Greetings,

First let me say that I’m really starting to LOVE Fort Lauderdale, Florida. This is my second time here in the last month and really starting to get a feel for the place, it has everything.  Today I had the pleasure of going deep sea fishing with Reel Work and we caught roughly 20 black & yellow fin tuna, yes 20! The Lady Pamela II was busying pulling in a 600lbs thresher shark, yes they released it. This is not a joke, I saw a photo and a gent said he’d send it to me, let’s see if that transpires…

I took a water taxi to get to the Hyatt Regency Pier Sixty-Six Marina and it was pleasant, if you’re in the area suggest you experience it. Don’t count on it being overly punctual though, think of it more as a tour of the area. Anyways, back to fishing… We left the harbor at about 1pm and within 5 minutes we caught our first fish, this set the tone for the rest of the day.

Literally it was non stop hits, several times it was three fish on the line at once. Most of the fish we pulled in were a few pounds and three of them were roughly 7-10 pounds. Those little guys put up quite a fight and we were all over the moon considering the skipper told us that it was slow lately and the morning group only caught a total of two small ones. We were catching so many fish that all the other charters were coming near us as the captains chat on the radio. The skipper said that the others were getting skunked. That’s fishing for ya, anything can happen and you’ll never know unless you go!

After all was said in done, I had large chunks of sashimi in my hand that are now in the fridge at the Pelican Grand. I’d like to thank my new friend Jose for giving me a lift back to my hotel and get this, I’m having one of my favorite meals prepared tonight for $5+tax at a seafront restaurant… How you ask? Considering I’m on South African time, woke up at 1 or 2 am and went for breakfast at 7. When I arrived they were just opening and began chatting with the chef who had on a killer pair of Air Jordan sandals.

Suffice to say I went back to that restaurant which was recommended by the bell hop as soon as I returned to the hotel. As fate would have it, he was still in the kitchen and said he’d make it. Verified with the owner and it’s all good. If you’re ever worried about moving somewhere because you don’t know people, don’t be. The plan is to have one of the large steaks prepared into ahi tuna on a bed of rice with vegetables. The other large steak I will eat straight sashimi style without any soya or wasabi for breakfast tomorrow because I’m just “that kinda guy”.

Oh how I almost forgot to tell you something… When myself and Jose were walking to his car, we saw three tarpon that were easily over 200lbs, have never seen a fish that large before until we saw two groupers that dwarfed them! Swimming around them like crazed lunatics were a school of 5-10 large jack fish. They all hang out in the marina underneath the “chopping block” that everyone uses when they return after a fishing trip.

What an awesome day, huge thanks to the Greater Fort Lauderdale Tourism Board and I have all the footage for an egregious video but it’s a Friday night so I’ll publish it sometime later, probably this summer when I’m home visiting family aka super boring time for “blog adventures”. I’d continue but my mouth is already watering at the thought of that ahi tuna, hmm ahi tuna!

Tips hat,

P.S: Your eyes are NOT deceiving you, I actually am biting into that fish in the picture…

Good day,

Here’s the summary for those of you with ADHD – went deep sea fishing off Little Corn Island with Captain Randy from Three Brothers and helped pull in over 70 yellow tail today. Can you say !?!? I’ve never witnessed in my entire life such abundance, let alone of the protein filled delicious variety. We fished for a while and nothing happened except the dog got sea sick, I was starting to feel green as we trolled towards Jamaica with nothing biting…

Suddenly we hit this spot and Randy tells his son Randy to drop the anchor and our lines go in. No more than 10 seconds later and the Captain has a fish in the line, his son has one. Not long after I get a bite and lose it, go figure. This spot was out there and before long it became what every fisherman ever dreamed of, a pure straight up feeding frenzy where every cast you throw gets action as it hits the ocean floor. I lost most of them as they are tricky and I’m a novice with the hand line – it’s easier, faster and more rewarding but requires a sense of feel I’m lacking.

Back to the feeding frenzy, they were coming out like they were going out of style like every yellow tail in the vast Caribbean Sea wanted to join the suicide party taking place in the bottom of our boat. Personally pulled in 5-10 fish, Randy Junior kept his fish separate to count them and tallied 25 and Captain Randy was just pulling them out non stop as though it was some fishing commercial for the hottest new lure on the scene. We used a heavy weight to get it to bottom, tied a hook 3 feet up and put 1 sardine on.

After a few yellow tails came in, took a small one and put a hook through its back and threw it overboard attached to a much thicker line that Captain Randy held. Within 15 seconds it got a massive tug and the fish was gone. We reloaded and never felt a thing. After several hours and roughly 70+ fish being brought in we decided to call it a day.

We trolled around the northern coast effectively making a tour of the island. The island is so much larger than you imagine when living there. The size of the island and what is accessible from the main roads / common through ways are totally different but back to fishing already…

On the way in we trolled with a small yellow tail for barracuda and caught nothing but the fish was cut up aka got a solid bite. On the topic of Barracuda… While we were going out to sea we noticed a massive storm come in hit the island, it was intense. One of those clouds that rained hard but left as quick as it came. Not far from us was a gent in a small 10 foot aluminum boat with 15HP outboard motor…

It had a cool blue canopy with a cooler below and an attractive Spanish lady sitting in the front. As we cruised by I noticed him holding the line up and struggling while bracing himself on the side of the boat. His other hand sent a large hook through the side of an even larger barracuda and he hauled it into his boat before throwing it in his cooler, he’s as manly as they come. Then watched him make sure it was dead as the lady in the front smiled.

Today was one of the best days since leaving my job in September 2009.

If you want to go deep sea fishing with Captain Randy, contact him at Three Brothers Guesthouse and the price is $25 a person.

Went deep sea fishing in Koh Phi Phi, Thailand today. It was good times and the price was right. We opted for the 1/2 day as most of the large predators feast at dusk and dawn. It was from 1:30-6:30 and cost 2500 baht for the boat. The boat was one of the longtail boats, used for fishing, water taxi etc… Our guide was great and the fishing was decent.

Let’s get serious, if you fish often, you know it’s called “fishing” not “catching” so you can’t have high expectations but should always hope for the best. To begin we just used heavily weighted lines with ~5 hooks that we’d attach some mackerel or the like. We caught plenty of snappers, clown fish and multiple other types that names elude me. It was some good fun.

After that, it began raining, no pouring. It came down like there was no tomorrow for about 30 minutes and then it was gone. It was kinda surreal being in the middle of the ocean, in this tiny boat in the middle of a rain storm.

Later in the evening (at dusk) we did some trolling, we had a barracuda on the line but I didn’t manage to get it in. I’m not sure if it was my fault(very well could of been, not the first time this has happened) or the hook was just never set properly. That said I did get a bit “excited” but it’s hard not too. The guide said it was almost in the boat and he was guessing it was ~5KG which is a decent size.

After that we had the kitchen / restaurant near the fishing guides cook up our fish. They did it for 100 baht, which was a great deal. If you’re cooking small fish, always BBQ them, the fried / steamed ones tasted horrible but I could not get enough of the BBQ ones. I have to say, it’s different picking meat off a small fish compared to the juicy steaks we got from our catch in Koh Tao.

We took about 9 fish and left the rest for the guide. Our guide was “Rob’s Sports Fishing & Tour” he does fishing and multiple other types of tours, his number is 084-0572311 or 080-1488030. He gets my stamp of approval, whatever that’s worth.

All this said, sucks we didn’t catch any lunkers, I’ve seen some of the photos and there are some mammoth fish floating around the waters of Koh Phi Phi.

Would I do it again? Absolutely. Had I pulled something big in, I’d of probaly gone the next day. Also fishing from a longtail is an experience in itself. Also, I got to see most of the island which people typically pay 1000 baht for. Sure I didn’t do any cliff jumping or play with monkey’s but I’m a fisherman so I did what floats my boat, so to speak. One cool thing was we passed some cliffs where they used to get the nests for “bird’s nest soup”. They have bamboo shoots along the sides of precarious cliffs, props to those who used to navigate those jagged cliffs, it’s truly something else.

Luckily, this is a rare update from an internet cafe, where they *could* log your password and definitely make you retype everything with their beaten down keyboards. Not the most inspiring of places when all too often the booths beside you has vagabonds begging for money from their parents on skype, ha.

Happy Halloween.