We started the New Year fishing with Tom, Tommy, Chris and Carly from Detroit, Michigan and this group got the year started out right, they landed a huge sailfish.

Next up was Zack, Chris, Patrick, Craig, Mike and Tim all from South Carolina. Well, it is sailfish time, so we decided to put some live bait out of the kites and see if we could get lucky. Well, we got lucky, but not with the sailfish we ended up catching 2 dolphin fish, 2 nice size kingfish and one big bonito.

On the 8th, the boys from Pennsylvania spent the day fishing with us; we had Lou and his son Lou, Scott, George and Bob with us for a day of deep sea fishing. We started out the day by getting some live goggle eyes (bait fish) from the bait boat, and then we went right to it. We put up our kites and suspended the live baits from the kite and we got pretty lucky, we caught 7 kingfish, one big amberjack, one big spinner shark and a monster sailfish. As a matter a fact, this was the biggest sailfish ever caught on the Hooked Up, it was 102 inches long. Way to go guys.

Well today is kind of a special day for fishing of the coast of Fort Lauderdale. It happens to be my birthday so I was looking to start my new year in a big way. It all started back in early Dec when I got a call from a lady in Michigan named Billy; she wanted to buy her husband Everett and his best friend Zack a fishing trip here in South Florida. Well fishing has been slow so I told Zack and Everett about a plan I had to go high speed trolling off shore and try to find some dolphin fish and maybe a blue marlin then once we got far enough offshore and into the swordfish grounds we would drop a bait down about 1750 feet of water and see if we could get lucky and catch a swordfish. Well, we did not find any dolphin fish on the way out but the water looked good so we got ready to do our drop. The first drop hit the bottom and we waited about 30 minutes with no bites so we reeled up the bait and made a move. Second drop same results no bites on the third drop we thought we'd try something different so we put 2 baits on one line thinking it would double our chances, but the second we hit bottom we got hung up on the bottom and lost all our gear. Well we thought one more shot and sure enough our mate JJ said he thought he saw the rod get a little tap so we started bringing it up, at that point the rod bent over and we were Hooked Up. It took us 2 hours and 40 minutes to catch this sea monster; it was not a swordfish but a monster thresher shark. I guess if you're not going to catch a lot than you should catch a really big one and that's what we did.

On the 12th, Matt, Alex, Johnny, Mike and Sebastian from New England spent a few hours fishing on the Hooked Up before they watched their home football team win another game. I'll let you guess who their home team is? Well fishing was kind of slow so we went for all or nothing and I guess it was their lucky day because not only did their football team do it again but they ended up landing a nice hammerhead shark. Nice going guys but remember the season is not over yet!! (LOL)

Tracy and Keith from Orlando spent the morning of the 13th fishing on the Hooked Up. These two really wanted some good eating fish so we started out trolling, looking for some dolphin fish, but there were none to be found, so we went in closer on the reef and did manage to catch 4 nice kingfish. Kings are ok to eat but we really wanted to catch them something a little better eating than kings so we went in on a ledge and slow trolled a bait right near the bottom and it paid off, they ended up with a real nice grouper for dinner.

On the 14th, Stephan and Ava and their son Steve, who had just gotten back from a cruise through the Caribbean, thought they would spend a peaceful relaxing day on the water with the Hooked Up crew. Well they were in for quite a surprise, we started out trolling the reef and not only did Ava hook into a big fish but after reeling it in she grabbed the leader and wired the big bomber bonito in herself. Now Ava is in her sixty's and the leader is about 60 feet long; talk about one tough lady, and man did she have a ball doing it. After that we were not catching much on the troll and I had heard of a couple sailfish being hooked up so we decided to try for sails. Well we had no live baits on board so we decided to go to one of the buoys and see if we could catch a few live baits. It turned out the problem was not catching the live baits, they were biting good, the problem was getting Ava to stop catching them so we could go and see if we could trade them in on something bigger. I've never seen someone have so much fun catching such little fish. But we did manage to finally pull her away from the rod and switch over to fishing with the live bait. We had the live baits out for about 30 minutes when Ava's son Steve came up on the bridge with me and started hinting about going back to the bait fishing. I explained to him that we would if that was really what he wanted but that the water looked real good to me and I felt that our chances of catching a sailfish looked pretty good. Well he agreed and about 2 minutes after our talk there she was and this was a big sailfish. Well guess who jumped right in the chair that's right Ava had the rod in her hand in the blink of an eye. This fish was not quite so easy for her to catch, as a matter a fact we had to tell to hang in there the fish was close(we were lying) this fish had peeled off so much line it took more than 30 min for her to catch it. Way to go Eva, but hold on, we were not done yet. My mate Glen said well what should we do now?? I told him to put the live baits back out. He tried to but before he had the 3rd one out yep you guessed it there was another sailfish. This time it was Stephen's turn and he jumped in the chair and we were Hooked Up again. This time we did not have so many baits in the water so we were able to back down on the fish and caught this one in about 20 min. At this point Glen looked at me and he could tell by the look in my eyes that I wanted the live baits right back out there. And it took about 3 minutes and yep we were Hooked Up again. Now Steve would get his turn and yes he also caught his.

We had our work cut out for us on the 15th; Captain Greg had 6 of his regular customers who over the years have become good friends of his, on board. It seems, whenever we take out friends or celebrities we can't seem to catch anything worthwhile and to make matters worse we had Clark and his wife Whitney from New York with us and we can never seem to catch Whitney a nice fish when she's aboard. The others who joined us were Bob and his wife Marty from Kentucky, and Dave and Gary from Arizona a couple of Greg's hunting buddies. So, as you can see, catching was pretty important today. We have been having a pretty good sailfish bite and Captain Greg knew that all the boats would be fishing for them so he decided to run way to the north where none of the other boats were fishing. First we set out the kites and started waiting and nothing, time just kept going by with no bites, but Captain Greg was being as patient as one could be, He kept saying they are going to eat before it gets dark and sure enough their he was on one of our kite baits and fight was on. Dave was the first to jump in the chair and he finally caught his first sailfish, before we knew it Gary was fighting one and yes he also caught his. Well half the battle was done but there was that Whitney and she has always been a tough one to catch fish for. Well it didn't take long and YEA she was Hooked Up But this fish was not willing to just give up It took all Whitney had in her to land this one but when it was all done she won (or should I say we won). Congratulations to all of you and thanks for a great afternoon.

On the 16th we had repeat customers Jake and Mike both from right here in South Florida, and they were entertaining their # 1 client Mike from Michigan and his girlfriend Kimberly from Mississippi. We started out trolling the reef looking to just bend the rod on some kingfish or some bonitos and we caught one bonito right away. I heard a couple of the other boats hooking up with some sailfish , So I was starting to wander if I had made the right choice by trolling; Then I looked up and saw a big school of flying fish take off for no apparent reason; Then I saw why, there was a sailfish chasing them right toward my boat. Well at that point my mind was made up we were switching over to kite fishing and I wanted to do the switch right away. We got everyone to grab a rod and start clearing all the dead baits out of the water and at the same time I was busy putting out both kites. I don't think it took more than 3 minutes to change from dead baits to live bait kite fishing and after that it did not take more than 3 minutes and we were Hooked Up. Mike wasted no time jumping in the chair and the fight was on, it took about 15 minutes and Mike had it to the boat. We still had 3 baits in the water while we were fighting Mike's fish and it was not long before we were Hooked Up again, Now it was Jake's turn and it took him about 15 minutes to catch his sailfish too. Well at this point everyone was pretty happy and the pressure was off of us or so everyone thought. I had other plans, I wanted to see if we could catch more than all the other boats, so I yelled down from the bridge, you guys can start celebrating after the bait are back out. So we got the baits right back out there but there was no time for celebrating we now had 2 sailfish Hooked Up and they were both going in separate directions. I yelled down to my mate Glen to start clearing the other lines, we had our work cut out for us now. Glen started clearing one of the other lines but he had a problem, the more he tried to reel it in the more the line was going out. You guessed it we now had three (3) that's right 3 sailfish on at the same time and all 3 of them were going in separate directions. (WHAT TO DO??) Well I wanted to back down on the fish that was closest but the other two fish had too much line out and I was afraid that we would run out of line; So we backed down on the one that was the furthest away and gained some line on him then when we had enough line on the reel we went after the closest one and got our quick pictures and cut the leader on him. We went after the next closest next and got him and then at last we were able to back down on the last one. Holy Cow what a fun day of fishing and we did all of this in less than 3 hours of sail fishing.

On the 18th we set out for a morning of deep sea fishing with Susan and her husband Eddy and their son Luke all from Wachapregue Virginia, where they have a charter boat. We decided to go right to it and see if we could catch them a sailfish or two, so we put out the kites with some live baits suspended from them and started waiting. Well we never did get a shot at any sailfish but we did manage to catch 3 nice dolphin fish, which is what I think they wanted in the first place! I don't think they catch many dolphins up in Virginia. Thanks for a great time guys and tight lines up there in Virginia.

Today, the 20th, Mark from the Carolinas, Louie and Gram from New Jersey and Richard from Montana spent the morning fishing aboard the Hooked Up. Nobody was catching any fish trolling the reef and off shore trolling was dead as well so we figured we'd go for the gusto and see if we could be one of the lucky boats out there today to catch a sailfish. Well we waited and waited but all of a sudden there it was and it was a real nice sailfish. It looked at the bait for a few seconds and then all of a sudden ate it and we were Hooked Up. It took about 15 minutes for the gang to catch the sailfish.

By Capt. Luis "Taco" Perez

Hooked Up Sportfishing Charters

Hooked Up Sportfishing

Most of the fish have been caught on the Gulf Breeze side of bridge and on the west side, in depths of 20-25 ft of water. The bait of choice has been a Mann's Stretch 25 in the new textured color Cabo Sunset and the mullet color. In the upper Flats of Black Water River the Redfish bite has picked up I've been catching most of my fish on gold spoons and on my favorite, the Exude RT Slug in golden bream on a < jig head. Over near Pensacola Pass I've have caught some nice Redfish trolling the New Textured Cabo Mann's Stretch 25. This lure has put some nice fish in the boat this year. If your heading offshore, stop near some of the closer in wrecks and drop a lively bull minnow down, yes you will catch a few pesky Red Snapper and yes you will have to throw them back but you will also catch some tasty Flatties.

Reports from some of the divers in the area say that the Flounder are stacked up on a lot of the nearshore wrecks. The Amberjack bite near the Chevron Rig and the Oriskany has been very good using a Diamond Jig and also a 2 - 4 oz Spro Buck Tail Jig with a chartreuse or green grub attached. A few Black Fin Tuna have also been caught out near the Edge and the Nipple, but not many. Off to the west near the Hump, the Yellow Fin Tuna bite is on fire, and just last week two fish over 200lbs were landed. The Tuna bite over at the Hump will stay good for the next 4 - 7 weeks depending upon the weather.

Not too many reports of Trigger fish being caught offshore and just a few Mingo being caught, but there are plenty of Red Snapper, but remember that you can't keep them until June 1st.

So when Mother Nature gives us a window of sunshine, get up off the couch and go fishing.

Till next time, here's wishing you bent rods and screaming drags.

Capt. John

Panhandle Regional Writer

www.floridasportfishing.com

Most of the action consisted of ladyfish, jacks, black drum, sheephead and a few trout. Most of the river has been hard to fish so we have concentrated on areas that have been somewhat protected. Each day will be different on those areas, so watch the winds and plan your day.

John did catch this nice trout on the flats....

John Musial was down this week and we fought winds all day, but did manage a number of jacks and other fish, including one nice trout on the flats. Most of the fish have come from 2 - 5 feet of water. Live shrimp has been our best bait for now. Once this weather relaxes, it should get back to some good winter fishing opportunities.

A few scattered redfish can be found around the mangroves.....

Bridges have been holding sheephead, black drum and croakers, while the inlet and jetties have Spanish mackerel, bluefish and jacks. The anglers, who have been braving the beaches, are catching whiting and some pompano on shrimp or sand fleas. It's been a tough week and we all are looking forward to some nice weather again.

Tip of the Week:

Rain gear is essential not only in the rain, but can sure come in handy on those windy days on the water. Water spray and wave action can bring a lot of water into the boat. Those cold days can make it even worse. Break out the rain suit and it can keep you dry and warm on the tough days of fishing. Keep dry out there!

As always, remember, fishing is not just another hobby....it's an ADVENTURE!!

Good Fishing and Be Safe,

Captain Charlie Conner

Fish Tales Charters

772-284-3852

Email: Captian Charlie

Sebastian River - The Sebastian Rivers most prominent role in January is a sanctuary. It keeps a large number of manatees warm in its north forks 15+ foot depths. It also keeps a hoard of ladyfish some jacks an occasional gator trout and even a few misguided pompano warm on the colder days. This works out well because those same cold blustery days are ones when anglers would rather stay sheltered within its narrow banks catching the above mentioned than dress like Minnesota ice fishermen and brave the roiling expanses of the lagoon. You can troll the north fork at this time for some 20+ pound snook, but bites are few and far between, but the pictures make it worth it. Large diving plugs and rattle traps are most often responsible for these occasional strikes. Quarter to half ounce jigs will catch just about everything else in the Sebastian River.

Indian River Lagoon - Not every January day warrants hiding away in some protected nook, but even if that is the case the lagoon offers some great options for trout and redfish. Canals, protected shallow bays, and sunny shorelines are excellent areas to find both trout and reds soaking up the suns warmth as well as sucking up some of the baitfish and crustaceans that may have been more adversely affected by the overnight cold snaps of a Central Florida winter. Blind casting plugs, spoons and skimmer jigs in sunny bays, is a good way to score later in the day when water temps rise. Sight fishing along south facing shorelines is a good way to find slot size reds that may or may not like what you have to offer. Floating live shrimp is a great way to take everything and anything when the mercury drops, although finding the right place to cast the bait is still the key to success. Pompano, blues, trout, weakfish, snapper and small grouper are regular catches around the deeper water grass flats behind the Sebastian Inlet. Nylure jigs, goofy jigs, small diving plugs and live shrimp are all good choices.

Sebastian Inlet - The big story about Sebastian inlet for me in January over the last few years has been giant redfish. Not the 15 to 20 pound fish that are here all the time, but some true monsters that I theorize move in from as far as North Carolina. I have boated fish approaching 50 inches long and probably 50 pounds. These same big reds dominated the spotlight this past July and should again be willing to eat live baits on outgoing tides. A strong west wind to flatten the inlet on the outgoing tide is one other little important thing you'll need if you want to land and return safely with a picture of your trophy. A few nice flounder will remain around the inlet throughout the winter and bluefish, jacks, pompano, black drum, and Spanish mackerel will keep jetty anglers busy throughout the day.

Near Shore Atlantic - Pompano and whiting are the mainstay of surf fishermen along the treasure coast in the winter. Sandfleas, cut clams and dead shrimp on three hook dropper rigs are the baits of choice. Boaters looking along the beaches are apt to find blues, mackerel and some pompano on the calmer days. Goofy jigs, spoons, and bucktails worked from the beach or toward the beach from a boat are good ways to search for pompano and blues on calm days. If the weather allows for small boaters to get offshore some, Kings, cobia, sailfish and dolphin are all a possibility within 10 miles of the beach.

January is a month of opportunity in the Sebastian area, you just need to get out and fish. Gator trout, sight fishing reds with fly and spinning tackle, the best pompano bite of the year and giant reds give us plenty of reason to put on the extra jacket and get out and have a day to brag about.

Tight Lines,

Capt. Gus Brugger

www.SebastionFishingguides.com - Pattern Setter Charters

Capt. Gus Brugger is a full time inshore fishing guide with over 15 years of charter fishing experience in the Sebastian area. He and his 18' Maverick flats skiff the Pattern Setter are available for charter by one to three anglers with reservations. Captain Hiram's Resort is home base for Pattern Setter Charters and is a perfect get away for serious anglers or family fun. Give Gus a call today and book a trip to east central Florida's finest fishing destination.

The warm weather this week has slowed down the sailfish action a bit. Dolphin, blackfin tuna and scattered wahoo are still being caught offshore. Today and Wednesday, a cold front will pass through South Florida and re-energize the fishery. Sailfishing should be good through next week. I've heard good reports on the swordfishing, both day and night trips with the day trips producing bigger fish upwards of 400 lbs. Kingfish are still being caught on the third reef with some cero and Spanish mackerel mixed in. The vermillion snapper have been biting on the deeper structure.

Tight Lines and Fanntastic Fishing

Capt. Mark

Fanntastic Fishing

www.FanntasticFishing.com/

954-728-9880