After picking our clients up at West Palm Beach airport we had a short 20-minute ride to the boat located at the famous Sailfish Marina Resort.

We pulled off the dock at 3 pm and set course for our destination, Old Bahama Bay Marina and Resort on Grand Bahama. At 5:30 pm we pulled into the Bahamas and proceeded through our customs check-in.

Our clients decided to go test out the pool and have cocktails before heading to the restaurant for dinner. Captain Showtime (a local conch salad legend and one-man entertainment committee) came to the boat to make his famous conch salad and entertained all of us with his local tales and legends.

The weather was going to be ideal so we left the dock at 5:30 am the next morning to head offshore and look for current edges, weed lines, and birds. “Rhino” is equipped with the newest and latest in fishing technology enabling us to look for and track birds with our radar and get satellite data on sea surface temperatures, phytoplankton, and current edges which are ideal locations for bait and big game fish to congregate.

We located birds a few hours into our trip and caught some Tuna. We decided to pick up and continue to another area that looked promising. A few hours later we had our lines in the water again and a short time after hooked up with our first Blue Marlin of the day! She was a big female who came upon our shotgun rod. I reeled the lure in as fast as I could to bring her into our trolling spread where she “lit” up and crashed one of our lures. She was greyhounding and smoking our reel putting on a spectacular show unfortunately the line parted and we lost her.

Although disappointed we immediately reset our spread and 30 minutes later we had a male sky from left to right and crashed onto our transom bait and took off. As we started to clear lines and teasers a second male jumped on one of our baits on the opposite rigger and drove deep hooked up! We had a doubleheader on Blue Marlin!

Luckily, they stayed astern of the boat and in opposite directions putting on a show that only Blue Marlin can do. Needless to say, our clients were unbelievably excited! We managed to get the first one to the boat for a successful release in 15 minutes. Our second and bigger fish after a lengthy battle including at one point a 20-minute standoff we managed to get him to the boat for pictures and our second successful release in a total of 55 minutes from both bites to release!

After many high fives and congratulations, we put our spread back in the water. A short time later we had another big Blue Marlin come crashing into our spread taking rigged ballyhoo off the rigger and took off jumping, rolling, and flipping eventually wrapping himself in our leader which leads to chaffing and us losing the fish. Frustrating but par for the course when dealing with these brutes! At this point, we were 2/4 on Blue Marlin with 2 other strikes but no hookup.

While it was still early the clients decided they wanted to start heading back and try deep dropping for Snapper and Grouper. We made 2 stops and managed to catch 10 nice Yellow-Eyed Snappers enjoying a spectacular afternoon. We headed back proudly displaying our Blue Marlin release flags arriving back at the marina in time to go jump in the pool and enjoy some tropical drinks!

We again went back to the restaurant for dinner which was very lively this night as a dive boat with a group of passengers had come in along with several other transient boaters also arriving and the party continued on the dock after dinner.

The next morning, we got a later start leaving at 7:15 and decided to head in the opposite direction and fish the channel off of Freeport. Again, we found birds early and got into Tuna pretty quick. Unfortunately, the sharks were bad and ate our Tuna before getting them in the boat.

We picked up and ran further into the channel locating more birds. On the second spread of the day, we caught 3 big Mahi-mahi who never disappoint with their aerial acrobatics. We got into Tuna again but had the same problem with the sharks so we picked up and ran again.

After locating another pack of birds we put the lines back in the water and a short time later were rewarded with a Sailfish! After high fives, congratulations and pictures the clients decided they wanted to bottom fish again so we headed to the bank and caught more yellow eyes and went in the shallows to catch strawberry groupers and some other bottom fish.

By 3 pm we were done and headed back to the marina getting back at the dock by 4:30. Followed by pool time and cocktails. We had some great steaks and lobster on the boat so we decided to barbecue on the dock and have dinner on the boat.

The last morning, we got up at our leisure walked the beach and swam and then left to head back to Palm Beach mid-day. Our clients loved the 4-day trip and were extremely happy with their trip of a lifetime!

If you are looking at Palm Beach cruises to the Bahamas, fishing charters, or even ferry services, consider a luxurious private charter that includes travel and fishing aboard the Rhino, with me Captain Frank Fackovec and my wonderful crew. Call me at (210) 355-6200 or visit my contact page to take the next steps to build the perfect trip for your next Caribbean adventure.