Summer in January makes fishing tough
Capt. Bouncer Smith
January 15, 2013
Miami - Saltwater Fishing Report
When will winter ever come? We sure have had our fill of summer weather. This warm weather has made fishing tough compared to other years.
In November we had some good days and some slow ones.
We had a day with Mark and Dustin when the wind blew out of the NE about 18 knots. We anchored on a wreck and the fishing was on. We ended up with 3 black grouper, a 40 pound African pompano, 4 big amberjacks, a cero mackerel, a 30 pound cobia, 2 bonito, 12 mahi a 12 pound rainbow runner and a barracuda. That was some day of action.
Tarpon fishing was real good in November. Most evenings we caught 4 or 5 tarpon.
Another fish that was showing off the good things that fishery management can do is grouper. We had several days with multiple good sized groupers.
Bay fishing was another highlight all through November, December and into January. We had some guys in town from Boston and other points north. The wind was blowing so they requested bay fishing. They caught 25 bluefish, 20 jack crevalles, 6 sea trout, 3 ladyfish, 20 grouper, 2 snapper, 1 snook and 1 tarpon. That was a lot of action.
December had some great trips and more silky sharks than I have ever seen. On December 15 Larry, Joe and Sean caught 4 sailfish, 2 mahi, 3 bonito, 15 silky sharks, 1 kingfish, 1 mutton snapper, 1 amberjack and 5 gag grouper.
The 16th we had a trip from 1 to 9 PM targeting swordfish and tarpon. Mike and Jake caught 6 nice mahi, 1 of 2 wahoo, a 140 pound swordfish and 3 tarpon. Tyr for that score anywhere other than south Florida.
And then the bottom fell out. As we fished through the last week of December the fishing dropped way off. We caught a couple of sailfish, a couple of tarpon, and other assorted fish, but nothing like the weeks before. Our catch of the week was with some fun fill guest from Toronto. They wanted a shark and caught a 300 pound goliath grouper on 50 pound test Prospec monofilament line, a Penn 50 international and a 3 lb ladyfish for bait.
The last day of 2012 Mark caught 3 sailfish and a kingfish to close out the year.
January 2013 is off to a rough start. We haven't tarpon fished much, sailfish, mahi and kings have been scarce, We catch some nice fish every day, but it hasn't been easy.
We had some great guys in from Atlanta on Friday and Saturday. They caught a couple of sailfish, a king, 4 bonito, a few Spanish mackerel, a mutton snapper and 3 sharks on Friday and wanted some table fare on Saturday. They had a good day with 4 tilefish, 7 almaco jacks about 15 pounds each, a couple of sharks and topped the day off with a 30 pound wahoo.
Thursday evening I will be at Dusky Sport Center talking about inlet and beach fishing. From 6 to 9 PM.
Miami Fishing Forecast:
give us a little cooler weather and fishing will go crazy. We have good tarpon fishing now and a drop in temperature should bring on the sailfish. Bay fishing has been great as has been mackerel. All this will improve if temperatures drop a little
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