Today, the Hyatt family from Pennsylvania joined us for an afternoon of fishing. They had just flown in this morning and said it was 20 degrees where they just came from and were loving the 65 degrees here in Ft. Lauderdale. The Hyatts had never been deep sea fishing before so they decided they would try their luck deep sea fishing on the Lady Pamela II.
We left the dock around 2:00 pm and went right to an anchored freighter where we had previously caught tinker mackerels. After filling our live baitwell full of these prime but rarely seen baits, we went straight to kite fishing in about 200 feet of water as I had heard that a few sailfish were seen at this depth. Within an hour of getting all six lines set out we hooked a sailfish. This was one of the toughest sailfish I have ever caught. Andrew fought this fish for an hour and half, as it took us out to 700 feet water where the seas were huge. We finally tagged and released this bad boy sailfish though!
After the big battle we ran back inshore to a few shipwrecks trying to get a bite with our remaining live baits. We got a few bites from amberjacks, but none stayed on the hook. That’s the way it goes sometimes. Wreckfishing with live baits is generally very productive though, with amberjacks, groupers, cobias, and big snappers always a possible catch.