November thus far is shaping up into being a very good fishing month. Spanish Mackerel have shown up in the near shore waters. Offshore, we're finding sailfish, kingfish, and dolphin in the 110 - 300 foot range. The winds have been coming from every direction and on most days have been on the light side. Blue water has been on the deep side for the past several days. Finding decent current has required lots of hunting and searching. With all that being said, here's the run down on my past several trips.
Friday (11/10), the Elias family (Paul, Rebecca, and their sons Mariano and Emilio) from Toronto, Canada fished for a half day. The boys had a blast catching bait at Government Cut and off we went in search of larger fish. We tried the blue water that was out in 250' and got no action. Next we came in shallower and fish the green water. With a very light north current, we knew it might take a while to see some action. We got cut off by a toothy critter. I was just about to send a bait down to the bottom when both flatlines got hit and we were hooked up solid to two large dolphin. Paul and Rebecca fought the fish while I cleared as many lines as I could while helping them follow their fish around the boat. We had Paul's fish just out of gaff range when it dove under the boat. I hadn't had a chance to clear the downrigger and you can guess what happened next. The wire leader found the downrigger cable and parted. That left Rebecca still hooked up. She had to make 3 trips around the boat before the 18 1/2 pound dolphin came to the gaff. This was the biggest fish that Rebecca had ever caught and the pictures told the whole story.
Saturday (11/11), Joel and Melanie Townley from Columbia, SC came down a day early to go fishing before attending the Miami Dolphins football game on Sunday. We caught pilchards in the bay and herring at Government and ran south to start in 200' just south of Fowey Light. We had a light north current and wind from the ENE/ESE @ less than 8 knots. There was even a 2 hour time frame when there was no wind at all. Keeping the baits out away from the boat was a chore as they kept wanting to swim back to the boat no matter which way we faced or which end or side of the boat we threw them out from. Our persistence in recasting the baits paid off when we got in to 178' with a sailfish. This was Joel's first sail and it put on a very good show for him. We got the pictures we needed and watched the fish swim briskly away. Next, Joel wanted to catch a dolphin. As we were approaching the Monument Buoy area, we got chopped off by toothy critters. When we put out the wire leaders, we couldn't buy a bite. We fished the blue water out in 350' next and struck out there. We moved in to a blue/green edge in 220' and slow trolled a herring and pilchard. The herring got us the dolphin we wanted. After another 1/2 hour of working that edge with no further action, we moved in to shallower water and put a herring down with the downrigger. We were rewarded with 2 kingfish while slow trolling the 110 - 130 foot range. That's how our day ended despite moving further to the north and working the blue water on last time.
Sunday (11/12) Eileen Clark and Faye Naylor came over from Ft Myers to fish a previously cancelled trip. The wait turned out to be well worth it. With our livewell loaded with pilchards, herring, and goggle eyes, we started just north of the Cuban Hole in 100'. The WNW wind was pushing us offshore at a very slow pace. The baits were behaving like they had for the past two days by swimming back to the boat. At 230' we untangled the two flatlines and were putting the baits back out. The bow flatline took off and when I looked over the side, there were 4 large dolphin. Faye fought the first fish while I rebaited Eileen's line and she hooked up. I hooked up another fish and it threw the hook after a few minutes. By now I had Eileen's fish in the box and the others were still hanging around the boat. We hooked up another dolphin and then put Faye's fish in the box. By the time all the action had settled, we had 4 dolphin (11, 14, 16, and 18 1/2 pounds ) in the box. During the entire time, the goggle eye on the kite remained untouched. We worked our way offshore to the blue water and spent some time in 400' with no results. Faye held on to the kite and balloon when I ran back in to 110' north of the sea buoy. We had a good south current in that area. Our next action came on a flatline and we pulled the hook on that fish. I was chunking with dead herring and the bow flatline hooked up as well as the downrigger line. Once again we pulled the hook on the flatline fish and caught a bomber size bonito on the downrigger line. While Eileen was putting out her line, it got hit and proceeded to dump half the 12 pound line off the reel before we gave chase. We were gaining line and making good progress when the line went slack. This time, the wire leader broke. We set all the baits back out in 170' and the downrigger got hit again. This time, Eileen got the kingfish to the boat and we added it to the fishbox. We had a great day of fishing with the 4 dolphin, 1 kingfish, 1 bonito, and 3 mystery fish.
As you can see, we worked hard to find fish. The reward of the smiles on my clients faces was well worth all the effort. We are getting closer to the winter season and I'm beginning to book many trips in the January - May, 2007 time frame. Tarpon season is just around the corner and I already have well over 20 trips booked. The sailfish have already shown up and will only get better as the water temperatures cool down some more and we get more frequent fronts coming through. We are due for a major kingfish run anytime now. Dolphin are still migrating south and most of them are very decent size fish. With all this being said, now is the time to book your dates so you won't miss out on any of the action.
See you on the edge.
Captain Dave Kostyo Knot Nancy Fishing Charters 305 620-5896 Charter 305 965-9454 Cell www.knotnancy.com nkostyo@bellsouth.net