Up to date fishing reports from some of the best Captains and Anglers in South Florida.
Later than expected, but the wahoo have finally started to show up.
...North winds, north current and cold weather made for a hot sailfish bite over the weekend.
...Sailfish are already starting to show up in numbers in South Florida.
.......all kinds of fish are tearing them up. Tarpon, jacks, sharks, bluefish, big ladyfish, kingfish, snook, and an occasional redfish are all following these huge school’s of mullet.
...Fishing in September can be very unpredictable. The bite on the edge has really tapered off. A few wahoo and even fewer kings have most anglers running offshore looking for dolphin, deep dropping for swords, and everyone begging for those first coldfronts to push south so our fall pattern will get underway...
...They’re not great to eat, but they are a lot of fun to catch. We’re talking about big Kings in the summer time.
...If you ever wanted to catch a wahoo, now is the time to get out there and do it. They are snapping and have been for the past two weeks.
...The final push of sailfish happened about a week or so ago. Sailfish season is typically November through May and April can be an outstanding month, and it was.
...The same was the case last year, and just like last year, April is turning out to be one of the best months for sailfishing. Eventually the fish will push through the area and right now they are coming through in some pretty big packs. In three trips last week we caught 30 sailfish.
...I have frequently talked about how the right conditions can give you a red-hot bite. On the other hand, the wrong conditions can mean the bite will be slow that day. F
...About two months ago we caught a 100 plus pound yellowfin tuna. Although we catch yellowfins in the Bahamas, they are not frequently caught in Miami.
...The past week the sailfishing has continued to improve. We have been averaging 3 to 6 sailfish per day
...Luckily a much-needed cold front came by on Friday and that coupled with blue water and strong north current resulted in a pretty good bite. The past couple of days we went 6 for 8 one day followed by 8 for 8 the next day.
...After a red hot start to this winter’s Sailfish bite, the lack of steady cold fronts has put us back into more of a transitional late fall pattern. While we are still picking at a few Sailfish locally, the best bite has been from Palm Beach to Fort Pierce, and from Key Biscayne south...
...Typically, if a fisherman in South Florida was looking to catch sailfish, they would look for clean blue water moving north up the coast in a depth ranging from 100 to 200 feet. Leading up to the inaugural Operation Sailfish Tournament all reports had green water moving south from Fort Pierce inlet to Hillsboro inlet all the way out to 300 feet. This is the entire tournament boundary basically.
...One of the great things about South Florida, besides the weather, is the annual migration of sailfish. Along with the sailfish, of course, come the tournaments. The Liquid fishing team decided to open our season with the SeaVee Mercury Sailfish Kickoff, held on December 8th and 9th.
...The current has slowed down in Miami and the blue water has pushed out a bit, but even with these conditions, we have been able to catch sailfish on all our full day trips
...I know when I have to put on a jacket in the morning, it means only one thing, and that is, it is finally sailfish season in South Florida.
...Fishermen are always speaking with one another trying to find out if and where they should go fishing. This is often helpful in producing good trips. There is, however, the saying that a bad day of fishing beats a good day of about anything else. For that reason, it is always a good idea to go when you get the opportunity.
...We are very fortunate here in South Florida in that we always have some sailfish around. There is, however, a season in which we see large numbers of them traveling south through our local waters. Typically that season starts in late November and continues through April.
...
We are now well into the fall and the species we are targeting are swordfish, sailfish and wahoo. Luckily all three of these species have cooperated.
...Fall is definitely here and al our fall species are cooperating. We had a banner trip to Bimini high speed trolling for wahoos, we have caught swordfish on all our sword trips, both day and night, and the sailfish bite is already picking up.
...This past weekend was the 10th Annual Miami Swordfish Tournament. I have fished many of the Miami as well as the Islamorada Swordfish Tournaments in the past
...Again, we had a variety of trips from daytime swordfishing, mahi fishing, and fishing on the edge.
...I was looking forward to the sword trips as we are getting into the absolute best time of year for daytime and evening swords. Late August through October and even November is the absolute best time to target these fish.
...For the past two weeks we have had a variety of different trips. The majority have been daytime swordfish trips, one combo day/night sword trip, some trips on the edge and some trips for mahis in the Gulfstream.
...Usually May and June are the best month for mahis, but this May and June the mahi fishing was relatively slow. Last year was the same but it got very good in August and September. This year the mahis have finally arrived and it looks like a great July and August for dorado fishing in Miami.
...With all the phenomenal yellow fin tuna reports coming in from the Bahamas, we had to go check it out for ourselves. To say the least, we were not disappointed...
...This time of year the best bet is going to the Bahamas on a multi day trip or doing a mahi or mahi/swordfish trip.
...Fishing up and down the reef the past couple of weeks has been very inconsistent, especially with the crazy weather we’ve had. The days that the conditions have been right, east wind and north current, the fishing has been great almost springtime like...
overall the fishing has been very good. I did have a few half day trips that the fishing was a bit slow, but we did catch quality fish on every trip. Fishing on the edge has been producing some decent kings from 10 to 30 pounds. The majority of the kings have been in the high teens, which on 20 pound or 12 pound spinning tackle is an absolute blast. The initial first run and the second run they do when they see the boat are impressive. There have also been quite a few sailfish around as well. Our best day we caught 4 sailfish
...The fishing still remains very, very good. Don’t get me wrong, we have had a few trips that the fishing was slow, but overall spring is the best time to fish especially for variety and that was definitely the case this month. Just the other day we had a late afternoon trip and in a little over two hours we caught 3 big blackfin tunas, a few sailfish and quite a few bonitas. It was non stop action during the whole trip.
...The tunas are definitely here. Blackfin tunas in Miami and yellowfin tunas in the Bahamas. Starting with Miami, the big blackfins have shown up and in big numbers. For the past week or so we have been averaging 3 to 6 tunas per trip. The fish are decent in size as well averaging 25 to 35 pounds. We have been catching most of the balckfin tunas on the kite baits but caught some on the flatlines as well.
...
What a great couple of weeks of fishing. This has definitely been the best fishing of the year. The sailfishing has exploded and we have gone almost double digit releases every day.
...With the meat fish or edible fish tournaments right around the corner, it’s time to start getting your crew and gear ready. The Saltwater Shootout here in Pompano is less than a month and a half away.
...Sailfishing has gotten better with multiple shots each day. Kings and tunas starting to show up. Suprising amount of white marlin caught off of Miami this past two weeks.
...We are still averaging between 2 to 5 sailfish per day and that has stayed pretty consistent. Although that is not bad at all, we are still missing those banner double digit release days.
...March 2012 – Spring conditions are early
As warm of a winter as we have had I guess it should be no surprise that we are getting spring patterns early this year. On a recent trip we saw large kings in the mid to upper 30’s with some in the 40’s.
...Sailfishing has still been relatively slow. We have been averaging about 2 to 5 sailfish per day and our best day since the last report we caught 6. Not bad, but not what it should be.
Besides sailfishing, we have also been mixing it up with some tarpon fishing as well as a couple of swordfish trips.
...What a strange winter it’s been so far. Fishing along the reef has been pretty good overall, but without a steady dose of coldfronts like we’re used to it’s been hard to put any kind of pattern together...
...As busy as it has been, I wish the fishing was a little better. It is not bad, but not red hot like it should. We have managed to catch a sailfish on every single trip but one since the last report. Our best day we caught 9 sailfish, but for the most part have been averaging 2 to 5 sailfish per trip
...Sailfish season has been a little late in arriving but as we are getting more and more cold fronts rolling in, the sailfish bite is picking up. There are plenty of sailfish up north and these cold fronts are what pushes them south into our waters.
...Now to the fishing part. It’s been a few weeks since my last report, but as usual the holidays weeks in December are extremely busy and I have been fishing every day. I wish the fishing could have been a bit better, but we did have a lot of quality catches, including some big dolphin, swordfish on every trip, and sailfish on every trip but one.
...Fishing over the past few weeks seems to have a common theme, big wind, it’s been blowing pretty much nonstop for about 2 months now. For those willing to brave the seas fishing has been pretty decent.
...The wind finally laid down after an extremely windy two weeks. It laid down just in time for us. Today I had a great customer and good friend, Roger, fishing with us. Roger and I have caught practically every species that inhabits our area and have caught countless amounts of sailfish and swordfish as well as wahoo, dolphin, kings, tunas etc. Today we were looking at breaking out of the routine and trying something different.
...Even though we are still plagued with green water and little or no current, the fishing still remains good, as long as you are willing to venture outside the box. Typical depths for fishing on the edge with kites targeting sailfish, mahi, kings etc. is usually from 100 to 200 feet in depth. The only problem is that we have continued to have green water and little current in that zone. We have been venturing a bit farther offshore and anywhere from 300 to 500 ft we have usually found a bit of a color change with some north current as well.
Although it still has been a bit windy, we have had a few days where the weather cooperated and we went daytime swordfishing. Both of our trips we caught swordfish
...Fishing the past few weeks has been pretty hit and miss. We had to deal with a serious amount of fresh water from all the rain we had which made the water offshore look like chocolate milk and the cold fronts aren’t steady enough yet so we’re stuck in transition
...The mullet run is going on and the fishing is incredible for Palm Beach.
...Water quality up and down the line over the weekend was mediocre at best. The water cleaned up a bit from Delray up towards Boynton Inlet on Saturday.
...Great Swordfish Bite, especially during the day, good sailfish bite on the edge and great wahoo fishing in the Bahamas
...The day sword bite is definitely on! Since my last report I have fished every single day with the exception of 2 days. The vast majority of the trips have been swordfish trips, mostly daytime, some nighttime and also some combo trips. I have also done a few trips on the edge.
...Great daytime swordfish bite as well as as an early run of sailfish on the edge.
...Fishing the past couple weeks on the reef has still been all about the snappers. Big yellowtails and muttons along with some vermilions and mangroves...
...The new Double D has arrived but before we let go of the old Double D, she still had lots of luck in her and we did really good on our past few trips. We did a few more trips on the edge and were lucky enough to catch a few more sailfish. Although it is summer and not really sailfish season, we still managed to catch sailfish on all our trips but one.
We also did a few swordfish trips and we caught swords on all our trips (three trips in a row) and had one outstanding combo trip
...The fishing out of Hillsboro has been red hot for the past few weeks, either along the edge, or on a reef or wreck you couldn’t miss.
...I wish I had good news, but we just came off a lousy week of fishing. We blame the west wind. We did catch a huge Almaco jack. The bonito bit every morning, but not in the afternoon. David Raymond caught a 35 pound African pompano with us Saturday morning. Please bring back the east wind and the mahi and swordfish from a couple weeks ago!
...The Wahoo bite has been going off in West Palm Beach for the past two weeks.
...Aug 10th, 2011
Sorry for the delay between reports, but I have been tied up getting my current boat ready for sale and getting ready for the new boat which is due next week. In the middle of that I have also been fishing a little bit.
...Our day trips have centered around good mahi fishing in 800 to 1000 feet of water. These fish have been from under sized schools to good number of fish from 20 to 35 pounds. .
...Things have been a little bit quiet since my last report. I have been fishing but just not as much as I am used to. We did a few dolphin trips in the Gulfstream and the dolphin fishing this year has been very poor especially for bigger fish.
...Fishing the past couple weeks has been all about snapper. Yellowtails, muttons, mangroves, lanes, some vermilons, and a monster true red snapper.
...Fishing before this last full moon was red hot. Lots of nice kings a few late season tunas and some nice size dolphin and cobia. The snapper bite was on fire too particularly in the afternoon and early evening. Lots of muttons and yellowtail snapper, we had 3 afternoons in a row that both the Helen S and Fish City Pride had over 60 snappers and 20 off those
...If you want action then there are several things you can try. Fishing on the edge has been good, especially if you like bonitas. There are a ton of them out there. Besides the bonitas, which are great fun on light tackle, there have also been some
...Fishing for the past week has been spectacular. Lot’s of kings, big kings, blackfin tuna, dolphin, yellowtail and mutton snappers, cobias, and african pompano.
...The tunas are finally here. I’ve been complaining about the lack of big blackfin tunas that usually arrive in April and May and finally in the last week the bigger blackfins are here. Our best afternoon we caught 4 big blackfins and have been consistently catching a few each trip. Average size is around 30 pounds and I have heard of some 35 pounders caught this week.
...The fishing in the end of April surprisingly slowed down a bit, but luckily it picked right back up in May. There are still plenty of sailfish around. We have been averaging 3 to 4 sailfish per day. Most of these sails are the full grown spring sailfish and are around 50 to 70 pounds.
...May has opened as we all hope it will. We had four big mutton snapper, five nice kings, three mahi, a bonito and two sails today in just six hours. Trout action is great in the bay. I just hope those tarpon start biting again instead of driving us crazy by rolling all around the boat, but not biting.
...Sorry for the bit of delay between reports, but I have been fishing everyday and trying to get caught up. The sailfish action continues to be great. We did have two days were the bite for sails was non existent but we did manage to catch quite a few dolphin, some decent kings and some small blackfin tunas on those days. The sailfish action was slow those days because we had practically no current and the water was pretty green. The good news is that we now have good current again and some decent looking water. Our best day since my last report was 12 out of 18 sails and that was on a half day trip. We have been averaging 4 to 6 sails a day and are now starting to see more dolphin and steady action on the kingfish. We are also seeing blackfin tunas on practically a daily basis, but the tunas have definitely been on the small side. We should see the bigger tunas very soon and am excited to get the bigger blackfins in our area.
...March 20th, 2011
With the exception of the last two days, the sailfishing continues to be epic. We have had many double digit days since my last report and had our best day this year releasing 20 sailfish out of 26 strikes. The fishing was pretty much non stop and red hot. We also had a day releasing 17 sails in one day and another day releasing 12 in one day. ...
It has been a very good week for fishing, and it should stay that way for a while. Catches of as many as 15 to 18 sailfish have been reported daily. These have been in 180 to 220 feet of water off Key Biscayne or 120 to 150 feet of water off the ragged keys further south. A good run of mahi slipped through for twodays, but they quickly left the scene. Inshore shrimp runs at night have set off great tarpon fishing. Our last trip produced tarpon of 40, 120 and 140 pounds caught along Miami Beach. Big mangrove snappers have also been very active around the inlets. Tight lines!
There has been a very large school of Sardines right out front of Hillsboro Inlet as well for the past week or so. This is uncommon for our area, but they have been very plentiful. Let's hope they stick around for a while. They tend to bite best after first light.
The Sailfish are around, but not in the numbers that we saw earlier in the month. There have been some kings around and plenty of Spanish mackerel on the beach just north of Boca Inlet. They are feeding on the schools of ballyhoo, which are thick on the patch reefs right now. Grab a couple light weight rods and some jigs, spoons or some live shrimp and the kids will have a blast catching them.
Catchem Up!
Capt Skip
...
It has been an incredible 2 weeks of fishing from my last report. I fished every single day but one and caught sailfish on every single trip. The first week the sailfishing was simply incredible. That week we had trips every day and for the most part had just one angler on board for almost every trip. When the fishing is hot and you only have one angler on board, it can be a lot of fun and challenging for me when we get multiples on (more than one sailfish on at one time). That was surely the case that week. We had so many quads (4 sailfish on at one time) with just one guy and for the most part we caught every fish out of almost every quad we hooked. We would first hook one sail and the angler would grab the rod, and then seconds would go by and we would get 2 or 3 more sails on. I would get tight on one and then stick it in the rod holder, my mate, if I had one that day, would get tight and stick another one in the rod holder and the fourth one we would do the same. As the fish are jumping all over the ocean, we would do our best to keep the lines separated and as the angler caught one fish, we would then give him the second rod and go from there. It is utter pandemonium and about as much fun as you can have. During one trip with one guy on board we hooked a quad and had another 6 fish swimming around the boat looking to get something to eat. We could have easily pitched more baits to them but that really would have been chaotic.
...The fishing out front of Hillsboro Inlet on Sunday, January 9th was a lot of fun. The conditions were not perfect, but there were definitely a decent number of Sailfish around. We had 10 Sailfish bites fishing from 8am to 2pm and managed to catch 6 of them. I had my 5 year old son Ryley on the boat with me and he helped reel in three of them, which was one of the best parts of the day for me. We also caught a small kingfish around 5 to 6 pounds. The majority of the Sailfish bites came in 100 to 150 feet of water while kite fishing.
...
The bottom fishing has slowed down a bit over the past week but there are still some fish around to be caught. The most productive fishing in our area has been just north of Hillsboro Inlet, inside 70 feet of water. We have been catching a few Mutton Snappers, Porgies, a couple of Cobia and some Yellowtail.
Further offshore, the Sailfish action has been pretty decent. The evening bait fishing has been exceptionally good for Goggle Eyes over the past few days. The most productive depths have been between 200 and 300 feet of water between Pompano Pier and Boca Inlet. A weak cold front will be pushing through South Florida over the weekend. Fishing should continue to improve once the front pushes through. Tight lines!
...
The shark fishing off Miami has been very productive over the past week or so. Last Sunday we caught 2 Nurse sharks, a 200 pound Hammerhead and a 300 pound Bull shark all in 120 feet of water. The current has been running fairly hard to the north over the past week, which tends to push the sharks in to shallower water on the reef. We are catching the sharks on bonitos and kingfish in the 7 to 10 pound range with #15 wire and a couple of 12/0 hooks. Yesterday, we caught our biggest shark this week, a 400 pound bull shark also.
While the tarpon fishing has been slow over the past couple weeks, it has really turned on and gotten red hot in the last couple of days between Haulover Inlet and Government Cut. Last night, we went 3 for 6 using live shrimp. For most of the week there has also been a nice size school of kingfish moving back and forth between Haulover Inlet and Fowey Light. Sailfishing has been relatively slow over the past week. Baitfishing has been good for Thredfins on the outgoing tide but much tougher on the incoming tide due to very clean water. Tight lines! Capt. Bouncer.
...