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Fishing Report for Miami, Florida
Capt. Bouncer Smith
August 24, 2003
Miami - Saltwater Fishing Report
Little Men / Big Fish
The last week has been special for a couple of young anglers. Monday night we fished with the Arostegui family. 11 year old Martini is their primary angler although dad, a.k.a. Marty fishes with his fly rod most of the evening. While we were targeting swordfish, Martini insisted that we have a shark rig ready to go. After hours of watching miniscule marine life visit the HydroGlow light with no action on the baits or fly, our anglers were getting sleepy. 14 year old Danielle spotted a strange creature in the light. It was 2 inches in diameter with 30 inch streamers off both sides. It moved slowly around the back of the boat, but when we tried to net it, it was gone in a quick U turn and a flash of speed. As we tried to unravel that mystery, Danielle spotted a larger target behind the boat. A 5 foot sharp nose shark had joined the party. Marty presented the fly a couple times and the shark would follow, but not bite. A blue runner on Martini’s “shark rod” brought instant action. A short fight and some wild action in the cockpit produced a few photos and a good release for Martini.
A 2:30 quitting time was establish. Time was running out. 2:25 and the long rod, 150 feet off the boat and 150 feet down screamed with a strike. Something had eaten the squid. Martini grabbed the rod and went to work on the fish. 30 pound line streamed from the reel. At about 20 minutes of fighting the fish came to the surface and jumped. This raised our hope that it was a swordfish. 10 minutes latter it came to the boat with the line wrapped around it’s tail. The fight appeared over, but when the line came off the tail, the fish was off to the races. It took another 15 minutes for Martini to bring his fish to the gaff. His mom was thrilled to have fresh swordfish steaks for dinner. His fish was 48.5 inches from the fork of the tail to the tip of the lower jaw. The legal limit is 47 inches. It weighed 59 pounds. It ate a single hook squid and when opened up during cleaning, it was found that the 12/0 hook had penetrated the stomach wall and the hook had cut the liver severely. Another case where a J hook would have killed the fish if the gaff had been replaced by the release pliers.
Thursday night we did a late afternoon reef trip. It produced mutton snappers of 5 and 14 pounds, several bonitos, a barracuda and 1 of 2 tarpon that struck. A couple big bottom fish made us all look bad as they escaped.
Friday night we fished with 11 year old Kyle Carr and his dad. The first strike of the evening was Kyle’s first sailfish. Both fish and angler did a great job, but Kyle proved that he was better. He brought his sailfish to boat side for photos and a good release. This was followed by a long slow spell that took us to a couple locations. We decided to try one more wreck. We hit a bonanza. We had spinner sharks on every rod. They were jumping and running everywhere. One would get away and another would be on in seconds. In between Kyle got 3 bonito from 8 to 15 pounds. His dad got a 100 pound spinner, while Kyle wore out one about 50 pounds and then turned the rod over to his dad to finish it off. After about 8 or 10 shark hook-ups and with the sun falling out of sight, we headed for the inlet. There Kyle got a nice tarpon and his dad got a jump out of one before we headed home.
The best of swordfish season is September and October. We have about 5 openings in September and 20 in October. It is time to make your reservations aboard Bouncer‘s Dusky 33.
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