Fall Migration, New Boat and Bimini Fishing Action
Capt. Bouncer Smith
September 22, 2010
Miami - Saltwater Fishing Report
There is one great thing about all the wind lately. That is the arrival of schools of mullet and the gamefish that come with them. Now if we could just get out there to enjoy the fishing.
On August 26th Steve, Amanda and Chad got out fishing with us. We were supposed to go for swordfish, but it was too rough so we settled for 2 sailfish, a 25 pound blackfin tuna, a cuda and 6 bonito. We added a snook on the way home for spice.
The 27th we fished with Ed and Eddie. They caught 4 king mackerel, a mutton snapper, 12 bonito, a shark and 6 barracudas.
The 28th was a tough on for our anglers. Our morning group caught 3 bonito and a mutton snapper before seasickness ended the trip. The afternoon it was food poisoning that brought us back to shore before we caught a fish. And if things were not bad enough we blew a lower unit on the boat we had borrowed while our new boat was being built.
We do want to thank Captain Matt Tambor for loaning us his boat while our new Dusky 33 was being built.
On September 3rd we fished with Sue Cocking, Captain Wayne Conn, Marty Arostegui and his son Martini aboard their 35 foot Cabo, the Timely Sale. Sue was working on a story about deep water bottom fishing and we had a good day.
We caught 3 golden tile fish, 1 grey tile fish, 6 black belly rose fish and a small snowy grouper. The odd catch of the day was a ribbon fish in 600 feet of water on the bottom.
On the 5th we fished with Dr Russell Nelson and his daughter Katie. They caught 6 king mackerel to 20 pounds and a barracuda offshore and then took advantage of the early mullet run to catch 2 tarpon at the inlet.
On Friday September 10th we got the new "Bouncer's Dusky 33".
It is powered with twin 250 Evinrudes and loaded with Raymarine Electronics and Penn fishing tackle.
On Sunday the 12th we took off for Bimini with Steve Waters from the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel to meet up with Ralph and Mike Brown to warm up the fishing for the 2010 Dusky Bimini Bash which started on Wednesday the 15th.
ON Sunday Steve Abie and I had a ball catching the first fish on the new boat. Abie scored with the very first fish on the new boat when he boated and released a beautiful 40 pound african pompano. While he fought that fish Steve hooked a 15 pound horse eye jack and we were off and running.
We switched to fly rods and caught 10 to 15 pound horse eye jacks, big blue runners and yellowtail snapper till we could not lift a rod any more. We had dozens of tough fighting fish to brag about for a while. Abie did add a 120 pound shark to the catch for some extra fun.
The next day we added Ralph and Mike to the fishing team. We caught a variety of smaller gamefish while hitting 4 wrecks on the southeast side of Bimini. In the afternoon we moved to the dropoff in 60 feet of water and caught several nice sized yellowtail ,snapper. As we were getting ready to call it a day, Mike made a cast with a surface plug that had hung from his spinning rod all day. That one cast resulted in a 45 minute cero mackerel blitz that was red hot as three rods were hooked up all the time with cero mackerel from 2 to 7 pounds.
Tuesday Mike and Ralph stayed at the dock while Mike and Sherri joined us for the day. We had fun fishing a wreck on the bank for a while with Steve catching assorted jacks on bucktails while Sherri and Mike caught jacks and yellowtails on bait.
With rising winds and threatening storms we moved to the ocean out in front of Bimini. There we fished a couple of wrecks that produced a few assorted jacks and trigger fish. Just when it looked like a day without quality, a school of dolphin swam up to our boat anchored in 70 feet of water. We hooked 5 and boated 4 up to about 14 pounds to make our day.
Over the next 24 hours 16 Dusky boats arrived at Bimini Sands Condominium Resort. These boaters ran 50 miles in 20 to 25 knot winds and 5 to 8 foot seas to enjoy a few days of super fun being the Dusky Bimini Bash.
Thursday through Saturday we fished with several of the Dusky boaters. We caught a few yellowtails, black snappers, cero mackerel, a tuna, a few barracuda, blue runners and strawberry groupers. The best catches were the front half of a huge nassau grouper and a beautiful yellowfin grouper.
Thursday through Saturday were also "beach party" days with flotillas of Duskys beach somewhere every day for fun in the surf and sun.
Sunday morning most of the boats returned to the real world as theses tough Dusky boaters once again crossed the Gulf Stream in high seas.
On the local scene, the mullet and all their followers have made the scene, but fishing has been rough with east or northeast winds from 15 to 20 knots every day. Hopefully this will change over the next couple of days.
With the height of swordfish season upon we are having a swordfish seminar at Dusky Sport Center this Thursday evening, September 23rd, from 6 to 9 PM. Call 954-922-8890 for details.
Let's go catch some fish on the new boat. E-mail me at [email protected] for reservations.
Miami Fishing Forecast:
September is the start of the major swordfish season.
The mullet mirgation and all the action that comes with it has already arrived. This also indicates that schools of mutton snapper and yellowtails should be migrating down ocean reefs.
Target Species:
swordfish, snook, mackerel, bluefish, snapper
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