My clients for today had to cancel due to an illness. This gives me the opportunity to bring everyone up to date on what's been happening off the coast of Miami. The vast majority of my fishing has been between the Miami Sea Buoy and just south of the Monument Buoy in depths ranging from 90 - 400 feet. The bait has been live herring and pilchards. Inshore, the action has taken place at Government Cut in the form of tarpon using live shrimp and crabs. With that being said, lets get to the daily reports.
Wednesday (4/4), Steve McVay and his two sons, Daniel (8 years old) and Sean (14 years old) spent a guy's day together fishing. We've been trying to do this trip for a while and finally had everything line up properly. The bait today was pilchards and we started just north of the Monument Buoy with a light north current pushing us back toward Government Cut throughout the day. The wind was ESE/SSE @ 8 - 13 knots. The kite gave us first action in the form of a nice 25 pound wahoo that Steve caught. While working the kite baits back offshore, Daniel got to catch his first dolphin. This was not a schoolie size one. Daniel needed the help of his Dad to assist with holding the rod. It took him a while and he hung in there when the fish sounded several times. It all paid off in the end when I gaffed a beautiful 34 1/2 pound bull dolphin. The downrigger produced the next action in the form of a kingfish that Sean made quick work of. We had another kingfish up to the boat, however, the hook pulled on that one.
Thursday afternoon (4/5), it was Bob Seltzer, his wife Miriam, son, Greg, and daughter-in-law, Brandi. The bait once again was pilchards. The wind was SSE/S @ 7 - 19 knots. We started in the same area as yesterday. The fishing this afternoon was really tough. The full compliment of kite baits, flatline baits, and downrigger bait was out. We worked the kite baits and flatline baits back toward shallower water once we got out to 200 feet. After turning the boat to set up another drift, a flatline bait finally got hit and Greg pulled in a nice size kingfish. The wind was increasing and the seas were building and the fish weren't biting. We made a move up to the Government Cut area and slow trolled baits from 140 feet into 110 feet. One of the flatlines got hit and despite the fact that we had wire on, the fish cut us off anyways. It was time to cut are losses and head back in.
Friday (4/6) I had Tom Winters, his son Justin, and friend Dino out for a full day of fishing. Once again the bait was live pilchards and today we worked the area between the Monument Buoy and Fowey Light. The weather report called for decent wind from the NW. The day started that way and by noon, there was barely a breath of wind. Throughout the day it was NW/N @ 0 - 18 knots. Compared to yesterday afternoon, the fishing was a whole new ball game. In the morning, I could hardly get baits out before the kingfish would attack us. Justin put the first kingfish in the boat on a flatline. Then the downrigger shined and got the remainder of fish throughout the day. We had action on the kite and flatlines, however, those baits were either cut off or knocked off the hook. The long kite bait took off and Tom was hooked up to a sailfish. The fish pulled lots of line off the reel and put on a decent aerial show for us. It posed for a few pictures before being released. In between all the kingfish action, a barracuda cut in on us and added some variety to the action. I lost track of all the king bites, but when the day was over we had 5 in the fishbox along with 1 released sailfish and 1 released barracuda.
Saturday (4/7) was an afternoon/evening trip with the Tom Winters group again. Today, the conditions were changed drastically from the past several days. Live herring was the bait today. There was no current and green ugly water in the depths that we would normally fish for the sailfish and kingfish. The wind direction was all over the compass from WNW/E @ 0 - 7 knots. We saw a free jumping sailfish south of the Cuban Hole in 110 feet. We slow trolled flatlines and downrigger baits and worked our way offshore looking for current and clean blue water. In 220 feet both flatlines got hit and both were cut off. Yes, we had wire on one of the flatlines. We finally found blue water in 300 feet. Birds were chasing schools of small bonito. We saw two free jumping sailfish on slicks along with a school of porpoise. Our persistent slow trolling finally paid of in 340 feet when we had two sailfish attack our flatlines. One knocked the bait off the hook and Justin hooked up the other fish. At first it swam right to the boat and we got the catch. Then the fireworks began. Lots of jumps, greyhounding, and some sounding. Justin prevailed and the fish posed for a few quick pictures before we released it to fight another day. It was time to move inshore and finish off the day with some tarpon fishing. We got our first shot as soon as it got completely dark. Dino had the tarpon on till its 2nd jump before it gave us back our hook. Two drifts later we had a tarpon crush a crab and spit it back out. We made several more drifts before searching the main channel. No action there. Back to the shallow south side and we saw several fish busting baits inshore of us. We moved toward the area and the fish kept moving away from us before finally disappearing completely. Dino got a taste of tarpon fishing this evening and can't wait to get back and try it again.
That sums it up. Its back to fishing again tomorrow and the remainder of the week. I'll report back just as soon as I can.
See you on the edge or at the Inlets.
Captain Dave Kostyo
Knot Nancy Fishing Charters
305 620-5896 Charter
305 965-9454 Cell
www.knotnancy.com
nkostyo@bellsouth.net
