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Fishing Report for Northern Miami-Dade County
Capt. Dave Kostyo
May 30, 2004
Miami - Saltwater Fishing Report
The wind has finally started to come down to a more civilized speed. The action offshore continues to consist mostly of dolphin, kingfish, and blackfin tuna with a few sailfish around. The dolphin action could be anywhere from the blue/green edge on out. The tuna show up each day somewhere along the coast in the 100-200 foot range. The area north of the sea buoy has had some fairly consistent action. Meanwhile, the tarpon action inshore remains steady. Live crabs will get you your fair share of strikes.
Thursday evening (5/20), Terry Duhamel from Camarillo, CA wanted to catch his first tarpon. He didn't want quantity, he wanted quality and he ended up getting more than he ever dreamed of. Just before dusk, we had a fish eat the bait and run straight at the boat. When Terry finally caught up to the fish, the circle hook pulled. On the next drift, we watched another boat hook up and immediately chase their fish to the main channel. A few minutes later, the bow rod took off and we were on. The fish ran straight offshore and made two jumps before circling back toward Fisher Island. It ran straight in to the swimming beach and then toward the south end of the island. Along the way, it made several more jumps before going around the end of the jetty at the south end of the island. It was headed toward Norris Cut and then changed direction and moved back to the jetty. It worked its way along the jetty and then back to the swim area before beginning to head offshore again. Terry wanted to try and get a good boat side picture. We had the fish up to the leader al least 6 times and of course, each time it just took off at will before we could even get the camera in position for a shot. Terry quickly learned about how tarpon get a burst of energy by coming to the surface and gulping air. The battle continued and we were now getting close to going to the main channel. Finally, the fish was not able to get up for air and we were able to get about a half dozen shots before the fish got its head and released itself. Terry could not believe how hard a tarpon fights. He told me that he has caught marlin to 400 pounds and they never fought as hard as the 100 pound plus tarpon he had just battled for over an hour. With the big fish in the books, he is now ready to catch several smaller ones.
On Saturday (5/22) the day was started with learning about where and how to catch bait at various times of the year. With an ample load of bait, we started off Key Biscayne in 250 feet. The water was a beautiful blue color, however, there was no current. With no current, the fishing was less than exciting. There were a few kingfish and bonito caught. Those that ran offshore found dolphin in the 3-4 pound category.
Sunday morning (5/23) was a half day trip to introduce a young angler to his first saltwater fishing trip. Alex Olarte said that he liked riding roller coasters so the E/ESE wind @ 18 mph was made to order. Alex and his Dad, David along with another friend were ready for some steady action. The best way to capture a young anglers interest is with steady action. They don't care what the fish is as long as there are plenty of them. We anchored up on one of the many near shore patches and it didn't take long for the chum to get the fish going. By the end of the trip, we had caught and released 5 different species of fish and lost track of how many individual fish we caught and released. On the way back to Spinnaker Marina, we also got to see several large iguanas in the trees along the canal.
Today (5/30) was my first opportunity to fish since the seas have calmed down. What a pleasure it was to be able to run where ever I wanted to in comfortable sea conditions. We started our day by catching bait at Government Cut. The pilchards were thick and between Eileen and Fred using the sabiki rigs, Faye and Michael unhooking the baits, and me throwing the net, it didn't take long to load the live well.
Catching some dolphin fish was the first order of the day. In 1150' straight out from Government cut, we found a weedline and started working south along it. While trolling dolphin juniors, we spotted fish in the weeds and immediately threw our some pilchards for chum. The fish came to the boat and all 4 anglers were hooked up. We took 4 fish from the first group including Eileen Clark's 22 pound bull. Back to the troll and we saw more fish working in the weed line. This time we took only 2 that included Faye Naylor's 10 pound cow. After another half hour of trolling and not finding any other fish, we moved back toward shore and fished the reef area the remainder of the day.
Our drifts covered the 100 - 170 foot range and we had action on each of the 4 drifts that we made. At 2 pm, the wind picked up enough to fly the ex-light kite with 1 line. Every line that we had out saw action. At one point, all 4 anglers were hooked up at the same time. Everyone caught and released bonito. Eight in the 6-12 pound range was the final count on the bonito. Michael Vincent caught and released his first sailfish while Eileen caught all the action on video. And finally we were visited by the every pesky remora on 2 occasions. Throw in a cut off on a mono leader and a broken leader wire after a 10 minute battle with an unseen fish and you have a good days fishing offshore.
On the nature side of the day, we saw two loggerhead turtles, iguanas on the way in, and baby herons testing their wings.
Although the dolphin fishing was not on fire today, it was well worth the run offshore to search for them. This type of fishing should remain good well into July. On the reef, there should be a fair number of kingfish and sailfish. For the light tackle enthusiast and fly fishermen, large schools of bonito are not far off. When you run into the day when other types of fishing are slow, the hard fighting bonito can save the day, get your arms to aching, and put smiles on everyone's faces.
Don't forget the MET Booster Banquet coming up on Thursday, June 10, 2004. You can check my website at www.knotnancy.com for more details, or give me a call. Don't miss out on the great silent auction and live auction items as well as great fishing trips.
Captain Dave Kostyo
Knot Nancy Fishing Charters
305 620-5896 Charter
305 732-2628 Beeper
www.knotnancy.com
[email protected]
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