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Fishing Report for Northern Miami-Dade County
Capt. Dave Kostyo
April 10, 2004
Miami - Saltwater Fishing Report
The month of April is speeding by like a blur. We've had some persistent westerly wind and it has had its effect on the offshore fishing. In general, there has been a lack of current and blue water. When some blue water finally moved in, there was still no current. The one bright spot was some decent kingfish action on Friday morning.
Meanwhile inshore, the tarpon action was excellent with the full moon. Then it tapered some a few days later. The one consistent with the tarpon for now is that they are biting after it gets dark. Prior to this full moon phase, they were turning on to crabs. With the full moon, they switched back to shrimp.
On Monday evening (4/5), Angelo Tarantino and his son, Mike from Long Island, NY experienced what many tarpon fishermen dream of. As soon as it got dark and the full moon came up, the shrimp made a major run and tarpon by the hundreds were having a field day feeding on them. We watched them exploding all around us and then the excitement began. Mike's fish took us to the main channel just as a large freighter was passing by. We dodged it and kept the fish hooked up and Mike showed the tarpon who was boss. We released Mike's first tarpon (80 pounds) and ran back to catch one for Angelo. It didn't take long and Angelo's made the trip to the main channel also before we released it. We ended the evening going 2 for 4 and enjoyed watching the feeding frenzy.
Tuesday morning (4/6) it was offshore to green water and no current. The reports from up and down the line were basically the same, no current, green water and little to no action. The deep rod gave us all of our opportunities, a kingfish, red grouper, and a pesky remora.
Tuesday evening (4/6) we were hoping for a repeat of Monday nights tarpon feeding frenzy. It got dark and we saw a few explosions on the surface. We caught and released a tarpon. The moon came up and we saw a few more tarpon feeding, however, nothing like the previous night. We caught and released another fish. Then another and on the final drift of the night, yet another. That made us 4 for 4 for the evening. The fish still were feeding on shrimp and our crab got no action.
Wednesday (4/7) it was back offshore. Conditions were still the same, green water and no current. Once again, we picked away at the fish. One kingfish, 1 amberjack, 1 shark, and 2 of the every pesky remoras were caught and released. We broke a line on the downrigger and had a toothy critter cut us off on our straight mono leader.
Thursday evening (4/8) the tarpon kept up their after dark feeding pattern. Shrimp was still the bait and we had three opportunities. We landed and released one of the three.
Friday afternoon/evening (4/9) saw us getting numerous shots at fish during the offshore portion of the trip. We landed and released 1 amberjack, kept 2 kingfish (10 & 18 pounds), watched a sailfish crush a bait and drop it, and pulled the hook on several fish. Once again there was no current, but some pretty blue water had pushed in to 120 feet. Our action came in the 75 - 140 foot range. Moving inshore for tarpon turned out to be very frustrating. The wind picked up, the drift improved and we had 3 shots. The tarpon took their revenge on me this evening and none of the fish stayed hooked up. During the last drift of the evening, the wind died and then changed direction so that we started to drift back over our baits.
We'll be back out there again this afternoon/evening as well as fishing almost every day this coming week. I'll keep you posted.
Captain Dave
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