As you can tell from the lack of reports over the past couple months, business has been brisk and fishing has been out of control. We’re finishing up one of the best seasons of false albacore/bonito fishing I have ever seen. Huge numbers of albies in x-large sizes have been in the area for the past four months plus and the action has been nonstop. The biggest albie of the season was a 19.5 pounder and the “smaller” twelve to sixteen pound fish were as thick as anyone had ever seen. I had the honor of getting Chico Fernandez his biggest albie ever, a fat seventeen pounder. The past several weeks has had big numbers of the small six to ten pound fish, hinting at another banner year on big fish for next season. A single angler was averaging about twenty fish a day, ( if they could stand it that long ) so with a couple of guys onboard ( in good shape with no heart problems ) the numbers were really adding up. I should have kept accurate count when the things showed up in early april, ( two months early ), but as a guess, counting nothing under five pounds, I think a seasons total of close to five thousand fish is pretty realistic. Man, what a season. It’s going to take my hands several weeks to heal up from all the line cuts caused by leadering fish at the boat. With so much time spent on the albies, the other fish in the area haven’t been getting much attention until recently, but the king mackerel fishing has also been nonstop for the most part, we boated several nice ones last week with Jim Gray getting a dandy twenty pounder. I also managed to beat up on a thirty pound jack last week, ( picture on front page ) and there has been some snook fishing going on. Dolphin were at best sporadic up until recently, but there’s been some good numbers showing up the past couple of weeks. I can’t believe it’s already moving into September, where did this year go? The mullet run/bait migration is just around the corner and all the fireworks that creates. The inshore snook and tarpon and the offshore dolphin, skipjack tuna and if we’re lucky a wahoo or two to keep us occupied through until the winter cold fronts bring in the jacks, ladyfish, bluefish and my best buddies the spinner sharks sometime in December. 2003 is going to be a year to remember and a hard one to beat.