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Miami, Florida - Offshore
Capt. Mark Houghtaling
March 10, 2003
Miami - Saltwater Fishing Report
Less than five days ago, you would have thought there wasn’t a sailfish in town. Anglers were complaining of dirty water, south currents, and virtually no sailfish around. Then, along comes the Boat Center Yamaha Bob Lewis Billfish Tournament and the fish came out of hiding and broke all kids of records for the most fish caught in the history of the tournament. On Saturday, the seas were flat calm and anglers were looking forward to a slow day of billfishing. Out of the blue morning comes one of the most terrific sailfish bites of the season. Anglers were seeing and catching three and four sailfish at a time. I spoke with one angler and he said it was almost chaotic. You could look down the line of boats stretching from Fowey light to Triumph Reef and see clouds of black smoke pouring from the sportfishing boats that were scrambling to back down on multiple hook-ups from hungry sails. One big problem during the tournament was the high numbers of bonito in the area. They were destroying the $75.00/dozen goggle eye baits that anglers had purchased prior to the tournament. In fact, a few anglers ran out of baits during the day.
As noted above, the fishing just prior to the tournament was very slow for sailfish, however large kingfish had moved into our area. Many fish were in the thirty to forty pound range. The best kingfish action was seen just north of the whistle buoy off north Key Largo, but there were plenty of fish caught all the way to the Government Cut buoy. Look for the kingfishing and the sailfishing to continue.
If you haven’t noticed the weather is already getting hot and so should the dolphin fishing. You may find it sporadic this early in the season but there will be plenty of days when boats will find them in large schools and in a feeding frenzy. Also, be on the lookout for large blackfin tuna that will start showing up in your kite spreads. These fish may reach over thirty pounds. Tarpon are in Government Cut and along the beaches. Swordfish are being caught almost every night that the weather will allow. And the reef fishing has been good....I know, I gave it a try last week and we managed to catch a mixed bag of grouper, small muttons, and yellowtail. See you on the rip!
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