The past several days have been action packed with lots of action. Dolphin offshore and tarpon inshore have been the main attraction. Throw in a wahoo, a few tripletails, and a permit to round out the action.
The dolphin have been found from the blue/green edge out to 15 miles. The fish on the edge have been mostly throw backs. The unfortunate thing is that once again this year I am watching way to many people throwing everyone they catch into the fish box. The 20 inch minimum size limit apparently doesn't mean anything to them. It is really nice to be able to stop on the edge first thing on your way out and catch and release a few to break the ice. Then head offshore to find some keeper size fish for dinner. There is also more debris flowing through our area. Look for tripletail around this debris and also for wahoo down deep below it.
Inshore, tarpon continue to make a strong showing at Government Cut. Live crabs will get you the strikes, you just have to wait them out sometimes. The fish are big, mean, and ornery and are not giving up easily. Expect a long hard battle with these fish and most of them are making it to the deep water of the main channel where the battle gets even tougher. There have also been some permit in the area, so on any give strike it could turn out to be the silver platter.
Friday (5/26) Omar, Maurice, and Eddie sampled the dolphin fishing for a half day trip. We caught a total of about 32 fish and kept enough for several meals for everyone. The remainder of fish were released. The fish were all found on the blue/green edge and responded to live pilchards and 1/4 ounce Kaplan jigs. We ran out to as far as 15 miles and found a clean ocean and no bird activity. We ran back in to the edge and finished off the morning catching more fish by trolling the Kaplan jig.
Saturday (5/27) evening, Dennis and Vicki Horn did battle with the tarpon at Government Cut. Our first drift was uneventful. On the second drift we saw lots of rolling fish and had one crush a bait and give it back to us. On the third drift, we got the double header on. Dennis' fish ran in toward Fisher Island and Vicki's fish ran offshore and then toward the main channel. By the time we were getting close to the main channel, Dennis had his 60 pound fish along side and we released it. Vicki's fish ran into the Cut and swam against the current before heading back to the south side and toward Fisher Island. When we got to the ridge, the tarpon reversed directions and swam back to the deep water of the main channel. It then proceeded to head offshore into the current. We went half way to the second green marker where it once again reversed directions and headed back toward shore. It swam around the first green marker and I managed to maneuver the boat around the marker and freed the line. It had some very bad chaffing but held together. The next move was across to the north side of the Cut and then up over the ledge to the north jetty before heading offshore again. The fish was now moving toward the red marker off the tip of the north jetty. As it was moving back toward the deep water, we got the leader to touch the rod tip and got the catch. Once again it reversed directions and it was at this point that the line couldn't take it any more and it parted. All this took about 1 1/2 hours and Vicki was totally exhausted. As she put it, she always picks on the tarpon from hell. The next drift it was Dennis' turn and it didn't take very long. The surprise was the 20# permit that we caught and released after we took its picture. The next 2 drifts we hooked up and had a hook pull and a line cut off in the bottom. The final drift of the evening was a solid hook up and the tarpon ran in toward the shallow water where we got the catch and release. Final total for the evening was 3 for 5 tarpon and a 20# permit.
Sunday (5/28) we started at 10 AM and fished till 6 PM. Max Dekelbaum and his friend Gene wanted some dolphin action. We started on the blue/green edge and trolled the Kaplan jigs about 100 feet before we were hooked up. After catching and releasing several fish, we ran offshore in search of some keeper size fish. We found a large board that had 4 huge tripletail under it. We got 2 of them to eat chunks. Next we dropped the 4 ounce jig down deep and Gene caught his first wahoo that weighed in at 20 pounds. We out to about 15.5 miles and found a clean almost bird free ocean. We ran back in and found a scattered weedline at about 10 miles. The further south we followed it, the more defined it became and soon we found some large patches. We worked the patches for the remainder of the trip and caught numerous dolphin. All total we caught 40 dolphin and kept 20. Throw in the wahoo and tripletail and we had a very nice days catch. Monday
(5/29) morning, Keli Faure, her father Kenneth, and boyfriend Freddy were out for a half day of dolphin fishing. The blue/green edge once again broke the ice for us and after catching a releasing about 8 fish, we ran offshore. The word from my friends on Reel Rowdy II was that there were some large patches at 15 miles. They were the best patches I've seen so far this dolphin season. We slow trolled two pilchards between two of the patches and got almost instant action. Then the bigger fish swam by us and we hooked it with the second bait. It ran under a 50 yard wide patch and jumped on the other side. Our line was trying to get through the dense patch. I had to clear the weeds from the line while I slowly worked our way through the patch. Miraculously, the fish stayed on and after another 5 minutes we put the fish in the boat. Back at Spinnaker Marina when we weighed the fish, it tipped the hand held scale at 23 1/2 pounds. We stayed with the patches the remainder of the morning and caught more keepers and several more throw backs. Everyone got in on the action and when all was over and done, we had caught 14 dolphin. We kept the big bull and 6 schoolie size fish and released the rest. Dolphin fillet dinner was on the menu for Monday evening.
Monday (5/29) evening it was Jerry Scala and Alvaro De Palleja's turn to do battle with the silver king. When we got down to Government, the fish were rolling every where. The biggest challenge we had was that there was no wind and a very slow drift of .2 MPH. It required us to put floats on to keep the baits out of the bottom. Late in the dusk period, our patience paid off and Alvaro was fast into a battle with his first tarpon. It made a bee line for the main channel, went across the Cut to the north side and then out and around the tip of the north jetty. The next move by the tarpon was to head toward the beach on the north side of the Cut. It made several dives under the boat and we countered each of its moves. Every time it would then start moving closer and closer toward the beach. We got the leader to touch when we were just inside of the swim markers. The fish made another dive under the boat and this time the leader broke at the hook from all the chaffing on the tarpon's bony jaw. We ran back to the south side and by now the wind finally picked up enough from the WNW so that we could drift and cover ground. On the last drift of the evening, we got the tarpon hit we were looking for and Jerry was reeling frantically as we tried to get to the drop off before the tarpon did. This time the tarpon beat us and cut us off as it dropped over the ledge and into the deep water of the Cut. Final total this evening was 1 for 2 tarpon.
We're up to date again and looking forward to our next trip. If you want to join in on the fun, give me a call or send me an email for details.
See you offshore on a big patch or weed line.
Captain Dave Kostyo
