The summer heat is upon us and it seems like it's getting hotter each day. Don't forget to use plenty of sun block and drink lots of fluids throughout the day. If you want to beat the heat then night fishing is the best way to do that.
During the day there are dolphin to be caught if you are willing to put in the time and do the running to find them. In on the reef, the kingfish are being found out in deeper water and deep in the water column. There are some bonito being found and also the occasional blackfin tuna. How good the action will be depends on whether or not there is current on the day you'll be fishing.
For lots of fun with your pee wee or young junior angler, the inshore patches and artificial reef areas are loaded with lots of fish of various species. The action is fast and furious and will certainly keep the young ones total attend.
In the Bay after dark, there are plenty of small tarpon to be caught and released. These fish are in the 10 - 20 pound range and they are even more acrobatic than their larger brothers and sisters. Scale your tackle down a bit and you'll have all the fight you can handle.
On Sunday (7/22) Greg Shill treated his son Jake and Jake's friends Matt Kirby and Ken Heinrich to a half day of fishing. We picked up pilchards from Mike on the Greenline and then we caught a few dozen herring to top off our baitwell. We found good blue water with no current between the Sea Buoy and the Cuban Hole. Our first action came on the deep rod with a kingfish.
Then the deep rod produced again. This time it took the tag team effort of Matt and Jake to whip a 27 pound blackfin tuna. A move further to the south got the action going again in the form of a triple hook up. It started with the downrigger, then a flatline, and the third fish ate the deep bait. The downrigger and flatline hook ups gave us two large bonito and the deep rod was a kingfish. On the way back to TNT Marine Center, we came upon several schools of large jack crevalle feeding outside of Haulover Inlet. Slow trolling a large feisty herring only took about 1 minute before a nice 10 pound jack had a snack and Greg had lots of fun pulling the fish to the boat for a quick picture and release.
Thursday (7/26) was an afternoon/evening trip. We loaded our livewell with herring at one of the ocean locations where the bait has been very reliable. Today was strictly a catch and release day. We concentrated our efforts in the area of the Cuban Hole in the 110 - 200 foot area. Once again we had pretty blue water and no current. The blue/green edge was running in an east to west direction in this area. The deep rod was the star again producing 1 kingfish and 2 bonito. The flatline was not to be out done as
we caught 1 kingfish and 1 barracuda. The highlight of the afternoon portion of the trip was also caught on a flatline. I saw the blackfin tuna sky rocket into the air before the flatline rod bent over severely. The fish put up a tremendous battle and the angler countered its every move and effort to throw the hook. After a few pictures, we released (remember it was a catch and release only trip), a 30 pound blackfin tuna that showed its appreciation by almost slapping me in the head with its tail and soaking me as it took off away from the boat. As it got dark and the tide got right, we were in position to try for some tarpon. We didn't have to wait very long. Within a 10 minute time frame, we caught and released 2 tarpon. The second fish actually hit while we were putting out the bait. A mangrove snapper got into the act before we made a move to where we saw fish exploding on baits. They didn't like our baits so we moved again and caught another mangrove snapper. We were getting ready to call it an evening and had reeled in the first bait, when the second one got hit and we released our third tarpon of the evening. This last one decided to get up close and personal with us by making 4 or 5 jumps right at boatside. On it's last jump, it landed on the bracket between the cable tubes running to my motors. I quickly flipped it back into the water for the final release.
Friday (7/27) Fred Gates and his brother Jeff got in some fishing time while they are down here on vacation. Today we bought pilchards from Greenline Mike and then topped off the well once again with herring. The morning started with a light offshore wind and we started in 130 feet just north of the Sea Buoy. There was no current and green water. The deep rod bounced a few times and Jeff reeled in a small kingfish that we released. The wind died and the boat started to spin in circles. We ran south to the Cuban Hole and started slow trolling baits on the downrigger and flatlines. Lines of grass forced us to move out deeper to find clean water. In 180 feet, the downrigger went off followed by both flatlines. Jeff tangled with the downrigger line and Fred worked one of the flatlines. The other flatline got cut off by a toothy critter. Jeff pulled a large kingfish up to the boat and it did its usual thing of making another run. It crossed Fred's line and proceed to cut it off. The fish weighed in the 15 to 18 pound class and was kept for dinner. Continued slow trolling only produced a herring that was cut in half. We moved north to the Twin Towers area and worked a wreck in the 155 foot depth. In 4 consecutive passes near the wreck, we caught and released 3 kingfish and 1 barracuda. All the fish ate a herring fished on the downrigger. The flatlines were not touched.
Saturday afternoon (7/28) Juan Valdiviego treated his son, Lucas to his first saltwater fishing trip for his 10th birthday. Lucas' cousins Duilan and Derek Baltar rounded out the group. We were looking for constant action and size and species of fish didn't matter. The perfect style of fishing to fit those goals is fishing the various patches and artificial reefs in shallow water. The first stop was in 15 feet and as soon as I put out the chum bag, a triggerfish showed up. This was followed by more triggers, mangrove snapper, yellowtail snapper, and bluerunners. Everyone had a blast drifting small pieces of squid back in the chum line and getting constant action. Next, we threw out and worked a pink/white Kaplan jig. That's when the small amberjacks showed up and gave the boys a good workout. There was plenty of time to move to another location, so off we went to some artificial reef modules in 25 feet of water. We then added lane snapper and grunts to the species list. The Kaplan jig produced more bluerunners and small amberjacks. It wasn't long after that when everyone seemed to have reached a fished out mode. We called it an afternoon and three totally content boys smiled all the way back to TNT Marine Center. They're already talking about and planning their next trip, so we'll introduce them to another style of fishing next time. Happy Birthday Lucas.
As you can see, there is still plenty of good fishing. It just takes a bit of work and be willing to change your approach on the fly if your first efforts aren't paying off. Give me a call and lets get out there and catch some fish.
Captain Dave Kostyo
Knot Nancy Fishing Charters
305 620-5896 Charter
305 965-9454 Cell
www.knotnancy.com
nkostyo@bellsouth.net