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Fishing Report for Northern Miami-Dade County
Capt. Dave Kostyo
February 1, 2003
Miami - Saltwater Fishing Report
Take Your Pick - Sailfish, Tarpon, or Kingfish - The Action is Great
I've been busy fishing and catching over the past several days and evenings. Here is the trip by trip round up of how the fishing has been.
Wednesday Jan 29th. East wind at 20 gave us rough sea conditions. We fished the area from the Monument to the Sir Scott Range and found little to no current, mostly blue/green water, and fishing was on the slow side. Bill Lumadue from Enola, PA wanted to catch sailfish and we had two days of fishing scheduled. The bright side was that he caught several 8-10 pound dolphin. At day's end, our outlook was that we had paid our dues and tomorrow would be our day.
Wednesday evening Jan 29th. Tarpon fishing at Haulover had us fishing in 68.5 to 69.2 degree water temperatures. We had to search hard to find some tarpon. We made each opportunity count and finished the evening at 2 for 2. Live shrimp is still the bait of choice.
Thursday Jan 30th. We fished straight out from Government Cut. The east wind had died down drastically and we flew the ex-light kite. In 160' we got our reward with a double header sailfish. The next drift we caught another sail in 170' and then the wind died so we couldn't keep the kite up. In the afternoon, we ran out to 400' and the wind picked back up to ex-light kite speed. At 342' we got another sailfish on the kite and as if on queue, the wind died again. We finished the day with 4 sailfish and made up for the previous day's slow fishing.
Thursday evening Jan 30th. The water temperature warmed up over 2 degrees to 71.4. The bite started later than usual and we caught and released our first tarpon at 7:35 pm. At that point, we were 1 for 4 and hoping for more opportunities. A move further south down the beach provided them, and we caught the next 3 fish on 3 straight drifts. Results for the evening were 4 for 7 on tarpon.
Friday evening Jan 31st. David and Kimberly Gates from Ft. Lauderdale wanted to catch some tarpon. Kimberly wanted to catch and experience the thrill of her first tarpon. The tarpon cooperated and during the sundown bite period, Kim found herself attached to a not to happy 100 pound tarpon. The fish made 2 jumps on its initial run. Shortly thereafter, it made a series of three jumps quite close to the boat. About 10 minutes later, it made another series of three jumps even closer to the boat. Kim hung in there like a champ and shortly there after, she showed the tarpon who was boss and made the catch. Next it was David's turn. The first fish he had on threw the hook on its second jump. The next fish made a great first run and the hook pulled when we put more pressure on the fish. Then there was a lull in the action. The final drift of the night was the charmer. Dave fought his 100# tarpon for over 40 minutes during which time, the fish never made a jump. We got some good shots of each fish at boat side and Dave's fish even soaked us all when it exploded away from the boat with a tremendous slap of its broad powerful tail.
Saturday Feb 1st. Today was a fishing lesson day aboard Jorge Bombino's 24' Robalo. We left Haulover ramp along with his son, Andy and his father-in-law and headed to Government Cut to catch pilchards and herring. Along the way he learned about several of the spring and summer time bait spots. We took the tour of the Cut area and caught our bait as we went. Next it was building leaders time and then a quick run out to the Cuban Hole. We started in 60' and drifted offshore with the NW wind. Almost immediately a kingfish sky rocketed the bait. We got lots of hits, but only one hook up. The kings were on the small side and did a wonderful job of knocking the baits off our hooks. Persistence paid and we caught another, then a double, and then a couple of bonito. In the afternoon, we switched to treble hook rigs and slow trolled our baits. This resulted in 2 more kingfish. Back at the ramp, Jorge got a list of supplies he needed and is anxiously awaiting his next trip to try out his new learned knowledge.
To sum it up, sailfishing is good, tarpon fishing is excellent, and the kingfish are snapping like crazy. Give me a call and lets go fishing.
Captain Dave
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