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Fishing Report for Northern Miami-Dade County
Capt. Dave Kostyo
July 17, 2005
Miami - Saltwater Fishing Report
Dolphin fishing in the Haulover area for the past several days has had its ups and downs. There has been a general lack of structure to fish to and the best bet has been finding birds working over a school of fish. In past years, finding some type of large object floating would almost always produce plenty of dolphin. This year, it has been the exact opposite. I have found my fair share of floating objects, however, only 1 out of 15 has produced fish. It hasn't mattered whether I've found these objects during the week or the weekend. On the brighter side, there have been fewer undersized fish.
On Thursday (7/14), Brian Hallmark and friends Mark and Shawn all from Tennessee, took some time off from their convention to get in some dolphin fishing. The run and gun technique of fishing emphasized the run portion all morning long. A wooden pallet had nothing but triggerfish, filefish, and bar jacks on it. We found lots of weed patches in the 24 - 28 mile range and only 1 patch produced one fish. We ran back south and when we were 23.9 miles east of Haulover Inlet, I spotted another slick worth investigating. As I approached, we all saw the frigate bird working lower. Next it was the 2 terns that put us on the school of fish and the gun part of the technique finally came into play. Everyone caught multiple fish and when the school moved on, we had plenty of fish for the fish fry that evening.
Friday (7/15) the wind picked up and made the run offshore a bumpy one. Bob Meyers along with Seth, John, and Nora helped spot lots of birds. The birds were searching just like we were. Frigate birds circled and then flew off. Terns flew NE as they covered lots of territory. There was only a patch of grass here and there. The decision was made to run back in to the reef area and get in some type of action. It turned out to be a good move. On 4 consecutive drifts, when we hit 180', we got action on either the flat lines or down bait. Bonito, barracuda, and triggerfish kept everyone busy and turned what started as a very bleak day into an OK one.
Saturday (7/16) I had the pleasure of fishing with Ray Mahalick, his wife Karen, and daughter Jennie. The goal was dolphin and blackfin tuna. Once again, the wind was up and made it bumpy running offshore. It was beginning to look like a carbon copy of yesterday's trip. Running south and working with Larry and Bruce on Lady Lo, we found the right flock of birds and put a couple of decent dolphin in the box and released some under sized ones also. Continuing south, we found more birds that were over a school of small tuna that moved fast and wouldn't feed. Moving south again, we found 3 birds that put us on some more undersized fish that we had fun catching and releasing. The large tree that we came upon next provided us with fun catching bar jacks. Even stopping for lunch didn't bring any more dolphin our way. Working back north showed us nothing but pretty blue clear water, so once again like yesterday, we decided to run in to the reef area. We had a 3 mph north current and started just south of the Government Cut Sea Buoy. The first drift produced two baits chopped in half at the mid body and one triggerfish on the downrigger. The next several drifts were fishless. We were on the last drift of the day and I had just reeled in the bow flatline, when the middle flatline took off. Jennie picked up the rod and the fish was dumping line from the 20# spinning outfit in a hurry. She was holding on tight and doing a great job of chasing the fish around the boat. It was a back and forth battle and soon, the fish was getting to be too much for Jennie to handle. She asked her Dad to take over and sat down amazed at how hard the fish was pulling. Meanwhile, Karen was capturing the battle on film and Ray had his hands full with a very stubborn fish. It was back and forth for about ten minutes before he started to win the battle. In another 10 minutes, we saw color and a large blackfin tuna. The tired fish came right to the boat and it was gaffed and put in the fish box. The team effort of daughter, father, and moral support from mom ended the day on a very high note. After being bled and iced, the fish later weighed in at 25 pounds.
Once again, we're up to date. The fishing remains quite good and persistence has paid off most of the time. Give me a call to schedule your trip.
See you out in the Stream.
Captain Dave
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