06-10-2002, 06:05 PM
Before I get into the fishing reports for the past few days, let me tell you about an incident that took place yesterday (Sunday). It involved a man overboard situation. I had just spotted a flock of birds working over a school of dolphin in 140' of water off Government Cut. All our lines were in, when out of the corner of my eye I spotted a boat that was coming very close to us. There was one lady on board and she was very obviously upset. She was screaming and crying that her husband had fallen overboard. He was there one second and gone the next and she had no idea when it happened or where he was. The seas yesterday had picked up from the flat calm it has been for several days. I had noticed that the boat had been drifting about 1/2 mile to the south of us. We immediately started heading south and while I contacted the Coast Guard, the 4 lady anglers I had on board were searching the water for the man overboard. His wife was ahead of us and we were all concerned that in her hast and panic, she might run over him. About a 1/4 mile to the south, we saw his head bobbing in the waves and saw his wife make a quick circle around him. He got her to shut the engines off and he swam to his boat and held on to the engines while he caught his breath. After pulling himself into the boat, he looked skyward and said "thank you, I made it". After making sure that both of them were OK, I reported his recovery and their condition to the Coast Guard. There is a lesson to be learned here by everyone. And that is that despite the fact that we all love the ocean and it is a beautiful place to be, we must remember that it is no ones friend. Love it, but respect it highly. For those that go fishing by themselves, PLEASE wear a personal flotation device (PFD). The whole incident could have easily turned out in a bad way. No matter how strong a swimmer you think you are, fighting 3 - 5 foot seas and current will tire you very quickly and swimming to shore from that distance out is impossible for almost everyone of us. Lets look out for one another and have a safe and enjoyable fishing and/or boating experience.<br><br>Now for the fishing reports. The have been lots of dolphin off Miami. Mostly on the small side. Yes, there have been some big ones caught. I helped with weighing a 36# dolphin caught by some anglers at Spinnaker Marina where I keep my boat. They said they caught it 6 miles out, blind trolling with no obvious signs around them, just a clean blue ocean. On Thursday, we ran 38 miles SE from Haulover and if we found a dozen clumps of grass, that was a lot. All the birds we saw were searching just like we were. We had 2 schoolie size fish in the box when we decided to go back in and try for some action in close. The blue/green edge at Government was in 200' and had a good weed line on it. We got our reward and finished a 3/4 day trip with enough fillets for several days for the 4 anglers I had on board. Friday was a very frustrating day. We trolled, live baited, run and gunned, trolled, live baited, trolled, live baited, and trolled and despite some great looking conditions, we never saw a dolphin. We caught 1 skipjack tuna that we released. That brings us to Sunday. Once again the fish were in close. We were offshore to 1000' and only found birds that were searching just as hard as we were. Early in the day we caught a couple of dolphin in the 220' range. After coming back inshore from 1000' we got all our action between the hotels off Key Biscayne and Government Cut in the 100' - 120' range. A couple of double headers with bonito mixed in with some dolphin. After assisting with the recovery of the man overboard, we ran back north and found the birds and fish again and got our reward for the day. The 4 ladies caught them on live bait, chunk bait, and with jigs. We took the scenic route back via Biscayne Bay from Government Cut to Spinnaker Marina.<br><br>The most consistent action on dolphin has been between 100 - 250 feet. The fish are small, so remember to catch a few and don't let dolphin fever get the best of you. Those venturing offshore are finding fish just a bit larger out to about 12 miles. After that, most people are reporting seeing and catching nothing. There are always exceptions, however, this has been the general trend thus far this season. It can change any day, and we are all hoping that it will.<br><br>Captain Dave Kostyo<br>Knot Nancy Fishing Charters<br>305 620-5896 Charter<br>305 732-2628 Beeper<br>www.rnfl.com/knotnancy<br>nkostyo@bellsouth.net<br><br>