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Miami - Haulover to Fowey Light
Capt. Dean Panos
October 5, 2003
Miami - Saltwater Fishing Report
10/05/03
Some day trips and some night trips have been the story for the past few weeks. The day trips have been producing kingfish on every trip and sailfish on every trip but one. Most of the kings have been from Government Cut and north, between 90 – 130 ft of water, although our last day trip (Friday) we did better on the kings in 150 feet of water. Live pilchards have been the ticket. The fall run of kings usually yield smaller kingfish in the 5 – 15 pound range, although mixed in will be some bigger ones. Bait has been fairly easy, and we have been live chumming quite a bit. With the live chumming, we have been able to raise one or two sailfish per trip. September is usually a slower time for sailfish on the edge, perhaps this is a good sign of things to come. Traditionally, November marks the beginning of sailfish season for us. I haven’t bottom fished lately, but a few of the boats that have, did well on the muttons. Again, live pilchards seemed to have done the trick. Dolphin fishing has started to become hit or miss, and that eventually will fizzle out. We do catch dolphin in the winter, and they are usually of decent size, but the dolphin we catch in the winter, will be caught live baiting on the edge.
We has some decent swordfish trips and some not so decent. We went 3 for 3 one night, followed by 1 for 2, 2 for 2 and then 0 –1 twice. All the fish we caught were of legal size but none were over 100 pounds. The past two trips we were 0 for 1, but we have had some pretty strange current in the Gulfstream. The wind has been out of the northern directions (NW to NE), which slows your drift down, but makes it bumpy. On top of the slower drift due to wind, the current has been unusually slow as well. Slow current and northern winds produced drift speeds of less than 2 mph. Gulfstream current is usually 4 to 6 mph. Before the current died off, the swordfishing was pretty good, and I predict, that when the current picks back up, the bite will pick up as well. Last month (September) we had 12 swordfish trips and caught 18 swordfish. Not bad odds for a premier billfish. Last year, Oct 2002, was the best month I have seen for swordfishing, and 2003 should be the same. We had nights last October that we hooked 15 swordfish in one night, and landed 9. There were also numerous nights we were 4 for 9, 6 for 7, etc. This may not be the norm, but it surely was a blast. Catching a broadbill swordfish is any angling experience, even if you only get one or two shots per night. Primarily, you have no idea how big the swordfish will be. It can be 40 pounds or 400 pounds.
I have a couple of day trips and evening swordfish trips this week, so I’ll keep you posted. Weekends are already getting booked pretty well in advance. Weekends are almost booked into December already, so book your trips now and whether its sailfish by day or swordfish by night, lets go get em!
Tight Lines and Good Fishing,
Capt. Dean Panos
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