Hello Fish Fans, The slow down we experienced the end of August and early September due to the tropical storms is over. There’s plenty of Dolphin movin through again and some are in the 20 to 30 pound class. The debris that was busted loose during the storms a few weeks ago is now drifting north in the deep blue waters of the Gulfstream and with it lots of Dolphin. The Sailfish have begun movin into the Stuart area and there’s a consistant bite, it’s not red hot but it’s realistic to catch 1 or 2 Sailfish to go along with the Dolphin and Kingfish. This past weekend we were trolling for Dolphin in about 800 feet of water when the long rigger went off, I went for the rod and there was nothin there so I dropped the bait back and we hooked-up. The fish went down and just kept going at a rather slow pace and the only thing I knew for sure is that it was a big fish. After a few minutes and nothin changed I started thinkin Blue Marlin, then the water exploded and a Blue Marlin about 250 lbs. went nuts, I guess the hook finally hit a soft spot and fired him up. I like to fish for Dolphin with light tackle, on this trip we were using 20lb. spinning tackle and we got a legal release after about an hour but we reely wanted to bill the fish and take a nice picture. Well as you can imagine stopping a 250 lb. Blue Marlin with a 20lb spinning rod isn’t gonna happen til you tire him out, when he got next to the boat it didn’t take a genius to fiqure out he wasn’t tired, he went straight down. As the spool got to the last 50 yards of line he finally began comming back to the surface. We were following the Blue Marlin and slowly gaining line back when things got crazy. We came accross the floating debris we had been looking for earlier, a 10 foot bamboo pole and a pack of Dolphin swimming around it. I didn’t want to lose the Blue Marlin but I had 2 anglers and couldn’t pass them up. I began firing out baits and hookin up Dolphin while the Blue Marlin slowly took line, I guess you could say we were Reel Busy. The Blue Marlin kept taking line so I began gaffing the Dolphin and just throwing them on the floor so we could go after the Blue Marlin and get some line back. We fought that Blue Marlin for almost 4 hours getting him to the side of the boat over and over again but during one of his flips he must have wrapped the leader around his body and managed to cut the 20 lb line with his tail. We got a legal release in the first hour or so but never got to grab his beak and haul him up for a photo. For the next 4 to 6 weeks you can take your pick, Sailfish, Dolphin, Wahoo, Swordfish, Kingfish and maybe even a Blue Marlin. This is a slow time of year for the charter business and all of us have days available so get out there and take advantage of low hotel rates and excellent fishing. I’ll be back in about 10 days with another fishin report from Stuart Florida, Sailfish Capital of the World. Catch You Later, Captain Wayne, Reel Busy Charters
