We had a full day trip and we decided to go trolling offshore today. We were not looking for any particular species, just catching fish.
The one thing that has been consistent about the fishing is that it has been changing every day. Fishing conditions, the water color, wind direction, the current are different just about every day we go out. It makes it difficult to come up with a game plan for the day. If you base your plan on what happened the day before, odds are it won’t work because the conditions will be different.
We did spend a little time out deep in 500-600 ft of water. There was a lot of Sargasso weed. Usually, that’s a good sign for Dolphin, but we only had one bite from a dolphin and it got off. We also had a shot at a billfish. It was either a large Sailfish or a small Marlin, but it ran out a bunch of line and then the hook pulled. Neither fish getting off was due to anyone doing anything wrong. My mate saw both fish before they bit and gave both a drop back. The anglers were doing everything right also. Just bad luck but sometimes it happens that way. It’s just part of trolling offshore. Nobody catches them all.
We ended up coming back in shallower toward the end of the day. We picked up a couple of Black Fin Tuna over a wreck and started catching and releasing some Bonitos and Barracudas. Finally caught a “Gaffer” Dolphin in about 200 ft of water.
The weather was perfect. Calm seas and comfortable temperatures. Most years, it’s getting pretty hot by this time, but so far it’s been very pleasantly cool for us. The temperatures during the day have only been in the low 80’s and down into the high 70’s at night. The “big heat” of summer is coming, and probably soon, so I’m enjoying these temps while we can