Catching fish between the storms
Capt. Bouncer Smith
September 24, 2008
Miami - Saltwater Fishing Report
Well, so far, so good, we have dodged a few mighty powerful storms. But, there are a couple months left to worry about. In the mean time we have caught a few fish between storms.
On August 22nd we fished with Brian Giebel and his friends. They caught a bunch of bonitos, a few small kings and a dozen mutton snappers. The bad news was that only 3 muttons were over the 16 inch minimum overall length. We raised 5 sails, but they were not eating the baits. They would look, chase and swim away from the bait. We had one sail hooked for a few seconds. We did catch a good sized hammerhead shark.
The 23rd we fished with Charles Lopez and a buddy from Texas. We started early to try for snook and scored well with them. We caught 5 snook and a 12 pound cubera snapper at the jetties. Then it was off to the reef where we caught 2 kings, a bonito and 3 mutton snappers.
The 24th we fished the evening tide at the inlet. Aaron wanted tarpon action, but would settle for snook. He caught both. H e released 7 snook up to 18 pounds and 3 out of 6 tarpon up to 75 pounds.
We fished with Heather and Jeff Harkavy on the evening of the 25th and caught 5 snook and a tarpon.
We took Pat Ford out for swordfish on the 27th. After losing a rig and bunch of line on the first drop, then losing 3 swordfish in a row, Pat offered us some of his wife's home made cake. As you can tell from our luck, it was BANANA cake. Hey we got home alive.
That evening after a banana exorcism we fished for snook with Tom Large. That was a lot better with 9 snook and 2 tarpon releases.
After a week of wind and rain we fished with Scott and his friends on the 6th. We found some sailfish balling sardines in 1000 feet of water, but missed our only bite. On the reef we caught 2 muttons, 2 amberjacks, 3 kings and a couple small bottom fish.
That evening Kurt caught 3 snook and 2 tarpon at the inlet.
Whoops another week of wind. Then just in time for the Miami Swordfish Tournament the weather cleared. We had the shots to score well, but not the luck to score at all. The first night we had 6 bites, got the leader to the tip on two of the swordfish and they both came off before we had a shot at a picture. This tournament it is "no picture, no score". The second night we had 3 strikes and did not even get to claim a leader release.
The next day it was off to Bimini for a week. We had a great time fishing with Dusky owners and staff. We caught bunches of yellowtail snappers, grey snappers, cero mackerel, horse eye jacks, sharks and assorted others. We even put a dent in the rum supply. Our best catch was a 42 pound cubera snapper for Dave Thomas.
The day after we got back from Bimini we fished with Mike and his wife, Allison and Alex. They had a good day of bottom fishing. They caught a nice cobia, 4 mutton snappers to over 10 pounds, 1 amberjack, 4 almaco jacks, a barracuda and 3 bonito.
Well the weather has gotten beautiful and fishing is good. We are starting to book up for the winter sailfish season. Plan to join the fun. To arrange a trip e-mail [email protected] .
Miami Fishing Forecast:
It is prime time for swordfish either day or night. This current north with should provide the first runs of bluefish and spanish mackerel along the beaches and more sailfish and dolphin offshore.
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