03-28-2006, 12:11 AM
Most of my trips since my last report have been evening tarpon trips with a few daytime trips mixed in. The tarpon action has been hot with from 2 to 7 shots per trip. Depending on where I've been fishing, they have averaged from 25 to over 100 pounds. The prime bait is still live shrimp and we have started putting out a live crab with some success. Government Cut has seen the vast majority of the action with fish being caught on both the north and south sides. There have been some good to major shrimp runs and this has really got the hot action going. The Bay has also seen some hot action with lots of shots on smaller fish that have a real good knack for jumping quickly and throwing the hook.
Offshore, we've been out on days when the conditions have been mostly less than ideal for sailfish. The kingfish and dolphin have filled in nicely for the lack of sails. All the action has been in the 70 - 200 foot range with the majority of the action from 140 feet in. The downrigger has been shining when it comes to kingfish and has out fished the flatlines about 2 to 1.
So with all this general info being said, lets get down to the day by day and evening by evening reports.
Friday (3/17) evening, Patsy Rubenstein treated her boyfriend Dale to his Christmas present of an evening of tarpon fishing. Neither had caught tarpon before and by the end of the evening they were both hooked on catching the silver king. Dale was first up and his fish did the normal thing of running for the deep water of Government Cut. Next, we had two fish throw the hook on their first jump before Patsy got a solid hook up. Her fish too went to the Cut and Patsy showed the fish who was boss. We had two more bites that evening and Dale caught got his second fish with the other fish doing the throw the hook routine. Throw in a jack crevalle and bluerunner and we were 3 for 6 this evening.
Saturday (3/18) Brian Worthington along with Tom and Marshall cashed in their Christmas Gift Certificate. Catching bait was almost as much fun as the day's fishing. With the livewell loaded, off we went to fish the Key Biscayne area. We had a good edge and saw a free jumping sailfish. We caught 2 kingfish on the downrigger. Next it was a school of dolphin in 160 feet that we got 3 into the fishbox and donated the fourth fish to a large barracuda. A flatline took off like a sail would, however, it never jumped. After an intense 10 minute battle, a nice 10 pound skipjack tuna made its way to the fishbox. Then we caught and released a small shark. It seemed like that no matter what depth we fished, we always saw a free jumping sailfish outside of us.
Sunday (3/19) we spent the day slow trolling large baits looking for large kingfish. Tim Gipe, TJ, and Andrew were fishing the South Florida Fishing Club Kingfish Outing. We got our one shot at a large fish on a bluerunner only to have the 30# line part on us. Tim picked up a spinning outfit rigged with an Al Kaplan jig and tossed it out. He hooked up immediately and we caught a snake size kingfish. On his next cast, he did it again. We had several herring chopped in half both on the flatlines and downrigger and caught another fish with Al's jig.
Sunday (3/19) evening, Danny Penengo and his three friends John, Andy, and Cody got to experience tarpon fishing. The fish were playing hard to find this evening, however, persistence paid off and Andy caught his first tarpon. Then Danny got a ladyfish before catching his first tarpon. 2 for 2 was the final count this evening.
Monday (3/20) Steve Norton from England got in some offshore fishing. The kingfish were snapping in the 70 - 140 foot range in the anchorage area. The downrigger was getting twice as many hits as the flatlines. We had one shot at a sailfish on the kite and everything was going text book perfect until the pin popped. The rod tip wrapped as the slack fell and we all know what happened when the line came tight. A pair of dolphin found us in 100 feet and we put one of the fish in the box with the other releasing itself about 30' from the boat. We kept our limit of kingfish and caught and released another limit.
Monday (3/20) evening Steve Todd from California got to see and experience tarpon feeding on a major shrimp run. Before all that action started, he also caught and released his first permit. After it got dark, the tarpon action started and was non stop the remainder of the evening. We caught fish in the 50 - 100 pound range and even had a double header on during our next to last drift. When everything settled for the evening it was angler 3 and fish 4 for a total of 7 shots.
Tuesday (3/21) evening Jim Lefevre and his friend Bill were out. Bill was up first and the fish cooperated nicely. After missing a fish, Bill hooked up solid to the next fish and caught and released it. Jim caught the next two fish, with the last fish of the evening coming on the last drift. We ended up 3 for 4 this evening.
Wednesday (3/22) evening, it was Rick Burgess, his son RJ, and RJ's friend Austin. The fish waited till it got dark again this evening and both RJ and Austin caught and released their first tarpon. Throw in a jack crevalle as a warm up and it was a 2 for 2 evening.
Thursday (3/23) evening it was Luis Espinosa and his son. We started later than normal and the tide was right to try the Bay. The fish were cooperative with eating our shrimp, however, they weren't so cooperative with keeping the hooks in their jaws. We got 3 shots and all three fish made a short run, tremendous cartwheeling jump, and gave us our hook back. The tarpon won this evening as we went zero for 3.
Saturday (3/25) morning, we only made it through 1 drift before the NW/NNW wind of 19 - 23 knots took its toll on one angler and had another not feeling so well. We tried the calmer water at Government Cut, however it didn't help, so we made it a very short trip.
Saturday (3/25) evening, Nigel Heath with his friends Roger and Smithy got to experience one of the most frustrating evenings of tarpon fishing I've had in a very very long time. We started off by hooking up on the second drift. The fish made one jump and threw the hook. Next, we went into the Bay and had three more shots, all resulting in thrown hooks on the fish's first jump. Then we went back out to the south side of Government Cut and hooked up again. This time the fish was hooked solid and dumping major line from the reel. It ran in toward the island instead of out toward the ocean. Before we could begin to catch up to the fish, it found a coral head in a shallower area and broke us off. The final straw of the evening was on the last drift when we hooked a rock pile. That made us 0 for 5 and the worst evening of tarpon fishing I've had since I can't even remember.
Sunday (3/26) mornings trip was postponed and moved to April 2nd due to the windy and cold weather.
Sunday (3/26) evening Jason Megson and his friends Luke and Mike got in on a major shrimp run and some very hot tarpon action. We hooked up starting with our first drift and on every drift there after except one until the shrimp run stopped at about 9:30 PM. Every fish made it to the deep water of the Cut except for the first fish. When the dust settled, we had hooked up 6 tarpon, had the hook pull on 2 fish after fighting them for 5 to 10 minutes, had 1 fish cut us off on a channel marker chain, and we released 3 fish in the 70 - 80 pound range.
Once again, we're up to date. The tarpon action should continue to be good as we approach the new moon phase and have strong tides. April is right around the corner and you can expect the tarpon to get bigger and the great action to continue. Offshore, we'll be going into the transition month when we'll have both the winter time and summer time species here at the same time. It will make for some good opportunities to catch a great variety of different species all in the same day. The afternoon/evening trip will become very popular. You get to sleep in and start fishing offshore in the afternoon for sails, kings, dolphin, and blackfins. Then as dusk approaches, it'll be time to go inshore and fish for tarpon to finish out the evening. It's the best of both worlds, so give me a call and lets get a date booked before it's to late.
See you at the Cut.
Captain Dave Kostyo
Knot Nancy Fishing Charters
305 620-5896 Charter
305 965-9454 Cell
www.knotnancy.com
nkostyo@bellsouth.net
[signature]
Offshore, we've been out on days when the conditions have been mostly less than ideal for sailfish. The kingfish and dolphin have filled in nicely for the lack of sails. All the action has been in the 70 - 200 foot range with the majority of the action from 140 feet in. The downrigger has been shining when it comes to kingfish and has out fished the flatlines about 2 to 1.
So with all this general info being said, lets get down to the day by day and evening by evening reports.
Friday (3/17) evening, Patsy Rubenstein treated her boyfriend Dale to his Christmas present of an evening of tarpon fishing. Neither had caught tarpon before and by the end of the evening they were both hooked on catching the silver king. Dale was first up and his fish did the normal thing of running for the deep water of Government Cut. Next, we had two fish throw the hook on their first jump before Patsy got a solid hook up. Her fish too went to the Cut and Patsy showed the fish who was boss. We had two more bites that evening and Dale caught got his second fish with the other fish doing the throw the hook routine. Throw in a jack crevalle and bluerunner and we were 3 for 6 this evening.
Saturday (3/18) Brian Worthington along with Tom and Marshall cashed in their Christmas Gift Certificate. Catching bait was almost as much fun as the day's fishing. With the livewell loaded, off we went to fish the Key Biscayne area. We had a good edge and saw a free jumping sailfish. We caught 2 kingfish on the downrigger. Next it was a school of dolphin in 160 feet that we got 3 into the fishbox and donated the fourth fish to a large barracuda. A flatline took off like a sail would, however, it never jumped. After an intense 10 minute battle, a nice 10 pound skipjack tuna made its way to the fishbox. Then we caught and released a small shark. It seemed like that no matter what depth we fished, we always saw a free jumping sailfish outside of us.
Sunday (3/19) we spent the day slow trolling large baits looking for large kingfish. Tim Gipe, TJ, and Andrew were fishing the South Florida Fishing Club Kingfish Outing. We got our one shot at a large fish on a bluerunner only to have the 30# line part on us. Tim picked up a spinning outfit rigged with an Al Kaplan jig and tossed it out. He hooked up immediately and we caught a snake size kingfish. On his next cast, he did it again. We had several herring chopped in half both on the flatlines and downrigger and caught another fish with Al's jig.
Sunday (3/19) evening, Danny Penengo and his three friends John, Andy, and Cody got to experience tarpon fishing. The fish were playing hard to find this evening, however, persistence paid off and Andy caught his first tarpon. Then Danny got a ladyfish before catching his first tarpon. 2 for 2 was the final count this evening.
Monday (3/20) Steve Norton from England got in some offshore fishing. The kingfish were snapping in the 70 - 140 foot range in the anchorage area. The downrigger was getting twice as many hits as the flatlines. We had one shot at a sailfish on the kite and everything was going text book perfect until the pin popped. The rod tip wrapped as the slack fell and we all know what happened when the line came tight. A pair of dolphin found us in 100 feet and we put one of the fish in the box with the other releasing itself about 30' from the boat. We kept our limit of kingfish and caught and released another limit.
Monday (3/20) evening Steve Todd from California got to see and experience tarpon feeding on a major shrimp run. Before all that action started, he also caught and released his first permit. After it got dark, the tarpon action started and was non stop the remainder of the evening. We caught fish in the 50 - 100 pound range and even had a double header on during our next to last drift. When everything settled for the evening it was angler 3 and fish 4 for a total of 7 shots.
Tuesday (3/21) evening Jim Lefevre and his friend Bill were out. Bill was up first and the fish cooperated nicely. After missing a fish, Bill hooked up solid to the next fish and caught and released it. Jim caught the next two fish, with the last fish of the evening coming on the last drift. We ended up 3 for 4 this evening.
Wednesday (3/22) evening, it was Rick Burgess, his son RJ, and RJ's friend Austin. The fish waited till it got dark again this evening and both RJ and Austin caught and released their first tarpon. Throw in a jack crevalle as a warm up and it was a 2 for 2 evening.
Thursday (3/23) evening it was Luis Espinosa and his son. We started later than normal and the tide was right to try the Bay. The fish were cooperative with eating our shrimp, however, they weren't so cooperative with keeping the hooks in their jaws. We got 3 shots and all three fish made a short run, tremendous cartwheeling jump, and gave us our hook back. The tarpon won this evening as we went zero for 3.
Saturday (3/25) morning, we only made it through 1 drift before the NW/NNW wind of 19 - 23 knots took its toll on one angler and had another not feeling so well. We tried the calmer water at Government Cut, however it didn't help, so we made it a very short trip.
Saturday (3/25) evening, Nigel Heath with his friends Roger and Smithy got to experience one of the most frustrating evenings of tarpon fishing I've had in a very very long time. We started off by hooking up on the second drift. The fish made one jump and threw the hook. Next, we went into the Bay and had three more shots, all resulting in thrown hooks on the fish's first jump. Then we went back out to the south side of Government Cut and hooked up again. This time the fish was hooked solid and dumping major line from the reel. It ran in toward the island instead of out toward the ocean. Before we could begin to catch up to the fish, it found a coral head in a shallower area and broke us off. The final straw of the evening was on the last drift when we hooked a rock pile. That made us 0 for 5 and the worst evening of tarpon fishing I've had since I can't even remember.
Sunday (3/26) mornings trip was postponed and moved to April 2nd due to the windy and cold weather.
Sunday (3/26) evening Jason Megson and his friends Luke and Mike got in on a major shrimp run and some very hot tarpon action. We hooked up starting with our first drift and on every drift there after except one until the shrimp run stopped at about 9:30 PM. Every fish made it to the deep water of the Cut except for the first fish. When the dust settled, we had hooked up 6 tarpon, had the hook pull on 2 fish after fighting them for 5 to 10 minutes, had 1 fish cut us off on a channel marker chain, and we released 3 fish in the 70 - 80 pound range.
Once again, we're up to date. The tarpon action should continue to be good as we approach the new moon phase and have strong tides. April is right around the corner and you can expect the tarpon to get bigger and the great action to continue. Offshore, we'll be going into the transition month when we'll have both the winter time and summer time species here at the same time. It will make for some good opportunities to catch a great variety of different species all in the same day. The afternoon/evening trip will become very popular. You get to sleep in and start fishing offshore in the afternoon for sails, kings, dolphin, and blackfins. Then as dusk approaches, it'll be time to go inshore and fish for tarpon to finish out the evening. It's the best of both worlds, so give me a call and lets get a date booked before it's to late.
See you at the Cut.
Captain Dave Kostyo
Knot Nancy Fishing Charters
305 620-5896 Charter
305 965-9454 Cell
www.knotnancy.com
nkostyo@bellsouth.net
[signature]
