Time has flown by since my last report. The good news for dolphin (mahi-mahi) anglers is that they have finally shown up in good numbers off the coast of Miami. Where you'll find them on any given day could vary from 800 feet out to 15 miles or more. It is a hunt and search type fishery, however, when you get into them the reward is great.
Closer to shore, there is plenty of action with bonito, a few kingfish, some sailfish, and throw in mutton snapper and amberjacks. The toughest part of going offshore and live baiting is the catching of the live bait. It's been quite tough finding bait in the Haulover area both in the bay and along the beach.
The tarpon action at Government Cut has remained consistent. We've been averaging 4 to 6 shots at the silver king during a 4 hour trip. The average size has dropped a bit, however, there are still a few fish around that are pushing 100 pounds.
Alexander Schmieder and Burkhard Schultz combined to go 3 for 5 on tarpon during their ¾ evening tarpon trip. Fish were caught on both the north side and south sides of Government Cut.
Joel Reid and Ed Vermolen saw plenty of action with bonito and a dolphin during their ½ day trip out to the reef area.
Marie and Robert Cooper caught kingfish, bonito, and several pesky remora during their ¾ day trip out to the reef.
Zac Grossman and Joe Ballarini experienced the heart break of tarpon fishing during their 4 hour evening trip. Twice we hooked up with tarpon on Zac's fly rod using live crabs for bait. He wanted to fight a tarpon using a fly rod. Twice, the 20# tippet broke. He did get several jumps and long runs out of both fish before the tippet parted.
Alexander Schmieder and Burkhard Schultz were back for a ¾ day trip out to the reef. Sore arms and backs were the rule of the day as they battled numerous bonito. Neither angler could believe how hard bonito's pull.
Scott and Connor Herold also got into the bonito action on their trip. Throw in a nice size kingfish and they too had sore arms and backs.
John and Jeffrey Williams fished a half day and combined for a sailfish, a couple of dolphin, an amberjack, and numerous bonito. The sailfish was Jeffrey's first and he caught it on a 12# spinning outfit.
George Shipley, Senior, Junior, and Andrew Shipley's trip got cut short due to bad late afternoon thunderstorms. Just as the action started to heat up with bonito and barracuda, the storms had us running back to shore.
Chris and Jarrett Slekar along with Michael and Ray Lorenz experienced the frustration of catching live bait in the late afternoon. We went to several different known bait hangouts and found plenty of bait that didn't want to cooperate with either the sabiki rigs or the castnet. With just a few baits in the well, we ran offshore and caught a bonito. We had another fish on the bottom rod that came off about 30 feet before the sinker broke the surface. We started tarpon fishing much earlier than I had planned and watched several fish roll in the area, but had no takers. We made a quick trip in to pick up one of the anglers. We got our reward shortly after returning to Government Cut. Chris did battle with a very large tarpon that took us for a tour of the area both in the shallow water and the deep water. A very tired Chris won in the end and caught his first tarpon. The tarpon also won as after putting up a great fight, it was released.
Patrik Svensson, his wife Malin, and son and daughter Alexander and Freda combined to go 4 for 4 on tarpon during their 5 hour evening trip to Government Cut.
Rain shortened the next evening tarpon trip with Jim and his group. We did managed to catch and release 1 tarpon on the first drift before the rain and lightning had us running for cover.
Alex, Renzo, Andre, and Carlos got in on some great dolphin action in 900 feet when we found a 5 gallon bucket floating. When the action was over, we had 22 dolphin in the fish box and had also released another dozen or so that were under size. The fillets made for the makings of a great fish fry.
Ron Walker, Arturo Pena, Senior and Arturo Pena, Junior got into the tarpon action hot and heavy during their 6 hour evening trip. Both Arturo, Senior and Junior caught and released their first two tarpon each and Ron added two more tarpon to end up with a final tally of 6 for 6.
David and Andrew Dearing found plenty of dolphin action offshore on their 6 hour trip. We caught them trolling, live baiting, and with Kaplan jigs. The first several fish were found under a floating piece of wood. The remainder of fish that we caught were under birds that kept putting us on fish in the 12 – 15 mile range. We only kept 4 for dinner and released the rest. After about 18 fish we lost track of the count.
Jonathan Fine got to check off tarpon on his bucket list of fish he'd like to catch. We started off on the south side of Government Cut with the first tarpon throwing the hook on its first jump. After several drifts with no action, I moved to the north side. On the second drift, we jumped another tarpon and before Jonathan could dwell on missing a second fish, the stern rod bent over and he caught his first tarpon. We moved back to the south side for the final drift of the evening and he was rewarded with his second tarpon catch and release.
There you have it. Up to date once again.
The heat of the summer is upon us, but the dolphin action is good. Throw in some decent action on the reef and there is still plenty of action. Now all it takes is a call or email from you to book a trip.
Captain Dave Kostyo
Knot Nancy Fishing Charters, Inc
305-965-9454
www.knotnancy.com
nkostyo@bellsouth.net