Late March is upon us and weather conditions have finally started to return to a more normal pattern for South Florida. Air temperatures have raised as high as 80 degrees and water temperatures have come up to the high 60's on a cool day and low 70's on a warmer day.
The inshore fishing in North and South Biscayne Bay is returning to what I would expect it should be like this time of year and offshore fishing has been red hot. Fishing in Flamingo is coming back slowly for the near shore species like the snook, redfish, tarpon and other fish that make Flamingo fishing so interesting and out along the boundaries markers of Florida Bay the Spanish mackerel, bluefish, jacks, ladyfish and a few cobias and tripletail are either starting to return to the Florida Bay or are in good numbers making me believe that we should see Spanish mackerel, pompano, bluefish and other migratory species passing the Miami area all the way into late June.
Look for large jack crevalles, lots of large sea trout, ladyfish, bluefish, mackerel, barracudas, snook, tarpon, snappers and groupers to make a good showing in North and South Biscayne Bay And Flamingo and these fish will be eating anything that resembles a shrimp or small baitfish. My clients will be casting live pilchards, free lined, suspended from a Cajun Thunder float or on the bottom plus ¼ ounce Hookup lures tipped with live and dead baits plus Gulp three and four inch shrimp along with an assortment of Rapala plugs like the Twitchin Raps, X Raps, Skitter Walks and Clackin Raps. All of this fishing will be with light tackle reels like the Daiwa Tierra's and Advantage spinning reels that I will have loaded with six to 20 pound lines. These reels will be attached to seven foot Key Largo graphite fishing rods in light to medium heavy classes. All of my hooks are made by O. Mustad & Son and some will be J hooks and others will be circle hooks.
Offshore when the weather allows my clients will have shots at giant tarpon, large snook, big jack crevalles and possibly a permit along the beach and in the Inlets and then further off we will be looking for large king mackerel, bonitos, blackfin tuna, sailfish and dolphins.
Check out my web site at www.getemsportfishing.com and look for the most recent pictures of which many maybe of you!
Recent catches:
My son Zach who works for Great Lake Dock & Dredge has just returned from Ocean City after doing his two week on rotation and now will have his one week off before his rotation starts again. One day after being back we are on the water fishing off of Haulover Inlet. The recent West winds have made offshore fishing easy and we are in on a great kingfish bite. After fishing a few hours we have caught and released many kings to eight pounds plus released a countless number of 10 pound bonitos and a dolphin. All of these fish were taken on live pilchards hooked to a Mustad long shank hook.
Back on the water today with George and his son Rivers and they are eager to catch some fish after thawing out from freezing temperatures from the northeast coast. The wind again is out of the west giving us an opportunity to fish offshore. After trying unsuccessfully to catch some pilchards in the Bay Lester of Lester's Live bait offers us a few net full's of pilchards and we are off to the offshore waters. Once outside the reef we put the baits out and are into kingfish. The bite lasts for a few hours and the guys have caught their fill of kingfish to 14 pounds plus a bunch of big bonitos and Rivers catches and releases his first dolphin. We lost one very large fish but we won't say just how that happened. (Angler Error!) Now we start looking for some tarpon but at this time they are nowhere to be found. We move into the bay and start chumming with the pilchards and in no time we have large jacks crashing on the surface. We get two quick hookups but loose both to nearby structure and the fish disappear. Now we head for a grass flat nearby and spend the remaining time we have catching sea trout and bluefish.
Today I am in Flamingo with the GM of O. Mustad & Sons USA. Ed, Ed's dad Ed Sr. and Ed's brother Kevin. The weather is nice and the game plan is to take advantage of what is biting best and that would be sea trout, jacks, ladyfish, mackerel and bluefish. We start out fishing a grass flat near Rocky Channel and the guys have Hookup lures tipped with four inch Gulp shrimp and Cajun Thunder floats with live shrimp hooked to a 1/0 Mustad long shank hook. The guys are not having much luck at first and ask me to toss out a line to see what if I might have more luck. Hookup lures tipped with a Gulp shrimp will catch fish no matter how you work the bait but if you get the retrieve downright you will always catch more fish and get more strikes. The guys have been retrieving their baits in a bunch of different ways but once I start hopping the bait off the bottom I get strike after strike after strike and am catching ladyfish, sea trout, jacks and bluefish. Now the guys know the bait works and that there is fish in the spot and they change their retrieves just enough and they are getting strike after strike just like me. In no time they have caught and released countless numbers of trout, jacks and ladyfish and we move on to see if we can find some mackerel. In the next spot after the chum had had a chance to work we are catching Spanish mackerel on almost every cast. The best rig is a Cajun Thunder with a shrimp. The guys have been catching mackerel, ladyfish, jacks and catfish for a couple of hours and had a shot at a nice cobia but the cobia moved on before taking one of our baits and we headed to our last spot in hopes of catching snook more redfish. This spot produced only catfish and we called it a day.
After a day off I am back on the water with my wife Dana and son Zach. We are heading offshore of Haulover again but are having trouble catching live bait when Lester comes to our rescue again. He fills our live well with frisky pilchards and we head offshore to see what we can get. As we start dropping our baits into the water the kingfish are hitting so fast that we don't have time to close the bails on our reels. By day's end we have caught over a dozen kings to eight pounds, two bonitos, a nice blackfin tuna and a shark that went over 100 pounds. All on live pilchards and on light tackle. We watched a guy hook and loose a big dolphin just a few hundred yards from us before we headed in.
Last up is Rick Berry of Key Largo Rods and his Buddy Al Taddia. We are in Flamingo again just looking for action and boy did we find it. After a breakfast at the Cracker Barrel and a late launch at 8 AM we head out to Snake Bight. After a short drift through the channel we release jack crevalles on every cast but nothing else and we are on the move. Our next spot is one that we fished a few days earlier and once again it produces jacks, ladyfish, sea trout and a bluefish and a missed mackerel but we move on. After anchoring and getting the chum out we are into a great Spanish mackerel bite. We catch our fill and move on. The rest of the day was more mackerel, many more jacks, ladyfish and bluefish and then we spot something black on the surface and check it out. The object turns out to be a dead cormorant. Under the cormorant is a half dozen tripletail. Casting Cajun Thunders with live shrimp we hook three and land three tripletails. All are undersized and release and we head back to the boat ramp after catching way over a hundred fish.
YOUR UP NEXT! Just give me call and let's see what we can catch!
www.getemsportfishing.com
shermana@bellsouth.net
Check out my report in the Miami Herald's Sports section under Fishing Updates each Thursday, the Florida Sportsman Magazines South Florida Internet Fishing Report
www.floridaspotsman.com), my monthly Action Spotter Fishing Report for the South Region in the Florida Sportsman Magazine each month.
I have recently been wearing a lot of Columbia Sports Wear on my fishing charters and the new Blood & Guts shirts are amazing. I have had mackerel, cobia and snook just splatter me with blood and one good washing and the shirts are as good as new. Check out their web site at www.columbia.com
Sponsors: Yamaha, Bob Hewes Boats, Maverick, Minn Kota, Lowrance Electronics, Daiwa, General Motors & Chevrolet, Rapala, Mustad, Ande Lines, Pure Fishing, Gulp, Berkley, Precision Tackle, Cajun Thunders, Capt. Hank Brown's Hook Up Lures, Hydro Glow Lights, Costa Del Mar Sunglasses, Saltwater Assassins, Key Largo Rods, Lee Fisher Cast Nets, Smartshield, Master Repair in Stuart Florida, Power Pole, Stow Master Nets, superfishlight.com, Columbia Wear, Tempress Seating
Capt. Alan Sherman
"Get Em" Sportfishing Charters
786-436-2064
w ww.getemsportfishing.com.
I expect the fishing to be pretty consistent for the next three or four months with lots of SEA TROUT, JACK CREVALLES, LADYFISH, SPANISH MACKEREL, BLUEFISH, GROUPER, BARRACUDAS, SNOOK, TARPON and some POMPANO in NORTH BISCAYNE BAY and OFFSHORE of MIAMI KINGFISH, MACKEREL, SAILFISH and DOLPHINS available on the calmer days and in SOUTH BISCAYNE BAY lots of action from a wide variety of fish like the SNAPPERS, GROUPERS, JACKS, BLUEFISH, MACKERELS, POMPANO, LADYFISH, PORGIES, GRUNTS, SNOOK and BLUERUNNERS keeping anglers busy catching and releasing fish most of the day. FLAMINGO in EVERGLADES NATIONAL PARK will have a huge amount of wildlife like the WHITE PELICANS, ROSEATTE SPOONBILLS, SKIMMER BIRDS,GULLS, OSPREYS, EAGLES, TERNS, EGRETS, HERONS, ALLIGATORS, CROCODILES, BOTTLE NOSED DOLPHINS, MANATTEES, SHARKS and TURTLES and of course the wide variety of fish that migrate into FLORIDA BAY and the GULF waters during the cfgcooler months of the year. SNOOK, TARPON, REDFISH, SEA TROUT, SHEEPSHEAD, TRIIPLETAIL, BLACK DRUM, SNAPPER, GOLIATH AND GAG GROUPER, POMOPANO, COBIA, MACKEREL, BLUEFISH and I'm sure I am leaving a few other fish species out will be available to all anglers at one time or another throughout the rest of our FALL and into WINTER FISHING SEASON.
Target Species:
Snook, Redfish, Tarpon, Sea Trout, Snapper, Grouper, Mackerel, Cobia, Pompano, Kingfish, Sailfish, Dolphins
