Good August Fishing
Capt. Bouncer Smith
August 18, 2008
Miami - Saltwater Fishing Report
Well I am sitting here listening to the first bands of Tropical storm Fay blow against the windows. I hope she is as big a false alarm as she has appeared so far.
We have had a pretty busy few weeks since last I reported in. We are fishing about 4 days a week, which is good for August.
Clemens Peshel brought some buddies out fishing on July 30th. He caught a sailfish to start the day. We added a bonito and a couple mutton snapper through the morning. In the afternoon we moved about 8 miles offshore and caught 20 dolphin.
On the first we did some evening snapper fishing with Cal Leavy. As is usually true of gray snappers, the fish box was empty at 10:30 PM and we had 15 snapper in the box by 11:30.
On the 2nd we fished with Ron, Scott and Todd. The water was dirty, but the current was running pretty good to the north. Fishing was flat lines and a bottom rod all baited with herring. We caught 5 kings, 2 dolphin, 3 mutton snapper to 12 pounds and a bonito. We stopped to try the snook on the way in and caught 3 snook in 1 hour. The best snook was a 24 pound beauty.
The guys fished again on Sunday. The wind was up a little in the morning. We caught 2 of 5 sailfish, another 12 pound mutton snapper, a nice cobia, 8 kings, 5 bonito and 2 barracudas. A very nice weekend of summer fishing.
Tuesday we fished with Billy Springer from Dusky Sport Center, his dad and a good family friend. They caught three amberjacks from 5 to 30 pounds, a bonito and a small cuda on the reef. We moved offshore and caught 20 dolphin from 3 schools.
Clemens was out again Wednesday the 6th. We hunted offshore for dolphin with no luck. We tried daytime swordfish with no luck. Then we stopped on the way in on the reef and in 45 minutes caught a sailfish, a king and a good sized almaco jack.
The 7th we did some evening snook fishing with the Lawson family. First we had to fight to get the women to stop having fun just catching the herring for bait. Then everybody caught plenty of snook. We started out catching snook in the 5 to 7 pound range. Then as the sun set we found the honey hole of big snook. By evenings end 7 year old Will had caught snook to 20 pounds. 13 year old Katherine caught a possible Junior Ladies world record 34 pound snook on 20 pound line. Barnes and Angela even got to catch a couple.
On the 8th we fished with Dan Erb and Eric. We caught 20 pound oil fish during the daytime swordfish effort. The evening swordfishing was good with 3 tagged releases. Two came 300 feet down on squid and one ate a live goggle eye at 200 feet.
Then as can happen we went Saturday and Sunday nights with 1 swordfish bite which came off after 5 minutes, a dolphin, a skipjack tuna and a midnight barracuda.
Thursday the 14th the fishing conditions were terrible. We had dirty green water, no current and a southwest wind. Surprise, action was very good. Phil and the gang caught a 50 pound sharp nose shark, a hammerhead shark, 4 big amberjacks, a scamp grouper, 2 kitty mitchell groupers, 4 mutton snappers, 4 other snappers, 3 king mackerel and a bonito.
Then as we are starting to worry about, Friday we find good fishing conditions. The fishing was terrible. Peter and friends worked hard to catch a mutton snapper, a amberjack and a hammerhead shark. We did get a jump out of a sailfish.
That night we took Hunter Ledbetter out for swordfish. Things were better as we caught the first pomfret of my 43 year career during a daytime swordfish drop. Then Hunter caught and tagged a swordfish in the evening.
Pat and Kyle Carr had no luck with the swordfish on Saturday, but they caught 10 dolphin in the 9 pound range on the way offshore.
Finally Sunday we had good fishing conditions and good fishing at the same time. We had a good 2 knot north current and a 15 knot NE wind as the day began. Fishing started slow, and I was sweating another great condition day with slow action. Then around 11 AM the fish decided to give us a break. 12 year old Mikey Herrera caught his first sail. After that he was like grease lightning, racing to every rod that got bit. He and the adults caught 4 nice kings, a cero mackerel, 6 bonito and 2 barracudas. As the afternoon wound down action slowed. I dug into my bag of tricks and ended up borrowing one from Mark Sosin. Mark say that pineapple is as lucky as bananas are unlucky. I pulled out my bag of pineapple bits and insisted that everyone eat a piece. As the pineapple chunks crossed everyone's lips two lines went off. One was a sailfish for Ron Garry and the other was a 25 pound blackfin tuna for Guy. Pineapple stocks are up 75% this morning.
Well the wind is now blowing about 30 knots, the rain has backed off and Dusky Sport Center has cancelled tomorrows swordfish seminar. We hope to reschedule the swordfish seminar for September 23rd.
We have a fair amount of open dates, so drop me a e-mail at [email protected] and we will plan a good day for you.
Miami Fishing Forecast:
August is running out and September looms ahead we are entering the height of snook and swordfish season. We have been down on our luck with the daytime swordfish since we caught that 546 in June. Everybody else has been catching swordfish from 200 to 400 pound during the day, but not much at night. We have had better luck at night, but the fish are only 50 pounds. The next two months should be great for swordfish. Snook season opens September first and they are thick. Treat the snook with the dignity they deserve. I can remember when they were so scarce we quit fishing for them.
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