It's time once again to get caught up with the fishing action aboard Knot Nancy.
Offshore, the good news is that it is well worth while to run out in search of tasty dolphin ( mahi-mahi).
Find some birds working or a weed line and odds are pretty good you'll get into the action you're looking for.
There are also schools of small blackfin and skipjack tuna out there also.
Closer in on the reef there is a mixed bag of blackfin tuna, bonito, kingfish, sailfish, and mutton snapper.
Inshore, we are getting very close to the end of the winter tarpon season. With that being said, the tarpon don't seem to realize that.
They are still in the sunset till after dark mode of feeding. Once that time arrives, they turn on the feed bag and the action gets hot and heavy.
The fish have been in the 60 – 115 pound range and they are as mean and nasty as ever.
On a recent trip we fought one of those mean and nasty tarpon for 1 hour and 25 minutes and covered a 2 mile area before releasing the fish.
Evan Rees, Charles Gonzalez, Barry Pemsler, and Josh Rutter had a hard battle with their tarpon.
The fish travelled from in front of Fisher Island to the north up the beach to about 3rd street before we released the fish.
By the time we were able to get our lines back out, we got one more shot. We finished the evening going 1 for 2.
Rodrigo Cruz and Sergio Mendoza enjoyed an evening of going 4 for 5 on tarpon. It sounds like a broken record, however, the action didn't start till after sunset.
The tarpon were in the 60 – 110 pound range.
Chris and Jeff Wilson along with Mike Arnold were part of a bachelor party group that started the celebration with some tarpon fishing.
We started the trip with slow trolling live mullet. All three of the large baits we had out got chopped off behind the gills by barracuda.
We then started drifting crabs and 2 drifts later we got the tarpon bite we were looking for. For the next 1 hour and 25 minutes we chased the fish on a grand tour of the areas where we normally catch tarpon.
This fish would just not give up and let us take its picture. Every time the angler would say he had the fish under control, the tarpon took off on another line peeling run.
At one point about an hour into the battle, the fish made a jump that had everyone in awe of the power and beauty of the silver beast.
The next fish we hooked up threw the hook on its first jump. A quick reset and this time the hook stayed in and we finished the evening going 2 for 3.
Tony Greaton, Brian Pike, Andy Stein Sr., and 4 year old Andrew Stein Jr. got in a very good day of dolphin fishing. It took a little while to finally find the fish in 1300 feet under birds and in a grassy area.
The action was hot and heavy for schoolie size fish. Andrew Jr. was casting his own bait out and hooking fish. All the other adults were working hard to add fish to the fish box.
We came across several different schools of fish and each time they were basically all the same size. The largest fish we found was on the way in under a frigate bird. The fish was about 8 pounds to go along with several 6 pound fish.
All the other fish we kept were less than 6 pounds. At the end of the day we kept 26 dolphins and released at least 10 others. Andrew Jr. to the delight of his dad is already into fishing and can't wait to go again.
That sums it up. The action for dolphin offshore is very good and tarpon inshore during the evening is the same. Don't let time run out and miss out on the tail end of the tarpon season.
Remember, fresh frisky live baits will get you the hits you're looking for.
Capt. Dave Kostyo
Knot Nancy Fishing Charters, Inc.
305-965-9454
www.knotnancy.com
nkostyo@bellsouth.net
