Sailfish, kingfish, a few dolphin, bonito, and plenty of tarpon have given us steady action. The weather has run the gamut from no wind to as high as 19 knots. North current and blue water accounts for the good offshore action. The windy conditions stirred the water just enough so that the tarpon dropped their guard a little and are feeding pretty good both during the daylight hours and after dark.
Lindsay Glazer and her friends Matt Rosen and Fernando Amuchastegy picked one of the more windy days. It didn't take long before the motion of the ocean got to Fernando and we had to run back in and drop him off on some solid ground. After getting back out, slow trolling produced a dolphin and then we put the kites out. Toward the end of the morning we got the visit from the sailfish we were looking for and Matt caught and released his first sailfish.
Eileen and Fred Clark had great sea conditions and lousy current. We had none. Running offshore for dolphin had us coming heading back to the reef in short order as we found nor saw hardly anything to fish to. Even the birds we saw were heading back toward shore. Slow trolling with the downrigger around several different wrecks off the Twins produced a kingfish that by now has become Fred's famous smoked kingfish dip.
Nick and Charlotte Hansen from Denmark along with their son Jonas experienced afternoon sailfishing. We found good north current and blue water in the Anchorage area north of the Miami Sea Buoy. The first action was a kingfish on the downrigger. Next it was a sailfish on the flatline. This was Nick's first sail and he did an outstanding job of fighting the fish. Charlotte was busy with the camera and they got lots of excellent pictures of the action. We had a second sail once again on a flatline shortly thereafter. That sail decided it didn't want to play for very long and gave us back our hook on it's first jump after running about 100 yards of line off the spinning outfit.
The Westcott family (Vern, Chris and son, Travis) experienced the kind of day that folks from the mid-west dream of. It started off with steady bonito action with a kingfish thrown in. Then Travis caught and released his first sailfish. Back to more bonito and kingfish action followed by a double header sailfish. Travis fought one and Vern caught his first sailfish. Chris was on the camera and also caught bonito and kingfish. During the morning, the blue edge was in 100 feet and all our action took place from the Monument Buoy north to the north end of the hotels. In the afternoon, the edge pushed out to 160'. Our last drift of the day had us chumming with a steady stream of live pilchards. We wanted another sail, however, the bonito found us first. All three anglers were hooked up and when Vern had his fish close to the boat, a large barracuda decided it was an easy meal and ate half the fish in one bite.
Rob Leva, Joe Tetrault, John Lazar, and Dan Coes were in Miami for a business convention. None of the group have ever caught a tarpon and they planned an evening to try and change that. When we arrived at Government Cut, the tarpon were rolling everywhere. Just the site of these great fish had everyone very excited. For a while, the bluerunners decided they liked our shrimp better and we kept catching one or two on each drift. The first tarpon action we had lasted about 10 seconds when the fish immediately jumped straight up into the air about 8 feet and promptly gave us back our hook. The second tarpon stayed on for just a while longer before jumping and doing the same thing. The sun set and dusk came on and the third tarpon was the charm. Rob caught and released his first tarpon. The next drift after that had us hooked up again and this time the fish took us to the rough water of the main channel. Everyone took turns fighting this one and it took a while before the fish finally gave in and was released. We started back to TNT Marine Center and as I was passing through one of my Bay spots, I saw two tarpon. This was too much for the group and they decided to give it another shot. It turned out to be a very wise move. I put out the first bait and before I could get the second bait ready, we had a tarpon on. This one had the angler moving back and forth across the stern and up the side and back down the side of Knot Nancy. We got lots of pictures and released the fish. I put out the now rigged second rod and was tying a hook back on the first rod and we had another tarpon on. This tarpon jumped wildly numerous time before it came to the side of the boat and was released. Finally we got both baits out and waited about 5 minutes. We saw a fish flash on the bait first and then 10 seconds later it came back and ate. The third tarpon was another wild one that had us all laughing when it soaked several of us as we brought the fish along side of the boat. It got its picture taken before we released it and called it an evening. Final count was 5 for 7.
The action is still fast and furious, so don't miss out on it by putting off scheduling your fishing trip. Give me a call 305 965-9454 or send me an email nkostyo@bellsouth.net to book your trip and get in on the fun and excitement.
Captain Dave Kostyo
Knot Nancy Fishing Charters, Inc.
305 620-5896 Charter
305 965-9454 Cell
www.knotnancy.com
nkostyo@bellsouth.net
