Fishing Report January 21, 2016 The reason for this Thursday trip was 1) I was afraid I might forget how to fish, & 2) This was the best day weather-wise for the week & into the weekend. The other fishermen aboard the Mad Son were Luis, Captain Charlie, his friend from Maryland , Mike, and a fellow on vacation from Long Island , Brian. Captain George took us out to 130 feet or so, stopping once to check the current before finding a likely spot to drift. The sunrise was borderline spectacular. Luis started things off with an African Pompano that just a half inch shy of the required 24″ minimum fork length. The snapper bite started slow, although Charlie did get a keeper mutton snapper early on. There were a lot of bent rods, but at the beginning, not a lot of groceries. We caught a lot of good sized blue runners. I kept a half dozen for making fish dip. We also caught a lot of remoras. Once Mike got the hang of fishing with a chicken rig, he did alright, catching several decent porgies, including two at a time on one occasion. I had a bite & cranked fast , hooking up to a decent fish. At first I didn’t realize how decent. After thirty seconds or so, I thought perhaps it had been eaten by a shark, but now I believe the fish just realized late that it was hooked. A couple of trips back, I made the mistake of cranking down the drag during the battle & lost the fish. This time, I still might lose the fish, but not for that reason. The outfit was my new Penn Warfare 30 level wind, loaded with 400 yards of 30# test, with a 40# leader & a 2/0 Owner light wire circle hook. At one point, I asked George if he wanted to chase the fish, but it was about then that I gained some control of it. I fought the beast for what seemed like 20 minutes, but was probably less, then it decided to swim away from the bow of the boat. I passed the rod to Rohman, who fought the good fight from up on the bow until the fish changed tactics & I took back over for a bit before the battle moved back to the bow again. George may have thought it was a shark, at least for part of the fight, and I heard someone accuse it of being a kingfish. I was not sure what I had on, but was pretty sure it was neither of those. When Rohman announced color & called it silver, I had high hopes of it being a large African Pompano, but it turned out to be a 37.5# Amberjack. There were quite a few parasites in the tail portion, but plenty of usable meat in the rest of it. Some will go on the smoker, some in the hot oil. Rohman & I were both impressed by the performance of the Penn reel. For nearly an hour, a Coast Guard helicopter was hovering about a mile south of us, apparently doing a training exercise, getting their guys practiced in air-sea rescue. The latter part of the trip turned out to be more productive than the earlier part. We ended the trip with 8 porgies, 7 yellowtail snappers, one mutton snapper, and one grey trigger, as well as the AJ. The flat line accounted for, with Captain Charlie doing the honors, a 24″ mahi. A nice variety of edible fish, and a very enjoyable trip. Thanks to George & Rohman for doing their usual great job of putting us on fish & baited up. I am not certain when the next exciting deep-sea adventure will be, but certainly no later than next Friday morning. ~~Greg~~

The bottom fishing is still on strong. Yellowtails and porgy’s mostly, got into some kings as well and managed to land one. Sharks are still on the reef’s pretty thick so remember to keep reeling if a fish is on so the tax collector doesn’t collect. Beautiful morning, perfect temp, nice easy rolling sea, beautiful blue water, and a light current made today one of the nicest days of the year, lol. With 45 keepers and all smiles on my anglers, reminds me why I love and do this line of work!! Great people and great conversation. Thanks for taking time :) “Tight Lines” Capt. George

The Sailfish, dolphin and wahoo bite is on off the Palm Beach edge. Trolling and live baiting has been very effective the last couple days!!

Fishing Report December 22, 2015 There are a couple of reasons for a Tuesday trip, one being that Friday is Christmas, the other being I wanted to get Marty out again before he heads back to Connecticut tomorrow. He & I were joined by stalwarts Luis & Simon, and Gloria & her son Shane. He lives in Maine , she has taken up residence here. The wind was blowing around 20 knots out of the southeast when I arrived at the marina. The guys caught 3 dolphin yesterday trolling in about 200 feet, so we did a bit of that before going for the reef dwellers. Good thing, too, as we did manage to get one cow mahi on ice. The bottom fishing started off quite slow for me, though the others caught a few, including three or four short red groupers. It was a little after eight before I caught my first fish, a short mutton snapper. Later, though, I managed to ice down 2 keepers, one about 4 pounds. There were three keeper triggerfish caught, the first by Shane, a nice sized fish. There were about ten porgies caught, a strawberry grouper and a yellowtail snapper. I caught a 4 pound puddingwife, and gave it to Captain George to try. The one I kept a trip or two back turned out to be tasty. Simon hooked a big fish & fought it a couple of minutes before it got a lot smaller. He reeled in a small remora which probably grabbed his bait, then attached itself to a big shark. Amazing how strong that suction device on the remora’s head is. Shortly after that happened, I hooked a big fish, and should have had it, but made a mistake that cost me. I was using my new reel, loaded with 400 yards of 30# P Line. The reel’s drag maxes out at 15 pounds. During the fight, which was, for the most part watching line peel off the reel & holding on, I tightened the drag. The line would not be stressed enough to break, but the added tension caused the hook to pull. The leader was abraded a little within a foot of the hook, leading us to believe it was not a shark, but may have been a cobia. I will not make that mistake again. We trolled on the way back in, out deep again, and caught another nice cow dolphin. Thanks a bunch to George & Rohman for doing their jobs quite well, and for giving us an extra hour of fishing time. Marty & I had a nice lunch at Lola’s. Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to everyone. The next exciting deep-sea adventure will be Friday morning January 8th. ~~Greg~~

Fishing Report 11/20/2015 After some moderately slow trips during the summer, it is fun to write about another epic adventure aboard the FishingVessel Mad Son. I had invited my old friend Terry to join us on this trip, but he got called out of town pretty much at the last minute. There was no problem getting Luis aboard in his place. Luis & I were joined by Bob & Harvey, and for the first time since early summer, Gayle & Philip. The crew of the Mad Son was Captain George, still scratching mosquito bites from his recent trip to the 10,00 Islands , and Rohman. It is never a really good idea to camp down there until the weather has gotten cool. There may be more biting insects there than anywhere this side of maybe Africa . George left the dock by 6:45 and took us out to about 110 feet of blue Atlantic water for our first drift. We had not been fishing very long when Philip got hooked up to what he thought might be the bottom, but was not. He fought the fish well, though it did not pull much drag. He got a few head shakes out of it, so he knew it was alive, not just a piece of the reef. George netted his keeper black grouper, which weighed 18 pounds, one ounce at the dock. Aside from a strawberry grouper, the only other groupers to be caught were short reds, always fun to catch, but we seldom see them 20″ or more. We hammered the yellowtails & porgies, and caught a couple of mutton snappers & mangroves. The first time the flat line went off, it was a very respectable yellowtail snapper, probably drawn up from the reef by the chum we had out. The next time, it turned out to be Luis’ second kingfish of the morning. My first fish was a porgy, big enough to keep, but not really large. My second was bigger than the first, my third, bigger yet, and the fourth was the biggest of all. My fifth was about the size of the third one. I also caught a nice 5 pound ocean tally, and the first keeper grey triggerfish since they changed the minimum size from 12 to 14 inches. I also caught & released a queen trigger. There were a few blue runners and a 5 pound bonito caught, which I took home to cut up for bait. I had a great deal of success this trip using strips of blue runner & kingfish belly. It stays on the hook better than sardines. And then, there were the sharks. I think all of us got hooked up to one or more, either on bait or by having one eat a snapper. In fact, there was one keeper size mutton snapper head brought in. Gayle battled a shark for a while, before passing the rod off to the crew. Rohman had to go up front as the shark circled the whole boat a time or two. No pictures, but we did see it, a seven foot long nurse shark. We saw a lot of flying fish, and at least two Magnificent Frigate birds, along with a few southbound Gannets. Everybody caught fish and enjoyed the heck out of themselves. We all appreciated the extra hour of fishing time. It seems hard to wrap things up when the fish are chewing and there’s nobody waiting at the dock to go out on the afternoon trip. Captain George joined Gayle, Philip and me at Lola’s for a nice lunch. I am not certain when the next exciting deep-sea adventure will be. I believe we are about to get some gnarly weather, but not sure yet how long it will last. I have some kinfolk coming down from North Carolina , & hope to get them out. The saltwater fishing is much better here than in the Smoky Mountains .

This was a pretty cool trip, 2 anglers on their honeymoon, just married this past weekend from central Florida. They privately chartered the boat today and was very successful at catching some dinners for when they get back home. We drifted between 70 and 110 feet of water starting south of the Palm Beach inlet and ending up just south of the Juno pier with action the entire way. They caught some throw back snapper, a short cobia and some reel peelers that were unidentified. Even had some shark action along the way!! Fun trip with great people! Looking forward to fishing with them again on Saturday morning. All in all, a great day, nice temperature with a 2 to 4 foot chop. “Tight Lines” Capt. George See you on the water! :)