It's summertime and that means fish early or late and watch for the afternoon thunderstorms. It's also the time of year when the downrigger and bottom rod will out produce the flatlines on most trips. The majority of action will be for kingfish, bonito, and AJ's with a few sailfish, mutton snapper, and blackfin tuna. Offshore, the dolphin have made a return after mostly being absent for several days after the full moon. Inshore the tarpon have gone into their summertime mode. The means fishing dead bait on the bottom, slow trolling pilchards in various canals, or fishing the bridges after dark. The action isn't always as reliable as during the January - June time frame, however, when the silver king is flying high on the end of your line and pulling like the dickens, it'll make all the effort well worth it.
Neil Schlesinger treated his friend James Ponsford from Paradise, Australia to a half day of fishing. The wind kicked up so calm seas were not in order. Our first drift had us putting two kingfish in the fish box. One on the downrigger and the other on the bottom rod. The flatline gave us a remora that was released. The second drift added another kingfish from the downrigger and a dolphin and bonito from the flatlines. By this time, the motion of the ocean had one of the anglers feeling very bad, so the decision was made to call it a morning and get him back to more stable ground.
Barry Rosenberg and his son Eric wanted some fishing action during the late afternoon. Enter the bonito. Starting south of the Cuban Hole, it didn't take long for the bottom rod to bend into action. Eric had his hands full as the bonito didn't want any part of being reeled in. Meanwhile, his Dad was hooked up with his bonito that ate a downrigger bait. Both fish finally gave in to the pressure that the father and son team put on them. Before it got dark, we had action with more bonito and a chopped in half bait by a toothy critter.
Steven Grover and his 7 year old son, Josh along with Seth Lehrman and his 7 year old son, Josh wanted to catch some dolphin. We started much later than normal, however, it didn't make any difference in the long run. Our first order of business was to catch some live herring to add to the live pilchards. Both boys got to get in on the fun of bait fishing outside of Haulover and we quickly had all the bait we needed. While running out looking for signs of fish, I spotted a floater that held no bait and no fish. Continuing our run out, we came up to a very good weedline. As we slow trolled our baits down the line, we saw a school of dolphin holding under another floater mixed in with the grass. The fun started and the fish were hungry. Along with help from their Dad's, each boy caught dolphin till they asked to fish for something else. When we had all the fish we wanted, the school was still with us and continued to swim around our boat while we cleaned up and drank lots of water and sports drinks. We ran back in to 170 feet and put out the downrigger outfit and the bottom rod. Within a minute of setting the bottom rod, it got hit and we caught a very large bonito that had both Steven and Seth sharing the rod. The weather started to build up and we decided to call it a half day and run back to TNT Marine Center where everyone got to see lots of jacks and tarpon eating the scraps as I cleaned the dolphin.
Today's trip was a dolphin hunt with Tito Quinto, his 11 year old daughter, Lauren, and his sister Bessy. We headed offshore with a livewell full of pilchards and herring. At 8.5 miles out from Haulover, we found several frigate birds and some terns working a heavy weed area. Slow trolling didn't take very long to locate some dolphin and Lauren caught her first two dolphin. Tito caught another one and then the motion of the ocean had two of the anglers feeling real bad. They hung in there for just a little while and then it was decided to run back in to find calmer water inside the Bay back in the canals leading to TNT Marine Center. We slow trolled a couple of pilchards in the canals and were rewarded with a visit from a tarpon that ate and hooked up solid. Tito did a great job of fighting and bringing the fish along side for a few photos taken by Lauren. Some of the home owners along the canal got to see the show the tarpon put on as it make more than a few jumps both away from and close to the boat.
Jason Smith along with Dani Prinzing, Eric Didio, and Francis Mace got into to some very good summertime fishing. Fishing from the Twin Towers north to 87th Street in 190 - 210 feet gave us all the action. The blue water and strong north current gave us ideal conditions. The bottom rod was the hot rod on this day except for the first kingfish and a sailfish. Add four (4) more kingfish and a 40# amberjack and everyone got in on the action. It was Dani's turn when the AJ hit and she did an outstanding job of handling the fish and showing it who's boss.
Federico Restrepo and his group spent a full day sampling the summertime action both on the reef and offshore for dolphin. The conditions on this day for kingfish, bonito, and AJ's were far from good. Green water and no current had us barely moving. Despite these less than ideal conditions, we caught a kingfish and bonito on the bottom rod fished just off the bottom in 213 feet. Dropping on several wrecks produced no further action so offshore we went in search of dolphin. The weedlines and large patches that we found were nothing less than fantastic. They started in 800 feet and we went no further than 950 feet and found line after line after line. There were lots of bait fish under most of the weed and it didn't take long before there were dolphin all around the boat. Most of the fish were less than legal size, however, that didn't matter as we were doing catch and release on this trip. Everyone got in on the action using both live bait and jigs. There were times when the fish got very finicky about feeding. All it took was to move out to the next line and find another school of fish that were more cooperative. Lots of pictures were taken to capture all the memories of the action and by day's end, the sun and action had everyone very tired.
There's action to be had, all it takes is for you to make a phone call to 305 965-9454 or email nkostyo@bellsouth.net and schedule your trip. The days are available, so contact me and let's go catch some fish and make some memories.
Captain Dave Kostyo
Knot Nancy Fishing Charters, Inc.
305 620-5896 Charter
305 965-9454 Cell
www.knotnancy.com
nkostyo@bellsouth.net
