EXCELLENT sailfishing is the only way to describe it. On some days it's been off the wall. We've had a strong north current with blue water. The sails are being caught all along the South Florida coast mainly in the 90 - 110 foot range. The typical weather patter over the last few days has been light wind in the morning and south wind of 15 to 20 knots in the afternoon. That's when the sails start chomping. Put up the kite and a few flatlines and it won't take long for the action to start.
Mix in with the sails have been a few dolphin, a kingfish every now and then, and some bonito, but mostly sailfish.
Inshore, the best bet for tarpon have been in the Bay after dark with the right tide. This means the tarpon fanatic will have some very late sleepy night if they pursue the fish around the clock to get the right tides. Outside at the Inlets, the tarpon fishing has been spotty at best. I expect this to change as we get into March.
Tim Gipe and Jason Grey participated in the South Florida Fishing Club annual tarpon outing. Everyone started at Haulover and the fishing was slow. We ran to Government Cut only to miss a short bite by about 5 minutes. The next stop was into the Bay. The first fish we had on made a jump away from us and back toward us and immediately gave us back our hook. Finally at 5 minutes before lines out at 9:00 PM, Tim hooked up solid and Jason did the honors of releasing the fish as I called it in to the committee boat. Congratulations Tim and Jason on winning the 2008 SFFC tarpon tournament.
Cary Breese and Mark Grayer had their shot at two Bay tarpon. The battles were very short as the fish had other things on their minds and didn't keep the hooks in their jaws for very long.
Tom Schaefer and his friends J. R. and Tony caught a couple spanish mackerel and a ladyfish before we went to the Bay to find the tarpon. It didn't take long and the action was fast and furious. When the fireworks cleared, we had 4 shots and the fish won all four times.
Jon Gardner, Eric Schubert, David Hartman, and Mark Guthrie fished an afternoon/evening trip for sails and tarpon. The seas were up and several of the group were feeling the effects of the rolling and pitching ocean. The sailfish were doing their part by eating our herring offerings on the kite. Jon and Mark each got to experience the thrill of fighting a high flying fast moving sailfish. During the evening portion of the trip, the tarpon played hard to get at Government Cut.
Brothers Walter and Mark Wilkowski and Mark's son, Steve faced even rougher sea conditions. The goal was for Steve to catch his first sailfish. It didn't take long for Mark to feel the ill effects of the heavy seas. He kept hanging in through several bouts of motion sickness waiting for the sailfish to come along. The first fish on the kite bait was a bonito. The second fish was the one we were looking for and Steve caught and released his first sailfish. At that point, Mark had all he could stand and we called the trip at a half day.
Miguel Arends and his friend Zoilo Hernandez wanted to catch their first sailfish. The radio was alive with reports of sail action in the 90 - 110 foot range. Our efforts in that range had us watching our baits and waiting. Our first action resulted in a broken main line. I ran back south and set up again. We saw a sail chasing our live chum inside of our location. We quickly moved in shallower to that area and put out some more live chum. It took less than a minute and the flatline came alive with Miguel's first sailfish. After several pictures and some video, we released the sail and started working the kite bait into the right depth range. At 140', the long kite bait was eaten and Zoilo saw his first action. Everything was going fine until the fish made it's 7th jump about 200 yards from the boat and gave us back out hook. Just before it was time to go in, we had a double come up on the kite baits. One ate the short kite and Miguel caught and released his second sail of the half day trip. Final results we 1 for 2 on flatlines and 1 for 2 on the kite.
Paul Smith, Joel Rodriguez, and Dave Miemi fished an afternoon/evening trip. The current was roaring to the north at 3.5 MPH. We had no action with the kite and flatline while the wind was blowing. When it died to the point of the kite falling from the sky, I set up to slow troll several baits. The first bait went out and before I could pin the line to the release, we had the sail on. Dave caught his first sail that put on a great show for us. Tarpon fishing at Haulover finally paid off and Paul fought a 100 pound fish that was a very stubborn one. It finally came up and made several jumps to show us its size before digging down deep again. Paul was up to the task and when we had several boat side picture, I released the fish to fight again another day.
John and Kree Perkins, John's wife Rachael and their friend Christian had dolphin in their thoughts. We ran out and looked around and found scattered weed and some lines trying to form. The birds were searching just like us. Without success, the decision was made to fish the morning off on the reef. There was basically no wind and just a trickle of current so we worked our baits out to deeper water by slow trolling. In 175 feet, Christian saw a dolphin swim by the boat. It ignored one of our baits and went for the other. It also got caught up in the downrigger bait and shortly thereafter it made it into the fish box.
Mark and Heather Ulmer had never caught a sailfish before. That was their goal. Bait fishing was a snap and the wind had picked up plenty from the morning as did the current. Our first action came just north of the Sea Buoy in 125 feet. Mark hooked his sail on the long kite bait. Very shortly thereafter, the flatline took off and Heather was on her first sail. Heather's fish was landed and released first and then Mark's. We continued drifting north and had the baits get nervous a few times. Then as if a repeat of the first action, the same thing happened again. Mark on the long kite bait and Heather on the flatline. This time Mark's fish was the more cooperative one and after releasing his, we went to work on Heather's fish. For never having caught anything larger than a garfish, Heather did a fantastic job of fighting the fish. It finally gave in to her constant pressure and it too was released. We tried Haulover again for a tarpon and they once again played hard to find. We did catch and release two bluefish.
Captain Dave Kostyo
Knot Nancy Fishing Charters
305 620-5896 Charter
305 965-9454 Cell
www.knotnancy.com
nkostyo@bellsouth.net