Hot Fishing Continues!
Capt. Alan Sherman
February 23, 2009
Miami - Saltwater Fishing Report
Fishing in South Florida continues to be as good as it gets with a few ex captions as always as long as you are willing to put the time in and be a bit patient. Pretty much every charter I have had has had some decent fishing at one point or another during the charter. Hitting the water at first light is not a priority this time of the year because most of the fish in South Florida are more likely to feed after the sun has had a chance to warm up the water a few degrees. Best fishing has occurred after 8 AM and before 5 PM so many of my anglers have been able to get a few extra winks or two before meeting me at one of the three boat ramps I have been using. Cool temperatures are making fishing a full or ¾ day a pleasant experience.
Fishing in Biscayne Bay has been pretty good with action from sea trout in North Biscayne Bay a reliable target. We are catching plenty of trout on live baits fished under a Cajun Thunder and on Capt. Hank Brown ¼ ounce Hook Up lures with a Gulp shrimp. Large jack crevalles are always roaming the North part of the bay and pay us a visit when we are least expecting them so I always have a Rapala Skitter Walk or X Rap on a rod just in case they appear. Small snappers and groupers are biting around rocky shorelines and channel drop offs and we are catching them on live shrimp and live pilchards fished on the bottom. Plenty of small barracudas can be found on the grass flats and around shorelines and snook have been holding around dock lights after the sun sets. There have been tarpon along the beaches just before sunset and in to the evening but if the winds starts blowing which happens most of the week it becomes to choppy for me to comfortably fish for them and we have to come back into the bay.
South Biscayne Bay is still full of action for small red and gag groupers and an occasional larger fish and my clients have been catching them almost non stop. Porgies, mutton and mangrove snappers plus jacks, grunts, bluerunners, a few bluefish, mackerel and a possible pompano, permit or bonefish are just other species that we run into and add some extra spice to the fishing while fishing the Finger Channels of South Biscayne Bay. We are targeting these fish with live shrimp, dead and live pilchards that we catch with my cast net or on a Sabiki rig and then fished on the bottom on 10 lb. spinning tackle to keep things interesting. Jacks, barracudas and a few snook have been available on the warmer days in South Biscayne Bay.
Flamingo continues to be the most consistent area I have fished this past month. The possibility of catching so many different species of fish in one day and the seeing all f the wonderful scenery and wildlife makes the 45 minute drive through the Park well worth the extra drive time from wherever your starting point maybe. Deer, a rare Florida panther, snakes, alligators, storks, herons, ibis, hawks and egrets can all be seen on the drive in and the Sawgrass prairie can be breath taking at sunrise and sunset. Once you arrive at Flamingo things get even more interesting with the incredible sights of Florida Bay on one side and Whitewater Bay on the other. On either side one can witness bottle nosed dolphins as they corral schools of mullet and take turns feeding on the helpless baitfish as they leap out of the water or a slow moving group of manatees feeding on the bay bottom grasses and then there are all of the wading birds and skimmer birds that make whooshing sounds as the fly by your boat. Catch the tide right and you can see huge sharks as they work the shallow flats looking for unsuspecting prey and large mud rays with their wings flapping in the sun light as they root crabs and shrimp off the bottom and wait I haven't even mentioned the fishing. Isn't that what we are going there for? For the next two months with water temperatures being on the cooler side the fishing for snook and tarpon is best on the warmest days but redfish, black drum, sea trout, snapper, grouper, cobia, mackerel, bluefish, pompano, jacks, ladyfish and tripletail don't mind the cooler temperatures and can be targeted throughout the day.
So maybe this little fishing report has sparked a little interest in you and now your getting that bug to wet a line so GIVE ME A CALL and lets see what kind of a fishing memory we can come up with.
Recent Catches:
Today I am fishing a short charter in South Biscayne Bay with Craig and Scott. Scott is a fly fisherman and with winds blowing from the north at 20 he will have to work hard to make a catch. Craig will be throwing a Hook Up lure tipped with a Gulp shrimp mostly because it was too windy the night before for the shrimp boats to catch shrimp for the local bait shops and we have no live shrimp. Working shorelines we spook a 20 pound snook that saw us before we saw him but nothing else so we head further south. In a channel we quickly catch lots of red groupers on the Gulps and Hook Up lures plus a few muttons but time is running out so we head to our last spot. Here the Scott continues to throw the fly and hooks a large fish. It's the one he has been patiently waiting for. A snook! The fish is kind of lethargic probably due to the 63 degree water temps but eventually takes off on a run and Scott has the fish on the reel. The snook looks to be in the 10 pound class and on its next run wears through the leader and is gone. Craig continues to cast and he hooks up on the Hook Up lure and Gulp shrimp. This snook is a 26 inch fish and is released after a few pictures. The guys have a meeting later in the afternoon so its time to head back to the barn.
Last up this week are Fred and his son Ben. Its Fred's birthday and his wife has treated him to a fishing charter with me. We start a little later in the day to let the water warm a bit and after launching at Crandon Park Marina we head to Government Cut to catch some pilchards. On the way to the Cut I discover that my Sabiki Rig bag is gone so we head over to Miami Beach Marina and buy a few. The bait is there in the Cut and we quickly fill the well with pilchards that help compliment the shrimp that we have for bait today. We fish from Government Cut south to the Finger Channels and by the end of a 6 hour charter the guys have tallied up a catch of three snook to 27 inches, over 40 red, black and gag groupers to 9 pound and mutton and mangrove snappers. Nice way to celebrate a birthday!
This weekend I was invited to go to Orlando with my wife Dana to fish one of the Disney Lakes for largemouth bass. The event was sponsored by Doug Hannon who has introduced a new fishing reel called the Wave Spin. We all met on Monday and fished out of two boats. Three hours in the morning and three hours in the afternoon. The lake was beautiful and the fishing guides great. The new Wave Spin Reels were exceptional and should become very popular among inshore, offshore and freshwater anglers. What sets this reel apart from the rest is the design of the spool. It has 16 teeth cut into the top of the spool that lets the line flow off the reel with less friction giving the angler a much longer cast and it worked for me and my wife. Between the two boats and 8 anglers our tally was over 20 bass caught mostly on artificial lures in water temperatures that were 55 degrees. We had a blast! Thanks Doug!
Today I have a tarpon charter and we hit the water at 5 PM with Faustino and his girlfriend Walessa both from Puerto Rico. We start off of Haulover Inlet and start looking for the silver kings rolling but we see none. On the depth recorder there are schools of baitfish but not much else. We start our first drift just outside the swim buoys and as I am explaining what they should expect one of the reels gets hit. Auction grabs the rod and a beautiful 50 pounder is in the air. On the tarpon's 6th jump the circle hook comes free of the fish. We start another drift and for the next hour manage to catch one bluerunner, a mutton snapper and loose a squid at the boat so its time to move into the bay. We hope to find some tarpon but manage to catch 3 out of five snook hooked plus a few snappers and jacks before calling it a day.
Today I have Jerome and Jerry from Miami on the boat and am in Flamingo. At our first spot we quickly release a 24 inch snook that ate a live shrimp under a Cajun Thunder plus a bunch of jacks and ladyfish on the Rapala Twitchin Raps. Next spot we jump a snook and loose him and that fish ate a Hook Up lure with a Gulp shrimp. After releasing a half dozen trout to 16 inches we move on. In this spot we catch a shark and lots of ladyfish, jacks and trout before moving on. The day is getting late and the tide is getting right so our last spot needs to be good and it was. Casting live shrimp on a Hook Up lure and Hook Up lures tipped with a Gulp shrimp the guys land three snook to 30 inches, one redfish 19 inches, jacks, ladyfish and 4 out 6 hooked black drum that are in the 6 pound range.
I am back to the Finger Channels for a ¾ day with Jerry, Tom and Tony from Miami. After catching some live bait on Sabiki Rigs we head for the grass flats in hopes of catching a quick limit of sea trout. Fishing live baits under a Cajun Thunder and Hook Up lures with Gulp baits the guys catch a half dozen trout to 14 inches and we decide to head for the Finger channels of South Biscayne Bay and in no time have caught and released over 40 gag and red groupers plus lots of mangrove and mutton snappers, bluerunners, jacks, barracudas and porgies all on live shrimp or live pilchards fished free lined or on the bottom.
Last up is Pat and old customer of mine from my Party Boat days. Another cool morning with water temperatures in the upper 60's! We head into a Channel that has a shallow mud flat on either side hopping that any fish nearby will be holding in the deeper channel but after30 minutes of no action we move on and fish a deeper grass flats were we catch dozens of sea trout on Hook Up lures and Gulp shrimp to just over 20 inches plus mackerel, bluefish, jacks and ladyfish. Pat is looking to take some fish home and with trout in the release well we move on in hopes of finding some redfish and black drum. Instead of redfish we catch and release a few snappers, snook and one small black drum and were on the move. We are on a shallow bank and there are lots of pilchards in the area but nothing eating them except a 40 pound sawfish that we spook. I net a couple hundred pilchards with one quick cast of my 10 foot Lee Fisher Net and we are on the move again. Our next spot is a redfish hole but after chumming hard with the pilchards all we catch is another snook. On the move again! We head offshore and fish the boundary markers and crab trap buoys and manage to release two under sized tripletail and a nice six pounder that ate a live shrimp under a Cajun Thunder before we hit one last marker that has two cobias circling it. I have one pinfish in the live well and I hook it to a big rod with a Green Cajun Thunder. Pat makes the cast and one of the cobias engulfs the pinfish. Pat sets up but the bait flies out of the fishes mouth only to get eaten by the other cobia and the same thing happens again. The hook has turned into the bait and there is no way the fish will get hook but wait the other cobia rushes the bait but eats the green Cajun Thunder and as it flees the line comes tight and the cork plops back to the surface and the cobias are gone. We fish the marker some more in hopes the cobias will come back but instead there is a large school of pompano here too and we catch 8 or 9 pompano to three pounds. While casting Hook Up lures tipped with live shrimp for the pompano we catch a 35 inch cobia plus a 20 inch cobia and have another cobia eat a 1 pound jack right at the boat that pat was reeling in. We let the cobia eat the jack for a while hopping that the Hook Up lure will some hope stick in the cobia but when Pat sets up on the fish and after a blistering run the jack comes out of the fishes stomach and ends our day.
Well that catches us up for now.
Give me a call and let's go fishing!
Check out my report in the Miami Herald's Sports section under Fishing Updates each Thursday, the Florida Sportsman Magazines South Florida Internet Fishing Report (www.floridaspotsman.com), my monthly Action Spotter Fishing Report for the South Region in the Florida Sportsman Magazine each month or tune into the Florida Sportsman Magazines Live Radio Show on 1080 WMCU on the AM dial or listen on the internet at www.1080wmcu.com every Saturday morning from 7 to 8 AM and here the up to the minute fishing forecasts from some of the top Capt.'s in South Florida like Capt. Jimbo Thomas on the Thomas Flyer, Capt. Bouncer Smith on Bouncers Dusky, Capt Skip Bradeen on the Blue Chips Too out of Whale Harbor Marina, Capt. Wayne Conn on The Reward Fleet, and more.
Check out my new web site and see the monthly catches and pictures.
Sponsors: Yamaha, Bob Hewes Boats, Maverick, Minn Kota, Lowrance Electronics, Daiwa, General Motors & Chevrolet, Rapala, Mustad, Ande Lines, Pure Fishing, Gulp, Berkley, Precision Tackle, Capt. Hank Brown's Hook Up Lures, Hydro Glow Lights, Costa Del Mar Sunglasses, Saltwater Assassins, Key Largo Rods, Lee Fisher Cast Nets, Smartshield, Master Repair in Stuart Florida, Power Pole, Stow Master Nets, superfishlight.com
Capt. Alan Sherman
"Get Em" Sportfishing Charters
786 436 2064
[email protected]
www.getemsportfishing.com
Miami Fishing Forecast:
I expect the fishing to remain strong and as long as you keep an open mind and fish hard the whole trip you should come away with positive results.
Target Species:
Snook, tarpon, Redfish, Cobia, Snapper Grouper, Sea Trout
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