L&H Sportfishing

Christopher Marlin gets his 1st Sailfish

2020-03-12

Our youngest son, 8 year-old Christopher Marlin David has been dying to catch a sailfish. We had the afternoon available and with great conditions offshore, loaded up the family and headed out. With a hard north wind and a strong north current, conditions were perfect for sight fishing for tailing sails. As soon as we hit the edge I spotted a big bluefin tuna tailing down sea, although an awesome sight to behold the big tuna had no interest in eating. With my oldest son James and daughter Laurel in the tower we decided to get on the move. Riding and looking for fish on the surface and then presenting baits to them, sight fishing as we call it. The first sailfish we found, Laurel spotted, was very hungry and came racing in on the hapless live bait as soon as it hit the water, unfortunately for Chris, luck was not on our side for this one as the main line parted after a few jumps. Not to be dismayed, we continued on the hunt. Almost immediately found two more sails. The baits went out and within seconds both fish were hooked up! Moms fish went off the bow as we concentrated on Christopher’s fish first. With sheer determination Christ battled the angry sail as the L&H charged backwards in hot pursuit. After a quick fight, young Chris had the fish boat side for a clean release of his first ever sail. Shouts of joy and excitement filled the air as everyone was so happy and proud of Christopher and his first sailfish! The 8 year-old angler would go on to release two more sails using light spinning gear, giving him a total of three sails and 5 for the boat in total in just a few short hours of family fishing.

Go check out our youtube channel for an awesome video of Christopher catching his first 3 sailfish! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1R3flQscVY

Big White Marlin!

2020-03-02

We had a morning half day with a father and son. After catching bait we ran out to the edge. The wind was light out of the north and there was a slow current. The kites went up and all of the baits were deployed. Shortly thereafter, I saw a big flash on the right short!! I yelled from my perch in the tower to alert the crew and angler. Then I saw it, the round dorsal fin, a tell tale sign of the white marlin, Its a white!!! I cried from the tower as the sneaky fish circled around and around the hapless thread fin herring we were using for bait. Finally, the marlin engulfed the bait and began tailing down sea. James dropped back and handed the rod to our angler who reeled tight and hooked the fish. I put the boat in reverse and leaned on the throttles as the majestic white marlin greyhound down sea. We chased the fish as it did all he could to get away, but that was not going to happen, as luck was on our side today. After a short battle, James reached out and grabbed the leader signifying an official catch. Shouts of joy and excitement echoed all around the boat as the beautiful fish continued a spectacular series of jumps I contemplated boating the big fish as it was over 90 pounds, (very large for a white marlin), but she was too pretty and in perfect shape for release. When James got the leader again he gently pulled the fish alongside the boat and cut the leader to set the fish free to fight another day. It was the first white marlin caught off of Miami in 2020 and one we will not soon forget! Check out landh_sportfishing on Instagram for a quick clip of the catch.

Good Fishing with James Castro

2020-02-25

James Casto has been fishing for a long time and has fished all over the world! He was referred to us by our friends at LMR tackle. We got an early start and headed out to the bait spot. James and his friends showed their experience with the bait fishing and put plenty of frisky baits into the bait tank in short order. A quick stop at the edge of the reef produced a small tuna and a couple of kingfish. When the reef slowed down it was time to head offshore into the gulf stream. With the baits and teasers out, the L&H motored into the calm, clear, cobalt blue waters of the gulf stream. It wasn’t long until I spotted a nice current edge with sea weed and it looked very promising. As soon as we began going down the edge, we started picking at nice sized mahi. Mostly one at a time. Then we found what we were looking for, a nice stick amongst the sea weed with a lot of bait around it. One after another, mahi mahi began to show up and once again James and his team showed their experience. With several nice fish all going separate ways, the anglers did what they had to do to eliminate tangles and put the fish in the boat. When the dust settled, the crew had put nearly all the mahis from the school into our icy fish hold without a problem. By now it was time to head for the dock and everyone on board was happy with the results from our half day fishing trip!

James Dean Gets em Again!

2020-02-20

tuna, sailfish, wahoo, L&H, Miami, Key Biscayne fishing

Annie Gets Em in the Rain

2019-12-12

fishing in the rain

First Blue Marlin of the Year

2019-10-25

Marlin caught off of Miami

Sports Grill Guys Are In The Meat

2014-09-19

We took our friends from the Sports Grill for a full day of Miami Charter Fishing! These guys fished with us a few months ago and had a great time. We got an early start, pulling out of Crandon Marina in Key Biscayne, FL just before 7:00 am. The guys relaxed in the air conditioned salon on the way to the bait spot. Because of the early start, the bait was very cooperative and the L&H was on its way offshore in no time! It was only a short ride to the gulf stream and with a lot of sea weed in the area, it looked fishy! Only minutes later we had our first fish, a nice mahi that Paulie hooked on a live bait. As we continued south, our team started finding more and more fish. Before long, every one was hooked up and with dolphin behind Miamis Best Charter Boat! As more and more of the tasty mahis made their way to our icy hold, the days catch continued to grow. At one point, as the guys were catching school sized fish, a nice one, over twenty pounds showed up. Before anyone was able to do anything, Paulie delivered a perfect cast and hooked up. He fought the fish flawlessly and had the tired mahi boatside in short order. By early afternoon everyone had caught plenty of fish and with the wind picking up we decided to go in and try kite fishing. Our goal was to see if we could get lucky and add a tuna to the tally. There was a lot of seaweed on the edge. That in combination with the sun’s glare in our eyes would make it tough to fish the kite. None the less we put everything out and were soon fishing with twelve live baits in the water. Twenty minutes later, Eddie hooked a big fish on the center kite! From the way the fish was acting we were pretty sure it was a tuna. The Sports Grill guys know how to fish and Eddie had the fish at the boat rather quickly. They now had nice tuna to go along with some fresh mahi. A little while longer, another big fish was hooked up and this time it was dads turn. After a fun fight, dad was able to add another nice sized tuna to what was already a great catch! By now it was starting to get late and everyone agreed to start heading back! Back at Crandon Park Marina we pulled out the catch, took some photos for our guys and cut up a bunch of fillets for everyone!

UCA Dolphin Tournament, Ocean Reef

2014-07-01

I have been fishing with the Bradley family on the L&H for the past twenty years! The Bradley children have grown up in front of my eyes. They booked us to fish the UCA Dolphin Tournament out of Ocean Reef. It was a lot of work to get ready. We had to catch bait a head of time and run down in the dark, but we were happy to put forth the extra effort. After a very early start we made it to Ocean Reef (before light), picked up the Bradleys and headed offshore. The day started out with us catching a few fish in shallow, but since we were ahead of most of the other boats I decided to keep going out. After spending a good while way offshore, in the deep, without much to show for ourselves, I decided to come in closer. Around noon things started picking up as we started catching fish. At first mostly schoolies, with a few nicer fish mixed in. Dave got us on the board with the first qualifier and that would get us headed in the right direction. Shortly after catching a few more small fish, we spotted a nice piece of debris. As I maneuvered closer to the debris we could see a big dolphin laying close to it. The mahi was sporting a shiny lure on one side of its mouth as it had been hooked and lost by someone else! Nonetheless when we threw our bait out there and it was happy to see it!!! The unlucky dolphin chased the bait all over, but was having great difficulty catching its meal. I feared our bait might become tangled in the leader already hanging from the dolphins mouth and pull off. Our angler hooked the fish, but I was not sure where or how good so I instructed him to use light drag! I hoped we could get the fish quick, before it realized what happened. We backed around chasing the big dolphin and had it only feet away from gaff several times. The fish finally went down, but after some strong persuasion came back he to the surface. That is where we raced back and gaffed our prize!!!! Everyone went crazy!!! We knew this fish would be hard to beat! It was a great feeling! On the way home the crew got a few more fish but it was at the weigh in that we found our dolphin would turn out to be the tournament winner!