January Brought Great Fishing Action
Capt. Bouncer Smith
February 3, 2010
Miami - Saltwater Fishing Report
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Well January 2010 is in the books. We finished 2009 with the most sailfish tagged and released for the Billfish Foundation. That made 3 years in a row. We added the most swordfish tagged and released for the Billfish Foundation. And for the hat-trick we finished the year with the most dolphin tagged and released for the Dolphin Research Program run by Don Hammond.
We started the new year on the 3rd with Giordano and Christina from Italy. They released 5 sailfish and 4 bonito. A kingfish for dinner filled out the day.
Umberto and Salvador also from Italy fished with us the 4th and released 2 sailfish, 5 dolphin, a shark and a large red grouper. 2 mutton snappers were guest of honor for dinner that night.
Heidi Nute and her brother Drake fished with us the next two days. I thought their arms would fall off from all the big fish they caught. The first day it was 2 sailfish, a dolphin, 3 big amberjacks on 20 pound spinning tackle and 4 bonito. The second day it was 3 sailfish, 6 big bonito, 6 dolphin and a shark. We had a lot of fun with those catches.
On the 7th we fished with Craig, Bill and Mark. They caught 3 sails, 7 dolphin, a shark, a huge cuda, a king, 15 bonito and 2 very rare down here atlantic bonito. They have teeth like a kingfish. We talked a lot about the reopening of the Bimini Big Game Club.
The 8th we had a tough project to attack. Robson Green, a drama TV star in England is filming a show for the Discovery Channel titled Extreme Fishing. Robson had fished on 4 continents in 6 countries for 25 days primarily trying to catch a sailfish. We got off to a slow start with flat calm seas and brilliant sunny skies. First we caught a remora, yuck. Then we added a dolphin, dinner was served. After a slow, well make that a dead couple of hours, we caught a couple of kingfish.
Then it happened. A rod in the bow went off and line streamed from the open bail. Robson closed the bail and line ran off against the drag. As the reel was running out of line and we gave chase with the boat, a sailfish jumped far off in the distance. After 10 jumps and a great deal of drama as a yacht fishing boat almost drove through our fishing line, we captured Robson's elusive sailfish. A nice big sailfish was tagged and released. The party was delighted.
And then the world froze. Freezing temperatures attacked south Florida for 5 days.
As we started to thaw out the guys from the IGFA joined us for some fishing and photography. Jeff and Dave got beat up catching 6 big amberjacks on 20 pound spinning tackle along with a big bonito and a huge barracuda. Adrian spent the morning in the water chasing the fish around with his camera. What great shots he got. We then hit a couple of deeper wrecks and caught 3 mutton snappers, a scamp grouper and a red grouper, both released under the new fishery laws of 2010. We then ran offshore and found a huge weed raft with a few dolphin Which had Adrian back in the water for a few more shots. On the way home we saw a flock of birds going crazy in 20 feet of water. I ran over there and found a ball of terrorized sardines. Clark spoons resulted in a mackerel or blue runner every cast. Live bait produced small sharks and grouper just as quickly. Adrian was back in the water with camera in hand and got great shots of the mackerel, sharks and even got some super shots at gag grouper stalking the bait ball.
On the 15th Van Stapleton and 14 year old Nate fished with us. They caught 5 sailfish, a kingfish, 3 mutton snappers and a grouper.
The 16th was brutally rough, but Danny and Johnny Cook hung in there for a half day and caught a couple bonito and 5 dolphin.
The 17th we fished with Abie's family. It started out as a beautiful day with rough fishing luck as we lost two sails, a couple dolphin and a big wahoo. Even a big mako missed the bait on two kite rigs. The day ended ugly with driving rain, but 13 year old Austin Rice hung in there and caught his first tuna, dolphin and a huge sailfish, also his first.
Kevin, Peter and Alex caught a sail, a king, 3 bonito and 6 dolphin on Monday.
Thursday Hank, Booby, Paul and Ray caught 3 sails, a bonito, 2 tarpon and a mackerel. for a fun filled day.
Friday the Della Monicas were delayed by business meetings. They filled out the late afternoon with 2 tarpon, a snook and a mackerel.
On the 25th we fished with a Bunch of guys from Mississippi and the fish were not very friendly. We did get a lot of kingfish action, but only 1 sailfish came our way.
On Tuesday we fished with John and Tom from 12 to 8 PM. They had a banner day with 5 sailfish, 3 kingfish, a cuda, a shark and 3 tarpon.
Wednesday Bob Lowe from Australia and Adrian and Ken from Miami fished with us. Adrian got wet with his camera again and got some super sailfish shots. We caught 3 sailfish, a shark and 15 big bonito for a hectic day.
David and Monicka fished with us Thursday afternoon and caught 4 sailfish, 3 kingfish a mutton snapper and a red grouper.
Friday we fished with Mike, Rich and Marcus for a couple of hours. It seems that drinking all night does not mix well with fishing all day, so the hangover won out and we went home very early. In the little time we had we caught 3 sailfish, a bonito, a dolphin and 3 kings. We also got a jump and great run out of a blue marlin before he threw the hook.
Wind and rain closed out January and welcomed in February. We look forward to catching some fish starting this afternoon.
We hope to see everybody at the boat show next week. We will be at the Dusky booth all day Friday and Sunday. We will be speaking in the Big Game Room on Sunday afternoon at 5:30. And we will be at the Billfish Expo at the Biscayne Bay Marriott all day Saturday.
Miami Fishing Forecast:
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look for plenty of sailfish on the edge spiced with kings, dolphin and bonito. Swordfish will be offshore, but weather may make getting tere a challenge. Tarpon have been extra thick this year. They should be hot on live shrimp all month.
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