Early May in Miami- Sailfish, blackfin, snapper, snook, and more
Capt. Nick Gonzalez
May 9, 2012
Miami - Saltwater Fishing Report
May 1st-
Today was a full day with a father and son. It was the first day without rain after the 4 days of torrential downpours. Bait was very tough in the chocolate milk water in the cut and off Key Biscayne. The edge was very dirty (often see this after days of hard east wind) and the water was green as far as the eye could see. (attributed to the rainfall more so than the rain) We ended up popping the kites up and just south of Fowey as the water color was a bit better after a difficult morning. The ice breaker was a bonehead... We had a cruising hammerhead eat a thready on the long and bite through the leader after a couple minutes.
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After a while longer we hooked into the meanest sail ever caught aboard the Blue Yonder. It was a small fish, about 35 pounds but it wasn't pleased about consuming a 3 inch pilchard and finding out it had a hook in it. We ended up hooking the fish in 230 and landing him in 450 after a 40 minute fight. He would jump then every couple minutes and ended up exhausting one angler on board and almost whooping the other as well.
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We popped the kites up again and caught 2 more boneheads and a small dolphin. After a while longer another sail lazily cruised up to the left mid and batted around the pilchard without really taking it. We called it a day after a while longer. Pretty slow out there but both anglers caught their targeted first sail and had a good time...
Final Tally- 1/2 sails, 3 bonito, 1 small dolphin, and lost a hammer
May 5th-
Went on a late afternoon trip. It was dead calm and we'd heard that it had been slow out there. We ended up buying bait to save time and popped up 2 kites with helium just off Fowey. There was a heard edge in about 200 off Fowey that curved out to 350 out front. We worked the contour of the edge without a hit and reset. The second drift only produced a small dolphin that tried to chew on the biggest pilchard in the spread.
We brought the kites in and moved to just north of Triumph. The edge was in 130' further south and the conditions looked right. We had a cutoff on the right long and right after we reset, a big sail cruised up and inhaled the right long. Allan fought him for a few minutes and we had a clean release.
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Final Tally- 1/1 on sails in 3 hours
Monday May 7th morning-
Went out on the Grady from homestead to do some jigging. It was a short trip to hopefully tug on an AJ or two and catch a mutton. Our plan worked out pretty well and the first fish was a small mutton on a homemade ballyhoo jig. After a few cutoffs we landed a nice AJ on a homemade vertical jig.
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After a while we eventually landed another decent mutton.
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Final Tally for the morning- 1 Amberjack, 2 Muttons
Monday May 7th Afternoon-
Went out on a late afternoon trip, leaving the dock at 5 and heading to Bug. We didn't have time to chase around the pilchards and instead we anchored on the mark and netted a bunch of cigar minnows in quick order. We also gathered a half dozen big spanish sardines on the sabiki (my favorite bait). We set up on the edge by 6 15. We popped up two kites and began power drifting from 90' to 180'. There was a decent little rip in 180 and some current so i slid one kite to the bow and had one off the stern. We had 6 kite baits on one side and 2 flats, 1 mid, and a bottom rod on the other. The spread looked pretty solid for fishing from a dead boat.
The first fish was a footbal blackfin that choked on the left short kite bait. The next was another football blackfin on a flat lined cigar. After a few more minutes a big sail ate the left long. Matt was on the real because he was the only person on board who had never caught a sail. Midway through the fight, Dean hooked up to a smaller sail on a flat lined cigar on a spinner (now had a double header). Matt did a solid job fighting the fish and got him to the boat after about 20 minutes.
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Dean made pretty quick work of his fish after dancing around the boat. It was dark after his release so we called it a successful evening.
Final Tally- 2/2 sails, 2/2 football blackfin in 2 1/2 hours
Monday May 7th night-
We headed out for a late night snook trip after a long day of fishing. We had already caught sailfish, blackfin, amberjack, and mutton between 2 Double Threat crew members that day and we wanted to verify that no fish is safe.
We gathered a very unique live bait and headed to North Biscayne Bay. There was decent action all night although the tarpon weren't there in numbers. (probably offshore on this moon) The first fish was a 30 inch slot snook which found a home in the box. We jumped about an 80 pound tarpon soon after.
After a while longer we landed about an 8 pound cubera snapper (frequent catch while targeting snook and tarpon).
On the next drift we hooked into a slob tarpon (150 or so) which took us to school after a 5 minute fight. We caught another 30 inch cookie cutter slot snook right after. We had now satisfied our snook quota but did a few more drifts anyway to burn through the remainder of the bait. We hooked into a big snook which ended up being 41 inches...
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We called it a night after that fish.
Final Tally- 3 snook (2 slot and 41 inches), an 8 pound cubera snapper, and 0/2 on tarpon
Visit www.fishmiamicharters.com for more info or to book a charter. Also, please like the Double Threat Charters Facebook page to be kept up to date on the bite
Miami Fishing Forecast:
The bite has been good and should continue to stay solid. There are sails, blackfin, dolphin, sharks, and more on the edge. There are mutton snapper and amberjack on the reefs and wrecks. The inlets have hungry snook and should have plenty of tarpon now that the moon is better. Overall the fishing couldn't be better inshore and offshore and May is an amazing time of year to catch calm water fish. Book a charter inshore or offshore and you'll be satisfied without a doubt.
Target Species:
sailfish, blackfin tuna, dolphin, bonito, mutton snapper, cubera snapper, snook, tarpon, amberjack, and more
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