01-27-2006, 05:17 PM
Sailfishing continues to be EXCELLENT. Beautiful blue water and a strong north current has finally moved back in on the reef. The vast majority of the sail action has been in the 100 - 190 foot range any where from the twin towers south to the monument buoy. They have also been on both sides of the color change. Lots of tailing fish have been surfing down the waves as they head south.
Dolphin action has also been very good. They are in the same range as the sailfish and have been coming through in singles and small schools. Most of the fish have been 8 pounds and up.
Inshore, the tarpon action also continues to be good to excellent in the Government area and in the Bay.
Tuesday (1/24) evening, Tim & Mark Burrel and Nick were out for an evening of tarpon fishing. Also along was their friend Chuck from Sailorman in Ft. Lauderdale. Government was the spot and our first drift produced a nice 70 pound tarpon on the south side. The fish moved out of the area as soon as it got dark so we went over to the north side. Our first drift on that side had us hooked up to an 80 pound fish. The angler (who will remain anonymous) in his haste to turn the handle and pull the rod out of the holder broke the handle right off of the reel. Now we had a dilemma. The only way to turn the reel was by turning the star drag. If there was to much pressure on the line, this only tightened the drag. Somehow, we managed to sneak up on the tarpon and we actually got the leader to touch the rod tip and had the fish up on the surface next to the boat and took a few pictures before it released itself. In all my years of tarpon fishing, this was a first for me. It was going to be hard to follow that up, however, we found the fish again and caught two more before the end of the evening.
Wednesday (1/25), Bill Harter, Ron Welch, and Joel Mooney wanted to try for sailfish. We loaded up on pilchards and herring and started straight out from Government. We got cut off by a toothy critter almost immediately and then had to do some searching before we got in the zone. The zone on Wednesday for us was in the 135 to 150 foot range with the majority of action in 140 feet. This put us just inside of the blue edge but still in the roaring north current. Ron and Bill caught their first sailfish, and Joel had the misfortune of having a bait crushed with no hook up and then after fighting one for several minutes, having the fish jump and throw the circle hook (yes it does happen even with circle hooks). He did, however, add one of two nice size dolphin to the fishbox that gave them some tasty fillets to take home.
Wednesday (1/25) evening was tarpon time again. We started at Government again on the south side and Jim Lefevre and I watched numerous tarpon roll and we marked lots of fish on the recorder. They had lockjaw and like last evening, they disappeared when it got dark. Over on the north side, we got to watch a boat hook up almost every time they drifted through. We never even lost a bait to anything. We finally moved into the Bay where we worked hard to finish our evening going 1 for 2. The unfortunate thing about the Bay is that many of the lights that attract the tarpon are out. This makes it necessary to check out many more places than I would normally have to.
That's it for now. I've got more sailfish and tarpon trips coming up and I'll get new reports posted as quickly as I can.
See you on the rip or after dark. Remember, turn your running lights on when it gets dark. It's really hard to see you when you're drifting in the dark with no lights. Besides, it is down right DANGEROUS!!
Captain Dave Kostyo
Knot Nancy Fishing Charters
305 620-5896 Charter
305 965-9454 Cell
www.knotnancy.com
nkostyo@bellsouth.net
[signature]
Dolphin action has also been very good. They are in the same range as the sailfish and have been coming through in singles and small schools. Most of the fish have been 8 pounds and up.
Inshore, the tarpon action also continues to be good to excellent in the Government area and in the Bay.
Tuesday (1/24) evening, Tim & Mark Burrel and Nick were out for an evening of tarpon fishing. Also along was their friend Chuck from Sailorman in Ft. Lauderdale. Government was the spot and our first drift produced a nice 70 pound tarpon on the south side. The fish moved out of the area as soon as it got dark so we went over to the north side. Our first drift on that side had us hooked up to an 80 pound fish. The angler (who will remain anonymous) in his haste to turn the handle and pull the rod out of the holder broke the handle right off of the reel. Now we had a dilemma. The only way to turn the reel was by turning the star drag. If there was to much pressure on the line, this only tightened the drag. Somehow, we managed to sneak up on the tarpon and we actually got the leader to touch the rod tip and had the fish up on the surface next to the boat and took a few pictures before it released itself. In all my years of tarpon fishing, this was a first for me. It was going to be hard to follow that up, however, we found the fish again and caught two more before the end of the evening.
Wednesday (1/25), Bill Harter, Ron Welch, and Joel Mooney wanted to try for sailfish. We loaded up on pilchards and herring and started straight out from Government. We got cut off by a toothy critter almost immediately and then had to do some searching before we got in the zone. The zone on Wednesday for us was in the 135 to 150 foot range with the majority of action in 140 feet. This put us just inside of the blue edge but still in the roaring north current. Ron and Bill caught their first sailfish, and Joel had the misfortune of having a bait crushed with no hook up and then after fighting one for several minutes, having the fish jump and throw the circle hook (yes it does happen even with circle hooks). He did, however, add one of two nice size dolphin to the fishbox that gave them some tasty fillets to take home.
Wednesday (1/25) evening was tarpon time again. We started at Government again on the south side and Jim Lefevre and I watched numerous tarpon roll and we marked lots of fish on the recorder. They had lockjaw and like last evening, they disappeared when it got dark. Over on the north side, we got to watch a boat hook up almost every time they drifted through. We never even lost a bait to anything. We finally moved into the Bay where we worked hard to finish our evening going 1 for 2. The unfortunate thing about the Bay is that many of the lights that attract the tarpon are out. This makes it necessary to check out many more places than I would normally have to.
That's it for now. I've got more sailfish and tarpon trips coming up and I'll get new reports posted as quickly as I can.
See you on the rip or after dark. Remember, turn your running lights on when it gets dark. It's really hard to see you when you're drifting in the dark with no lights. Besides, it is down right DANGEROUS!!
Captain Dave Kostyo
Knot Nancy Fishing Charters
305 620-5896 Charter
305 965-9454 Cell
www.knotnancy.com
nkostyo@bellsouth.net
[signature]