It's hard to believe, however, another new year is upon us. Time is flying and fishing makes it pass by all the quicker. We ended 2010 on a very high note with the exception of one trip. In comes 2011 and it's back to high gear again.
Whether you want to fish offshore or inshore or a combination of both, the action has been and continues to be very good. Offshore the kingfish and sailfish are cooperating nicely. Throw in action with mahi-mahi, mutton snapper, and bonito and it makes for a well rounded variety of fish.
Move inshore and tarpon remains the king. The water temperature has rebounded nicely after the recent cold fronts and so has the tarpon action. You can reasonably expect several shots during the evening on fish that range in size from 20 – 90 pounds.
Johan Karvik and his son Linus from Sweden saw great action starting with kingfish. We fished straight out from Haulover in the 90 – 110 foot range. Both the flatlines and downrigger produced steady action. A steady stream of birds were flying north and south just offshore of us so we ran out to 200 feet to take a look. A nice weedline had the birds and our attention. Slow trolling pilchards produced a small school of mahi-mahi and the action got crazy for several minutes. Mahi-mahi was both Johan and Linus' dream fish and they couldn't believe their dream had come true. As quick as they came, the mahi-mahi left us. We finished the half day trip with a final kingfish and headed back to TNT Marine Center.
The father and son team of Richard and Richie Rusak along with Joe Lodato got into kingfish, Spanish mackerel, and mutton snapper on their half day trip. The last time Richard fished with me, we caught a mutton snapper while slow trolling a pilchard on the downrigger. When Richards's turn came, the downrigger popped and he said "I hope it's a mutton". When I saw color on the fish, much to all our surprise, darned if wasn't a mutton snapper again. We went through a period of several fish when I thought we were using rubber hooks. We finally straightened that out and ended the morning on a high note.
Fred Dumas had been fishing several times on his boat with limited success. He saw a rerun of a TV show I made with Mark Sosin and happened to see me driving home on I-95. He gave me a call and set up a trip to learn on to improve his fishing. We started off with catching live bait. With the well stuffed with pilchards we started off with some kingfish. Next we moved south to the Twin Towers area. Some heavy chumming gave us a very good reward in the form of a double header sailfish. Fred could hardly believe what was happening. The first fish ate the downrigger bait. The second ate a flatline. It was back and forth with each fish with lots of give and take. Finally we were taking more that giving and we released the first sailfish. Fred started working on the second fish and soon had it under control and coming to the boat. The second fish was released and we ended the trip on a high note.
Tim Moore got in on some very hot kingfish action. With a well full of pilchards and herring, we started an offshore drift in 85 feet. All it took was throwing out several pilchards as live chum and the action started. It was fast and frantic. Tim ran from rod to rod and all I could do was throw a fish in the box, throw out another bait, and get ready to gaff another fish. It took all of 7 minutes to limit out. We straightened out the rods and Tim wanted to try for a sailfish. I moved up to the Twin Towers area and put out the baits. As we drifted in the area of a group of wrecks, we caught and released several kingfish. We had a sailfish on for a short time before it broken our wire leader. Action with several more kings and then it got crazy. We watched a sailfish stalk one of our flatline baits. The bow flatline rod bent over and we were hooked up. Then the stern flatline bent over and we had a double header sailfish on. Prior to all this, Tim had asked me how one angler fights two sails at once. He was now in the middle of experiencing it for himself. Back and forth it went with both fish. Lots of jumps, leaps, and greyhounding action along with long powerful runs had Tim moving from rod to rod. The first fish came alongside and was released. Now we could move toward the second fish and recover line. The second fish came boat side and was also released. We ended the half day with 8 kingfish, keeping 4, and 2 sailfish releases.
George Brodish now has the tarpon bug after his evening trip. We fished Haulover and this was the first time George was fishing for tarpon. During our conversations, we discovered that we both had been drafted into the Army and had both served time in Germany. We told lots of stories about our military time between fighting tarpon. The action started a little after it got totally dark. The first fish gave us back our hook on the first jump. Several drifts later, the hook stayed in and George caught and released his first tarpon. We kept working the area and we caught and released another fish. Then the Powerbait Rattle Shrimp got hit. We fought that fish till it gave us back the bait on its second or third jump. I was busy clearing the live shrimp lines and couldn't keep track. We had enough time for just one more drift. That's all it took and George was hooked up to the biggest fish of the evening. It came along side several times and then took off again and again. When George got a very good look at the size of the fish he was amazed at what he had just caught and where we were when he caught it. I released the tarpon and we had a very short ride back to TNT Marine Center as we relived the 5 tarpon we had just had on.
Chris and Sonya Seward were down for the Orange Bowl game. They also wanted to get in some tarpon fishing and get Sonya's first tarpon. Once again we fished Haulover. The fish were feeding very finicky to start with. We would see our rod tip twitch and then about 30 seconds later, a tarpon would jump. Finally, a tarpon ate like it should have. Like the previous trip, it threw the hook on its first jump. Two drifts later we got a solid hook up. Chris was on the rod and Sonya took pictures. Now it was Sonya's turn. Her fish hooked solid and after several minutes of jumps and running around the boat, Sonya had caught and released her first tarpon. All the action was captured on film by Chris. A bluefish cut in on the action and then we made a major move. It turned out to be the right one. We jumped a fish on the first drift. On the second drift, Chris caught and released another fish. On the last drift of the evening, Sonya caught a bonnethead shark. 3 for 5 on tarpon along with a bluefish, bonnethead, and Sonya's first tarpon. Mission accomplished. Their next stop was the Orange Bowl the next evening.
There you have it. Up to date and current once again. More trips scheduled for tomorrow, so check back for more fishing adventures aboard Knot Nancy. To make your own adventure, give me a call or email, it's that simple.
Captain Dave Kostyo
Knot Nancy Fishing Charters, Inc
305-965-9454
www.knotnancy.com
nkostyo@bellsouth.net