I guess it is time to accept that we are back to reality. After some great Bahamas fish, we are fishing in Miami again. We have had some terrific inshore action, but the offshore scene has been pretty slow.
Back on June 23rd we fished the inlet in the evening. We saw a few tarpon, but they had no desire to munch on our live crabs. We did catch a couple snook and jump a good sized tarpon on live herring.
Saturday we spent the day bottom fish. We worked very hard to catch a gray snapper, a big scamp grouper, a couple small almaco jacks, half a dozen bonitos and a barracuda. Even our swordfish action was slow. We fished the Hydro Glow Darkside of the Moon, swordfish tournament. The wind blew, the rain fell and the swordfish bit several miles north of the spot I chose to fish. Of course I learned that the next day. Monday night we had three tarpon on, but could not get one to the boat. We moved over to the inlet and caught one snook. And that was fishing with one of the best snook anglers alive. It is slow when Tommy Green can't catch a snook.
The next night Alex and Big John had a little better luck. They caught 2 good sized tarpon and had 4 others on for several minutes each. We had a good day of bottom fish on the 28th. We caught 2 nice gray groupers, 4 mutton snappers, a genuine red snapper about 7 pounds, plus a sailfish, bonito and king mackerel on the surface lines. The next evening we had 2 out of 6 tarpon on those live crabs and 2 snook on live herring. The last day of June we bottom fished again. We had pretty good action. The final score was 1 gray grouper, 1 mutton snapper, another genuine red snapper, 8 almaco jacks, 4 amberjacks, 3 bonito, 5 yellow eye snappers and 6 vermillion snapper. Don wouldn't hold his porgy The first couple days of July we missed out on a trip to Bimini because of the lousy weather forecast. The fourth of July we decided to watch the fireworks from the swordfish grounds.
We missed most of the show from shore. This was because a 125 pound swordfish was entertaining our anglers. As soon as we boated this nice fish, we caught and released a swordfish of about 50 pounds and headed home. This was how swordfish trips are supposed to be. The next night we tried to repeat that swordfish action. The wind blew, the rain fell and the angler called off the abuse in a couple hours. Thursday evening I fished with the star of "The Bite" TV fishing show, Matt Tambor, his wife April and 4 year old son, Tyler. We had a ball catching 8 snook, 8 big jacks, jumping a tarpon and we finished the evening with a 20 pound goliath grouper. This was the first goliath I have been involved in catching in Miami over my 50 years of fishing here. Mark caught a nice grouper Friday night we had another bad weather swordfish trip, with no fish.
Don, Mark and their friends have caught a lot of fish with us over the years, and one bad trip won't dampen their efforts. Saturday they caught a nice grouper, a porgy and 8 pound dolphin in the late afternoon. Once again the weather man said we would have a beautiful evening of swordfishing, and once again it blew 20 to 25 out of the north. We ran back inshore as the seas grew rough. We stopped at a little snook spot and caught 2 snook and a 15 pound cubera snapper to end the day and evening trip. Saturday the guys caught a couple small sharks, lost a sailfish, caught a 23 pound gray grouper, a couple almaco jacks, a big porgy and 3 barracudas. Don, Mark and the boys got talked into one more try at those swordfish, but it just was not in the cards. Once again we got shut out. Tuesday Dan and John caught a nice tarpon on the crabs and jumped another.
Then it was snook time. They caught 5 snook and 8 big jacks before time to go home. Friday Juan called on short notice and wanted to try some evening fishing. It was a good call as we caught 25 snook up to 38 inches, 3) 12 pound jacks and a barracuda. Mike got a nice wahoo Saturday Mike wanted tarpon and sailfish. He got 1 out of 3 tarpon. The kite fishing let us down with no sails, but Mike caught a king mackerel, barracuda, a wahoo about 25 pounds, couple small dolphin and a load of bonitos. We even got a couple big bonito on fly. Sunday the wind quit, so we headed offshore for dolphin. We found a couple 8 pound fish 16 miles offshore, but it was slow. We fished some wrecks and drifted the edge to catch a king and a couple bonitos. The evening was spent fishing with my sister Sue and her husband Joe. They had some good laughs catching 7 snook and 2 barracuda. Monday, Lisa and Ron joined us to tag some snook for the state. It was a very informative trip as we discovered that all the snook we caught were males. Even the 37 inch monster with the huge girth. We teased the "expert" snook authority who studies snook for the state, Ron, about why male snook would have 4 or 5 more snook following them to the surface if this was a spawning action. And why were all 14 snook males. Where are the females?
We also caught a tarpon and a couple barracuda. Ron and Lisa told us that a lot of the snook that die at anglers hands, die after they are released. The sience of snook To save the snook, use heavier tackle so they are not worn out too much, use circle hooks like the 3/0 Daiichi D84s we use, keep them in the water during the release, take quick pictures and get them back i n the water and revive them well before sending them back to their home. The average snook lays over a million eggs in August and September on Florida's east coast or in May and June on the west coast. These are the future of our sport. Take good care of them.
Swordfish season is here. They will be biting. At least they have every year for the last 6 years. Some years have been slow into July and then red hot and they were red hot this year in late June and up through July 4th. Let's go catch some.
E-mail me for reservations at captbouncer@bellsouth.net and be sure to get my new DVD "Basic Swordfish Tactics &Tackle" presented by Hydro Glow fish lights.
