Throughout the work week, I had been keeping a close eye on the marine forecast for the upcoming weekend. The National Weather Service was reporting a beautiful "2ft or less" weekend. But of course, the seas made a turn for the worse as soon as the weekend arrived.

Saturday, May 14th

The crew for Saturday's trip included my friends Tito and Scott. The plan was to catch some live bait in the inlet, troll outside for dolphin or sailfish, then drift for yellowtail by mid-day. Unfortunately, there were no live baits in the inlet, the winds had kicked up to 15-20 knots, and the seas were a sloppy 3-5ft. So, instead of heading offshore, we anchored at a sand bar in the intracoastal just north of the inlet. The idea was to wade and cast to fish crashing nearby bait schools. But, we didn't manage to raise the interest of any shallow-water predators. We sat at anchor for about an hour. As Scott and Tito looked for fish, I was busy rigging some trolling rods. I figured we could at least get a little bit of time on the ocean before anyone got seasick.

We pulled anchor and headed out the inlet... very carefully. The seas were in fact very sloppy. About half a mile northeast of the inlet, we extended the outriggers, set out the 5-line spread, and started to troll north. The winds were blowing strong from the east. About 15 minutes into the troll, we turned toward the east to find deeper water. We got no hits yet, but the spread was still tracking well behind the boat. At about 200ft I made a wide turn to the south. It didn't take long for the winds to cause all kinds of havoc with the lines. The port outrigger ballyhoo was blown across the entire spread, tangling every line we had out. The starboard outrigger line and the center diving plug were easily cleared, but the other 3 were a total bird's nest. I hand-lined the whole mess onto the deck and took a knife to it, cutting the fuzzball of lures, ballyhoo, and monofilament away from the rods. Extremely pissed off, I threw the mess into a bucket, secured the outriggers, stowed the rods, and made a run back to the inlet.

Once inside, away from the winds and rough seas, we headed north to look for snook and snapper around the East Ocean Avenue bridge. After about 30 minutes of no bites, we started a slow southerly trek along the eastern side of the ICW. There are plenty of docks extending out from multi-million dollar homes. I maneuvered the boat within feet of these docks to allow Scott & Tito to cast under 'em. We did this for about two hours, but they didn't catch more than a few small mangrove snappers. It wasn't a very good day of fishing, but I gained a lot of experience maneuvering Uncle Buck in tight quarters... and of course it beats the heck out of being at work!

Sunday, May 15th

The scheduled crew for Sunday was Joe and Chuck. But, Chuck was feeling sick, and at the last minute, decided he'd be better off staying home this day. I met Joe at Palm Beach Yacht Center at 7:45am. We rigged for trolling at the dock, and were out the inlet by 8:15. The seas were slightly better on Sunday, but not by much. Instead of the 3-5ft waves I had gone out in the day before, the seas now were more like a solid 2-4ft, with the winds at 10-15 knots. We set out a reduced spread of 2 ballyhoo on the outriggers, a surface lure on the on the right rear, and a heavy bullethead lure under the surface on the left rear. This spread worked well with the winds and produced no tangles. We trolled in a large zig-zagging loop from the Boynton inlet to Lake Worth Pier, from 60 to 300ft of water. The goal was to raise some dolphin, wahoo, or sailfish.

At the end of our 3rd loop, we decided to drift for kingfish. Starting at about 140ft, roughly a mile and a half northeast of Boynton Inlet, we let the east winds drift us on a slow northwest track. The 2-4ft seas were still rocking the hell out of us, but it seemed like the winds were starting to slacken. We set out 2 flat lines, with either sardines or thread herring, to drift near the surface, and dropped 2 lines down about 3/4 of the way to the bottom.

As we drifted over the outer reef edge, where the bottom raises quickly from 120 to 90 feet, Joe got a solid drag-ripping hit. A few minutes later, he brought up a 12# kingfish close enough for me to gaff. BAM! One fish in the box! Only a few minutes after his fish was landed, my deep rod got hit with another drag-ripping run. This time it was a 16# king that went into the fish box. That made 2 good-sized kings on the first drift. As the depth shallowed to 70ft, the kings stopped hitting, and our bait was getting picked-away by smaller reef fish. It was time to move.

When Joe hooked his first king, I had marked the spot on my GPS chartplotter. This made it easy to go back to the same spot and duplicate the drift. As we motored out to restart the drift, I left a single ballyhoo trolling out behind the boat in hopes of hooking something along the way. We reached the start of the drift, cut the engine, and did it all over again. Joe was the first to get a strike. This one was much faster and more powerful than the king he'd already caught. While he was fighting this fish, I got a hit on my deep rod. It was another kingfish. As Joe was busy with his own battle, I grabbed the gaff and maneuvered my king close to the boat. Unfortunately, the fish trashed at the last second before I could gaff it, and threw the hook back at me. I re-baited my hook, dropped it back down, and went to help Joe. About 10 minutes later, he finally got his fish within gaffing distance. What we had hoped was a very large kingfish turned out to be a 10# bonito. Such a bummer, but I threw it in the box anyway. Bonito strips and chunks make for excellent bait.

We pulled up our lines and motored back for another drift. Along the way, the single ballyhoo dragging behind the boat got hit. I grabbed the rod out of the its holder and quickly pumped it a few times to set the hook strong. Line started screaming off the reel. As the boat slowed down I was finally able to start cranking some line in. It suddenly got easier to reel. I knew the fish had turned toward the boat, so I took in line as fast as I could, relieved to feel pressure again. But the joy was short-lived. Though I kept good tension on the line, the hook came loose. Kingfish and tuna seem to be easy to drive a hook into. This led me to think that I may have had a sailfish on the line. Sometimes when a sailfish strikes a bait, the hook circles around its bill, rather than hook into the jaw. So, when it makes a run towards the boat, the hook will slide off the bill. I'll never know the truth, but that is a highly probable scenario.

Our 3rd drift was quiet. We were slightly north of the drift we had been doing so well on. Only one of the shallow baits got hit, but it was sliced at the leader. Most likely a kingfish. Once we got into 70 feet of water, we reeled up and tried it again.

This time I stopped the boat in 120 feet, just a little south of our earlier drifts. We were back on the hotspot. Joe's bait got eaten after only a few minutes. A few seconds later, I grabbed one of the flat lines, because it got hit too. We were now on our second double-header of the day. Joe was still fighting his fish by the time I got mine to the boat. It was another king, maybe 10lbs. As I reached down and yanked up on the gaff, the tip must have hit its gill plate. Instead of impaling the fish, it only pulled the fish up about a foot before falling back into the water in a panic. A split-second later the king had grazed the metal edge of the boat's port trim tab and cut the line. I was now 0-2 in my attempts to land my fish single-handed. Pissed off, I put the rod into a holder and prepared to gaff the fish Joe had been pulling towards the surface.

A few minutes went by before we caught site of his quarry. This was no bonito. This was a larger kingfish than the one I had landed on the first drift. He carefully worked the fish around the boat, avoiding the trim tabs and engine. A few short runs and a steady spiral towards the boat brought this king within striking distance. I carefully reached down and yanked up on the gaff to stick this king just behind the head. The previous 3 fish I had gaffed resulted in a smooth, swift heave into the boat. This time it was different. The instant I stuck this fish and pulled up, the gaff was almost ripped out of my hands by the 20# kingfish that was impaled on it. A second or two later, I had steadied my stance and heaved the big fish over the gunwhale and into the open fish box.

A few minutes went by before another one of my leaders were cut by a razor-toothed kingfish. Getting fed up with the cut lines, I rigged a tippet of wire just above my hooks to prevent the kings from slicing the monofilament leaders. Once I had re-rigged, we went back to do one more drift. This time it was no-nonsense. I put the boat exactly on the spot we had been getting our hits. Sure enough, we had another double-header almost immediately. Of course, I lost mine again. Joe, on the other hand, soon brought another 12# king to the boat. I gaffed it and tossed it into the box. The limit on kingfish is 2 per person, so this ended our kingfishing for the day.

We left our lines in the water as we crossed over the 60ft reefs, hoping to maybe pick up something else besides kingfish. The action was slow, so we took a few minutes to take some pictures of our catch on the bow. I wound up putting one more fish in the box, a large blue runner, before a hideous horde of triggerfish found us. Once a gang of triggerfish find your boat, it's nearly impossible to get a bait down to the reef without your hook being stripped clean. It was time to call it a day.

I added 30lbs of kingfish filets and steaks, and 8lbs of kingfish trimmings, bonito, and blue runner to my already overstuffed refrigerator's freezer. I really hope I receive my chest freezer soon!

parrothead1973@mac.com