"NO BANANAS" FISHING CHARTERS
WITH CAPTAIN RANDY GILLMAN
561-452-8766
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