Good morning,
I hope you all had a nice Easter weekend. I spoke with a few guys who fished Saturday and most were rewarded with good fishing despite rough conditions. On the other side, The Beats Working II had a nice catch of yellowfins the largest pictured below. Kevin Paul went across with some friends on an Intrepid and had 13 yellowfins in the 50-60 # class. There were also a handful of dolphin caught in the process. Closer to home: offshore, The best story of the weekend came from Capt. Fox Watkins on the Ruby Jean. They were fishing out front and came across what they thought was a blue marlin sunning itself. As the short rigger came by it it gulped the ballyhoo down and the fight began on a TLD 25 with 20 pound line and a 60 pound leader. After a 41/2 hour battle they had the leader and what they thought was a blue marlin was actually a swordfish somewhere in the 400-500 pound range. The fish got free of the leader and was off to the races for another 45 minutes until it was finally gone for good. Back to the depths to fight another day. They hooked the big sword in 230' and when the battle ended the fish had drug them out passed 1000 feet.
Inshore, the fishing on the flats has been pretty good. There are some really nice slot sized snook and some mongo trout in 1 1/2-2' of water. Some of the fish have been caught on artificials but the best action has been on pilchards and greenies. There have been quite a few redfish caught but most have been scattered. Travis Gates reported seeing one big school of fish to the North.
Pretty good fishing inshore and out, get out there!
-Scott