Dolphin, kingfish, and sailfish with some blackfin tuna beginning to show up are the main offshore species to be found. They are hitting everything from the kite, to flatlines, to downrigger, and the bottom rod. This is also the time of year when you'll have your best shot at catching a large dolphin. The wind has finally come down to a more comfortable speed, resulting in calmer sea conditions.
Meanwhile, inshore the tarpon are still here and cooperating. It's also the time of year when what you think is your next tarpon hit turns out to be a permit. We don't target them in the tarpon area, but they will be swimming there and the next strike could be a nice size permit.
An evening tarpon trip with Scott Salyers, George Large, and David Bertolozzi had an added bonus. We are in the time of year when it is not uncommon to catch a permit while we are drifting for tarpon. That's exactly what happened on our first drift. George was up and he got the pleasure of catching and releasing a 30# permit. The next drift had David hooked up with a tarpon that decided to give us back our hook on its third jump after dumping about 100 yards of line off the reel. The next hit we had was a solid hook up and David caught and released the tarpon after plenty of pictures were taken at boat side.
Oscar Marrero and Ray Cruz had one goal in mind. They wanted to catch some dolphin to take home for dinner. We loaded up with herring and pilchards at Government Cut and put out our first baits in 100' as I slow trolled offshore. Our plans changed when we decided to run further out to find better water conditions. We found the conditions and found frigate birds beating the surface. The only thing was that we found no fish under or around them. I set up and drift and 5 minutes later the dolphin found us on both the flatlines and kite. They were singles and large schoolie size. We started working back out deeper with the kite and we had steady action for the remainder of the trip. All the action came on the kite from that point and it was all singles. We also had visits from 2 sailfish. We caught and released one and broke a line on the other. By the end of the trip, we had 10 fish in the box ranging in size from 4 - 12 pounds along with a 1 for 2 on sailfish. Lots of smiles and lots of fillets as they both thought about the fish dinners they were going to have.
Today was one of those days that most all anglers who fish for dolphin (mahi-mahi) dream of. John Masel, Gary Masel, and Rodney Raub wanted to spent some quality time together and get in some fishing. We started out by buying bait so we could get more fishing time on their half day trip. We took our time getting out through some bumpy sea conditions to the 300 foot depth. Out went the kite with 2 baits and I started working the 300 - 400 foot depth range. It didn't take long before a small dolphin came calling on the short bait. I turned the boat to get ready to catch the fish and when I looked back at the short bait, a very large dolphin had pushed the small fish out of the way and ate the bait. John hooked the fish and the battle was on. The fish made numerous great jumps as it ran away from us. Then it sounded and John worked it back to the surface where the fish made several more high jumps. It went down again and John kept the pressure up and as he worked the fish back up, only to have the fish go down again. It was a see saw battle for a while with John starting to win. He slowly worked the fish up and the very tired bull dolphin came along side quietly for me to gaff and put in the boat. Everyone was amazed at the size and strength of the fish. We took pictures before the fish was thrown into the fish box. Back at TNT Marine Center, the fish weighed in at a healthy 48 pounds. The kite baits were put back out and we worked in depth from 180 - 500 feet the remainder of the morning. Our best action came in the 300 - 400 foot range with 3 more schoolie size fish.
Fishing's great so give me a call 305 965-9454 or send me an email nkostyo@bellsouth.net to schedule your trip and get in on some great springtime action.
Captain Dave Kostyo
Knot Nancy Fishing Charters, Inc.
305 620-5896 Charter
305 965-9454 Cell
www.knotnancy.com
nkostyo@bellsouth.net
