Miami - Haulover to Fowey Light
Capt. Dean Panos
October 7, 2001
Miami - Saltwater Fishing Report
10/7/01
It’s been a while since my last report, but the charter business has definitely been affected by the various outcomes of the past month’s events. It seems people are starting to get there lives as back to normal as possible and we actually had two back to back trips this past week.
On Saturday, the water was green, with a bit of South current. Not the best of conditions, but conditions that could produce a decent kingfish bite. We first started drifting from 200 –80 ft of water in front on the Monument Bouy with little action. We then anchored in 95 ft of water, and started some heavy live chumming with pilchards. With pilchards on the flatlines, goggle eyes on the kite with helium (very little wind) and goggle eyes on the bottom, the kingfish started to show up. In about an hour or so, we caught our limit, and missed a few others as well. For a while, the live chumming had the kingfish going nuts. We had kingfish skying baits. Skying a bait is when a kingfish dashes from under a bait and propels itself into the air like a missile. Watching a 20 pound king, 15 feet in the air is impressive. Most of the kingfish we caught were of decent size, 10 –18 pounds, with only a few below 10 pounds. We also caught 2 gag grouper, one about 15 pounds and the other about 8 pounds. From the rest of the fleet, the kingfish action seemed to pick up in the afternoon.
Today we had a ½ day trip, and unfortunately the action for us was not as good as the day before. I elected to go back to the same area as yesterday. We started the day anchored. There was little current, and it going opposite the drift. This caused our fishing lines to up the anchor line, away from the dead chum as well as the live chum we were throwing. Not good conditions for this type of fishing. Besides having a sailfish show up 50 ft from the boat and eating our live chum, we had little action. With the conditions as they were, we decided to drift. While drifting, we caught some kingfish and missed plenty of others. The action seemed to have shifted a bit to the north (north of the sea bouy) and the kingfish moved out a bit deeper (130 –160 ft.) Although we only had a morning trip, I kept the VHF on, and it seemed that again, the action picked up in the afternoon. Half day trips are a great way to get a few hours out in the water, but sometimes it can work against you. The fishing can be great all day, great in the morning, or great in the afternoon. It’s sort of a gamble, but getting out on the water and catching some fish is better than sitting on the couch and dreaming about fishing.
With that said, get out and enjoy the fall run of kingfish. Soon sailfish will be knocking on our door as well. Get away from the daily grind, go out and enjoy a good day of fishing. Support your local economy as well as your local charter captains.
Capt. Dean Panos
More Fishing Reports:
