| "NO BANANAS" FISHING CHARTERS WITH CAPTAIN RANDY GILLMAN 561-452-8766 |
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| July 22, 2006 Hog Heaven Dolphin Tournament - 2nd Place overall with a 32lb. Bull and 1st place in the calcutta with a combined weight (3 dolphin) of 74.5 lbs. |
Randy Gillman is a USCG Licensed Captain and is insured through Conova Marine Insurance
| 6/3/09 This last weekend I put together a nice team and fished the Palm Beach County KDW (Kingfish, Dolphin, Wahoo) Tournament. It was put on by the West Palm Beach Fishing Club and they did a great job. It's one of the most organized, well run tournaments I've ever fished in. Hat's off to the organizers. Now, getting to the good part. We started the day We grabbed those early Saturday morning and we purchased another dozen greenies and a dozen goggle eyes from my usual bait guy, Peter aboard the Yankee. We checked in with the committee boat about 6:45 a.m. and waited for the Bimini start. At 7:00 a.m. sharp all 261 boats we're off and running to their favorite fishing spot and the tournament was on! We ran out to about 500' and ran North looking for any good debris, but there wasn't any thanks to a Southwest wind over the past few days. In any event we continued to run North to an area straight out from Juno Pier. We set up our lines about 7:20 and the first bait out (a live speedo - we had caught 2 of those they day before too) got nailed! After a short fight we saw it was a decent King, about 20 lbs. but right as he got to the boat he smacked the leader with his tail and we had a line failure. Oh well. After that, the next hour was Bonito City! We couldn't keep them off our lines. At one point they crossed up three lines so bad, I had to just cut the lines and re-rig. After about 10 Bonies the next fish was the one to remember. The rear balloon line starts going crazy and I pick up the rod, but nothing. It does it again, I pick up the rod and nothing again. Just as I am starting to set out another line, it goes off. One of my fishing buddies, Don, grabs the rod and sets up on the fish. We're all thinking another Bony, but then we see that theres not much headshake and then the fish makes some nice long steady runs. We're all thinking this could be the King we're looking for. The fish cooperates nicely and stays in the back corner of the boat the whole time. Don does a great job fighting the fish with smooth pressure, nothing jerky. After a couple more long runs and about 20 minutes we get the fish withing eyesite. It's a big King! A really big King! As Don gets the fish to the leader, the balloon remnants are caught on the knot so he can't wind on the leader. I reach out and grab the 60 lb. leader and bring him up slowly, always being prepared for a sudden lunge by the fish. Klas, another fishing buddy, has the gaff. As I get the fish to the surface, Klas swipes and misses the fish the first time, but not the next. He sticks the fish right in the side just behind the head but the gaff begins to tear through the skin. I run for my other small gaff, but I can't find it! Klas says, "Just grab the tail!" I reach over the side while Don is holding my feet and grab a good hold of the tail and I wasn't letting go, no matter what! I yelled 1-2-3 real quick and we hauled a mammoth Kingfish over the side and it slapped hard on the deck. OHHHHHHH YEAHHHHHHHHH! High fives went all around as we yelled in celebration of a fish plenty worthy of first place. It was awesome! Other than a bunch of more Bonitos, we didn't catch much of anything else, except for one fish. My stepson, Jake, who is 8 years old (but 90 lbs.) was dying to catch a fish that would land him in the money for the junior division. The rest of the day we kept handing him rods only to find out that they were Bonitos. He was bummed. Then, about 2 p.m. the long Kite bait goes off. We give Jake the rod and he starts cranking. This was no small fish, it was making some serious runs and there wasn't much headshake. We we're all thinking that Jake could win the junior category if it's another King. This fish is all over the place taking him all around the boat and really kicking his butt. He wines and cries that he can't do it anymore and then I remind him that he could get 1st place for his division if it's a King, and it wasn't fighting like a Bonito. After about 25 minutes he finally gets to the leader. I look down and it's not a King, but it's still a great fish, a big Blackfin Tuna! I wire it close, Klas sticks it and drops this pig right on the deck! OHHHHHH YEAHHHHHHHHHH! Great fish! The next day we had a phenomenal dinner for 12 people and still had leftovers! That's the best fish I've ever eaten. Now for the end of the story. We get the Kingfish back to the weigh-in and we pull up to the drop off point. They guy working there, Capt. Danny Barrow, says "You got anything worth weighing". Then we pull out the monster and he just about shits his pants! He says that things got to be near 60 lbs! I was feeling pretty good then but I knew that someone else had weighed in another fish in the 50's so I wasn't sure. We get it over to the scales to find the weight to beat was 57.6 lbs. They weigh our fish twice to make sure it was accurate and it comes in at 57.3 lbs! You've got to f-ing kidding, right. Nope, we missed first place by 3 ounces! It's a real bummer coming that close and getting inched out but we had a great day and we did have the 2nd heaviest fish in the entire tournament, in fact it's the 2nd heaviest ever caught in their history of the tournament. Not too shabby! By the way, Jake's Tuna came in at 29 lbs. Not bad for an 8 year old! Thanks to a great crew we did pretty darn well in this tourney. Thanks Don, Klas, and last but not least, Jake. Great job everyone! That's all for now. Till next time, tight lines, good fishing, and No Bananas! Capt. Randy Gillman |
| FISHING REPORTS |
| 6/20/09 We did it again! Part luck, part skill, but we were in the money at another tournament. Let me start from the beginning. We started out early fishing the Norm Isaacs Dolphin Challenge and according to the tournament officials, there was going to be more money for Dolphin than anything else (turns out that wasn't true), so we made a plan to go exclusively for Dolphin. By 6 a.m. we had our live bait (pinned it up the day before) and we cleared the inlet. At about 10 miles out we saw a minimal weed line so we stopped to check it out but nothing. We continued to run out to about 20 miles where we came across a bit of a better weed line. As we slowed to a stop and looked over the side...........Dolphin! A school of small fish, so we started throwing out some light lines with livies and boated a bunch of them. During this time I put out a couple of Goggle Eyes to see if anything bigger was around, but nothing. After boating about 20 schoolies, we moved down the weedline a short distance in order to look for bigger fish. As I put down the second Goggle Eye it got picked up immediately and it was "fish on"! After a short fight we landed a 14.5 lb. Dolphin. At the time I was thinking this won't do very good. A couple hours later we had another Dolphin smash a Goggle eye under a balloon and after about a 15 minute fight (he fought very well for a small fish) I got him just under the boat. All of a sudden, the hooks pull. Oh shit!!!!! I run and grab a light outfit and put on a sardine. It just so happens the fish just kind of mosied up to the surface and so I threw the sardine right in front of him. Unbelievably, he ate it! A few minutes later we gaffed a 17.5 lb. Bull! The rest of the day was slow, but when we got back it turned out that no one had caught any bid Dolphin. Even more unbelievable! In the end we got first place in the Bull/Cow combined division with a total weight of 32 lbs. I still can't believe it! That's all for now. Till next time, tight lines, good fishing, and No Bananas! Capt. Randy Gillman |
| 8/23/08 Today was another beautiful day in South Florida and I fished with a nice family, Greg, Chris, & Colton Richard. We started off castnetting some bait and there was tons of it by the Blue Heron Bridge. I blacked out both of my wells! Then we ran out to the beach and caught some good sized Sardines for the big boys. We warmed up with a few Bonitos and then we got a nice Kingfish. A short while later we hooked up on a Mutton Snapper, but it was a 1/2" short. Not to worry, a little while after that Chris was letting down one of the lines and.......whammo! She gave the rod to Colton and a few minutes later came up a nice Mutton, about 20". Later we got a good hit on the balloon line....Sailfish! He ran right towards us, then turned around, jumped and spit the hook. Oh well, we'll get the next one. Sure enough about an hour later, on a 12 lb. rod, a Sail came up and ate one of our small baits. Colton was on it and I had to crank the motors and follow it. After about 35 minutes, the fish came to the boat and we landed it. After some more Bonitos, we moved into about 80' in search of some more Kingfish, but before I could even get a second line out.........fish on! Another Sail! Greg was on this one and he had a little more power, 65 lb. power pro. When he got it up to the boat, I yelled, "there's another one". I grabbed another 12 lb. outfit and put a Sardine on. We lost site of the fish, but I threw it out near the other Sail, and bingo! Fish on! Colton fought this one too and after another 1/2 hour we landed him too. On our way back we stopped at a reef in search of another snapper, but no luck. However, we did nab a nice Barracuda. Overall it was a nice day, with nice people. That's all for now. Till next time, tight lines, good fishing, and No Bananas! Capt. Randy Gillman |
