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Fishing Report for Northern Miami-Dade County
Capt. Dave Kostyo
June 16, 2004
Miami - Saltwater Fishing Report
After a week off from fishing, I was ready to get back out on the ocean. All the trips I had scheduled since Sunday (6/13) have been dolphin trips. It has been a good news bad news situation. The good news is that there are plenty of dolphin in the area. The bad news is that they have been anywhere from 11.5 - 24 miles out. That means that you're going to burn some fuel in your search for these tasty blue/green/gold beauties. With gas prices up the way they have been, be prepared for sticker shock when refueling after a day of dolphin hunting.
On Sunday (6/13) Eileen, Sandy, and Dana fished for a half day. They wanted some dolphin, however, all they needed was 2 fish each. We had to do some searching for bait as it was very scarce in the Haulover area. We ended up at the crooked range marker and caught herring. Running straight out from Government Cut, we found the first group of fish about 15 miles out. After catching a few, the school moved on and so did we. Next, at about 20 miles, we finished off catching the 6 fish we needed and caught and released a few more. Eileen caught all her fish using a 6 pound spinning outfit and a jig. We finished the trip by running back in to the reef area and catching 1 of the 2 bonito we hooked up and releasing 1 ever pesky remora.
Monday (6/14) Al Trudeau and his friend Diane from Nashua, NH started 3 days of dolphin fishing. We found the bait in Haulover Inlet and caught an ample supply of pilchards. While running offshore, we got to see some of Mother Nature's beauty in the form of water spouts. Not just 1, but 3 that touched down on the ocean surface and 3 others that didn't quite make it. The sun was at the right angle on one of them and we could see the water being drawn upwards through the funnel in to the clouds. Continuing offshore, we found birds working in a heavy scattered grass area at 23 miles. It only took a few minutes of trolling the dolphin juniors before we had our first strike and brought the school up to the boat. It was then catch and keep some and release some. About the time the school was loosing interest and moving on, we got hit by a rain storm. We decided to run in to the reef and finish the day. The action included a missed hook up, 1 kingfish on the downrigger and 1 triggerfish on the downrigger in two drifts.
Tuesday (6/15), it was day two for Al and Diane. To have more fishing time, we bought pilchards from Mike on the Greenline out of Haulover. Today we found the scattered grass area at 17.8 miles out of Haulover. The dolphin juniors did their magic again and we soon had a gaffer size bull in the box. Moving south, we found a frigate bird that put us on a decent size school of large schoolies and small gaffer sized fish. We kept what we needed and released the rest.
Wednesday (6/16) the wind and seas picked up just a bit. At 11.8 miles out, we found 6 frigate birds working the area. Trolling put us on a fish in a hurry. We then followed the birds around for about a half hour with no results. As we started to run further offshore, we found a floater and it held fish. Each time we came back to it, we had action. Finally, we lost it and started drifting the area. In no time, the dolphin found us and the rod bending action continued. Then a sailfish swam by in a hurry and we couldn't get a bait to it. Our last move of the day had us finding another floater that held several fish and a small brown shark. We kept 8 fish and released 16. The fish were a mixture of schoolies and gaffers.
Inshore, the tarpon are still biting strong and mixed in with them have been some healthy size permit. We are fast coming to the end of tarpon season. I have dates available, so give me a call and lets go catch some fish.
Captain Dave
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