West Palm Beach Fishing Reports

Rob and Chris joined us today for a split trolling, drift charter. We started the trip off with a bang, breaking off a sailfish right at the mouth of the inlet. We weren't expecting that ! The Bonita trolling was excellent, we quickly released 6 and kept one for bait. Within 45 minutes of leaving the inlet we were ready to start our drift and we were still setting out our lines when a live bait got smoked by a small wahoo. He was large enough to bite through the line though above the wire and get away ! We then started catching reef fish, releasing grunts and a red grouper, while boxing up some large triggerfish. I think the highlight catch of the trip was the very fat King Mackerel we caught on a flat lined ballyhoo on a spinning rod. Everybody had a great time and the weather even behaved !

I love trips with Kids ! Today Rich joined us with 11 year old Luke and 12 year old Jay and we had fun ! We started out by trolling up half a dozen Bonita, catch and release action. Once the boys had that under control we switched over to drift fishing. Four knots of current made it challenging for them, but they caught porgies, grunts, triggerfish, and a King Mackerel. We steamed home, tonight they get to eat thee fruits of their labor!

Jason brought his family out today and we're out there trolling Bonitas when his 16 year old son says "I want to catch a shark" ! Well that's all Chad and I had to hear and out came the heavy gear. It didn't take too long before we were hooked up, but it did take quite a while to get the fish to the boat. It's not everyday that you get to catch a dinosauer, so the family decided to harvest the fish for a jaw mount.

Doreen brought her family out today and they decided they didn't want to spend too much time trolling, so after one Bonita we switched over to the drift. There was much less current today so we didn't have to use the grapple and the bottom fishing was action packed ! Highlight of the trip, 14 year old Sharley was reeling in a blue runner when it was chased by a 4 foot long wahoo, but then it got eaten right at the boat by a big Bull Shark. Sharley is not going to forget this trip ! Lots of action with porgies, grunts, yellowtails, rec groupers and triggerfish .

Great trip this morning, Carter Spohn and his family joined us. We started out trolling to the north and immediately got slammed by a Barracuda as soon as we left the inlet. This was followed up 3 more hits by Bonita so we had our trolling action pretty quickly today. We then went on the drift but the current was so fast we had to drop the grapple to slow out drift down. This worked pretty good and we landed a bucket full of porgies, grunts, and sand tiles. We released red grouper, parrotfish, remoras, and queen and grey triggerfish.

Today we hosted the McAndrew family for some trolling and drift fishing. We started out trolling for bonita, got a large one and decided to run down south and start bottom fishing. We tried anchoring but the current was so fast that our baits were staying to high for effective fishing. We raised the grapple and the drift fishing was more effective. One of our first fish was an approximate 300 lb nurse shark caught on 30 lb gear, I was sure the reel was going to get stripped but Mr. McAndrew hung in there and we were able to get the fish up to the boat where we got photos and then released it. We also got about ten different kinds of reef fish including Triggers, Sand Tiles, Porgies, Mutton Snappers, Parrotfish, Big Eye Soldierfish, Red Grouper, and Remoras. It was a busy morning!

Jim and Zach joined us today for a troll and drift trip. The bonitas were snapping, at one point we had three on at once, and we got them both trolling and flat lining live baits. Drift fishing was tough because the current was running very hard, but we still managed to catch Grey and Queen triggerfish, French Grunts, and Sand Tiles. The bonitas are providing great action on light tackle rods.

Three year old Lilly made her first fishing trip today along with her parents and grandparents and she really enjoyed it. On the troll we released a bunch of bonitas, then we went on the drift to find some fish for dinner for the family and we were pretty successful there also, catching trigger fish, mutton Snappers, blue runners, grunts and other assorted reef fish.

Great time today, Dave brought his wife and two twelve year old boys and it was non- stop action. I started out trolling for about an hour and we loaded up on Bonita and Barracuda. After everyone had the opportunity to catch several trolled fish we switched things up and went on the drift. The boys caught Grunts, Parrot fish, blue runners, remoras, and a Queen Triggerfish. Possibly the highlight of the trip was when Dave spent almost an hour fighting and releasing a full grown Sandbar Shark on a medium weight spinning rod with 30 lb test line. This trip was a blast !

Very nice trip today with Jack Rusch, we started out trolling and found a real good bite on Bonitas and King Mackerel on strips and spoons. When we switched over to drift fishing we added a mutton snapper, some triggers and a bar jack. Flat seas with a little breeze made it a very comfortable trip !

Kara and Scott Joined us today for some trolling and drift fishing. The troll produced 5 large bonita on skirted strips and spoons. This time of year the bonita are larger and today ran from ten to fifteen pounds. On the drift we hooked several mutton snappers, but the sharks managed to run off with them before the anglers could get them in the boat.

Larry brought his sons out today, and we found flat calm seas, lots of floating sea weed and a couple of hungry fish to make things interesting. It was a beautiful day out on the water and we did mainly drift fishing with a little trolling to spice things up.