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Fishing Report for Northern Miami-Dade County
Capt. Dave Kostyo
January 7, 2003
Miami - Saltwater Fishing Report
Mixed Bag Offshore
We left Greg Capra's home at 7:00 am for another fishing lesson aboard his boat. He had the bait catching process at Government Cut down pat, so it only took a short time before we were heading offshore with a live well full of pilchards.
First stop was just north of the Cuban Hole starting in 70'. With no current, the north wind was pushing us offshore and to the south. We had both flat lines out and as Greg was attaching the downrigger ball, he got interrupted to catch a fish. The 10# kingfish made a great start in the fishbox. A reset back in to 70' resulted in no strikes, so we continued to drift out to deeper water. At 130' we watched a sailfish chase our baits around on the surface before it caught one. It swam away and the rod bent over, but the hook did not find its mark.
I spotted something floating in the distance and we went over to investigate. It was a large piece (6' long) of bamboo. I threw a bait over to it and told Greg that if nothing found it within about 1 minute, then there were probably no fish in the area. The bait started acting erratic and the reason soon made its appearance as a sailfish came up charging the boat. After numerous jumps, tailwalks, and a good run, the fish broke the leader as it made one more jump. We reset the baits and when we reached 160', another sailfish showed itself, chased the baits around a bit and swam away. Now, that was frustrating. Then the action died off.
I suggested that we run offshore and see if we could find something to fish to and maybe get a dolphin. At five (5) miles out, we found a huge weedline with lots of birds working on it. We switched to dolphin juniors and trolled north for about 2 miles to the end of the weed line with no results. We headed back south and as soon as we got past the area where we first picked the line up, we caught a 6# dolphin that was added to the fishbox. Another mile down the line, we came up on some tuna feeding on the surface. They cooperated with us and we had a doubleheader on that also made their way to the fishbox.
Back at Greg's home, I cleaned the fish and we went over the days fishing to see what lessons had been learned. First and foremost, if you are not narrow minded about what kind of fish you are after, then your chances for success improve greatly. Second, don't get stuck in the rut of fishing the same area and same depths all the time. Do some exploring. That just adds to the fun of fishing. Third, when the fish are spread out offshore like they were, start trolling to cover ground and save the live bait should you find a school of fish. We didn't find the school, however, we had that base covered just in case.
Captain Dave
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