I received a days fishing charter for Christmas and today was the day. David and I headed out along with Jeff Parker and John Lockhart for a day on the water with Captain Patrick Price of Daymaker Charters. The name is very apt because he did indeed make our day.
The four of us have been fishing a long time and to say that this was one of our best experiences would not be an exaggeration. Over the course of the day we hooked and landed 15 different species of fish and we even invited a few of them home for dinner.
We started our fishing off by using Sabiki rigs in forty feet of water jigging for live bait. If you have never seen a Sabiki rig it is a series of small flies tied to a single line, you drop it to the bottom and jig it up and down. If the bait is there they are on it immediately. We put a couple of different kinds of baitfish into the baitwell and away we went.
Our first stop was on an area that was holding some Cobia and it was a bit crowded. Even on the ocean it doesn’t take long for the word to get around and Cobia are a prized table fish. They are usually found hanging out with Sharks and although we didn’t get one we certainly saw a few sharks swimming around the boat.
Patrick headed out to one of his deep ground fishing spots and rigged two live bait rods on the stern and a jig rod for the bow. Jeff got the jig up front and David and John were up on the ones at the back. You would have to see it to believe it but all three baits hit the bottom and all three rods got smashed by big fish. John got a big Amberjack to the boat but hurt his shoulder in the process, Jeff’s line went slack part way up and all he got was a fish head. David’s fish also got hit by a Shark and he got three quarters of an Amberjack to the boat. Not wanting to sit there feeding Sharks, Patrick fired up the Daymaker and headed further out to troll for Mahi Mahi and Sailfish. He is a master of getting the lines out there and we six lines running from the stern and outriggers. As luck would have it four rods went off at the same time and we ended up with lines crossed and tangled as the fish ran. We got one undersized Mahi to the boat and the other three are still out there.
He got the lines straightened out and we were off and at it again. It was John’s turn at the next fish and one hit and took off like it was on steroids. We had gotten lucky and were into a Sailfish and that first run had taken it way out behind the boat. John had fought with this fish for what seemed like ages and I was looking at where his line went into the water and thought that it was close to the boat. No way, it jumped and it was still three or four hundred feet out. With his shoulder still trashed from the big Amberjack, John reluctantly handed the rod over to me. It seemed to take forever to get the fish to the boat and when it got in close it took off again and made a couple of great jumps for us and we have a nice video of it going into a turn beside the boat with its dorsal fin flared right out. I finally got it close enough for Patrick to reach down and do an in the water release. Awesome.
We got back on our trolling path and a while later David was into a much nicer Mahi Mahi which got invited home for dinner. They are excellent eating and it’s what’s for dinner tonight. I also got a nice Bonita Tuna on the next pass.
We decided to go back to bottom fishing again and caught a variety of Amberjack, Almaco Jack, a few varieties of Snapper and Jeff nailed a big Grouper.
Patrick decided to have another go at getting a Cobia so we went back to the general area we had been fishing in the morning. We were throwing the big jigs again and long lining a live bait off the bow and stern of the boat. I got a really nice slot size Snook off of the front bait rod and a Barracuda on the jig. The back bait rod went over and John grabbed that one, the rod folded over but that was it. I thought he had snagged bottom and the drift was pulling the line off the reel but Patrick said he saw the hit and it wasn’t bottom. John took the pain in his shoulder as long as he could but finally passed the rod off the David. I am still thinking bottom but the rod started to pulse from a big head shake and the fight was really on. Patrick had to fire up the boat to go after the fish and recover some line and we still had no idea what we were into. After about 15 minutes David handed the rod off the Jeff and he braced himself on the gunnels and fought the fish for another fifteen minutes. I was trying to get all this on tape and was just going to ask Patrick for his best guess when it came up enough to see it. At least a nine foot Hammerhead Shark came up just below and to one side of the boat. What an awesome way to end the day with one of the giants right beside us. We reached down into the water and submerged a Go Pro and got a few seconds of the fish before it took off again and bit through the leader.
I am going to try and put a video together of the trip, we got lots of great footage. These are a few of our pictures from the day. John wrecked his shoulder on the second fish so he isn’t holding any up but he got his share.
This is the second time we have gone out with Captain Price on Daymaker and I can honestly say if you want a great day out on the water it is well worth the trip to go out with him. We had so much fun we are trying to get him again before we come home.
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