April 2005

 

April 9th - After spending Christmas & New Years in the Bahamas, it was off to Briggs Boat Works, in North Carolina, for some sprucing up.  Those of you who fish with us will see a lot of new things - just to mention a few, like the new colour and the new cockpit layout.  Many thanks to Sunny and the boys for another job well done!

De Mako had a good trip home, with NW10-15kt winds, making the 600-mile crossing a smooth and fast trip.  N.C to Bermuda in 33 hours, while burning 1,050 gals.

 

Well, it seems the fish are not opposed to De Mako changes, as one of our first trips out this Wednesday, with Dr. Ernie’s group, saw us catching 20 Wahoos.  We had only four small fish (15-20lbs.) and the rest of the catch were fish in the 30-60lbs. range, with a total weight of more than 700lbs.  We had a few triple hook-ups that gave us the opportunity to try out De Mako’s patented flip out mezzanine gimbals (check out the photos), that work great!

 

Most of Wednesday’s action took place on the edge, with just a few fish coming off of Challenger Bank, although I have been told of some good catches on both banks.  With no other bookings for the week, James & I have been winding line on some new tackle and getting bait before it starts to get real crazy, very soon!

 

April 25th - A pretty quiet week, this week!  The weather has been like August weather - flat calm, and the Wahoos hated it.  The bite slowed to just a few fish a day, if you were lucky, and with no real signs of the Tunas.  It has made fishing very tough, this week.

Some bait has started to show up on the north side of the Banks, plus a few Tunas have been caught there.  The signs look good for the start of the “Tuna run” to begin, this coming week. With the change in the weather, and May just around the corner, the “Wahoo spring run” should get in high gear very soon!

 

The Whales are still around, but that has not stopped a few Blue Marlins from showing up.  There have been a couple of attacks, with only the “Challenger” being successful, catching the season’s first Blue of 400lbs.  Nice going, Alan & Ian!

 

May 2005

 

May 2nd - De Mako, with “Team Bruce” aboard, on Wednesday, found the Yellowfins down on Argus banks.  We finished up the day with 16 Yellowfin Tunas, 3 Wahoos & 3 Dolphins.  It’s been a long wait for the Tunas, but there are finally signs of bait and Tuna activity on both the northern side of Challenger & Argus.

The Spring Wahoo run on the Edge is still hot & cold.  You can go out and catch 15 Wahoos one day and go right back to the same spot the next day and have hell to get a bite!  Don’t lose hope… as the old cricket saying goes, ”Stick to the wickets and the runs all come”!  And, for you Americans that don’t understand cricket, just keep on fishing - the bites are coming!

 

We started off May on the right foot, yesterday, with the Collier family trip.  After Jack Jr. & Ford had caught their share of Tunas, it was time to retreat to the A/C and watch a movie, leaving the fishing to Mom & Dad!

 

We all had a great day.  Many thanks, Jack!

May 7th - 54 Yellowfin Tunas in the first 3 trips is how DeMako started off this week.  Still a good bite from the Yellowfins taking place down on the north & west side of Argus Bank.  We have been anchoring up and chumming for them, although some of the other boats have also been successfully trolling for them.  The average size fish taken in the chum has been 20-40lbs., with the trolling fish being smaller, with the odd big one mixed in.  There is also a pretty good Wahoo bite down on the edge of Argus, plus on the tower.  The Wahoo bite, on the Bermuda’s edge, remains hit or miss (10 one day and a blank the next!).  Challenger Bank must be asleep - not much to report there at all.  My advice - stay on the edge and take your chances with the Wahoos, or go all the way to Argus and have some fun with the Tunas!

 

Ricky Sousa & Big Al, on Wednesday’s trip, take the  “Best catch of the week” with 26 Yellowfins & 1 Wahoo - A lot of pulling for two anglers!  No recovery time!

 

May 16th - The Tuna fishing just keeps getting better!  De Mako has had a strong week, with the Yellowfins in the chum. The bite started on Argus Bank and then moved to Challenger.

 

We have also seen an increase in the size, with most fish in the 30-pound range and a few in the 40’s.  Catches of 8 to 18 Tunas per trip, with a few Wahoos, Bonita & Rainbows mixed in are common.

 

Joe Guerin, on Saturday’s trip, was red hot!  With a nice haul of Tunas, plus an 18lb Rainbow Runner and a 45lb White Marlin, he caught in the chum!  And how about Joshua’s 86lbs. Wahoo on Friday -  add this to a 64lb Wahoo, making a total catch of 9 Tunas & 5 Wahoo’s!

 

Today, it was the girls verses the boys and Gambrel & Sonya finished on top, out of a total of 17 Tunas caught.  Must have been the Baiter!

 

May 23rd - We saw a slow down in the Tuna bite, this week.

 

The conditions are still the same, with the tide (current) going into the SE and the bites still on the north side of both banks, but the numbers were just not there.  We still had Tunas coming right in the chum, but they were very leader-shy, making it difficult to rack up any sizable numbers.

 

We did manage a sizable number of Wahoos, on Jimmy’s birthday trip on Friday.  With the slower Tuna fishing, I decided to start the day from the NW edge and slowly work our way to the banks.  Well, the Wahoos had a different idea and we never left the edge.  We finished up catching 19 Wahoos and were back at the dock for a few cocktails by 3.30pm.

 

A great day all round - great fishing and a great gang!

 

Happy Birthday Jimmy!

May 30th - Close but no cigar!

 

1st Innings

 

Thursday morning was terrible - rain, wind and thunder.  So, we postponed our departure.  By 10.30 a.m., there was great improvement in the weather, so we headed out to Argus.  By the time we got to the outside edge of Argus, we had caught a few Wahoos & Tunas.  We were seeing quite a few Tunas feeding on the surface, so we decided to switch over to some “dink bait fishing” and try our luck with the Yellowfins.  Within 5 minutes, Mathew was hooked up!  After boating a nice 50lb Yellowfin, we were back on the move and within minutes, Johnny was hooked up to something big!

 

It did not take long to figure out that we were dealing with DeMako’s first Blue Marlin encounter of the year.  The odds were against us.  We had a large Blue Marlin on a 30W reel, with 60lb line, and only a 130lb test leader.  It was only a matter of time before the coarse bill of the Marlin would saw through our light leader.  We needed the fish to make a mistake and let us get close enough so James could grab the leader and make it an official release.

 

Despite the great job that Johnny did, and all the backing down & maneuvering, after an hour and 10mins, the Marlin cut through the leader with only a few yards to go!

 

 “ Close but no cigar!”

 

2nd Innings

 

With Johnny “Wahoo” Reiss on board again for Saturday’s trip, we started the day with Bill boating a massive 94lb Wahoo, first thing in the morning, right up on the edge.

 

Great catch, but 6lbs short of the elusive 100 pounder.

 

“Close again!”

 

Thanks again, Johnny, for the memories - your trips are always fun!

 

June 2005

 

June 7th - Well, the water temperature is still about 6-7 degrees colder than normal, but this is not stopping the Marlin season from getting off on schedule.

This week we have seen Blue Marlin attacks everyday and De Mako has managed to get off the mark with two fish.

 

The first Blue we released on Wednesday, after a good day’s fishing down on Argus, catching 7 Wahoo’s  & 6 Yellowfin’s.  We were making our way home when we got the bite from a 400lb. Blue.  Angler Mark did a great job in catching this fish in 20 minutes on a 50-class reel - Great Job, Great Release!

 

On Saturday, before we even made the Bank, we released our second Blue for the season.  Again, on a 50 reel, this time with Eric in the chair, releasing a 250 pounder.  Congratulations, Eric!

 

Tuna action remains good on the west & northwest sides of Argus, plus the Wahoo bite has been steady.  Unfortunately, Challenger Banks is still Tuna-less, making everyday a long one down to Argus, but at least there is good fishing, just not close to home.

June 13th - There has not been a whole lot of changes in the fishing scene, this week.

The best of the Tuna fishing is still down on Argus Bank, and Challenger Bank is still slow.

 

The White Marlins have made a good showing this week, with many boats reporting attacks and releases.  The Blues are also showing sign of improvement, with more encounters even though only a few boats are spending any time looking for them.

 

“DeMako” ended the week very strong, with Saturday’s “Island Construction Tournament” win, with 18 Tunas and 2 Wahoos -

 

a total weight of 583lbs.  Great fun…… thanks, Big Al!

 

Sunday was “De Mako’s” first official Marlin trip, in which we saw Tommy Holder do a fine job at catching and releasing a 250lb Blue Marlin - Congratulations!

 

This week, “De Mako” will start spending a good bit of time Marlin fishing and, with the coming of the full moon on the 22nd the rest of June should be interesting!

June 20th - The Holder Brothers are Hot!

We ended last week with Tom Holder releasing a nice Blue Marlin and started this week with younger brother, Donnie, releasing a Blue and a White Marlin.  Under James’ supervision, Tom did a great job handling the leader on both his brother’s fish.  Watch out for these boys, they are good and I am sure you’ll see them in the fishing magazines in the coming years.

 

The Marlin bite is starting to heat up, with a lot more White bites than Blues, so far.  Unfortunately, fishing with 130’s and big lures makes for a lot of missed White Marlin, but it is a great time to try your luck at catching a few on light tackle, if you are so inclined!

 

The hot Tuna bite, down on Argus, is slowing down everyday and still no signs of life on Challenger.  The big question is where and when are they going to show up next?

 

Wahoo are in their summer mode, with a few here and there, and most of them “Summer Lizards” (15-20lbs).

 

Full moon this week, so stand by!!

 

June 28th - A Good Day and A Bad Day

 Let’s start with the Good Day! 

 

The Marlin bite had really heated up.  We started the week with Teem Capital pulling out all the stops.  How about a 124lb Yellowfin on 50lb test, standup gear!  Ed did a great job up until the last 5 minutes, when his back said “I’m not taking this anymore” and it was Marty to the rescue to finish the fight.  On the way home, it was Marty’s turn for some pain and, after a 20-minute battle, a 700lb Blue Marlin was to the boat, somewhat ready to be tagged, -so we thought!  As it turned out, the Marlin had other plans and proceeded to pull poor James all over the cockpit for the next 10 minutes.  Finally, after releasing the leader three times and lots of bruises, James tamed her down to the point that Ed could put a tag in her and we could release her to fight another day.

 

Second fish story of the week… the Bad Day!

 

Sunday’s action for us started after lunch, with a White Marlin miss followed by a Blue Marlin miss.  O.K., not a good start, but a few minutes later, we have another Blue on and a few seconds later, it to was gone!  At this point, we are starting to get a little frustrated. Little did we know it was going to get worse - a lot worse!

 

About 15 minutes later, a big Blue, 800lbs plus, crashes the long rigger, buzzes the reel and drops off, then falls back on the stinger.  Finally, we are hooked up!  This fish is big and hot; backing down as fast as “De Mako” can go is not working, we are still losing line fast, 800 yards of line out and screaming!  Drastic times call for drastic actions.  It is time to turn the boat around and chase her down.  James quickly stands the outrigger up and I spin all 57 feet of “De Mako” around in a cloud of black smoke!  The chase is on and, for the first time since we hooked up, we feel we have some control.  But, it was not to be; with one more run the line parts!  What happened?  We had turned around and were in hot pursuit, with only 15 lbs. of drag.  After disappointingly winding in the line, we find that it has parted some 600yds. down in the reel.  A close inspection reveals that a factory splice in the line had pulled out.  A splice?  What splice?  This is a new 1500 yd spool of spectra; there should not be any splices in it.  What is going on??

 

Back at the dock, I decide to empty all the reels of the new line and find three more splices in the remaining reels… not good!

 

Spectra users beware: some brands of line are not continuous, as we found out the hard way!  This was Power Pro line and I’m not a happy customer!

July 2005

 

July 10th - O.K., I know what you are saying, “ What happened to last week’s report?”  Well, it’s been crazy here at Mako Charters - fishing everyday and boat & tackle repairs every night.

The big news, last week, was Sea Scorpion’s 712lb Blue Marlin that won the World Cup. This makes three years in a row for Bermuda!

 

Congratulations to all of the Sea Scorpion crew - great job!   Hey Steven, “No Rats”!

 

De Mako kept to her usual of catching Marlins before and after the tournament. This week, true to form, we have released a Blue Marlin everyday, plus a fair amount of Whites, too, with our best fish of the week coming today - a 650lb Blue, released by Mr. Forgie.  Congratulations and we are looking forward to fishing with you next year.

 

This week is the Bermuda Big Game Classic, and Ricky is telling me that he is bringing out the lucky Goose!  Maybe that will work!

 

Good luck & good fishing to all the participants in the Classic.

July 25th - Well, the Big Game Classic has come and gone and DeMako’s tournament luck did not change.  Congratulations to Southern Exposure & Treasure Isle for their great performances.

Southern Exposure took 1st place, with a 1023lbs Blue & 3 releases - now, that’s the way to win a tournament!

 

Treasure Isle was a close 2nd with 3 releases and a 640lb catch by angler, Ricky Cox - nice job, guys!  (nice shirts!)

 

Well, back on De Mako.  Woody, knowing how hot De Mako is after a tournament, booked two days and finished up with 4 Blue Marlin releases out of 8 fish on the line.  Great fun!  Maybe we should get Woody and his lucky hat to fish the tournament, next year!

 

In the last few days, the Marlin bite has returned to a live bait bite.  Trolling boats are just not getting the bites.  Chumming and live bait fishing for Marlin is the way to go.  Yes, chumming!  “Gringo” was 1 for 3 on Blue’s, a few days ago, while chumming for Tunas.  “Playmate,” “Sheer Luck,” “Knock Down” and “DeMako” have all had luck with live baits.  You should give it a try.  Just get a few Robins or Mackerel, or even a small Tuna, rig him up and move out to the deep, and standby.  Beware: not only are the Tuna & Marlins eating these live bait, so are the Sharks.  We released an 800lb Tiger Shark, on Saturday.

 

Today, on DeMako, Mick released a 400lb Blue on a live Tuna, and he also released a 600lb Blue, on Saturday, on the Playmate.

 

Congratulations, Mick, on two great catches!

 

The Seahorse tournament is this week - I just hope that T.S. Franklin does not blow it out for the smaller boats.

 

Well, good luck & good fishing to all!

 

August 2005

 

August 1st -           “DE MAKO” TAKES TOP HONORS IN THE SEAHORSE BILLFISH TOURNAMENT

“SOUTHERN EXPOSURE” CLINCHES 2005 BERMUDA TRIPLE CROWN CHAMPIONSHIP

 

De Mako’s Tournament crew:

 

Capt. Allen DeSilva; #1 Mate James Robinson; The one and only angler Ricky Sousa; and Cameraman / 2nd. Mate / 2nd. angler / Bar tender/ Boat cleaner,  Steven “Straws “ Haycock.

 

Team De Mako had fished the Bermuda Blast & Bermuda Big Game Classic with no luck and our standing in the Triple Crown was non-existent.  Our last chance to make a showing was this week in the Seahorse Billfish tournament, the 3rd and final leg of the Triple Crown.

 

Day one: Still a little breeze left over from T.S. Franklin (15-20), but still no change in Team De Mako’s luck - we missed a Blue and a White.  There were a few fish released, but no real leader so far.

 

Day Two: Nice calm seas and an improvement in the fishing.  Gringo boated a 566lb Blue, early in the day. As Joey says, “ Catch a Blue and be home by 2.00,” but the day belonged to the Bermuda Banger with 3 Blues released, giving Capt. John and his team 1st place with 1500 points and one day’s fishing left!  Oh yeah, De Mako managed to get on the scoreboard with a Blue Marlin released. (500 points)

 

Day Three: Ricky shows up with the Grey Goose and some Bloody Mary mix.  James came down the hill with some new lures out of his huge inventory.  After the last two tournaments, with no results, Straws and I are ready for anything and we welcomed the changes.  Lines in at 8.00am and, as usual, Triple Play &  “Team Chicken ” start the day off - “Blue marlin released, angler Martin Estis”.  They had released the first fish every day of this tournament (never count the Triple Play out!!  Great team).

 

At 10.13am., Team Grey Goose on De Mako gets their first bite.  It’s just a White Marlin, but we’ll take it - it’s 200 more points!  (we’re starting to climb the ladder!)

 

1.00pm - we release a Blue, at 2.49pm.   We release another Blue (Team Grey goose is hot!!  (in more ways than one!).  Can you believe it, at 3.18pm  we release our third Blue Marlin for the day. There is so much excitement and noise in the cockpit that I have to call Tournament Control for our code one more time - don’t want to get the code wrong!  Hey, forget climbing the ladder… we are at the top with 2200 points and only 42 minutes of fishing left.  We were sitting on top, and get this, in 5th.  place for the Triple Crown Championship. What an ending!

 

Many thanks to Ricky for never giving up on us.

 

Days best lines:  Straws “ we’re in the 9th. Innings and we’re swinging for the fences!”

 

Ricky, after releasing his 4th. Marlin of the day: “ I Love this game!!”

August 8th - Short week, this week, due to T.S. Harvey, but the end of the week made up for it!

The Blue Marlin bite has heated up and, failing any more storms, the next few weeks should be hot fishing!

 

DeMako caught Marlins everyday this week, except on Saturday.  “Hey you guys, find out who is the jinks before your next trip!”  Today was Julie’s  “Mako Monday Marlin Mayhem trip”. 

 

We started the day with Beth releasing her first ever Blue, a 150 pounder.  By the time we got to Argus bank, we had a double hookup with Julie’s fish jumping free and Rechelle releasing her first ever Blue, a 180 pounder.  Now it was time for Julie to catch one.

 

This turned out to be a difficult task, as Julie had caught Marlins with us before and had lost her beginner’s luck. 

 

Fish on!  Get in the chair!  Oh no, he’s gone!

 

 Finally, on the way home, it was Julie’s time, fish on, and this time it was staying on - Julie releases a nice 250 pounder.

 

 De Mako’s final tally for the day is 3 releases for 8 Blues on the line - just a great day all around! 

 

It was a good bite for most boats out today, with De Mako finishing up 3-8, Fortuna 3-7, Playmate was 3-3 and Challenger was 1 – 5.  That is 23 Blue Marlin bites for just four boats.  It does not get much better than that!

 

“Watch out next week!”

August 15th - A good week as predicted, but the Marlins take off the Sabbath!

De Mako was red hot this week, with the Blue Marlins, releasing at least one everyday, expect Sunday.  Final tally for the week: 19 Marlin attacks, resulting in 11 Blue Marlin released.  Great job and congratulations to all of the lucky anglers.

 

Although most fish were average size, 150-250lbs., on Thursday, John Guerin did manage to release a 500 pounder on a 50W Tuna rig, after an hour battle - not an easy task!

 

It was also a good week for the ”Playmate”, “Reel Addiction” & “Over Proof” with all of them catching some Marlins and 100lbs class Yellowfins, plus a few Wahoos.

 

Some people believe that August is a slow and hot month, but don’t count August short.  It can be challenging and tricky to get the fish to bite, but August can be the best month for catching quality fish, if you are willing to put the time in.

 

Next week, with the full moon coming and more and more bait showing up on the Banks, we should see the Tuna bite get better and better!  Hope to see you out there!

 

August 28th - The Marlins have been tricky to hook this week, with De Mako finishing up with a poor tally of 2 for 15.  The best Blue Marlin bites came from the south side of the island and the east end.  So far this season, we have released forty Blue Marlins, and we are hoping they will stick around long enough for us to make the fifty mark!

Wahoo fishing remains slow with a few good catches here and there, but needs a lot of improvement before the Wahoo Tournament on the 11th.  The good news is, the Tuna bite on the SE corner of Challenger.

 

Although most of the fish being caught are in the small range (10-20lbs) there has been some nice size Allison’s (80-130lbs.) mixed in.  On Thursday, on De Mako, we saw the Ricker brothers do battle for 1½ hours with a 129 pounder that ate in the chum.  It was Chris Coelho’s turn, on Saturday, for some licks, catching a 120lb Allison on a 30lb outfit!

 

We finished the week, on Sunday, with Henrik Schroder catching two big Yellowfins, back to back, weighing in at 91lbs. and 110lbs.

 

 Nice job you guys!

 

Don’t miss the bite; it is time to get out there!

 

September 2005

 

September 5th - It was a slow charter week, with too many days at the dock, but the days we did fish were good!

On Monday, we did manage to catch a few more of the big Yellowfin on the south-east side of Challenger, before the bait and action moved over to the north side.

 

With the slow down in the Marlin and the Tuna bite, I decided to do our first Wahoo trip for the fall run on Friday.  With Andrew Cook & company onboard, we managed a nice haul of 13 Wahoos, 1 Tuna & a 32lb Dolphin.

 

It was good to see that the Wahoo’s have shown up, just in time for the Wahoo Tournament on the 11th.  With good weather, this should be a big event.  Good luck to all that participate!

 

Remember, just because Labour Day is over and the kids are back in school, it’s no time to stop fishing.  September & October can produce some of the years’ best fishing days.  So, keep on fishing - the best is yet to come!

 

September 19th - The best fishing remains on the north & east side of Challenger.  There was a good Wahoo bite on Argus, using live Robins, but this was short lived!  Your best bet is chumming for Yellowfins on the northern side of Challenger.  Although most fish are footballs (12-15lbs.), there are a few nice ones (60-100lbs) mixed in to make the day worthwhile.  There is some bait showing up on the east side of Challenger and we have had some success with the Wahoos there!

Although the water temperature is still high at 82 degrees, the Marlins, for the most part, seem to have bailed out on us.  I am sure a few more will be seen before years end, just not enough to spend any time looking for.

 

Sometime soon, we will see a drop in temperature and, with it, we should see the start of the fall Wahoo run, so stay tuned!

  October 3rd - All in all, the fishing is very poor!

Well, we are into October now and, for the first time that I can remember, we have had no Fall Wahoo run.  Sure, we are catching a few Wahoos here and there, but just a few - no big catches of tens and twenties.

 

The Tuna fishing also remains slow, with a few being caught on the northern side of Challenger, but that’s about it!

 

It’s been a hard month for James & I.  We have been digging deep into our bag of tricks to make each trip a successful one and, so far, we have managed to pull the rabbit out of the hat each time!

 

Water temperatures are still a little high, for good Fall fishing, so let’s hope that things will improve later this month - Don’t give up yet!

 

October 9th - Signs of improvement!

Despite the windy weather, we managed a few days offshore this week and it looks as if the Wahoo bite is on the increase.  Today was the best day, in terms of time fished.  We left the dock at 10.15 a.m., in 15-25kts. of wind, with the “Cracker Bay Cowboys” onboard.  We fished Challenger Banks and returned to the dock at 3.00 p.m.  It sure is nice to have a BIG fast boat on trips like today!  Even though we were out for a short period of time, we managed to catch 7 Wahoo’s out of 16 bites.  I know, lots of missing going on…. hey, it’s not easy fishing in 10 foot seas!  The main thing is the bite is improving. 

 

So, as I said last week, don’t pack it in yet!

October 25th - There will be no fishing tomorrow!

As Wilma passes to the west today, we will see some confused seas for a few days, but this can be a good thing.  Storms like this churn up the ocean and can make for some good fishing afterwards; so don’t be surprised if the Wahoo fishing improves next week.

 

Charters have backed off to only a few a week, if you are lucky.  This week, we fished Friday & Saturday and both days we saw good weather and fishing, with Friday as the star day.

 

 Andy and the “D&J Destroyers” racking up an impressive 12 Wahoos & 1 Yellowfin Tuna!

 

Fishing with live baits, we caught some good sized fish, with the top three coming in at 70lb, 61lb and 53lb.

 

Miss Nina and I are heading out on Thursday to what’s left of the Fort Lauderdale boat show, so no fishing for DeMako until November.  Hey, it’s up to you to get out this weekend and catch them for me!

 

 

November 2005

 

November 15th - Well, the season is over and the trips are few and far between.

We did manage two trips offshore this week, with our best day on Sunday, catching 5 Wahoo (largest 55lbs.), 1Tuna (50lbs.) & a 15lb. Dolphin.

 

We fished both Challenger & Argus, catching one Wahoo on Argus and everything else on the south & eastern side of Challenger.  There is a fair amount of bait there, but still no real signs of the fishing really taking off anytime soon.

 

 I hear the fishing to the north & east side of the island is about the same, with a few good-sized Tunas and a few Wahoos being caught.

 

De Mako will be staying home this winter so, if the urge hits you to do a little fishing, give us a call and we will try our luck with the big “Winter Wahoos!”

 

December 2005

 

December 23rd - Peter, Travis and I managed to sneak out yesterday to catch a few fish for the family, for Christmas.  It was our hope just to get a fish or two, to break up all that Holiday Turkey but, as it turns out, the fishing was good.

We managed to catch 4 Wahoo’s and 4 Yellowfin Tuna, and still get back at the dock before 4.00pm.  We caught the 4 Wahoo’s while trolling on the inside edge of Challenger Banks, in the morning and, at noon, we decided to try our luck chumming. We made four drifts and hooked six Tunas, pulled the hooks on two, and caught four.

 

Peter caught the two largest with an 80lb & 65lbs. Travis and I had to settle for a 50lb and 35lbs.  It sure felt good to be out fishing again, as I have been doing a lot of house and boat maintenance lately.

 

Although September and October fishing was not up to par, with almost no fall Wahoo run to speak of, the rest of the 2005 season was good. The weather was great, with very few weather days and NO Hurricanes!  We had pretty good Wahoo & Tuna fishing, plus a great Marlin bite!

 

James and I ended up with 40 Blue Marlins (all released) out of 102 bites. This was more than enough to put “DeMako” way out in front as top Marlin boat, once again. This makes 21 years in a row for Mako Charters having the most Blue Marlin releases. 

 

I have been blessed with the best mates in the business.  My first mate and business partner, Dean Jones, for 20 years followed by James “Bigger” Robinson for the last 6 years.  You can only get results like this with the best of team work.

 

Many thanks you guys, it’s been fun!

January 2006

 

January 27th - With most of January’s slow fishing behind us, let’s hope February’s fishing shows some improvement. Although February & March typically are very windy months, some years the Wahoo fishing can be good, on those rare days you can get out.

 

We did not see any improvement in the fishing in January, but surprisingly there were quite a few Humpback Whales around. Normally, we don’t see many until March, but for some reason they are here early this year.  Maybe that is a sign that we are going to get an early spring!

 

De Mako will be starting up in March and bookings are coming in steady.  Can’t wait! Hurry up summer!