The Tarpon are Back
Capt. Bouncer Smith
February 9, 2012
Miami - Saltwater Fishing Report
The tarpon are back. We had great tarpon fishing in December and most of January, then they disappeared. Well I am glad to say that yesterday they were back. I hope they stick around.
The Dorfman boys had great action. They caught seven tarpon to 110 pounds and a crab for the old man. This was back in mid-January.
At the same time the mahi action was pretty good. Tom and his gang caught mahi and sails for three days in a row.
We caught 8 sailfish on January 19th with Aaron and his friends.
Tarpon were still going strong through January. On the 22nd Mike, Roman and Freddy from Chicago caught 6tarpon, 6 snapper and some shrimp.
Brad Orvieto brought a guest out for tarpon and they caught 4 on the 25th.
The Howards brought in Don and Stella from Texas and they got 2 real big sails and mahi for dinner on the 26th.
As February started tarpon were very scarce. We would search all around the inlet and beaches and find nothing.
We did get February off to a good start with 6 sails on the first.
On the 4th it was very rough, but the weather man said the wind would drop out late in the day and I decided we should go ahead with our tarpon trip after putting Kevin and his family off a couple times for weather.
It was a good call by the weather man and the fisherman. The wind quit and the tarpon turned on. Dawson caught the first tarpon. Then Lindsey blew him away with a nice 50 or 60 pound tarpon. Lindsey wasn't done as she was soon hooked up again. This time she needed help. Dawson stepped up to help his sister. Of course this was a big tough tarpon. She beat down Lindsey, then Dawson and almost whipped Kevin before that big lady tarpon gave up the fight and let us release her.
All this action before dark. We did not have a bite after dark, be we did catch about 50 shrimp.That shrimping is a lot of fun.
On the 6th we tried everything a little of everything to keep Russell and his gang happy. It was super rough on the "edge". In about an hour we caught a wahoo, a bonito and 3 mahi. Half the gang was suffering from food poisoning so we ran back to the bay. There we cut the bonito up for bait and tried some shark fishing. For almost an hour we did nothing. Then we quickly caught a 15 pound Atlantic sharp nose shark and then had a great battle with a 200 pound nurse shark. Half an hour latter we added a 150 pound nurse shark and decided it was time to give a tarpon a shot. We fished the beach with live shrimp for an hour and caught 2 spanish mackerel and Russell's first tarpon.
On the 7th we caught a couple kings and then had the battle royal withn a sailfish that got lassoed around the shoulders. What a fight Duane had with that one. No way to steer it and no way to stop it. It was like fighting a blue marlin, but after an hour, Duane won the battle with a nice big sail.
Yesterday the action started fast, but ended fast as well. We caught 1 out of 3 tarpon in the first half hour. Then we watch them swim and roll around the boat for the rest of the morning. We did catch a lunch of yellowtail snapper, hogfish and sheephead, but no more tarpon bites.
Hey it sure was great to see all those tarpon back in the inlet. We will catch them soon.
Check the action at Facebook/Bouncers Dusky 33 every evening after our fishing.
Miami Fishing Forecast:
Look for great tarpon fishing aroung Government Cut for the next few months.
Sailfishn action should keep getting better every day and stay good for a couple of months now.
Target Species:
sailfish, tarpon and swordfish plus anything that will bite
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