G
Guest
·Since the weather forecasts in Venice weren’t great (turned out not to be too bad) – we scheduled ourselves on an 8hr trip out of Port A, fishing for kingfish and small sharks.
Left the dock at 730AM, 35 mile ride out on the Kingfisher through some large swells, probably 6-8 feet mainly, with a few bigger ones in there. These were long rollers, not sharp chop so it really wasn’t too bad. The time was mainly spent getting wire leaders together.
Two of the guys on the boat are crewmembers on a well-known boat out of Hyannis, MA….the Helen H. the guys (Dave and Jeff) had been down in Port A for about 8 or 10 days, and this was their 7th trip. They said that the kingfishing has been lights out. More or less anything you put in the water gets hit. They also caught one or two spinners up to 120 lbs or so. They were great guys who obviously knew a ton about fishing, and were really fun to fish with. Hopefully I can make it out on a trip with them sometime this year for cod.
Anyway, we get there and start chumming. I waited a few minutes for them to come up. And come up they did………it was complete chaos for a while. Kings and a few spanich macks were hitting the deck left and right. I forget how many we caught, but it was a lot. No huge ones…..largest was probably in the 10-15 range. I used a crippled herring like lure with about a 16” wire leader. The thing was shredded after a few kings. You couldn’t have your lure in the water for more than 15 feet before it was getting slammed! My dad used an old west coast iron and has similar results. You could’ve put a naked hook in the water and got hit.
We saw a nice spinner about 100-150 show up. We threw a few chunks out but didn’t have any luck. I tied on a OTI Komodo (flames color) and threw it out to see what would happen. It was pretty much a sure bet that I’d get hit, but fishing poppers is always fun. The new OTI popping rod worked great. I had the drag set to 25lbs….mainly just to test it, which was waaaaaay too much for these kings, haha. So I throw it out, and within a reel or two, the spinner takes a shot! I didn’t hook it, and it was no more than 5 seconds later when a king took it. The quick fight resulted in about an 8lb king on the deck. Not big or anything, but fun to watch attack the surface!
Not more than 5 minutes later, we hear Clint screaming MAKO MAKO MAKO MAKO. The other deckhand (can’t remember his name) grabs one of the boats rods with 100lb test, shark rig and a 9/0 and we start looking for bait. Luckily a guy JUST pulled a bonito on the deck. I took the back half of it, cut the tail off and down we ran. I pitch the bait out to it…within 15 seconds the fight is on. Shockingly, he gets the shark to the boat within a few minutes. I don’t think the shark really knew it was hooked, and I think it was more curious and came to the boat itself. By then, Cpt Keith had loaded his shotgun, and we were all ready with gaffs. He put one in it’s head, which stunned the fish, then we all stuck it with gaffs (4 or 5). It went nuts. Quickly we all hoist this thing up onto the deck, where it proceeds to flip around like crazy, and actually bit the hydraulic line (luckily didn’t sever it) and almost biting a deckhands arm as it came over the rail. We stood around taking some pics….once it calmed down, it was tail roped and tied off on the back of the boat. You can see from the pictures that it is a nice mako. To put it in perspective, I weigh 275, so you be the judge based on the pics. Also - there is a reason you don't use aluminum gaffs for big fish. At least 2 out of the 4 or 5 gaffs we used are totally unusable...bent to hell
We then pulled up behind a shrimper, where the Hyannis guys caught 3 nice blackfins (about 15lbs). We stopped for sharpnose but no one got any.
All in all a fun day considering we thought we would be catching kings and small sharpnose! The tourists on the boat were beyond shocked when they 1) saw the shark 2) saw the shark get shot 3) saw 4 or 5 guys stick it with gaffs 4) saw this thing come over the rail, snapping at everything and going nuts!
the crew and boat did a great job both on the kingfish and on clearing people out with the mako. nice work fellas
Left the dock at 730AM, 35 mile ride out on the Kingfisher through some large swells, probably 6-8 feet mainly, with a few bigger ones in there. These were long rollers, not sharp chop so it really wasn’t too bad. The time was mainly spent getting wire leaders together.
Two of the guys on the boat are crewmembers on a well-known boat out of Hyannis, MA….the Helen H. the guys (Dave and Jeff) had been down in Port A for about 8 or 10 days, and this was their 7th trip. They said that the kingfishing has been lights out. More or less anything you put in the water gets hit. They also caught one or two spinners up to 120 lbs or so. They were great guys who obviously knew a ton about fishing, and were really fun to fish with. Hopefully I can make it out on a trip with them sometime this year for cod.
Anyway, we get there and start chumming. I waited a few minutes for them to come up. And come up they did………it was complete chaos for a while. Kings and a few spanich macks were hitting the deck left and right. I forget how many we caught, but it was a lot. No huge ones…..largest was probably in the 10-15 range. I used a crippled herring like lure with about a 16” wire leader. The thing was shredded after a few kings. You couldn’t have your lure in the water for more than 15 feet before it was getting slammed! My dad used an old west coast iron and has similar results. You could’ve put a naked hook in the water and got hit.
We saw a nice spinner about 100-150 show up. We threw a few chunks out but didn’t have any luck. I tied on a OTI Komodo (flames color) and threw it out to see what would happen. It was pretty much a sure bet that I’d get hit, but fishing poppers is always fun. The new OTI popping rod worked great. I had the drag set to 25lbs….mainly just to test it, which was waaaaaay too much for these kings, haha. So I throw it out, and within a reel or two, the spinner takes a shot! I didn’t hook it, and it was no more than 5 seconds later when a king took it. The quick fight resulted in about an 8lb king on the deck. Not big or anything, but fun to watch attack the surface!
Not more than 5 minutes later, we hear Clint screaming MAKO MAKO MAKO MAKO. The other deckhand (can’t remember his name) grabs one of the boats rods with 100lb test, shark rig and a 9/0 and we start looking for bait. Luckily a guy JUST pulled a bonito on the deck. I took the back half of it, cut the tail off and down we ran. I pitch the bait out to it…within 15 seconds the fight is on. Shockingly, he gets the shark to the boat within a few minutes. I don’t think the shark really knew it was hooked, and I think it was more curious and came to the boat itself. By then, Cpt Keith had loaded his shotgun, and we were all ready with gaffs. He put one in it’s head, which stunned the fish, then we all stuck it with gaffs (4 or 5). It went nuts. Quickly we all hoist this thing up onto the deck, where it proceeds to flip around like crazy, and actually bit the hydraulic line (luckily didn’t sever it) and almost biting a deckhands arm as it came over the rail. We stood around taking some pics….once it calmed down, it was tail roped and tied off on the back of the boat. You can see from the pictures that it is a nice mako. To put it in perspective, I weigh 275, so you be the judge based on the pics. Also - there is a reason you don't use aluminum gaffs for big fish. At least 2 out of the 4 or 5 gaffs we used are totally unusable...bent to hell
We then pulled up behind a shrimper, where the Hyannis guys caught 3 nice blackfins (about 15lbs). We stopped for sharpnose but no one got any.
All in all a fun day considering we thought we would be catching kings and small sharpnose! The tourists on the boat were beyond shocked when they 1) saw the shark 2) saw the shark get shot 3) saw 4 or 5 guys stick it with gaffs 4) saw this thing come over the rail, snapping at everything and going nuts!
the crew and boat did a great job both on the kingfish and on clearing people out with the mako. nice work fellas
They are very nice guys and very good fishermen. 
