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+--- Thread: Hot and Cold Fishing in Miami, Florida (/showthread.php?tid=200982)
Hot and Cold Fishing in Miami, Florida - KnotNancy - 05-13-2005
It has been a while since my last report. We'll get caught up shortly with the daily reports, but first some general comments about both the offshore fishing and inshore tarpon scenes. Depending on which day you fished, the conditions have ranged from green pea soup looking water with no current to beautiful blue water without current and also with current. On the days with no current, it's been a struggle to get a decent catch. With current, the kingfish and sailfish have been very cooperative. Dolphin, however, have been strangely absent in our area. Yes, there have been a few and yes, many of them have been undersize. Remember they have to be 20" from the lower jaw to the fork of the tail.
Meanwhile inshore, the tarpon fishing has been running hot and cold. The shrimp ran for two nights a few days before the new moon and the fishing was excellent. Prior to and after that, they have been feeding on crabs. There have been loads of fish in the area, however, they have mostly been having lockjaw. The sundown and dusk periods have been when we start to get our strikes and then for a few drifts after dark. There has been a tremendous amount of weed throughout the area and it has made keeping the baits weed free very difficult.
Saturday (4/30) afternoon/evening was one of those no current days offshore. In 270' we all watched a sailfish knock baits off of both our flatlines and swim away. Numerous other drifts produced no strikes. I ran to just north of the sea buoy and slow trolled herring to finally catch a decent kingfish on the downrigger. We moved inshore to try for tarpon. Within a minute of putting out the first shrimp, we got a solid hookup from a very large fish. After 56 minutes, we got the pictures my group wanted and the estimated 130 pound fish was released.
Tuesday (5/3) evening we struggled to get a tarpon bite. With very little wind, it made drifting difficult at best. It took going into the Bay to get a fish to cooperate. We hooked it on a D.O.A. glow shrimp and 10# line. We came close to getting the catch a few times only to be denied. The fish then made a move for some pilings and added additional pressure resulted in a broken line.
Wednesday (5/4) was a middle of the day trip. Pea soup looking green water with no current had us in the struggle mode again. Flatlines had no action at all despite live chumming. The downrigger got the action with one tail hooked undersized kingfish that was released. The next fish was a much larger one, however, after dumping about 3/4's of the spool, the hook pulled. The final fish of the day was a dolphin just larger than our bait. Despite a good drop back to the fish, it still threw the bait when it jumped.
Saturday (5/7) evening the shrimp ran as soon as it got dark. Once again light winds had us struggling in the drift department. We watched as a school of tarpon that was blasting shrimp finally moved our way and the strike we were looking for happened. We released the fish and then a hour later after not finding a cooperative snook, we went back to tarpon fishing. By this time, the shrimp run was over and the fish had moved out of the area. We went to the Bay where we caught 1 of 2 fish on 12# spinning outfits. The evening ended with us going 2 for 3 on tarpon.
Sunday (5/8) evening was the night of the new moon. Crabs were the bait of choice this evening. We started with a nice 110 pound fish in the dusk period. This gave Jerry a good work out. The next drift it was Mike's turn and he too got a good work out with a 50# fish that made its way to the main channel. Back out to the south side and another drift and another tarpon for Mike. This time the fish stayed on the south side. We went fishless on several drifts after that and ended the evening at 3 for 3.
Tuesday (5/10) afternoon/evening we struggled to come up with 2 dozen herring. We found beautiful blue water with current. Everything looked perfect except someone forgot to tell the fish. On the first drift we got a kingfish on the downrigger as we crossed the current line in 120'. The next highlight before going in to tarpon fish was watching a free jumping sailfish make 8 jumps. I ran up ahead of the fish and put out baits and got no action. We got our one and only tarpon hit after it got dark. The Eagle Claw P170 8/0 circle hook did its job and we released a nice 60# fish that ate a crab. We had to pick our spots to put out the baits as the grass was covering almost the whole area.
Wednesday (5/11) evening I did a seminar on dolphin fishing at the S.A.I.L. Club in Ft. Lauderdale. They meet at the Downtowner Saloon on Andrews Avenue and the New River. It was a great time with a wonderful group of anglers. They have several teams who will be fishing the Grove Slam Tournament this Saturday (5/14). Good luck S.A.I.L. Club members and get out there and find that BIG dolphin.
Thursday (5/12) morning we started straight out from Haulover Inlet. The kingfish were chopping. All the action came in the 110 - 140 foot range with the flatlines catching the majority of the fish. The downrigger, however, caught the largest fish. We had several cutoffs and after putting 5 nice kings in the fishbox, it was time to try for a sailfish. We started in 250' to give ourselves a shot at a dolphin. At 170' the downrigger bait was eaten by a triggerfish. The same happened at 140'. At 115' as we approached the blue/green edge, the long kite bait got the sailfish action. Cliff Goodman from Long Island, NY worked the rod like a pro and was hooked up with his first sailfish. A second sail ate the short kite bait and Craig Kaylor hooked up that fish also. We had a double header going. As we fought the two fish, Neil Goodman was busy taking pictures and got some great action shots. Both fish were released and that's how the morning ended.
Once again we're up to date. Time to go out fishing again. See you out there.
Captain Dave Kostyo
Knot Nancy Fishing Charters
305 620-5896 Charter
305 965-9454 Cell
www.knotnancy.com
nkostyo@bellsouth.net
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