This was supposed to be Tyler's triumphant conquering of Mr. Sailfish before he gets married however it instead turned into one of the worst "fishing" days possible. If there was something that could go wrong, it went wrong. Lost Sails, broken reels, dead bait, tangled lines contributing to losing fish, captain messing up the kite, etc...
Highlight of the day was seeing a Sailfish literally hit the boat while cruising by and a massive school (500+ Tarpon) swimming off Breakers in 20' of water. GoPro footage to come.

Conditions:
NW Wind - 10-15mph
Crystal Clear Water
Air Temp 50 degrees in morning rising to 65-70 degrees
Water Temp 76 degrees offshore/71 inshore
Partly to Mostly cloudy
Fishing Juno Pier and North to Jupiter Inlet - Sailfish and Bait were plentiful

Andrew, Thomas, Carrie and yours truly hit the waters around 7am despite 48 degree air temps! We loaded up on goggle eyes thanks to Dynamite Live Bait. We started off the morning by flying the kite. Had no problems at first but then the winds changed and made it difficult to keep it flying. We then just freelined the baits and landed a Bonita. After several hours of relatively no action we saw another free jumping Sail in about 160' but no luck getting him to bite. We then did a little bottom fishing and pulled up a keep Mutton in about 115'. We had heard they were spawning so they would be pretty easy to catch. Otherwise a very slow, chilly day but still a great day on the water. Once again the seas were supposed to be 4-6' but with a NW that means fishable within a few miles of the coast. Gulfstream was reportedly 3 miles from shore and water temps were about 77 degrees 1-2 miles out. The full moon was 2 days before and skies were perfectly clear.

On BlueSteel's 6th birthday, Andrew and I hit the inlet despite calls for 3-5' seas. We got to the ramp by 6am and were rewarded with 6 free goggle eyes from a nice charter boat captain! After this score Andrew and I thought we were all but gaurunteed his first Sail however after seeing one free jump before sunrise we did not see another. We did manage one +/-8lb Dolphin on a Goggle Eye and a 15lb Bonita. Other than that it was pretty quiet despite perfect conditions. Our only thought was that the Sailfish Derby earlier in the week put a dent in the Sailfish bite. Either way we were just happy to be out there and to kickoff the new year and break in the new rods with a decent dolphin!

Conditions:
NW/N Wind - 10-15mph
Murky water
Air Temp 70 degrees
Water Temp 78 degrees offshore/75 inshore
Sunny/Partly cloudy
Huge rains earlier in week created dirty water near shore
Strong North Current in close to shore all the way out
Dolphin caught in 160'

Got behind on the posts but here are some of the best catches from the summer! Looking to get back in action once this wind dies down on a weekend! Highlight of the year was the 50lb Bull Dolphin that Andrew caught in Marathon!

Bryan, Andrew and I hit the inlet at 615am ready to redeem ourselves from the previous day but no such luck. Had zero hits on trolling until about 930. W then decided to drift fish and all of a sudden starting have engine trouble on our way to the next spot. Ended up having to call TowBoat US. While waiting and drifting we let some baits out and had a few hits but could not land anything. Definitely not a great weekend for BlueSteel, the crew, and for fishing. Hopefully better luck is in our future! Weeds were very scattered but abundant, sunny skies, same wind and water temps.

Chris, Amanda, Andrew and I hit the inlet around 8am to find sloppy seas but manageable. We trolled 200' off Singer island for about a couple of hours and had 2 knockdowns within 5 minutes after putting the spread out. Nothing after that. We then drifted sardines over a couple of wrecks and got hit by a few fish, presumably Kingfish by the way they bit the bait. After toughing it out for a few hours our newbie wasn't feeling too well so we headed in with a big goose egg! Skunked for the first time in over a year. Wind was calm in the morning then was ESE at about 10-15mph, spotty thunderstorms with a water spout offshore and 2-3' seas. Water temp was 79-81 and moon was half full. There were some patchy weeds but nothing concentrated. We did see one boat pull in a amberjack over a wreck otherwise all appeared very slow. Captain Steve headed way offshore and also could not muster up any fish there or even after he came in close to try to salvage something.

Tyler and I cleared the inlet late around 10am to find 20mph south winds with a sloppy 3' chop. Since it was late and we were in a time crunch before we had to pick Tyler's family up at the dock to do the ICW thing, we decided just to troll for an hour or so. We picked up one bonita and had one other knockdown but that was it for the day. Then we headed in and drove down to WPB to eat lunch then we headed up to Jupiter to see the lighthouse and grab some drinks at Rum Bar and Guantanamo Bays! We headed back around sunset and just made it back before the torrential rains hit.

Played hooky from work today to go fishing with Tyler. We cleared the inlet around 615am to find 2-3' seas. We were going to get live bait but I decided not to mess around with the bait since I hadn't been out in awhile and was not too sure where the bait was. We headed out to about 200' and trolled naked ballyoo, skirted ballyhoo with blue/white islander and a blue and white feather. We trolled for about an hour an a half without much luck other than bonita so we were contemplating what to do next when Tyler said lets stick with the trolling. About 10 minutes later a wahoo nailed the skirted ballyhoo in 205'! After a 15 minute fight we put him in the cooler and put the spread back out. Pulled another bonita in and then we decided to drift some frozen baits in 200'. About 30 minutes later we picked up a 12lb dolphin that was flying solo. She bit a flatlined ballyhoo. After getting into bonitaville we decided to head home. Tyler did pick up a monster 27lb bonita.

Doug, Andrew and I headed out for an evening trip on the flats after grabbing some live shrimp. We do not fish inshore much so expectations were low except for Doug's "one fish guarantee". We fish the late afternoon just north of Munyan Island as the tide just started rising from low tide. There were tons of mullet and sting rays but not much else so we headed over to the large flat area just east of Little Munyan Island. There is a deep channel on the east side of the flats that we anchored off and caught several Lane Snapper and a lady fish. Doug waded the flat area and landed his Barracuda to keep his guarantee! After the awesome sunset we fished the local dock lights and bridges. Andrew landed 2 moonfish but that was all we found. We had very breezy conditions with wind out of east and temps about 75 or so after the sunset. Water temp was in the low 80's and we fished the incoming tide. Not as fun as offshore fishing but it was nice to be out on the water.

We fished the 33rd Annual WPB Boys and Girls Club KDW with Captain Steve on the TideRunner. Blue sat this one out since it was supposed to be suspect weather conditions plus its hard to pass up a chance to fish on a 34' Venture. Anyhow we had plenty of small blue runners and bought some goggle eyes on our way out. We headed down to just north of Boynton Beach since that is where we had heard the kings were biting. Within seconds of having lines in we had a knocked down on one of the blue runners and fish was on. I grabbed the rod and the fish was peeling line then pop...fish off. Pulled the line in and the fish bit through the wire. Other than that we landed a bull shark probably about 175-200lbs and that was it. We fishing in Boynton for a couple of hours, Palm Beach for a little bit then finished the day off Jupiter. Tough day all around as we heard a lot of people struggling to find the fish. Obviously not fun when you are in a tournament but still had a great day on the water with Captain Steve.

We fished each day this weekend and struggled to find fish despite having more live bait than we needed. We had a couple of hits probably from sharks or big kings but nothing to show for it. We did some bottom fishing with frozen sardines and picked up some bonito, blue runners, remora, and small jacks. We trolled all over from lost tree to breakers without even a knockdown. The seas were very flat on Saturday and sloppy on Sunday. Saturday was sunny and Sunday was overcast with very few breaks of sun. Temperatures were cooler than average both days.