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Fishing Report for Northern Miami-Dade County
Capt. Dave Kostyo
April 21, 2004
Miami - Saltwater Fishing Report
Dolphin, sailfish, or tarpon, take your choice they all are being very cooperative. Throw in some kingfish, and what more can you ask for? Pleasant sea conditions, north current, and some good blue/green edges have given us the good offshore fishing. A good shrimp run on the night of the new moon gave us outstanding tarpon action.
Monday (4/19) evening was the night of the new moon. It gave us the same fishing action for tarpon as took place on the night of the full moon earlier this month. The shrimp ran and the tarpon were there to feast on them. Jim Lefevre from Stuart, Florida had one whale of a night. It started with the first drift and continued throughout the evening and included 1 double header. With NE/E winds @ 16 - 21 mph, we used the sea anchor to slow our drift down. Despite the windy conditions, we could see the tarpon blasting the shrimp off the surface. We had a total of 9 hook ups, 8 of which were on live shrimp, and 1 on a live crab. Of those 9 hook ups, we landed and released 7 fish ranging in size from 70 to over 100 pounds. In between tarpon bites, we also release 2 ladyfish that went 3 pounds apiece. It was hard to leave this kind of action, however, as I say, "All good things must come to an end", so we said goodbye to the action and headed in with visions of more tarpon pulling on the ends of our lines.
Wednesday (4/21) was a full day offshore. Our goal was two fold. One was to test ride in the 28' Whitewater, and the other was to catch a few dolphin for dinner. James Joiner from Coconut Creek was the angler and the first order of business was catching live bait. We ran the outside from Haulover Inlet to Government Cut so James could get a feel for the ride of the Whitewater. Next, it took some searching, but we found the herring inside Government and caught about 4 dozen baits. We started in 225' off the Monument Buoy and at 160' we caught and released 2 small dolphin. With good north current, the next drift was set up in 340'. It didn't take long before we had a school of decent size schoolies around the boat. We kept 3 and released 3 more. We ran out to under a frigate bird, which resulted in no action. Moving out to 400', we caught a 10# skipjack tuna. By now we were just south of the Miami Sea Buoy and heading north fast. Our next action came in 310' when a sailfish ate the herring on the kite and gave James a good workout after it realized that something was wrong. He made several laps around the boat before I released the sail. Setting up again, this time we slow trolled down a weedline with no results. Back to drifting and just before crossing the blue/green edge, we caught and released another dolphin. Back out to the blue water and another drift. I was live chumming and chunking with the dead baits when we saw a larger dolphin swim by the boat and eat our chunks. Quickly throwing out a live bait resulted in the dolphin eating it and missing the hook up. Another bait thrown out and by this time the dolphin found one of the flatlines we already had out and we added a 12# dolphin to the fish box. One last drift resulted in no further action and it was time to head back to Spinnaker Marina and fillet some dolphin for dinner. Both goals for the day were accomplished.
With the springtime dolphin season starting, the thing to remember is that you do not have to make long runs offshore to find the fish. On most days, the action will be in 400' of water and less. With fuel prices going up like they have, save your fuel money now for later in the summer when longer runs offshore will be necessary to find the mahi-mahi.
Captain Dave
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