Offshore Fishing Summer Camp July 2012

This past week we held our first offshore fishing summer camp out of the Riviera Beach Marina.  The start of the week was terrible weather wise.  Monday through Wednesday we battled high winds and even higher seas.  All the campers were troupers, and each of those day we ventured out into the ocean for a short period, but had to come back in and fish the intracoastal the remainder of the day.  The camps caught snappers, grunts, triggerfish and stingrays around Peanut Island; and we lost a nice shark on Monday afternoon on the east side of Peanut Island.  

Yesterday and today the weather finally decided to cooperate, and we spent both days trolling and drift fishing off Palm Beach.  Yesterday we trolled north and south of the inlet and caught 4 blackfin tuna, 2 kingfish, and more bonitos than we could count.  This morning we headed offshore in search of dolphin and wound up landing 2 large baracudas.  Around 11am we headed into 120ft and drifted for some reef fish.  The camper caught trigger, grunts, and many other reef dwelling species.  As we were packing up to head in we hooked into 2 large bonitos while drifting squid.

All the campers seemed to have a blast fishing offshore, but I feel like the best part of the week for them was hand-lining giant Jack Crevalles at the dock.  Each day after cleaning the boat and the fish, the camps used the scraps and left over bait to hand line some very strong jacks.  I am amazed that none of them were pulled in!!!!!  

Lake Worth High School Memorial Day

Yesterday I went fishing with the students of Lake Worth High School at the pier by the new Snook Islands in Lake Worth.  The students met me nice and early by the boat ramp and we walked over to the pier.  The fishing was incredibly slow to start off with, and for a while we could not even convince a fish to nibble on the bait; but slowly we started to see life.  The tide shifted and the bait fish started moving in, and then the fish started to bite.  The students spent the day fishing on the pier and caught pompano, mangrove snappers, and even a starfish.

They are a great group and I look forward to doing more with them over the summer.

Charter and Riviera CRA class last week

Last Friday Capt Rich and I had a 5 hour fishing charter.  We cleared the Palm Beach Inlet and trolled for about half an hour before realizing that we were not catching any fish because the charter had brought along 8 bananas.  The charter ate the bananas as fast as they could and within 5 minutes we caught a blackfin tuna.  With the west wind blowing and the fishing being slow we decided to set up a drift.  Right away they started catching fish including a nice 30lb bonito.  We kept catching all sorts of bottom fish for the next few hours, and then everyone woke up when a sailfish took one of the dead sardines and started jumping.  Despite the slow start the charter had a great time and left with some tuna and yellowtail snapper for dinner.

One Saturday, Eden and I spent the day up in Riviera kayaking and snorkeling with the students of Riviera Beach.  We took a morning trip and an afternoon trip and both were amazing.  We paddled over to the beach on the east side of the island and snorkeled around the rocks and saw more fish than we could count

FFA Annual Fundraiser at City Fish Market

Thank you to everyone for making the Florida Fishing Academy's Annual Fundraiser such a huge success.  Most importantly we would like to thank Michael and Kitty Dukakis, our Santaluces students (Janel, Eden, and Anthony), and all our board member.  The night was a tremendous success and everyone had a blast.  We hope to see everyone back next year, and we can not thank you enough.

Fishing and Snorkeling in Riviera Beach

This past Saturday, Janel and I, took the Riviera CRA students fishing and snorkeling around the park at the Riviera Marina.  The weather was finally cooperating, and we could now see in the water.  The students had a blast finding all types of starfish and sea urchins.  They even tried catching the fish they saw with their hand, unsuccessfully!  Those who chose to fish had a slow go of it, but we did have two big hits, but sadly the line popped before we could see what it was.

Charters and Riviera Boating Program 1st week of April

This past Saturday we had a full schedule.  Capt Rich and I started the morning off with a fishing charter.  The seas were not nearly as bad as were predicted, but they were still not extremely comfortable.  We started off with a short troll as we cleared the inlet, but sadly had no bites, so we headed to Capt Rich's secret bottom fishing spot.  We started off catching a ton of triggerfish and grunts on the first drift.  The second and final drift was the one were the fishing picked up.  On the second drift we once again started catching triggers, but after  a few minutes we caught a 23" triggerfish and soon after a nice mutton snapper on a flat line.  With about 20 minutes to go, one of the flatlines took off and we saw a nice dolphin sky out of the water.  While we were fighting the dolphin, a kingfish hit another flatline and we spent the next few minutes trying to keep the lines from crossing and the fish breaking off.  Both fish were land within 15 seconds of each other.


In the afternoon, I met the Riviera students at the park and we spent the next 3 hours searching for critters and fishing on the beach.  THe students were snorkeling around the beach and found a big starfish.  They spent a few minutes examining the critters and then placed it back in the water where they found it.


Yesterday, Capt Rich and I had another fishing charter, and this time we headed right for the area we fished on Saturday.  We caught more triggers than we could count, yellowtail snapper, and a 30lb kingfish (which I now wish I had a picture of).  All in all we have had an extremely busy, but exciting, for days.

Village Academy - Lake Ida 4/6/2012

                                            Fishing in the rain

                                     Taking a break, but still fishing!


This morning, around 8:30pm, the students from Village Academy met me at the boat ramp at Lake Ida Park.  Following a lesson on kayak safety, we packed up our kayaks and hit the lake in search of fish.  We paddled across the lake to the little bay by the Playhouse, and after about 20 minutes of catching nothing from the kayaks we decided to paddle to behind the Playhouse and fish from land.  Blake was the first to get his line in the water, and within 15 seconds I heard him yell "FISH ON!!!".  He landed it quickly, and it was a bass.  We fished around the back of the Playhouse for the next few hours, and caught plenty of fish, all while trying to take cover during all the rain and lightening storms.  The students caught 5 largemouth bass, and more bluegills and sunfish than we could count.  We caught all the bluegills and sunfish on earthworm, except for one bluegill who decided it was hungry enough to eat a small piece of a purple plastic worm under a bobber.  The bass were caught using fat earthworms, white Bass Assassins, and dark green plastic worms.


Once the wind started picking up, we all decided to make the long hard paddle back to the boat ramp, and hopefully miss the next storm which was on the horizon.  Despite all the rain and wind, the students had a blast paddling around on the kayaks and catching fish.  Two of the students even caught the first fish of their life.  One of those students fished for 2 hours before he caught his first fish, all while he watched fish being caught all around him; but he did not give up, and it paid off as he caught his first fish and many more after that!