Fishing has been good off of Miami the last few weeks. We have had good action on the reef as well as offshore. We have been catching lots of kingfish and bonita on the reef, along with some yellowtail, mutton and mangrove snapper at night. We have also been dropping on the deep wrecks with butterfly jigs and live bait and catching lots of amberjacks and some big barracudas. Offshore we have been catching small blackfin tuna, some decent dolphin and lots of blue runners which are a ton of fun on super light tackle.
We have been doing lots of swordfishing also. We have been catching fish pretty steady but have had a few nights where we went hit less. We recently fished the islamorada swordfish tourney which is always fun. We made a long 100 mile run each night. On the first night we caught a bug golden hammerhead that went 300-400lbs, and pulled off two swordfish. The second night we had better luck releasing 2 swordfish in the 175lb range. Despite our best efforts we did not place in the money. Congrats to Ray and Nelson on a great tourney!
A cool new thing that we have been doing also is dropping for swordfish in the daytime. We have been doing this for a little while now and have had some success. We have caught fish up to 200lbs, and quite a few pups also. Its a ton of fun and really exciteing watching the fish jump all lit up in the sunlight. They truely beautiful fish.We fish from 1800 to 1100 ft of water. We are using 130lb tackle either stand up or in the chair. While out there we have also been catching quite a few dolphin.
We have the Miami Swordfish Tourney coming up at the end of the month which I am really looking forward to. We also have sailfish season right around the corner in a couple of months. Right now the ticket is the kingfish bite on the reef, and the swordfish bite day and night through out the month. Until next time!
Tightlines,
Capt Joe McGivern
305 588 8030
www.southflfishing.com