We got off to a rough start in Miami Monday faced with solid 6 foot seas in a 30 mph wind. After a good bit of discussion and a final check of the weather we decided to give it a try. Captain Jimmy David of the L & H, a 46 ft. Hatteras and his crew felt comfortable that if we could take the beating the sails would be tailing on the back of the waves. After catching bait we headed out to the edge of the Gulfstream to setup two triple bait kite rigs. The mate did one hell of a job setting up under those conditions. It didn’t take long to get our first hookup on a nice sailfish. Sandra set the hook on her first sail under conditions that would have challenged the most seasoned of fisherman. After a long fight in the rain and repeatedly being knocked off her feet we successfully billed the fish for a quick picture. We released the fish and decided to head back before someone got hurt. A Tornado had hit Miami jumped over us and toppled a dock crane in the Bahamas.
The payback came Tuesday with the kind of Blue bird day you only get after a storm passes. We had Captain Ray Rosher and the Miss Britt chartered for the day in hopes of continuing our education in kite fishing. We started the day catching bait at Government Cut alongside Bouncer’s Dusky Captained by Bouncer Smith and the Rock Star which had just won the three day Miami Billfish Tournament on Sunday. The strong winds from the past few days had the blue water pushed to within a couple miles of the beach. We started the day hooking up on a free jumper using a pitch bait. He was gone just a quick after nearly jumping in the boat. The crew of the Miss Britt was extremely professional working two triple bait kite rigs. We were quickly into fish catching five of six sails and going thru at least twenty other hookups on Kings, Bonito and Barracuda. The wind died out about 3:00 and we called it a day.