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+--- Thread: Offshore or Inshore, The Fishing Is Good In Miami, Florida (/showthread.php?tid=96227)
Offshore or Inshore, The Fishing Is Good In Miami, Florida - KnotNancy - 01-22-2004
For most of the week, there has been a lack of north current in the
Government Cut to Haulover Inlet area. This has presented a challenge to
put together a good offshore catch. One bright spot was the good
kingfishing in the Cuban Hole area.
Meanwhile the tarpon fishing in the Haulover area finally turned. Prior to
Wednesday, two shots per evening was the average. That changed Wednesday
evening when we got five shots. Here's the day by day break down.
Wednesday evening (1/14) - wind from the West @ 11-20 mph. The evening
started slow, however, we were seeing lots of rolling fish. It was just a
matter of time before they would turn on. Up until our last two drifts, we
had our usual two shots. Drifting in front of the south jetty with an
incoming tide gave us another 3 shots on two drifts. Live shrimp was the
bait of choice.
Thursday (1/15) was big boat day. We left the dock at 11:00 am and fished
with wind from the SSW/NNW @ 0-16 mph. At 1:05 pm, we released a sailfish
just north of the Twins that hit a sardine fished in the riggers in 103'.
That turned out to be the highlight of the day as we got no other strikes.
We were not looking for kingfish, however, the word was that they were solid
at the Cuban Hole during the morning.
Friday morning (1/16) - wind from the WNW/NNW @ 7-15 mph. We quickly caught
several dozen herring at Government and ran out to the Cuban Hole to catch
kingfish. Slow trolling produced 1 strike on the downrigger. We got to see
the fish before it made a strong surge at the boat and pulled the hook.
More slow trolling produced nothing, so I set up a drift starting in 75'.
Every drift produced 1 kingfish in the 90-110 foot range.
Friday afternoon (1/16) - wind started from the West and switched to the NE
@ 0-3 mph. We refortified our bait with pilchards and herring and went back
out front. We quickly got 1 kingfish and then it got tough. Moving south
to the hotels off Key Biscayne, we watched loads of skipjack tuna busting on
bait. High speed trolling with small Billy Baits produced 1 tuna that was
released. Back out front of Government Cut, the downrigger produced a
beautiful 20# yellow jack that was caught on 12# Red Cajun line. As we were
pulling in our baits at the end of the trip, we watched a sailfish chasing
the chummers I had thrown out. We stayed for a while longer, but the sail
never found our baits.
Saturday (1/17) Anthony Cisneros and his wife Jennifer from Salida,
California flew in a day early to get in a fishing trip prior to going on a
cruise. Jennifer got the hang of catching pilchards with a sabiki rig very
quickly and was out fishing her husband. We moved to another area of the
Cut and added a couple dozen herring. We started slow trolling out front
with no strikes. A drift through the area produced a bait chopped in half
behind the hook when we reeled in the downrigger rod. Moving out to 300'
and north to the Sea Buoy, we put out our flatlines, downrigger, and kite
baits. In 140', the downrigger popped but failed to hook up. In 85', we
caught a dolphin on the kite. Next drift, we started in 400'. At 146'
another dolphin ate a kite bait. In 103', the bow flatline, stern flat
line, and downrigger all hooked up. Anthony had a fish on that was running
hard and while we moved toward it, Jennifer reeled in the other two fish
that turned out to be very larger triggerfish. Then a school of about 15
dolphin swam out from under the boat. Jennifer caught one. The short kite
bait had another on. Anthony was doing laps around the boat while I cleared
other lines, released Jennifer's dolphin, and pulled in the kite. What had
been a very slow day had suddenly turned into lots of commotion. Anthony
worked his fish closer to the boat and we soon saw that it was a sailfish.
The fish pulled hard and make great runs, however, it never jumped once. We
released it after taking some great photos. That's the way the 3/4 day trip
ended. Every fish we caught was a first for two great anglers. And,
Jennifer is ready to go bait fishing again.
Sunday (1/18) evening tarpon fishing at Haulover Inlet. Stephen Mras and
April Wakeman from Fullerton, California were hoping to be able to catch a
break in the weather so they could get out and do some swordfishing. Their
back up plan was to go tarpon fishing. With the wind from the W/SW @ 15-23
mph, they opted for the tarpon trip. Minutes after putting out the live
shrimp on 12# outfits, we saw several fish roll in the area and we got a
solid hook up. April fought a very stubborn 75# tarpon for about an hour
before it was released. The next fish was a 30 pounder that Stephen made
quick work of. The third fish of the evening was a 60# fish that gave
Stephen more of a work out. In between tarpon, we also caught and released
2 ladyfish.
Tuesday (1/20) evening, the shrimp ran at Haulover Inlet and the tarpon
turned on the feed bag. Jim Lefevre from Stuart, Florida picked on the most
stubborn 100# tarpon that I've seen in a very long time. We fought the fish
up and down the beach for 1 1/2 hours. During this time, the closest we
came to getting a catch was to see the double line knot break the surface of
the water next to the boat for a moment. The strain of the fight finally
took its toll on the light line and it broke. During the entire fight, we
watch loads of shrimp pass by the boat in the spotlight. Resetting our
drift had us hooked up again with in minutes. This time we released the
fish after getting a catch. And so it went the entire evening. Our last
couple of fish were caught up at the Inlet and we finished the evening
hooking 5 fish and landing 4.
The tarpon have moved into the Haulover Inlet area solid. We can expect
good action every evening for the next several weeks. Give me a call and
book your date so you can experience this great action with the mighty
Silver King.
Captain Dave Kostyo
Knot Nancy Fishing Charters
305 620-5896 Charter
305 732-2628 Beeper
www.knotnancy.com
nkostyo@bellsouth.net
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