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Fishing Report for Miami, Florida
Capt. Bouncer Smith
June 22, 2006
Miami - Saltwater Fishing Report
Hot Bimini Fishing
What a month of fishing. If you haven't noticed, it has been a months since we have posted a fishing report. We have been all around the Bahamas and even caught some sailfish off Fort Lauderdale one day.
We started in Andros. This trip was quite a let down as we ran 180 miles and found the fishing slow. Fuel was $5.50 a gallon and the few fish around were found 25 miles from the inlet and then we had to troll to catch them. The one high point was having our new Lowrance Radar. It put us on the birds every time. A little blue smudge about 2 miles away would soon become a flock of birds over dolphin, skip jack tuna or once in a while it would be yellowfin tuna.
Over a week of fishing we caught 7 yellowfin tuna of less than 30 pounds each. We had some nice dolphin fish on several days. The best dolphin was a 35 pound bull.
Bottom fishing was pretty good. We caught yellow eye snapper, black snapper and button snapper at a good pace in 300 to 500 feet of water. We caught several red grouper up to 13 pounds one day. We tried the yellow tail snappers one day. They were very hungry and nice sized right in front of the inlet. At least the run over and back were calm.
After Andros, it was off to Bimini. We fished with Ron and Jina Crowder, Allan Engel and John Neilsen for several days. We caught a lot of nice gray snapper, a few big yellowtail snapper and a couple big amberjacks the first day.
The second day, the yellow tails were so thick we ran out of space and ice in a couple hours. These fish were 3 to 4.5 pounds. We released a big amberjack and added a nice grouper for spice. We tried for tuna for a couple hours, but all we got was barracudas.
We finished the day right off the island catching a pretty african pompano and a couple more 3 pound yellow tails.
Saturday was unbelievable. In just about two hours we caught 13 and 19 pound horse eye jacks, 17 and 20 pound black groupers, a 49 pound amberjack, 25 big yellowtails, 5 and 13 pound cero mackerel and a 32 pound cubera snapper. It was such a rush that everyone was drained by noon.
Our crew won several top catch awards plus "Top Bottom Fishing Team" award.
The next day I fished the " Dusky Owners Dolphin Tournament" with Steve Steiner. We were a little off target as we caught 3 of 4 sailfish in 700 feet of water by 10:30 and called it a day.
Monday it was back to Bimini with John Mahoney and Rick, Matt and Daniel Aizpuru. We got to Bimini around noon and by days end we had caught 4 bonefish and 5 mutton snapper from 8 to 12 pounds.
Day two we caught loads of yellowtails, jacks, cudas and a couple sharks, including a 120 pound beauty by Matt. We even got a handsome pompanette in one spot.
Wednesday was red hot fishing. We caught a bunch of big yellowtail snapper, big blue runners and cero mackerel in the morning. We caught a few gray snapper, a load of cero mackerel, a bunch of barracuda and several sharks around mid day. We ended the day with non-stop action on a small wreck. We caught a bunch of barracudas and blue runners. We caught several sharks and finished the day with 4 cobia. Matt was thrilled with his first ever cobia, and the biggest.
Thursday was Mahoney Day. As everyone caught plenty of cero mackerel and a few big yellowtail snapper, John caught a 30 pound king mackerel and a 40 pound black grouper. We were all thrilled with his catch.
Saturday we were off to Bimini again. This trip was with the Lapnow boys. Jeff and his sons, Cody and Taylor started out with a bunch of barracuda. Then it was gray snapper and cero mackerel on a wreck. Our final stop of the day was on the reef. It was solid action at a blistering pace. We caught yellowtails, cero mackerel and big blue runners on every cast whether casting jigs flies or bait.
`Sunday started off raining and then the wind blew. Not to be discouraged, we ran to a ledge where the fishing was red hot. We had yellowtails, cero and king mackerel, horse eye jacks and barracuda at a terrific rate.
From there we ran to the reef where Taylor stole the show with a 40 pound king mackerel. Cody made a name for himself when he fought a 3 pound yellowtail snapper for 40 minutes. I followed that fish with the boat for half a mile as he struggled with this super fish. The fish spit the hook at boat side, as we all shook our heads about this battle. We had marked a lot of fish in 115 feet of water while following the big snapper, so we moved to fishing this deeper water.
We soon caught a small grouper. Then Cody caught a 60 pound amberjack. Soon after, Taylor hooked a big amberjack. This jack fought to long and hard. He was destroyed by a shark before reaching boat side. We baited the big rod with a cable leader, big hooks and a chunk of the destroyed amberjack. Jeff was going to avenge Taylor's loss. Soon Jeff was hooked up. He turned red in the face. He made strange noises and struggled. And then he brought his 40 or 50 pound shark to the surface.
We rebaited the hooks and Cody redeemed the family name when he caught a shark around 150 pounds.
With the sharks rubbing their sore mouths, the amberjacks were free to roam. And mass pandemonium occurred. Every bait you dropped in the water was devoured by hungry fish from 40 to 60 pounds. It was triple header action till all arms failed.
As if life was not good enough, While pulling the anchor, we spotted a commotion on the surface. On further investigation, we came upon a school of thousands of gray snapper spawning. This process involves the fish swimming in rapid circles as rising to the surface. Diving down and spiraling up again. Then you add big amberjacks crashing into the show and you have a sight to remember forever.
Taylor made a huge mistake on the way home that day. He said the action was too good. The fish were too big. The fish gods took him at his word. The next day we struggled to catch anything. The current stopped, the wind quit and the skies were clear. One big shark, some small yellowtails, a couple cudas and cero were the makeup of the day. We did catch one mutton snapper about 7 pounds for dinner.
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