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MAKO Charters, In the News

February 7th, 2010 – 8:04 am
Tagged as: Uncategorized

Over the years, we have been lucky enough to make some great friends among the media outlets that concentrate on our sport.  We have also been happy to help with scientific research to help us understand our fisheries better.

We put a page together of the more recent articles.  We will fill them in as we find the older ones:

http://fishbermuda.com/in-the-news/

Since it is about 57 degrees, raining and blowing a gale…I thought we could all do with some reading to make us think about May!

- Capt. Allen DeSilva

Jan 8 - The 2009 Video

January 8th, 2010 – 4:39 pm
Tagged as: Fishing Reports

The 2009 Video is here!  I hope you enjoy watching it.  It sure was fun fishing it.

Make sure you call or email to talk about our ability to package lodging with your fishing trip this summer.  We are really excited about the ability to save our customers some serious money and stay in a nice house instead of a hotel.

- Capt. Allen DeSilva

From mako charters

Merry Christmas

December 19th, 2009 – 6:26 am
Tagged as: Fishing Reports

christmas-marlin-3

We are almost done with our 2009 Mako Charters video.  It was really enjoyable to go through all the best moments of 2009 and put them together with some music.  If you would like a copy, just let us know by emailing where we should send a CD to mako@logic.bm

December 19 - Fishing Report

December 19th, 2009 – 5:40 am
Tagged as: Fishing Reports

Well, not really fishing.

Mako made the trip to North Carolina and back.  We did some work to fix all those little things that were not quite right when we left in June.  She is ready to go now and it looks like our timing is good - the Yellowfin Tuna are pretty thick out there!

I am looking forward to having a boat in Bermuda this winter to take advantage of those days where the weather and fish cooperate.  Hopefully I will be able to post a real fishing report in the coming days.

To all of our friends, have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  I hope we get a chance to fish with you in 2010.

- Capt. Allen DeSilva

Oct 11 - Fishing Report

October 12th, 2009 – 12:46 pm
Tagged as: Uncategorized

We were out a fair amount this week.  We lost Thursday to weather but that was it.  Wednesday we were out with George Dragonetti and friends and was it ever rough.  About as much as you would want to deal with, that is for sure.  They were troopers and we managed to catch a reasonable number of Wahoo.  Well done guys, way to hang in there.

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Note how trim the shirtless one looks!

By Friday the wind had quit and all we were left with was the swell.  Much more comfortable, but still bumpy.  We had Argo out and we were able to catch enough Wahoo and Yellowfin Tuna to keep the day interesting.  The Wahoo we are catching trolling dead bait are in the 20 - 40 pound class.  We have not been catching many Wahoo bigger than that over the past couple of weeks.

Want to feel like your boat is bigger?  Put these two in the cockpit.

Want to feel like your boat is bigger? Put these two in the cockpit.

With the tide running to the West, the action in on the Eastern side of Challenger.  Argus has produced a number of good days for other boats, but we focused on Challenger this week as the bait moved from the Southeast corner to the Eastern turn and even to the Northeast corner.  By Sunday the bulk of the bait had moved north from the Southeast corner and we were doing better with the Wahoo and Tuna up that way.

Nice one Rhyn!

Nice one Rhyn!

What we did find on the Southeast corner were Robins, and lots of them.  We had Rhyn and Makenna Bearden out and they put a hurting on the Robin population, filling up the livewell and then the chumming box.  Later in the day we were able to cash those live Robins in for some much nicer Wahoos.  i think we ended up with two fish in the 60 pound range and one in the 50s.  Fishing with live bait is great fun as long as you don’t focus on how many fish you lose, but instead enjoy the larger size of the ones you do catch.

The tuna catchers.

The tuna catchers.

We are going to be out of commission for a little while pretty soon as we bring MAKO back to Carolina for some odds and ends to be done.  We will be back to Bermuda in time for January which, last year at least, produced really great fishing for Yellowfin Tuna and Wahoo.

We will be able to sneak in another week of fishing before we depart.  If your freezer is empty, call and book a trip.  The Wahoo fishing remains consistent.

- Capt. Allen DeSilva

Oct 4 - Fishing Report

October 6th, 2009 – 7:46 am
Tagged as: Fishing Reports

As the weather moves towards Bermuda’s fall pattern, so are the fish.

In late September and early October a typical year would see a migration of “Ticker Mackerel” (that is what we call them in Bermuda, they are actually small Little Tunny or, thanks to the Florida Museum of Natural History, Euthynnus alletteratus) moving from the Harbour out to the Edge and the Banks.  Don’t ask me why they move from inshore, where they are the top of the food-chain to offshore, where they are everybody’s favorite snack, but they do.  These baits are small enough that they are bite sized for Yellowfin Tuna and especially Wahoo.  2009 seems like it will shape up to a year with a poor live bait season.  Those Ticker Mackerel are not to be found offshore - at least yet.  The only spot we have found them reliably is one small section of Bermuda’s Edge.

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The lack of Ticker Mackerel, together with a strong West tide, is making live bait fishing an unproductive use of time.  There is a bonus to all of this, however.  The lack of bait has made the Wahoo ready to bite and bite well on the troll.  Similarly, the Yellowfin Tuna that are around are ready to eat.  This has added up to a number of pretty respectable catches this week.  It seems like the Eastern Turn to the SE Corner of Challenger is holding the most fish lately.

Friday - Monday we had the Radke boys fishing with us and we produced a pile of Wahoo and a pretty good haul of Yellowfin Tuna.  I love fishing in October as the Wahoo strikes often come in doubles or triples (we had two quadruples this weekend).  Calling Wahoo fishing exciting for the guys in the cockpit is an understatement.  There is plenty of work for the Mate, the customers and the Captain.

We will try to get out a fair amount this week - weather permitting.  I hope to have more of the same to report next week.

- Capt. Allen DeSilva

Sep 27 - Not Fishing Report

October 6th, 2009 – 7:12 am
Tagged as: Fishing Reports

Between our trip to Costa Rica and some challenging weather, we did not fish enough this week to have much to say.  Wahoo are biting well and there are some Yellowfin Tuna out there.  Smooth Operator released a couple of Blue Marlin that did not hear that they were supposed to be in St. Thomas.

- Capt. Allen DeSilva

Guest Fishing Report - Sep 20

September 22nd, 2009 – 3:16 pm
Tagged as: Fishing Reports

I took a trip down to Costa Rica for the week, so no report from Bermuda.  I heard that the Wahoo continued to bite all week.  The report for the trip to Costa Rica is below:

We just finished a six day trip to Costa Rica and were able to put together a great trip even though September is not known as the best of months in Costa Rica. What September often does see is a run of Marlin offshore from the town of Flamingo, about 150 miles NW of Los Suenos. This marlin run was our objective for the week. While things did not work out as planned, the trip really highlighted the benefits of Black & Blue over traditional chartering.

sep 19 180We began moving De Mako NW on Friday, fishing most of the way. We were able to catch seven sailfish out of about ten bites on the way. We made it into Flamingo Bay around nightfall the first night. The next day we fished off of Flamingo in the morning with no luck. No bites, no bait, no birds. It was a pretty ominous beginning. We ran into Flamingo Bay at lunch to pick up the rest of the members for the trip and headed back out for the afternoon. While the weather was great, the afternoon was more of the same - no signs of life at all. It was so bad that we all made a pretty quick decision when we got back to Flamingo Bay that night. With the water so empty off of Flamingo we decided to head SE in the morning and keep going until we saw signs of life. All of the anglers checked out of their hotel rooms and took a Pango out to De Mako at 6 am and we set out to the SE in the same green water. We ran quite a few miles in this unpromising water and then set out the baits as the water started to turn bluer. The fish we had caught on the way up were about half way, off the coast from the town of Correa and, sure enough, that is where we found them again. We caught three or four sails and and a 24 pound dolphin. By the end of the fishing day, we decided to run to Los Suenos and the condo to spend the night.

The next four days we fished out of Los Suenos. We continued to fish SE of the Elbow. We had a couple of double digit Sailfish days and ended up with about 32 Sailfish for the trip. The rain held off for us duing the day and we were able to fish in nice weather with the swell being significant on only one day. In addition to the Sailfish and assorted Dolphin, September is typically a good month for Yellowfin Tuna. We found this to be the case as we followed flocks of diving birds to find big schools of Tunasep 19 199working in front of equally large schools of Spinner Dolphins. The Tuna would boil to the surface, eating small bait that looked like Krill and then go back down. There were several fish we saw that looked to be better than 100 pounds in the melee. We caught our share of Tuna out of these schools but we did not catch any of the big ones. I guess the big ones get big because they know what a bait or lure looks like! Even better than catching the Tuna was watching the show. Tuna jumping, Spinner dolphin chasing, birds diving….what a site.

sep 19 211 sep 19 073

October is maintenance month for us, De Mako is getting hauled and we have the usual bits and bobs to get done before the Costa Rica season begins in earnest. November through March is generally the best fishing and we are really looking forward to this year.
We will be back with an update when we get back to fishing.

- Capt. Mike Springer

Sep 13 - Fishing Report

September 14th, 2009 – 8:03 am
Tagged as: Uncategorized

makos_hoo

The Wahoo continue to please. Early in the week we were having good luck on Challenger Bank trolling with dead bait for Wahoo as well as chumming on the NW side of the Bank. In the chum, there were a fair number of little Yellowfin Tuna, huge numbers of Skipjack Tuna as well as the odd Rainbow Runner and Tiger Sharks. All in all, made for a few interesting days.

We fish for Wahoo in the chum using spinning gear with a short trace of wire just above the hook. The particular fellow I am holding above hit my bait (yes, I was convinved to try a drift or two with the rod in my hand) like something very small. As I was reeling the fish in easily, someone hooked a Yellowfin just above my fish. Well, that sure woke up the Wahoo and he went around the bow in a flash. After 10 or 15 minutes fighting him from the bow deck, I figured that I must have a Wahoo that was converted in to a Tiger Shark. I put the max drag on and start to work the fish to the boat thinking I will either catch it or break it off and finish this one way or the other. Well, he was a nice surprise when he came to the gaff.

Later in the week the bite on Argus was good. I think we ended up with 15 Wahoo on Saturday. Ricky Lines and his guests did their usual great job and we had two great days out.

September-October fishing in Bermuda….nice weather, lots of action, lots of fish to eat!

I am going to be in Costa Rica this week checking on Capt. Mike and Chowie, the other half of Black & Blue Fishing. As a result, the next fishing report will be from the Pacific.

Talk to you then.

- Capt. Allen DeSilva

Sep 6 - Fishing Report

September 8th, 2009 – 2:53 pm
Tagged as: Fishing Reports

The Wahoo continue to cooperate, as does the weather.  We have had flat seas and beautiful sunny weather this week.  Despite the calm seas, the Wahoo were out in force, ready to gobble up chum, dead trolled bait or live bait.  Our last trip we caught 10 Wahoos and 5 Yellowfin Tunas inthe chum.  The largest was a 62 pounder caught by birthday boy James Cornes.

The live bait continues its migration to the Banks; we should see them out there in numbers we can work with in the next week or so.  For now, the show is in the chum with lots of small Tunas and medium Wahoo making things very interesting on spinning gear.

It is pretty much decided that MAKO is going to North Carolina to have a little work done this Fall.  We expect to leave sometime after October 20.  Book your trips now to get in on this fishing!

- Capt. Allen DeSilva