Special Fish and Record Fish
Capt. Bouncer Smith
June 16, 2008
Miami - Saltwater Fishing Report
Well May has gone out strong and June has been great so far. Let's see what's been happening around Bouncer's Dusky 33.
We left off with Michael Grimm catching two nice tarpon the evening of May 15th.
On the 16th Tony, who runs the fishing school at the IGFA took a busman's holiday and brought Paula James along to catch the fish. They had a fun day with a sailfish, two tuna, a couple king mackerel, a big amberjack and several bonito releases, plus a tuna, a king, 2 mutton snappers, a big lane snapper and a wahoo to take home for dinner.
The Joe Maus party released a sailfish and a bunch of bonito. They took home 3 kings and a tuna for dinner.
Our evening trip produced two tarpon of 80 and 100 pounds on live crabs.
Brandon Leidell and Ryan released 2 big sailfish, 3 bonito and two amberjacks. They took home 4 king mackerel. Brandon has reported great success aboard his boat since picking up some tricks for better fishing during our day of fishing.
May 20th We had some great local roofing industry guys out. They caught 3 sailfish, 3 tuna, a bonito and a dolphin.
The 21st Brad Orvieto and his son Drew went on an evening tuna trip. They released 2 sailfish and a 100 pound hammerhead shark before boating 2 nice tuna.
On the 22nd Carla and Marve released 5 sailfish, 2 sharks and a barracuda. A dolphin went home for dinner.
The Cal Leavy gang had a good day on the 23rd with 2 sailfish, 6 nice kings, 2 dolphin, a mutton snapper and a small amberjack.
The Romanelli family had a tough trip on Saturday. Fishing was slow with no wind, but they did catch 3 big king mackerel. A school of tuna came up in the live chum, but with 7 strikes we somehow failed to boat one.
My sister Sue joined me for some family fishing on May 25th. She caught 3 kings, 2 dolphin, a big barracuda and one tough sailfish.
On the 26th we fished with Marc and Phil from England. They had a good day with 2 sailfish, 2 tuna, 2 kings, 2 dolphin, 1 bonito, 1 big jack crevalle and 2 tarpon. The day turned great when both anglers caught "Gold Coast Grand Slams" with a dolphin, a sailfish and a tarpon for each.
That evening John and Jack Bell caught a sailfish, a tarpon, a big jack crevalle and a snook.
The Jillian Emery party of Don, Dana, Keith and Jillian caught 4 sailfish, 2 tuna, 3 bonito and 3 barracuda on May 27th.
That evening Tom and Matt caught 5 tarpon from 60 to 100 pounds.
Marc and Phil returned again on the 28th. They caught a sailfish, 3 dolphin, 5 tuna, a bonito, a mutton snapper, a cero mackerel and a tarpon.
Brian, Brandon and Collin Wall fished the 29th. They caught a sailfish, 2 tuna, a king, a cuda, 2 red snappers and a 75 pound tarpon.
The 30th our great friends Don and Sandy Blake were joined by our mutual friend Ray Stormont. We went out at noon and by sunset we had 2 red snapper, 2 big yellow eye snappers, 2 sailfish, a 18 pound king, 3 barracuda and a 30 pound tuna.
We finished the month fishing the Miami Dolphin Tournament with the super radio star, Paul Castronovo. We came in 4th with a sailfish, 2 tuna, 4 kings and a barracuda.
June has been Bimini month so far. We went over on the 4th with Ron and Jina Crowder, Allan Engels and John. over 4 days they caught 2 sailfish, a 26 pound dolphin, about 15 school dolphin, loads of nice sized yellowtail snapper, a bunch of cero mackerel, assorted jacks crowned by Ron's 51 pound amberjack on 20 pound spinning tackle, plenty of barracudas and a couple nice grouper.
We fished the Dusky Owner's Dolphin Tournament on Sunday the 8th and guided Heather to her first sailfish before heading in to work the weigh station and join the Dusky family's big party.
The 9th we fished with Tony and Geoff. They caught 2 big tarpon, 2 big snook and a smaller snook on the evening inlet trip.
The 10th we fished with the Mike, Terri, Roland and Butch. They had a great day catching 2 sailfish, 2 big dolphin, 4 mutton snappers, 2 gray snappers, a 7 pound yellow eye snapper, a nice king, 4 bonito, 2 almaco jacks an amberjack and a big porgy.
The 11th it was back to Bimini with Lyndon Fly, Brett and Rick. They fished three days to capture several sharks, the nicest pile of lane snappers this captain has seen in years, bunches of big yellowtail snappers, barracudas, a couple amberjacks, big cero mackerel, giant blue runners, 2 nice black groupers, a big dolphin and a few bonito. All this in the while blinded by the brightest yellow Crocs ever made. Truly shoes only a real man could wear.
Saturday was rough seas with rough fishing Steve did catch a 28 pound king and a small barracuda before calling it a day.
Sunday was the perfect opposite. It was flat calm for Heather and Jeff Harkavy to enjoy Father's Day while catching fish. They caught over 60 dolphin while fly fishing. Heather shattered the Junior Female World Record for almaco jacks with a 31.5 pound beauty. She only missed the 50 pound line class record by 2 ounces. They finished the day with 4 red snapper.
Last night 7 year old Ben Mirrow was out to catch a tarpon. He brought along Grandpa and Grandma for support. He caught a small gag grouper while waiting for bite number two after tarpon number one stole the crab off his hook. It was a long wait, but ended with a screaming strike. 45 minutes, 6 jumps and a lot of help latter, Ben had his 100+ pound tarpon next to the boat for photos and smiles. The blister was forgotten by trhe time he got back to the dock and emptied the live well feeding our "pet" tarpon under the boat.
Miami Fishing Forecast:
June is dolphin, tarpon and the last of tuna time. July offers great snook and swordfish at night and bottom fish during the day. Let's go catch some!
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