March 9, 2012
Today was very fun day fishing with Jeff Neal, and friend Brian. I recently met these great guys out at the Safari Club International convention in Las Vegas. Jeff is a world renowned hunter and outfitter who books some of the best hunts in the world. He’s been organizing quality big game hunts since 1975. Today he was looking to catch a sailfish so we left the dock early in the morning, running 40 miles south, hoping to get into some of the sails that I had heard were off Miami. It was a quick trip with triple Mercury Verados wide open on the 36’ Invincible! After filling our baitwell with live baits we set up the kites out in front of Miami.
We caught our first few fish right around 12:00 noon today, with Jeff hooking into a monster hammerhead shark on 30 lb test, fighting the behemoth for over an hour. During Jeffs’ hammerhead fight we kept baits in water hoping for other action, and sure enough, Brian was able to bring in a couple of mahi-mahi while the shark was still on! Jeff finally got the leader to the boat and everyone got a good look at the shark before it broke the leader and swam off. We continued kitefishing the rest of the day, with a few kingfish and mahi throwing hooks, but no sails. Jeff did catch another thrill though, as a nice cobia snatched a bait off the kites. Overall, it was an awesome day listening to stories of Jeff’s hunting trips around the world. Not too many people have travelled the way he has. I can’t wait to get together again with the guys this summer! We’ve planned six days of fishing in Bahamas that should be a blast.
Tight Lines,
Captain David Ide
954-761-8045
