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Fishing Report for Miami, Florida
Capt. Bouncer Smith
February 11, 2003
Miami - Saltwater Fishing Report
Fishing is warming up on Bouncer’s Dusky 33. Tarpon are solid and hungry in
Government Cut. They are eating shrimp day and night. Our last trip for them
produced 3 jumped and 1 released in only 1 hour of fishing.
We had good sailfish action yesterday even though the water was green. The fish
were in 120 to 140 feet of water south of Miami. We got 4 out of the 8 that rose to
our live herring. A couple never ate the bait and a couple stole the bait, but the other
4 made for a nice day. 2 false albacore and a king mackerel offered a little spice.
Kings hit pretty good at times, but we missed most.
We have heard numerous reports of nice grouper on the wrecks, but when the
anglers request sailfish or tarpon, the bottom dwellers are safe from us. They will
get their turn.
A couple weeks ago we reported catching, tagging and releasing a 300 pound
swordfish on 50 pound tackle. Herb Ratner was the angler and we were thrilled as
this was the biggest any of us had ever caught. W now know we were wrong about
the weight. Herb fished with us again last night. He is trying to catch a swordfish on
fly. Last night he even had a good strike on a Todd Richter fly. But Herb is going to
have to focus more on the fly rod if he is going to succeed at catching a fish on fly.
He spent his first trip fighting that big fish on 50 and last night he spent most of the
trip fighting another big fish. Last night he caught a 141 inch, 300 pound swordfish
on 80 pound tackle. The good news was that we now know that his fish on 50 was
probably well over 400 pounds. That fish was many times bigger than last night’s
300 pounder. The bad news is that the 300 pounder had to die for us to know what
it weighed. This fish was hooked 120 feet below the surface on a live tinker
mackerel bridled to an 11/0 hook. We were using a green Electralume light 20 feet
above the bait on the 200 pound leader. We had the green Hydro Glow light in the
water to draw the tinker mackerel and giant sardines that were all around the boat.
The Hydro Glow light also draws the swordfish that we are looking for. The fish
ate the bait, raced to the surface and came to the boat in about 3 minutes. Herb said
“ this must be a small one”, and away it went. The run lasted 15 to 20 minutes with
me in hot pursuit as the fish ran off 700 yards of 80 pound test Tuf Line that was
packed on our Penn 30 wide International. 1 hour after the hookup, the sad news
was confirmed. This wonderful creature was hooked about 18 inches in front of the
tail and came to the boat very dead. We had only one tool waiting to use on this fish
at boatside, and that was our tag stick. The good part was, that this fish showed us
that the one 2 weeks ago was without a doubt over 400 pounds. The sad part is, this
fish will never thrill an angler again. Nothing can compare to watching a great game
fish swim away after a valiant fight.
Summer Swordfish trips are filling quickly, so make those reservations soon.
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