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Miami, Florida - Offshore
Capt. Mark Houghtaling
January 28, 2001
Miami - Saltwater Fishing Report
If you love Sailfishing the way I do, then you have to embrace this time of
the year, because the Sailfishing has been red hot. Recently the “bite” has
been better in the afternoon. Starting at around 3 p.m., the Sailfish have been
chewing on baits being fished by kite fisherman along the edge of the reef.
As always, the current or lack of it has been the major factor in determining
how good the “bite” will be. When the current has been moving to the north,
there has been a stronger presence of Sailfish. This past week we saw a north
current, a south current, and no current at all. However, with the tremendous
amount of Sailfish around, you can still find fish on almost every outing.
Dolphin have been around one day and gone the next. This past week anglers
fishing off Ocean Reef Yacht Club found a rip and color change in 250 feet
of water with a large amount of Dolphin feeding up and down the edge of the
rip. Many of the fish were 10 pounds and larger. Anglers fishing from larger
boats with tuna towers were able to locate the fish by cruising up and down
the rip and then casting live baits to them. Sporadic catches of Dolphin were
had by anglers kite fishing for Sailfish.
The Kingfish action has been almost non-existent. Very few fish have been
caught this past week. A few anglers found bigger fish near Haulover Cut.
February 8th is the full moon, and shrimpers will be on the lookout for a
large shrimp run in Biscayne Bay. This time of year, a couple of days before
the full moon, shrimpers usually do quite well dragging for shrimp. The full
moon will also bring about good bottom fishing along the reefs. There should
be plenty of Black Grouper and Muttons on the ledges and breaks from 60 to
120 feet of water. Also look for African Pompano to make an appearance on
selected wrecks off Miami. The patch reefs are holding a large amount of fish
and should be one of the best bets this coming week. I plan to fish the
patches a few days before the moon, and expect to catch plenty of small
Grouper, Muttons, Mangroves, and Porgies. The Grouper will be a collection
of blacks, gags , and reds. Most of them will be under legal size limit (blacks
and gags 24”, and reds 20” ) however, you will usually hook one big bruiser
during a day of patch fishing. The Muttons should be large. I would expect to
see a few ten pound plus Muttons when we patch fish this week.
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