[Capt. Marc]

Hi,

Just came back from 2 weeks in the Palm Beach Fl. Wanted to pass on some experiences for those who may go there.

1st day. Went to check out a partyboat out of Boynton. 30 fairs and 1/2 5 gallon bucket junk reef fish which they would have thrown back 2 years ago. Didn't go on this boat the next morning.

2nd night. Checked out the Lake Worth pier. Only one there at night. Proceded to inlet. Nothing going on at the Inlet. Same at the intercostal bridges. Not looking too good. Talket to a boat fisherman at the Pier and he had nothing for four hours.

3rd day. Beach

4th night. Inlet again and found out there is much better fishing north around Jupiter.

5th day. Bass Pro Outdoors World ($125 misc fishing junk i really don't need).

6th day. Beach & reservations for charterboat out of jupiter.

7th day afternoon head boat out of jupiter 1 Mutton and 2 small kingfish back. GF had 2 keeper kings and 2 back (ouch). Checked out returning Charter and they did well.

8th Charter aboard the Black Dog out of Jupiter. Super helpful crew and nice fishing. Many Yellowtail, 4 Nice Mutton Snappers, 35lb Barracuda (ate 1/2 my kingfish). Learned the trick to catching muttons if anyone wants to know. http://www.blackdogfishing.com

9th Miami Shrimping expedition. 5 doz med shrimp. Missed the first of the tide and probably another few doz shrimp.

10th day. Shrimp for breakfast (tasty)

11th Miami Beach

12th went to a preserve Lockahacchee (spelling?) and saw some gators. Saw some people on rental canoes (sure with these things swiming around!).

13th went back to lake worth pier at night with coleman propane lantern. Attracted a ton of baitfish and that was it except for one barracuda who chased a few. zippo.

Nice place to visit but I would rather be jiging cod in the Gulf of Maine with a live mack over the side for a giant. Will have to wait a few for that.

Capt. Marc.

PS if your thinking about going I strongly suggest a small 6pack charter over a partyboat if you want to catch fish. The charter was $50 and the partyboat was $25-27.

 

[Hipshot]

Capt. Marc,
Your evperiance was different from mine, Chartered a boat outa Stuart, The Hunter, rough seas but put 2 cobia in the bot 20 & 28 # lost a bigger one. 38-40" cuda plus tripple tail, false albie(which was taken by 2 cuda, lane snapper, mangrove snapper,mutton snapper and blue runners! Great trip-full day$500.00-no mate,no tip!
Hipshot

 

[Capt. Marc]

Hipshot,

There is two fish I have yet to catch in FL (Cobia and Snook). I think next time I will look for a small charter who targets snook. Cobia is from what I heard, just a fish you come across when going for other gamefish. Did the Hunter target the cobia? $500 and no mate? How did the Cobia taste?

In Florida, I think most of the boats have foodfish commercial licences and usually sell what the anglers don't want. This was a small problem because I wanted all my fish and the mate wasn't too pleased about that. It does create a conflict of intrist when the party/charter depends on a percentage of the catch being sold at the markets. I made it up with the tip since it was excellent service. As soon as the mate heard my reel coming in, he had another bait ready and baited my hook (even after protesting that I could do it). Probably the fact that they were inspired by how many fish went into the cooler. Four of the regulars gave them all their fish. There was a sign in the cabin that the crew would be glad to take any catch the anglers didn't want.

It was rough with 4-5' all day but it was a lobster hull and pretty stable.

Capt. Marc

 

[baywatch]

S/W Fla

Lee Island fishing site. Copy and paste it. Pretty informative also.

http://www.leeislandcoast.com/everything_to_do/tarponcentral.php3

I own a home in Cape Coral which is just north of Ft Myers. I rent it as a vacation home by the week or the month. I am starting to get inquires from people in Fla to go down and fish during May through July for the Tarpon run.

This is the time to be down there, I get mail from people there about the snook especially now that the water is starting to warm up.

Tarpon will start in about a month or so.

Back bay fishing is totally different then up here. One thing is for sure you have to be able to cast with some authority, placement of the bait in the shadows of the mangove trees is a must.

It is best in about 2-3 ft of water. You will hook up with snook, redfish, sea trout that is very simular to our weekfish, and occasional fluke believe it or or not. Lots of light spinner gear maybe 12 lb test with a 30" snook will test you skills for sure.

Check out the site and enjoy it.

 

[Hipshot]

Capt. Marc,
The boat was a 31' Rampage-yes we targeted Cobia, the sailfish bite was off. The way they fish cobia down there is to spot manta rays and cast around them (their wings kick up crabs, etc which the cobia like to eat, so the cobia follow them around! It was too rough to do the spotting stuff, so we anchored over a wreck and caught a wide variety of fish! The cobia are excellent eating as well as giving a great fight! Going to Islemorada next month-hope to catch some of them snook.
Bob
Yes-$500.00 9hr. trip, no mate to tip, 4pack charter, Capt. acted as Capt. and mate!

 

[SebastianRed]

FL Fishing

Capt Marc, good to hear you caught some nice fish with the Black Dog, I have heard very good things about them, I am very new both on this forum and to the northeast but I was born and raised (and spent the last 31 years)in Boynton Beach. I grew up fishing and working on the driftboats there. Yes some are better than others and the fish selling by the crews is a real problem with some. I was actually just there myself on vacation and had roughtly the same experience, the winter fish have moved on and the spring fish haven't quite arrived, the water has been pretty cold which also hurts the snapper bite. Jupiter alway seemed to be better in Feb but I'm not sure why.

I imagine you checked out the Sea Mist in Boynton, they are good at times but the mates can be real asses regarding the extra fish. ( Like you mentioned the Jupiter Boat (Blue Heron) has always had that problem as well. I have fished on the BH in Jup 4 times when the yellowtails and muttons were biting good and never did I end up with all of my fish at the end (yes they will steal some too if the fishing is good).

Next time you go down at least check out the B-Love Fleet (Lady K) in Lantana. I worked for them part time 5 of the last 7 years and I believe you will find the crew much better and the fishing should be much better a little later (april and may can be incredible Kings/dolphin/tunas/cobes/snappers etc).

I guess now I have to learn all over again, but as I have been reading these posts regarding cod fishing I am looking foward to trying something new.

P.S. As for the trick to catching the muttons, if you didn't already try using flourocarbon leader along with what they showed you. It will make a BIG difference especially on the calm days.

Anyway, Nice to hear you had a good trip. Since that is my home town I had to respond.

Best Regards

Sebastian Red

 

[622997]

Nice! If you want all of those plus dolphin, wahoo, or sailfish call me next time. www.reelfine.com www.sailking.com

 

[penguin]

Charters

I am going to be in the Boca Raton area in April, can you recommend an inshore and offshore charter Capt.
Thanks

 

[619623]

Usually every year we go down to cocoa beach.while there we fish with capt bill on his boat "time out" web site is www.indianriveradventures.com .I highly rec. this boat if anyone is in the cape canaveral area...i'll be there in april,cant wait..

 

[Capt. Marc]

SebastianRed,

The boat I normally would go on was the Lucky Day out of Lantana but they didn't pass the CG inspection and no longer sail. The capt was pretty laid back which made for a nice trip and they didn't mind any fish I caught being placed into my cooler.

That commen fish box s--ks. two in the neck, 5 in the eyes and three up the a-- really ticked me off. If I want to, bleed, and pack the fish right away that should be my right. (My fish right?). The 90 degree slury of fish slime in the boxes didn't help much.

The pool was a another issue i would rather not talk about in FL.

Up here your going to find that things are a little more straight foward expecially on the NE cod boats. Everyone puts the fish in their own coolers or each fishermen gets a burlap sac or a fish tote. Good boats usually announce the pool and how many people are in and usually there is a list somewhere.

Aside from the francis fleet there is some excellent boats further north such as the Bunnyclark, AL Guaron, Easterns Fishing Fleet, and numerous others.

Just do a search and you will see a wealth of info on cod fishing up here and which boats go out. Most boats start up 4/1 when the regs change to 10 fish (cod/haddock) per person in the Gulf Of Maine. April in the gulf lately produces nice haddock catches expecially boats who fish jefferies ledge.

Three more weeks and I will be out hitting the cod grounds. Can't wait.

Capt. Marc

 

[ks6449]

Fishing in Stuart Florida

Im going to be making a trip to stuart florida in the near future and really want to do some fishing. I hear there is a party boat down there which i believe is from Mass. or Rhode Is. for the winter. can anyone help me out here. What type of fishing do the party boats down there do and what type of tackle should I bring with me. Im leaving on 3/5/03 so any and quick help will be greatly appreciated.

 

[614668]

I just returned from Stuart 2 weeks ago. You can fish under the Stuart Causway Bridge under US1. There is a long protected pier with a bait shop at end of land/beginning of pier. SNook Nook I believe it is called. I was fishing with in-laws gear and needless to say, line snapped on every hook up. But there were plent of fish being caught on moving tider during day. Spanish Mackerel seem to provide the action. I am not sure of names but I looked in yellow pages and there are two party boats. I don't find a need to go on these as there is great fishing to be had from shore. Went on one of the party boats many years ago and it was obviously geared towards tourists. Upon sailing mates starts giving a lecture "this is the polie, this is the reel, this is the bait, this is how you bait hook, this is how you reel in fish." Made me realize that fishermen don't go on party boats in Florida. NEedless to say, we bottomfished and caught same fish one catches inshore. If you are looking for game fish I would recommend looking into charter boats. There were many listed in yellow pages. Lastly, I have never done it but believe you can rent skiffs a short ride north near Jensen Beach/Hutchinson Island. Water is on cold side so standing in surf on sandbar during low tide might not be an option, although did same many years ago and probably had some of the most fun I've ever had fishing.

 

[614668]

Oops, forgot if fishing from pier, fluke pole should do fine with spinning reel like Penn 4500.

 

[616127]

We have a place in Stuart and as previously mentioned I would highly recomend the BlackDog out of Jupiter, for 50 bucks you get a 4 hour six pack charter and they will find the fish if theya are biting. Jupiter is 20 min so of Stuart.

 

[SebastianRed]

KS The boat you are talking about is the Seven B's. It is from RI and used to tie up behind the Lobster Shanty restaurant.( Don't know if it still docks there/ never have been on it.) Fished on the Safari 1 in Port Salerno once and it was decent. As for party boat fishing, you can catch some real quality fish on them if you have the time to learn how. Its like everything else, it takes practice.

Capt Mark. Actually the LD was my favorite of all the partyboats in that area when it shut down. I was actually working part time on both it and the B-Love fleet but mostly on the LD. If you fished on it sometime from 98-00, there is at least a decent chance I was working as I did a lot of trips with them. (Caught some nice fish with them on my days off too.)

Thanks for the info on the cod fishing
Sebastian Red