As I sit here and write this report, another front has just passed through the South Florida area. This one had plenty of rain and wind. The rain we need, however, the wind made conditions for tarpon extremely dangerous in the areas that the tarpon are feeding in along the beaches. The latest tarpon trip I had scheduled has been shifted up to tonight as the winds are now coming from a much more favorable direction and a lot less strong.
Offshore has been a steady diet of sailfish and kingfish. Mixed in are bonito and some mutton snapper if you can get past the small fish that are chewing up our baits before the muttons can find them.
Inshore it's tarpon in a big way. All it takes is a nice size shrimp on a circle hook and work the entire area that the fish wander around in to get between 4 to 8 shots per trip. The fish are mostly in the 25 – 70 pound range with a few topping out at 90. With the except of one evening, the water temperature has been in a comfortable range for the tarpon.
Keith Mason and Dave Tolbert experienced the one evening when the water temperature was right at and below the 70 degree mark. When we arrived at Government Cut, there were tarpon rolling around in the main channel. The wind was blowing from the N/NE @ 19 – 25 knots. We watched the tarpon put on a great show for us as we worked our baits only to have them stolen by small bottom fish. We hid behind the south jetty till it got dark and for a few drifts after that. The water temperature kept dropping. We tried one of my go to spots in the Bay. The water temperature was 67 and we saw no action. We decided to try the beach at Haulover. With just enough of a westerly direction in the wind the conditions were actually quite pleasant along the beach. On the first drift, we got our reward. Dave caught and released his first tarpon. The next drift produced a double header of bluefish. On the third drift, Keith realized his dream of catching and releasing a tarpon. Our persistence paid off even though the water temperature had dropped from 69.5 on the first drift to 68.9 on the third.
Ary Krau along with his son Rueven and Rueven's friend Chris Vela fished a half day. We started by loading the live well with pilchards. We put out the baits straight out from Haulover in 90 feet and slow trolled offshore. At 100 feet Rueven hooked up with a kingfish. After a brief fight, the baits went back out and we got another hook up almost immediately. Chris fought this fish and it was another kingfish. We continued to work the area of 90 – 120 feet slow trolling our baits. Throwing a few baits over board as live chum did the trick and this time both boys were hooked up with bonito. The action slowed down and I moved out to 180 feet and set up a drift. The first drift produced no action. The next drift I set up in 160 feet and once again started live chumming. I had just checked the bottom rod bait and started to put it back down when the middle flat line rod came to life with a none too happy sailfish. This time Ary jumped into action and the fight was on. Long runs, multiple jumps and leaps, surface head shakes, and deep dives were what all three anglers experienced. Constant pressure on Ary's part finally had the fish along side where we took a few pictures in the water and revived the fish before sending it on its way.
Don and Debbie Puglisi from the Pompano Beach Offshore Anglers Club wanted to see what all the talk about tarpon fishing in Miami was all about. Debbie wanted to catch her first tarpon. They experienced both in a beautiful evening along Miami Beach. As soon as the sun set and the light started to fade, Debbie hooked up. We fought the fish from a dead boat and Debbie got plenty of exercise running around the boat several times with her tarpon. The fish did everything she expected and more. After releasing the fish the lines went back out and it didn't take long before Don got his chance. Having caught tarpon in the past, he knew what to expect and made quick work of his fish. We made a major move and found more readily feeding fish on three consecutive drifts. One more final move before the evening was over produced another strike. The final count for the evening was 3 for 5 fish caught and released as well as getting a DNA sample from each fish. Nice going Debbie!! Now you need to catch a 100 pounder!
John McKenney is now another tarpon fanatic after his shortened evening of fishing. A strong wave of showers was heading our way. The wind had finally died down after blowing very hard most of the day. We saw fish rolling on almost every drift till it got dark. The first fish we had on gave us back our hook on its second jump. The next drift we had a solid hook up and John did his laps around the boat as the fish made its strong runs and jumps. With the fish caught and released, we moved to an area that has been very productive as of late. It didn't disappoint us except for the fact that once again the fish gave us back our hook on its second jump after running about 80 yards of line off the reel. By now John was wondering if he was doing something wrong. No John, that's just tarpon fishing. I watched the rain getting closer and closer with the XM Weather on my chart plotter. It hit us and got harder. We decided to call it an evening and now John can hardly wait to get back to Miami and do battle again with the mighty Silver King.
That's it, we're back up to date with the fishing action aboard Knot Nancy. I have both offshore and tarpon trips scheduled over the next five days, so as soon as I get a chance I'll keep you posted on the action. In the meantime, check out my website www.knotnancy.com and then give me a call 305-965-9454 to schedule your trip. You can also check out the TV segment I did with weatherman Jeff Berardelli from CBS4. Here's the direct link http://miami.cbslocal.com/2011/01/14/aquatic-adventures-fishing-reports-jan-14-2011
Captain Dave Kostyo
Knot Nancy Fishing Charters, Inc
305-965-9454
www.knotnancy.com
nkostyo@bellsouth.net