Did you ever notice that there are always a few boats that seem to consistently put fish in the boat, regardless of what the conditions are? What is it about these guys that make them successful day in and day out? After chasing fish for 34-years as a professional charter captain I can tell you - without question- that these guys are paying attention to the smallest of details that many anglers overlook on a regular basis.
Well in advance of every one of my charters, a GREAT deal of effort goes into preparing and planning for that particular upcoming trip. As an example, if I have a group that wants a near shore trip targeting bottom fish with the hopes of possibly hooking into a larger species such as Cobia or Kingfish, I will plan accordingly. First we look at the weather forecast a few days ahead of the charter and if it looks like all systems are a go, we get organized and develop a game plan.
Based upon many hours on the water, we see definite patterns to fish movement and activity. We come up with a plan which involves a few target areas where we plan to fish, based on prior experience and activity observed on other recent trips. The planning stage also includes glancing at previous years fishing logs the night before my charter, which many, many times has helped me set up on fish the following day. I have kept a detailed fishing log for well over 3-decades and doing so pays BIG dividends.
Prior to the trip we purchase all necessary bait- which always includes an assortment of frozen baits and chum. We never leave the dock when we head offshore without plenty of chum, squid, sardines, and frozen ballyhoo. In addition to a frozen bait assortment, many days we also bring live bait that we have caught either prior to the charter (held in our dockside bait pen) or the morning of the trip. In addition to our bait selection we are always loaded up with ice on the boat.
Prior to the trip we bring along the appropriate rods/reels for the type fishing we are doing. All of our reels contain line that is in EXCELLENT shape and spools are full. In our rod/reel assortment we ALWAYS have a medium weight spinning rod set up with a bucktail jig that we can throw at surface Cobia if the opportunity presents itself. My “weapon of mass destruction” is also brought along on ALL offshore trips, which is a beast of a rod/reel loaded with 300lb mono and set up for GOLIATHS. We hook up with Goliaths on well over 50% of our offshore charters.
Once on the boat - in advance of our clients showing up- EVERY leader is changed, ALL hooks are sharpened and drags are examined so we can quickly fine tune drag settings when we begin fishing. If I could give one tip that leads to more fish in the boat it would be pay closer attention to sharpening your hooks. We even dress up the point on many new hooks out of the box to ensure that they are “sticky sharp”. A quality hook file -such as the fine tooth Rapala or Luhr Jensen - are the ones to buy.
If heading offshore we also pull out our “miscellaneous” offshore tackle box, which contains a variety of items that we use a lot, such as hooks of different sizes, sinkers and swivels. When we leave the dock in the morning we have a FULL tank of fuel and we are ORGANIZED. We give a quick safety speech - which includes showing folks how to use our EPIRBS, where our fire extinguishers are, where our life jackets are located, along with a quick tutorial on how to start and operate my boat in case I can’t for some reason.
Finally, clients are shown how to use our VHF radio if necessary and - to make them feel comfortable -I educate them about the “float plan” that I have left with my wife the night before my trip, in the event that we encounter a problem while offshore.
Upon leaving the dock we proceed to our first destination and before you know it, we arrive. It took me years to develop patience as a charter skipper when pulling into an offshore number and man has this paid off. Instead of pulling into an area and immediately starting to drop, we now methodically look at an area patiently and we do not lock onto a spot unless it looks REALLY GOOD.
Several years ago we began deploying a bait on the surface as we are crawling around looking for a good bottom show and man has this paid off. Last season we hooked up with several nice kingfish on trolled surface baits that we deployed while looking for a spot to bottom fish. One year we hooked into a few blackfin tuna using this trolling and looking technique.
If you want to catch more fish pay a little closer attention to the details prior to and during your fishing trips. Don’t fall into the “going through the motions” rut. Think about how you can improve every facet of your program and by doing so I am very confident that -before you know it- you will be hooking into ore fish.
TIGHT LINES !
Capt. Joe Greco
Ft. Myers Sportfishing
Ft. Myers, FL / Lake George, NY
