We are definitely in our summer pattern. That equates to mainly bonito, kingfish, and barracuda on the reef during the day. There will be a few sailfish and blackfin tuna caught but not on every trip. When there is north current, then anchoring on a wreck and bottom fishing will result in some mutton snapper. For those who want to fish in cooler temperatures, then you'll have to fish after dark. Well offshore it will be swordfish. In on the reef you'll find yellowtail snapper and mangrove snapper. Dolphin have become very scarce in our area. There are scattered grass areas as well as large patched offshore, however, the dolphin are hard to find. The few that have been around have been good sized ranging from 10 - 30 pounds just not very many at all.
Saturday (7/1) it was Cameron Sisser and his friends Matt, Malcolm, and Adam. We had ENE/NE wind @ 5 - 16 knots along with north current. Catching herring at the range marker was relatively easy. We fished the area from the Cuban Hole north to just south of Haulover Inlet. The fishing started off fairly quickly with a bonito on the downrigger and went downhill from there. It's not that we didn't get our shots, it was just that I must have opened the box of rubber hooks. The opportunities were spread out throughout the day. We had 3 cutoffs by toothy (kingfish or barracuda??) critters, a downrigger bait that a toothy critter couldn't even chop in half, and a barracuda that sky rocketed the long kite bait and didn't hook up. The downrigger then produced a triggerfish that made a mistake and hooked itself before it ate the bait off the hooks. After the three cutoffs on the flatline baits, I put a wire leader on and then we got the sailfish strike. The fish made two jumps before the wire that was wrapped around its bill came loose. And that's how the day ended. Anglers 2 and fish 6.
Monday (7/3) Fred and Eileen Clark treated their granddaughter Tiffany Louchez and her husband Clyde to a day of fishing. Once again, the herring were very cooperative at the range marker. The wind was ENE/SE @ 7 - 11 knots and we had no current. We started in 200 feet and the first two drifts produced a kingfish that was caught by Clyde and a bonito by Tiffany on the downrigger as well as a flatline cutoff by a toothy critter. The next several drifts were uneventful. We moved out to 300 feet when Henry and Maria on Two Extremes called us and told us about two nice size dolphin that they had caught. The moved paid off for us, but not in the form of dolphin. The downrigger drew first action and Tiffany was up for the challenge. While she was fighting her unknown fish, the bow flatline hooked up and Clyde was on that fish. Tiffany's fish made a smoking first run and then rose to the surface. Next, it went back down deep and started to move inshore. It was give and take for the first several minutes before Tiffany started to gain the upper hand. Meanwhile, up at the bow, Fred took over fighting the fish as Clyde wasn't feeling to well. Fred made quick work of a 10# barracuda while Tiffany continued to gain line on her fish. All this time, Eileen had the video camera working capturing all the action. Slowly but surely, Tiffany worked the fish closer to the boat and soon we had color and saw that it was a kingfish of about 25 pounds. It ran back and forth across the motors several times and each time Tiffany was right on top of the fish. She won in the end as I gaffed the fish and added it to the fish box. Clyde's stomach wasn't improving any so we called it a morning and headed to Spinnaker Marina and solid ground.
Thursday and Friday evenings, we tried to get a tarpon trip in, however, Mother Nature just wouldn't let it happen. The late afternoon storms put a damper on the trips and we are going to try again on Monday evening.
Saturday (7/8) Byron Chigoy and his wife Nichole from Austin, Texas were visiting his dad, Tom. His Dad was treating his son to a saltwater fishing trip for his birthday. We bought pilchards and caught herring and had a live well full of bait. With the wind from the NE/E @ 7 - 9 knots, we had calm seas. We started in 190' off of 96th Street. We got action on the flat line and Byron caught a bonito. Two drifts later, we started a bit deep at 215' and while I was putting out the downrigger it got hit and this time Tom caught a bonito. While I was removing the hook from the bonito, a small barracuda ate a pilchard and Nichole caught and released that fish. With no further action, we moved south to the Twin Towers and started in 190'. We had no action by the time we drifted in to 120', so I moved out to 300' for a change of scenery. It turned out to be the right move as the rear flatline got hit and in almost a blink of an eye, 3/4's of the line had been dumped off of the 20# spinning outfit. Everyone was frantically reeling in lines as we gave chase. Byron was up on the bow and we were at a stand off with the fish. He did a great job of fighting the fish and soon we were quickly gaining line. We then came to another stand off and this time Byron inched the fish in a couple of inches with each pump of the rod. The fish made it's final move toward the bow and came to the surface where we saw it was a decent size wahoo. We were fishing with a straight mono leader and short shank (Eagle Claw L194 6/0) live bait hook. The fish was hooked perfectly in the corner of the jaw and after gaffing the fish and putting it in the fishbox, we saw only one slight nick from the wahoo's teeth on the leader. Back at Spinnaker Marina, the fish weighed 22 1/2 pounds and some of the steaks are being eaten this evening.
Captain Dave Kostyo
