A May to Remember
Capt. Bouncer Smith
May 31, 2013
Miami - Saltwater Fishing Report
May offered some great fishing trips. We had a lot of good weather, but ended with terrible weather.
May 1st is the opening of grouper season. Our first bait was taken by a 25 pound gray grouper. We made three drops and caught 3 keeper groupers. Over the day we added a big kingfish, a 40 pound amberjack, a small grouper and 2 bonito.
On May 5th we had a good day of sailfish. Although the wind was light and the current was running south, we caught 5 sailfish on 10 bites. We also caught 8 and 35 pound kingfish and 10 bonito.
The Grabenstein brothers caught 4 gray groupers, 2 big muttons, a kingfish and 5 cobia bottom fishing on May 7th.
We shot a show with Don Dingman the next day. Fishing was slow, but Don's guest Hunter and Austin caught 2 gray groupers, a scamp grouper, a red grouper, 2 huge amberjacks , an almaco jack and a bonito. Don's show features fishing with young anglers and he does a great job.
On the 14th we caught 3 sailfish, a 35 pound bull mahi, a 18 pound cow mahi, 4 big bonito, a kingfish and 2 snook. But I forgot my young anglers names with leaving for Bimini an hour after their trip.
In 3 days of fishing Bimini in the Bahamas we caught a bunch of yellowtail snappers, sharks up to an 11 foot hammerhead, barracudas on fly, spin and bait, assorted jacks cobia and a 35 pound kingfish.
In the Miami Dolphins tour we fished with Paul Castronovo and his friends. We caught a sailfish, a kingfish, a big cero mackerel, a dozen mahi and a 24 pound tuna.
The 22nd we caught a skipjack tuna, 2 bonito, 2 small red groupers, 4 school sized mahi and 44 and 50 inch cow mahi.
On the 24th we had a charter with Harry Falk and his 14 year old son Michael. Michael planned this trip for a year. He wanted the catch a swordfish, a big tuna, a grouper and a tarpon in one day.
We started with the swordfish. 2 Hours into the trip and the fish is in the boat. Then we ran back inshore and it only took about 30 minutes of fishing to catch a 30 pound tuna and Harry caught a mutton snapper. Michael said we were so far ahead of schedule we should add a snook to our goals. It took till 1:30 to catch a grouper. Then we ran to the dock, picked up our crabs for tarpon bait and rigged the rods for snook and tarpon. Catching a snook took about 30 or 40 minutes. Then about 4 PM we released a 100 pond tarpon and our goals were completed. What a day!!
The 26th we caught 5 tuna, a 35 pound kingfish, a sailfish, 2 mahi, 2 mutton snapper, a yellow jack and a bonito with Zach and David. That night the Orvieto family caught 5 tuna a sailfish and a huge barracuda.
And the winds blew into June.
Miami Fishing Forecast:
June should offer plenty of late afternoon tunas, a few sailfish, good mahi offshore and great gray snapper fishing on the reefs.
Tarpon will be good through the month and snook will be thick, but they are all catch release with care and save them for the future.
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