Good news for the offshore fisherman. The kingfish have finally shown back up after a long absence. Even more good news, dolphin (mahi-mahi) have made their Spring appearance. Sailfish, blackfin tuna, and bonito have been steady most all winter. Throw in the kingfish and dolphin and the Spring transition period has started.
Closer in to shore there has been decent action on Spanish mackerel. The patches and shallow artificial reef areas produce numerous varieties of fish and fast action for very young anglers who don't have the patience to wait out the larger offshore fish.
At the Inlets and in the Bay, tarpon action has been good to outstanding. The fish are getting larger and are now ranging from 30 – 120 pounds. When the strike takes place, you just never know how big the fish will be.
Richard Reamer and Warren White had a one day layover between their flights to Brazil. They didn't want to sit in a hotel room the entire time, so being the avid anglers that they are, they decided to go find out about Miami tarpon fishing. The wind was howling from the ENE/E @ 24 – 29 knots. The south side at Government Cut gave us the best protection from the wind. The tarpon didn't mind the windy conditions. We caught fish on our first three drifts on both live shrimp and the Berkley Powerbait Rattle Shrimp. By the end of the evening, we went 4 for 5 on live shrimp and 1 for 2 on the rattle shrimp.
The next evening, the wind switched to the east @ 20 – 26 knots. Rocky Taranto and Vinny DiMarco were enjoying a much needed break from the winter weather up north. The tarpon that evening decided to vacate the area. We worked very hard to produce Vinny's first tarpon for him. The fish ate the rattle shrimp over the live shrimp. Just goes to show you never know which bait they'll eat.
Kaven Gaudreau, Benoit St-Hilaire, and Maxime Blouin got into some good offshore action on their shortened trip. We started off with a sailfish on the long kite bait, along with kingfish on both the bottom rod and downrigger. After that fire drill, we added 2 dolphin to the fish box. A little while later, the downrigger produced another kingfish. The final fish was a sailfish that ate the short kite bait as I was moving back into shallower water.
Jerry Pressley picked on a large fish for his first tarpon. Once again we had to do some hunting and searching to find them. The 90 pound tarpon gave Jerry all he could ask for. He was up to the challenge and was amazed at the power and strength of the big fish. Once we got a DNA sample and released the fish, we set up another drift. It didn't take long before we had an even larger fish on. This time Jerry picked on a 120 pound fish. The aerial show that this fish put on was one that no one should ever miss. The jumps, leaps, greyhounding, and head shakes kept us shaking our heads in disbelief that a fish could do all that and still have plenty of strength and stamina left.
Chris Drouin fished for tarpon for the first time. We started off with a gag grouper and bluerunner. Then we got our reward and Chris caught and released his first tarpon. We made a move to the Bay and found nothing there. Back outside, once again Chris hooked up and added his second tarpon. Both fish ate live shrimp.
Bob Lubin and Marcus Andrade started off slow on their tarpon trip and built momentum as the evening progressed. The first fish of the evening was a lizardfish. This was followed by two gag grouper as we worked our way up the food chain. Next it was two tarpon hook ups within minutes of each other. Both fish threw the hook on their first jump. Finally, Marcus got a solid hook up and fought, caught , and released his first tarpon.
Gustavo Uscocovich and his son, Gustavo Jr. experienced an evening of tarpon fishing where persistence was the key to success. Fishing outside of Government Cut, we watched loads of tarpon rolling around. They definitely we just playing and not in a feeding mood. We fished all three areas at the Cut and had three bluerunners to show for our efforts. Our last resort was the Bay with very weak tide conditions. About ten minutes after setting up, we had a 60 pound fish on. A few minutes into the fight, the tarpon went ballistic and made 3 consecutive 6 foot high jumps. The third one did the trick and we came back with a broken leader. We had no more action at that spot. We moved to another location and watched a fish consistently feeding in the same spot. We cast live bait, artificial bait, and artificial/live bait combos to the area with no results. Finally I had enough and we moved to another spot where we could see and cast baits to individual fish. It took Gustavo a little while to get the hang of it, however, his persistence paid off and he caught and released his first tarpon.
There you have it, good action offshore and plenty of inshore action for tarpon. Now it's up to you to give me a call or send me an email to book your trip and enjoy the outstanding action we have in Miami.
Captain Dave Kostyo
Knot Nancy Fishing Charters, Inc
305-965-9454
www.knotnancy.com
nkostyo@bellsouth.net