February 2013 Action
Capt. Dave Kostyo
February 26, 2013
Miami - Saltwater Fishing Report
It's time once again to get caught up with the fishing reports. Between the Miami Boat Show and tarpon fishing I've been almost none stop.
Let's get right to it.
Scott Santos and John Laporte saw lots of tarpon action both along the beach and in the bay during their 6 hour trip. Despite the wind from the ENE/E @ 15 – 19 knots, we went 3 for 3.
When the tide changed, we ran into the much calmer waters of the bay. The first three locations produced no action. At the 4th and 5th locations we got our reward catching and releasing 1 tarpon at each location.
Final count of the evening was 5 for 5.
The next trip it was Glenn, Mark K, and Mark B. The tarpon played hard to get on this evening. We finally found a hungry one and Mark K caught his first tarpon. Throw in a ladyfish and bluefish to complete the evening.
The next night Ron, Ken, and Tom fished in monsoon weather conditions. As soon as we put the baits out, the rains came. It was on and off all evening with some very heavy downpours.
The tarpon didn't cooperate at all; however, we did catch several bluefish, ladyfish, and a Spanish mackerel.
For the next 3 days, I was at the Miami Boat Show with Whitewater Boats.
Mike Hendren and Nathan Laing fished an afternoon/evening combo trip. During the offshore portion of the trip we had the ones. It was one mahi-mahi, one kingfish, and one red grouper.
By then it was time to run inshore and finish the trip with evening tarpon. We started off with a single tarpon that gave us all the action we could ever want. Next it was a doubleheader tarpon.
We landed one and broke the tip of the hook off on the other while working on releasing the first fish. That had us at 2 for 3 tarpon. Kick in 2 bluefish and 2 Spanish mackerel and the evening was complete.
The trip with Steve Cordero and Lisa Hazoury was all about Lisa catching her first tarpon. On our third drift, she got her wish in a big way. She picked on a big tarpon and for a while I thought we were headed out to sailfish territory.
The tarpon fought down and dirty for most of the fight and only jumped a couple of times. Lisa named him "Charlie". She got the catch and wanted better pictures with her big fish. The tarpon was very camera shy.
After about 45 minutes, she turned the rod over to Steve. He fought the fish for about 15 more minutes until he turned the rod over to me. Another 10 minutes and the stubborn fish gave us a couple of quick pictures before being released.
We caught a bluefish and ladyfish before the next tarpon action. This time it was a double hook up. The first fish stayed on and the second fish threw the hook on its first jump. Steve's fish was making a mad dash offshore with us in pursuit.
When we finally caught up with the fish and got straight up and down on it, the hook pulled. Before the end of the trip we added another ladyfish.
Art Berardelli, Lydia Owre, and Dave Eschmeyer got a taste of tarpon action during their trip. On the first drift Dave caught and released his first tarpon. This group of anglers loves to fish and especially love to catch and eat fish. After releasing Dave's tarpon, the action turned entirely too catching eating fish. First it was a Spanish mackerel, then a bluefish, then a doubleheader Spanish mackerel, and then a bluefish and Spanish mackerel double. Somewhere along the line a ladyfish got in on the action.
At the end of the trip it was 1 for 1 on tarpon, 5 Spanish mackerel, 2 bluefish, a ladyfish and 3 happy anglers licking their chops anticipating the fish meals they were going to have that evening.
Gene Wade, Victor Ramirez, Adams Ayers, and Tim Robbins fished offshore in some very sloppy, nasty, rough sea conditions. Despite those conditions it was well worth it.
We set up in 300' with flatlines and the downrigger. When we pushed in to 200' I put the bottom rod down. That's when things got crazy. First the middle flatline rod hooked up.
Next the stern flatline rod hooked up and then the downrigger line popped loose. Two large mahi-mahi came up jumping to the cheers of everyone. Victor had the cow and Wade had the bull.
We thought the downrigger line was tangled with Wade's fish. After Victor made two trips around the boat, I gaffed his 19 pound fish and into the fish box it went.
Now it was time to concentrate on getting Wade's fish in as well as trying to clear the tangled downrigger line. Each time the big bull came close to the boat it took off on another run. After 3 trips around the boat, we finally got our shot and the 31.5 pound fish came aboard.
As it turned out, the downrigger line was not tangled. The greedy bull ate both lines and had two hooks in its mouth.
Despite our best efforts during Steve and Bill's trip, we couldn't find any tarpon. We didn't go fishless though. The bluefish and Spanish mackerel were very cooperative. We had action of some sort on almost every drift.
The tarpon took the night off; however, I'm sure they'll be back strong on my next trip.
I'm up to date once again. I'll be at the Bass Pro Spring Classic in Dania on Friday, March 1st and in Ft Meyers on Saturday, March 2nd. If you're in the area stop by, say hello, and let's talk some fishing.
Capt. Dave Kostyo
Knot Nancy Fishing Charters, Inc.
305-965-9454
www.knotnancy.com
[email protected]
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