Sailfish before the day was over. Everyone had a great time, all the fish were released unharmed except for the Dolphin which became a delicious meal.

Slow Days

2012-01-03T20:31:00.001-05:00

While we were waiting for the next cold front to pass through we experienced some slow, beautiful days for fishing, but not so great for catching! It's more tiring for Charlie and me when it's like that. Most captains won't talk about days like that, let alone report them. Even when it's slow we manage to catch something most of the time. But sometimes there's nothing biting your bait. We had the second day of nothing for the year 2011 recently. It was a painful experience for Charlie and me. Some of the other captains got out their electric reels and dropped down 800' to catch some very small bottom fish. Our customers had fished before and caught nothing with someone else at another location and told us you can't be lucky all the time. They let us off the hook, but we still felt miserable.

Now let's report what we did catch during that slow week. We caught Bonitos (large & small), Skipjack Tunas, some Blackfin Tunas, Dolphin (some small ones), Kingfish, a Wahoo, and a small Sailfish. Remember, I did say the fishing was slow!

Fish Faster

2011-12-22T14:34:00.001-05:00

This is what happens sometimes. We book a charter, the people tell us "we just want to go for three hours, we don't know how everyone is going to handle it", so we go out and start fishing. Yesterday we took a young man and his sisters. We got out to 100' of water and caught a Kingfish right away. Then I headed a little further offshore. They said they wanted to bring fish home for dinner. We caught a Dolphin immediately. The girls were getting sea sick so we were asked to return to the dock. On the way back we caught a Bonito. We caught dinner for our customers and were back at the dock in just a little over an hour!

Fish Fast

2011-12-07T13:04:00.002-05:00

Yesterday we had a very short, but very good fishing trip. We picked up a large group of people at Turnberry Isle Resort in Aventura. There was a total of six boats fishing. It's a half hour ride from there to the inlet and they need to be back in four hours. By the time we get out two miles we have two and a half hours to fish.
We started trolling, heading offshore a few miles. Nothing was happening. I knew there were small Bonitos being caught further in, and the tide was just starting to rise, so I headed in. I found a nice rip just south of Haulover inlet. We started live baiting. We caught a nice Kingfish, biggest we've seen in months, a couple Dolphin and a Sailfish.

Once again, the circle hooks that are designed to protect the fish, didn't work! It was a big Sailfish. It was hooked just below the eye. We removed the hook, put the fish back in the water, revived it and watched it swim away.
We fished fast, we caught fish, we were the only boat out of six with a Sailfish!

Strange Conditions, Good Fishing

2011-11-19T11:52:00.001-05:00

For the past couple weeks the Gulf Stream has been way offshore, the current has been running to the south and the seas have been rough. We've been finding most of the fish about 5 miles out.
One day while we were trolling offshore we had a double header Sailfish on. We caught and released one out of two Sails! Mostly, we were catching Dolphin, Skipjack Tunas and Blackfin Tunas out there.

In on the reef was a little slow but we managed to catch some Bonitos, Mackerel, small Kingfish, Blue Runners and Barracuda.

After trolling offshore on a slow day, we came in to 120 ft of water and a nice edge was forming. We put out some small live Bonitos and had a Sailfish on after waiting about 5 minutes. With each cold front, the Sailfishing will keep getting better and better. It was our lady anglers first Sailfish!

On Good Days, Bad Things Happen

2011-10-31T19:07:00.001-04:00

The Sailfish came early this season. We'll see more of them with each cold front we get.

Over the years many of us have switched to circle hooks. They are supposed to do the least amount of harm to the fish. They are designed to hook the fish in the mouth. This way you can release the fish unharmed, sometimes tired, exhausted, needing to be revived at the side of the boat, but for all intents unharmed.

About twelve days ago we were fishing and ended the day with a Sailfish (catch & release). We fished a few more trips after that without seeing one. Then I took an old client (friend) fishing for a day.

We left the dock at 8 AM and started trolling south. I spoke to a captain friend the day before, he said there was bait (Threadfin Herring) at the Government Cut range marker. On our way south we caught Bonitos, a Skipjack Tuna and a Dolphin. We went to the range marker and loaded the livewell with Herring then went looking for the edge of the Gulf Stream. It was deep, about 320 feet, but it looked real good. The kite was up, the baits were out and in about 20 minutes we had a Sailfish jumping behind the boat. There was another sail there, but that one wasn't hungry. We fought the fish for about 15 minutes caught and released it. Time to do it again! We waited, caught some Dolphin and then, there was Sailfish #2. We fought it for a while. It kept sticking it's head out of the water and looking at us. When we got it close to the boat we could see it was bleeding from it's gills. The circle hook didn't work! We released it immediately. The fish didn't look good. You do everything you can to preserve the fish and the sport and sometimes it isn't enough. We put our live baits back in the water and kept fishing. The Dolphin and Tuna would keep our minds off the wounded Sailfish. About 40 minutes after releasing Sailfish #2, we look to the side of the boat and there was the ugly reminder of how that last fight ended. That Sailfish was floating upside down, dead! We pulled it out of the water, measured it (59" from the lower jaw to the fork in the tail), the overall length of the fish was 80" but still too short to bring back to the dock. Now, the craziest part. Because of it's size we had to put it back in the water to become Shark Food. It just doesn't seem right. We put our baits back in and kept fishing. We were talking about the failure of the circle hook, then we talked about how we've caught sails with the line lassoed around it's tail. No hook in the fish! All of a sudden there was another Sailfish. Sailfish #3 hit hard and ran and ran and ran. When we finally caught up with it, in our amazement, the fish was lassoed just like we were talking about before it hit! We released it, it swam away. We trolled in, caught a Kingfish and called it a day.

Different Charters, Different Days

2011-10-19T22:53:00.001-04:00

Every fishing charter is different. They are booked at different times, for different lengths of time, on different days, in all kinds of weather. We look for different fish for different reasons. Sometimes we look for what the customer wants to catch. Sometimes the customer doesn't care what we catch.
Charlie and I really like what we do, but some days are better than others. A few days ago we took four guys fishing. They were drinking the night before and I think morning came too early. We were fishing for twenty minutes and the first guy was puking over the side. We caught some Bonitos and a Barracuda then started going offshore looking for dinner for our customers. We had a nice Dolphin on but I think our angler was in slow motion. The fish swam toward the boat, the line went slack, I moved the boat forward to take up the slack in the fishing line but it was too late, the fish was gone. Two more were puking, one puked up on the bridge under my feet. I had to clear the cockpit below and hose off the bridge deck, then Charlie had to clean the cockpit. The boat was a VOMITORIUM! I was told to head back. All of a sudden the planer rod goes off, the tip is shaking, it's a Wahoo. Again, slow motion. We caught a Blackfin Tuna on the way in. The guys took it with them for sushi.

Yesterday I had a three boat charter (15 anglers). The client was a repeat from last year. All three boats were out all day. Nobody got sick! All three boats caught Bonitos and Skipjack Tunas. There were some Mackerel caught, one boat caught a 50lb Cuberra Snapper, another caught a 6' Hammerhead Shark. In addition to that, Old Hat caught a Blackfin Tuna, two Dolphin and a Sailfish! We had the boss of the group on Old Hat. He caught his first Sailfish. We removed the hook, took pictures and released the young Sailfish quickly. We are having a replica Sailfish mount made for our angler. The fish and the angler both win. Everybody had a great time!

Pick The Right Time

2011-10-09T12:40:00.001-04:00

Yesterday morning we went fishing. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't concerned about the weather. The forecast for the prior days was calling for strong winds and thunderstorms. The day before, the forecast was better for Saturday morning than in the afternoon, so we went.

Before leaving the dock, there was a storm approaching, so I delayed leaving for 5 minutes. The storm blew through and we went fishing.

We caught a Bonito right away but it got off the hook just 50 ft behind the boat. Then we caught a Mackerel and released him. Rain storms started drifting our way and it looked like a good time to go offshore.

When we were in 800 to 900 ft of water (about 5 miles out) we searched around and spotted a young Frigate bird. When we got close to the bird we had a fish on the planner rod and as I slowed down we hooked up on 2 of our surface lures. All 3 fish were Dolphin. It was time to start heading in. There was a line of thunder storms approaching. We caught a Blackfin Tuna on the way in. I was trolling almost fast enough to stay in front of the storm. Almost was the key word.

It was a windy, rough, soggy ride in but our customers were happy. They caught fish and experienced a little adventure at the end of the trip. It stopped raining shortly after we tied up. Charlie cut up their fish. They ate the Tuna at the dock and took the Dolphin fillets with them for a fish feast.

Back on the Water

2011-09-29T13:49:00.001-04:00

I was excited to get out fishing on Tuesday Sept 27th. It was my first charter since returning from my week vacation aboard Allure of the Seas. My vacation was good but so was this. We had repeat customers from New York and a calm day. We left the dock at 1 PM and when we got to the reef we trolled around a little caught a huge Rainbow Runner then headed offshore looking for Dolphin, Tuna and Wahoo. At 5 miles out, there was the edge of the Gulf Stream. We searched for an hour and a half, found nothing and headed back in. When we reached 500 ft we caught a nice Skipjack Tuna, so I worked the area for a while and had a big fish on, then off. When we reached 200 ft we started catching Bonitos, so we put one down on a wreck. It took a while, but it was something with teeth that just killed the Bonito and left it on the hook. We started trolling home, caught another Bonito and when we reached 40 ft we hooked up, caught and released a small Sailfish. We didn't have constant action but our customers had a great time and will be back.

Nice way to finish the afternoon!