12-05-2006, 01:53 PM
Green water and no current, blue green water out deep with current, and a sharp blue/green edge with a roaring north current in 110 feet along with winds as light as 6 knots and as heavy as 17 knots have made for some decent fishing off Key Biscayne and Miami Beach. There have been sailfish, kingfish, and dolphin coming through as well as some pesky small brown sharks. The nice surprise we had on our last trip was small cobia. They were undersize and were released, but fun to catch nevertheless.
Saturday (12/2), the father/son team of Fabio and Jason Nick got together again after having not fished together for awhile. They haven't lost their touch. The day started with catching herring at Government. With a full well, we headed out to find ugly green water and no current. The wind was from the E/ESE @ 12 - 15 knots so flying the kite was a snap. Our first drift was very uneventful. I got reports from several friends that there were some dolphin coming through out deeper. Moving out to 400', we found blue green water and north current. The downrigger scored the first action in the form of a small brown shark. Next it was a dolphin eating a goggle eye on the long kite line. Inside of 300' the water turned ugly green again. A flatline got hit in 280 and the mono leader was cut off. I replaced the short kite bait with a herring and started slow trolling the kite baits back out to deeper water. The downrigger got hit again and turned out to be the same small brown shark we had released earlier. When we reached 320', the action started. A dolphin hit the short kite (herring) bait. Back out goes another herring and within 2 minutes we have another dolphin on. This time it had buddies. We caught a few more and also had a shark get one of the fish we had hooked up. We hooked the shark and caught and released it in the hopes it would vacate the area. We caught 1 more dolphin before the action ended. Toward the end of the trip we started some heavy chumming with the herring and sure enough, the shark showed up again. Final count was 6 out of the 9 dolphin we hooked made it to the fishbox and 3 sharks caught and released.
Monday (12/4), was a rescheduled trip with Oscar Marrero and his friend Ramon Cruz. Originally it was scheduled for Friday. The windy conditions were much more than either of them cared to fish in. It turned out to be a very wise choice. The bait fishing was excellent. The wind was NW/NNE @ 6 - 8 knots. The seas were calm and the sharp blue/green edge was in 110' with a roaring north current. A flatline drew first action and Oscar caught a nice kingfish. The bottom rod got the next action and this time it was Ramon who caught a small brown shark. Two small cobia were sitting under the bow of my boat and got very excited when I reeled up the bottom rod to check the bait. Ramon caught and released one of them using a flatline and herring. By now the current had pushed us to the north end of the anchorage. We made a run back south and started off the Cape Florida area. Oscar got back in the action with another kingfish, this time on the downrigger. The flatline rod Ramon was watching twitched a few times and then stopped. I looked up about a minute later and saw that his line was about to go around the bow. He quickly got on the rod and ran to the bow. He came tight on the fish and we had the sailfish on, or should I say the sailfish had us on. It put on a good aerial show and made a decent run. We got the leader to touch the rod tip and then the fish came to life. It dumped about half the line off the spinning reel before we matched its run away speed with the boat. It soon became apparent that the fish was foul hooked near the tail. We had no control of the head and this was going to be a long drawn out fight. Ramon and Oscar took turns on the rod to try and get the fish to the boat as quickly as we could. As soon as it finally came up, we turned the fish around quickly and started reviving it. After a solid 5 minutes of towing the fish, it clamped down on my hand and started moving its tail briskly. After a few more minutes, we released the fish and watched it swim away. We ran back in to 100' and put a bait down on the downrigger. The wind was beginning to switch more toward the NE, so I started to slow trolled out to deeper water. I didn't make it very far. The downrigger line popped and Oscar caught another kingfish. We repeated the same technique and got another king almost immediately. Then as quickly as the action started, it stopped. Final count for the trip was 1 sailfish on a flatline, 1 kingfish on a flatline and 3 kings on the downrigger, 1 cobia on a flatline, and 1 small shark on the bottom rod.
Captain Dave
[signature]
Saturday (12/2), the father/son team of Fabio and Jason Nick got together again after having not fished together for awhile. They haven't lost their touch. The day started with catching herring at Government. With a full well, we headed out to find ugly green water and no current. The wind was from the E/ESE @ 12 - 15 knots so flying the kite was a snap. Our first drift was very uneventful. I got reports from several friends that there were some dolphin coming through out deeper. Moving out to 400', we found blue green water and north current. The downrigger scored the first action in the form of a small brown shark. Next it was a dolphin eating a goggle eye on the long kite line. Inside of 300' the water turned ugly green again. A flatline got hit in 280 and the mono leader was cut off. I replaced the short kite bait with a herring and started slow trolling the kite baits back out to deeper water. The downrigger got hit again and turned out to be the same small brown shark we had released earlier. When we reached 320', the action started. A dolphin hit the short kite (herring) bait. Back out goes another herring and within 2 minutes we have another dolphin on. This time it had buddies. We caught a few more and also had a shark get one of the fish we had hooked up. We hooked the shark and caught and released it in the hopes it would vacate the area. We caught 1 more dolphin before the action ended. Toward the end of the trip we started some heavy chumming with the herring and sure enough, the shark showed up again. Final count was 6 out of the 9 dolphin we hooked made it to the fishbox and 3 sharks caught and released.
Monday (12/4), was a rescheduled trip with Oscar Marrero and his friend Ramon Cruz. Originally it was scheduled for Friday. The windy conditions were much more than either of them cared to fish in. It turned out to be a very wise choice. The bait fishing was excellent. The wind was NW/NNE @ 6 - 8 knots. The seas were calm and the sharp blue/green edge was in 110' with a roaring north current. A flatline drew first action and Oscar caught a nice kingfish. The bottom rod got the next action and this time it was Ramon who caught a small brown shark. Two small cobia were sitting under the bow of my boat and got very excited when I reeled up the bottom rod to check the bait. Ramon caught and released one of them using a flatline and herring. By now the current had pushed us to the north end of the anchorage. We made a run back south and started off the Cape Florida area. Oscar got back in the action with another kingfish, this time on the downrigger. The flatline rod Ramon was watching twitched a few times and then stopped. I looked up about a minute later and saw that his line was about to go around the bow. He quickly got on the rod and ran to the bow. He came tight on the fish and we had the sailfish on, or should I say the sailfish had us on. It put on a good aerial show and made a decent run. We got the leader to touch the rod tip and then the fish came to life. It dumped about half the line off the spinning reel before we matched its run away speed with the boat. It soon became apparent that the fish was foul hooked near the tail. We had no control of the head and this was going to be a long drawn out fight. Ramon and Oscar took turns on the rod to try and get the fish to the boat as quickly as we could. As soon as it finally came up, we turned the fish around quickly and started reviving it. After a solid 5 minutes of towing the fish, it clamped down on my hand and started moving its tail briskly. After a few more minutes, we released the fish and watched it swim away. We ran back in to 100' and put a bait down on the downrigger. The wind was beginning to switch more toward the NE, so I started to slow trolled out to deeper water. I didn't make it very far. The downrigger line popped and Oscar caught another kingfish. We repeated the same technique and got another king almost immediately. Then as quickly as the action started, it stopped. Final count for the trip was 1 sailfish on a flatline, 1 kingfish on a flatline and 3 kings on the downrigger, 1 cobia on a flatline, and 1 small shark on the bottom rod.
Captain Dave
[signature]