Started out the season with a fun trip to the Gulf Stream, followed by a half-day nearshore trip. The Gulf Stream offered the rare combination of favorable winds and flat seas. I couldn't turn that down, so I called my brother and we hit the water at first light. It's always a long ride to get there, but on a day like this it was as pleasant as a ride on a lake. We didn't have the lines in more than 10 minutes before the first strike on the shotgun line. The cedar plug did it again, and in moments my brother was playing tug-of-war with a blackfin tuna. I slowed the boat a little to make it more manageable when the other long line went off. A nice slinger dolphin (mahi) got airborne and the fight was on. I set the autopilot to keep the boat in a line and we brought the fish to the boat. It took a little while to find the fish again, but when we did, two lines went off... this time both lines had dolphin and we brought them to the boat. I checked the fish finder and looked around but there was nothing to tell me where those fish had been hiding. We circled around a bit, but could not repeat the hook up. After that, things got slow, despite a few short strikes and a lot of sargasso weed tangled in the rigs. Finally, I spotted something that looked like trash floating on the surface. As I got closer, I realized it was a small piece of plywood, covered with barnacles and surrounded by tripletails (none big enough to catch). One of my baits drifted by, and a green streak flashed out from the shadow and a nice, gaffer dolphin cleared the water... hooked up! We needed to get back to the dock, so we wrapped it up after this last fish and headed for the hill. With a following sea, we ran flat out, cutting the three-hour, 64 mile ride down by a half hour. What a day! The following morning, I met my group at 06:30 and we set out with another beautiful day in front of us. I put out lines just as we left the inlet, and the action started almost immediately as we passed through a big school of mostly undersized fish. Even though these weren't keepers, it was a good sign. I had to do a little searching to find the bigger fish, but once we did, the action was almost non-stop. We frequently had fish on all four lines at once, which kept my crew and me pretty busy. It didn't slow down until I had to stop and clear some tangled lines. By the time I was ready to get going again, we were well down the beach. I saw a few birds though, so I put lines back in. In a minute or two, we were on again. This time it was Atlantic bonito. These are, in my opinon, the best eating fish you can catch in nearshore waters around here and they're only here for a few weeks of the season. The fish were thick, so I made the call to switch from trolling to throwing jigs. Bonito on light tackle are a thrill, as these fish are basically small tuna, and their size belies their strength. Honestly, while I expected some action I had no inkling it would be this hot. Fish were coming into the boat almost as fast as I could get them off the hooks. Finally, I asked the clients if they were satisfied and ready to start releasing fish. They were reluctant, but when I showed them the huge pile of fish in the ice chest and they realized how cleaning they would have to do, I think the decision was made. We fished a while longer and released several more fish, and then packed it up and headed to the hill. Final tally for the trip was 16 Spanish mackerel and 20 Atlantic bonito. The season is just getting started!