Miami - Haulover to Fowey Light
Capt. Dean Panos
October 7, 2002
Miami - Saltwater Fishing Report
10/07/02
Fishing was a bit slow during last week, but improved greatly over the weekend.
The kingfish were solid from the Miami Sea Bouy and northward. Most of the kingfish were on the small size, but some 20 pounders were caught. The boats that did the best for kings, anchored and did a lot of live chumming. As long as you have plenty of live bait, it’s a great way to fish for them. Nobody seemed to have a problem catching their limit.
Sailfishing also improved greatly during the weekend. Most of the larger numbers of sailfish were caught down to the south, past Fowey. Many boats had 3 to 7 sailfish on Saturday and Sunday. Sailfishing in September was very good, and it seems like October is keeping on track. According to reports from way up coast (North and East Central Florida), there are pods and pods of sailfish heading south. Bring on some cold fronts and the sailfishing this season may be out of control.
Dolphin was a bit more sporadic, with one or two boats catching their limit, and quite a few more boats catching some dolphin, but not a lot. The good news was that there were some 20 – 30 pounders caught during the week and during the weekend. Most of the dolphin were a bit deeper (500- 600ft), but some were caught on the edge as well.
Swordfishing also improved. Although the weatherman was calling for East winds 5 – 10 knots with seas 1 – 3 ft, he was WRONG! The wind offshore was NE 15 – 20 and had the seas up to 4 – 6 ft, but as sloppy as a washing machine. On Friday night, we caught one nice swordfish. It measured 56 inches and weighed 100 pounds. This swordfish ate a blue runner, but instead of the usual bump on the rod, batting of the bill, this fish ate suicidal. From the moment the fish hit, the rod bent over double, and drag was screaming off the reel. That’s the way we like it – hit hard and stay hooked. I didn’t fish Saturday night, but I heard the swordfish bite got even better. One boat I spoke to had 11 hits and managed to catch one swordfish. Bad ratio, but still lots of bites.
We’ll be out Tuesday evening again for swordfish, so will update as we can.
If you are interested in kingfish, sailfish, dolphin or swords, it seems like it’s pretty good right now, so give us a call and lets set up that trip!
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