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Fishing Reports for Local Area - Location |
    
Capt Don Clark (Capt_don_clark)
New member
Username: Capt_don_clark
Post Number: 3
Registered: 2-2009
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, February 05, 2009 - 12:03 pm: | |
For immediate release: Sea Horse Sport Fishing Charters
Islamorada Florida, Whale Harbor Marina Mile Marker 83.5
2 Feb 2009
We are catching Sailfish, and Kingfish slow trolling live baits on the edge of the reef. The reef depth that we fish varies from day to day depending on where the Sailfish are. Most days the fish are on the edge of the reef in 120 feet. The live bait of choice has been a combination of Ballyhoo, Cigar Minnows, and Speedos that we catch every morning on the way out. Consistent action throughout the day, with an occasional Black-fin Tuna have been the norm lately.
FORCAST: Big Wahoo's, Sailfish, Kingfish, and more Black-fin Tuna in the area crushing our live bait!
Come down and have fun catching fish in Islamorada
Capt Don Clark
305-664-5020
captdonclark@bellsouth.net |
Capt. Alan Sherman (Shermana)
New member
Username: Shermana
Post Number: 4
Registered: 10-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 01, 2009 - 3:16 pm: | |
First let me wish everyone a very safe and happy New Year!
Now let’s get to the fishing that is taking place as we speak. Unusually cool temperatures have given way to a more mild start of winter and the fish are responding in many areas in a positive way.
Locally fishing remains the same at least in North Biscayne Bay where sea trout are dominating the recent catches. Small barracudas, a few large jack crevalles that come and go as they please, small mangrove snappers and a few keepers, some real nice gag groupers in the secret spots in the bay, snook that have moved into the canal systems of which many of these canals are up in Dumbfoundling Bay and further north and require a slow ride through the manatee zones and finally a return of tarpon that have accumulated along the beaches and the inlets from Haulover to Government Cut. Spanish mackerel and bluefish never really moved into the area so far and at this time are only hit and miss. Snook fishing at night has been good on the calmer nights and then it’s almost impossible on the windy nights.
Offshore has been dreadfully slow but that can change almost as fast as the wind changes this time of the year. When the weather has been calm enough mackerel, kingfish, dolphins and sailfish are the targeted species along with the tarpon and big jacks on the beach.
South Biscayne Bay has been very good. I have many areas in the Southern part of the bay that have produced lots of action on mutton snappers to 18”s, legal sized mangrove, yellowtail and lane snappers, red, gag and black groupers with most being under sized but others that could have been legal breaking us off on the rocky bottom and then large porgies, grunts, bluerunners, jacks, bluefish, sharks and Spanish mackerel and small kingfish. On some of the flats we have had crazy action on barracudas of all sizes and had shots at permit and bonefish.
Flamingo in Everglades National Park has been beautiful with all of its wildlife like the White & Brown Pelicans, Ibis, Rosette Spoonbills, Ospreys, bald Eagles, Skimmer Birds, Terns, Herons and birds that I don’t have names off plus manatees, alligators, crocodiles, sharks, turtles and bottlenosed dolphins and I almost forgot the fishing. Although I prefer the Spring, Summer and Fall seasons to fish Flamingo manly because of the lack of fishing pressure that time of year and the large abundance of snook, redfish and tarpon the Winter season brings less bugs and lots of variety. Right now on any trip your catch could include snook, redfish, sheepshead, blackdrum, snapper, ladyfish, jacks, sharks, cobia, gag and goliath groupers, mackerel and small kingfish, bluefish, pompano, tripletail and permit.
And the last area is the Tamiami Trail a trip that is not for all because the fishing is done from land and requires walking a canal system for snook, tarpon and redfish and maybe largemouth and peacock bass. A freshwater license is required and cab be obtained through the internet.
Now that catches us up on what’s available for the next four months or so and now for the
RECENT CATCHES:
Today I’m fishing ion Flamingo with Paul and Tom and the guys are looking for fish for the frying pan. Because of high winds we head into Whitewater Bay in hopes of scoring on some gag groupers, snappers, drum and redfish. Water levels are very low and the water is cold and the only thing cooperating is catfish. As the day warms up the guys get into a hot sea trout bite with most of the fish in the 2 to 3 pound range. The fish are feeding deep and hitting Hook Up lures tipped with Gulp shrimp and live shrimp fished under a Cajun Thunder. By the end of the day the two have scored on over 50 fish including one snook, one nice redfish, loads of snapper, jack, ladyfish and the trout.
Next it is Gene, Lance and Bill and again we are in Flamingo and again the winds are blowing strong. Another cold front has the water low and cold and things again start off slow with lots of catfish. Once again as the water temps raise so does the action and today it’s mostly sea trout, jacks, ladyfish and snappers plus a small gag grouper. Hook Up lures tipped with a Gulp shrimp and shrimp under a Cajun Thunder were the best rigs today.
Today I am fishing Marty and his buddy Steve in South Biscayne Bay and after catching a bunch of pilchards we head for a grouper hole and only catch one small red grouper and a bunch of snappers but lose a few bigger gags to the bottom. Now were off to the Finger Channels were the action is steady and the guys catch lots of mutton and mangrove snappers, lots of red groupers, yellowtail, porgies, bluerunners, Spanish mackerel and fed a 6 pound mackerel to a huge cuda that refused a dead mackerel we tried to feed it to. During one part of the day we released a couple of snook as well. Baits fished on the bottom were the hot rigs today.
Took a few days off to take part in my son Zachary’s graduation at the U of F. Zach finished his 4 and half year degree in Civil Engineering Summa Cum Laude and now will do another year and get his Master’s in Coastal Engineering. If anyone knows a company that specializes in Coastal Engineering and needs a promising young Engineer Zach is their man.
Back ion the water win Don and Sandra and looking for lots of snappers and groupers for Sandy so she can move up the ladder in her fishing club. The Finger Channel is where we head the fish are there and waiting. At the end of the day Sandra has caught and released 41 snappers and groupers on 6 and 8 pound line. The snappers were mutton and mangrove and the groupers were red and black groupers. Other fish that were caught were bluerunners, jacks, porgies and grunts.
Back o the Finger Channels for a quick half day charter with Michael and his girlfriend Mary. In a short four hour charter the two caught mackerel, bluefish, small kingfish, mutton and mangrove snappers, red groupers, grunts and porgies.
Today I am fishing in Flamingo with son Zach. We head on out to the Park’s Boundaries and anchor and start chumming. Five hours later we have had non stop action on snappers, jacks, ladyfish and Spanish mackerel the whole time fishing into a 20 mile wind. Hot baits were shrimp and pinfish on a Hook Up lure and Hook Up lures tipped with a Gulp shrimp.
Back to the Finger Channels on another half day charter with Jerry and his grand son’s Spencer 11 and Jake 7. Looking for action and the second spot we fished provided us with lots of that. 16 mutton snappers to 18 inches, three red groupers, bluerunners, margates, mangrove snappers, four nice porgies and four sharks.
Back to Flamingo today with Tom and Evan. The guys are looking for some variety and with the nice warm conditions they got what they wanted. We started the day working the Florida Bay area with Hook Up lures tipped with live shrimp and in three hours the guys caught lots of jacks, a few snappers, trout, three snook and three redfish and that doesn’t reflect all of the missed strikes and fish that broke lines or got away. Now we head for another area to see if we can get Tom a backcountry slam all he needs is a trout and Evan has already accomplished that feat. There are trout in the spot and Evan catches some but Tom never gets that trout. Were on the move again and the next spit has three cobias on it and Even hooks up. While Evan is fighting his cobia we try to hook a second but the others flee the area. Evan lands his fish and we release it. On the move again and we spot a tripletail floating. Its Evan again and after a nice battle the tripletail is added to the catch. Our last spot is in a river and it’s like a fish bowl. Everywhere you look its fish crashing into schools of bait. After all is said and done the guys have caught lots of ladyfish, jacks and a bunch of nice bluefish. Hot baits were shrimp on a Hook Up lure, Gulp shrimp on a Hook Up lure, live shrimp under a Cajun Thunder and Rapala X Raps.
Last trip of the week is with Gary and his son in law Victor and Vic’s son Shane. Once again we are in Flamingo. The first stop is a snapper hole but the wind is blowing from the north and a cold front has moved into the area and the fish won’t bite so we move on. Our next stop is a spot we fished on Friday and the action is slow to start but finally we start getting some strikes and land six nice mackerel, a bluefish, snappers, jacks and release a small kingfish. Shane had two large fish that we suspect were cobias but that’s how fishing goes and we are on the move. Were following a line of trap buoys and I spot a nice tripletail. Vic hooks up with the fish and on the Boga Grip it tops out at 12 pounds. Were on the move again and Shane spots a tripletail and hooks up and lands the fish but its only 14 inches and gets released. A little later we spot two more and Gary gets one and the other flees the scene. The last spot we spot two cobias and Vic is up again and hooks up and after a nice fight lands a 30 inch fish that is quickly released.
The New Year brings quite a few open dates and hopefully that will change and 2009 will bring lots of clients to me and “GET EM” Sportfishing Charters and great memories to the new and regular clients of “GET EM” Sportfishing Charters of 2009.
Check out my report in the Miami Herald's Sports section under Fishing Updates each Thursday, the Florida Sportsman Magazines South Florida Internet Fishing Report (www.floridaspotsman.com), my monthly Action Spotter Fishing Report for the South Region in the Florida Sportsman Magazine each month or tune into the Florida Sportsman Magazines Live Radio Show on 1080 WMCU on the AM dial or listen on the internet at www.1080wmcu.com every Saturday morning from 7 to 8 AM and here the up to the minute fishing forecasts from some of the top Capt.'s in South Florida like Capt. Jimbo Thomas on the Thomas Flyer, Capt. Bouncer Smith on Bouncers Dusky, Capt Skip Bradeen on the Blue Chips Too out of Whale Harbor Marina, Capt. Wayne Conn on The Reward Fleet, the Newport Fishing Pier and more.
Check out my new web site and see the monthly catches and pictures.
Sponsors: Yamaha, Bob Hewes Boats, Maverick, Minn Kota, Lowrance Electronics, Daiwa, General Motors & Chevrolet, Rapala, Mustad, Ande Lines, Pure Fishing, Gulp, Berkley, Precision Tackle, Capt. Hank Brown's Hook Up Lures, Hydro Glow Lights, Costa Del Mar Sunglasses, Saltwater Assassins, Key Largo Rods, Lee Fisher Cast Nets, Smartshield, Master Repair in Stuart Florida, Power Pole, Stow Master Nets, superfishlight.com
Capt. Alan Sherman
"Get Em" Sportfishing Charters
786 436 2064
shermana@bellsouth.net
www.getemsportfishing.com
Lots of Open dates for 2009 and great fishing adventures to come.
nook, redfish, sea trout, jacks, ladyfish, snappers
Happy New Year From Capt. Alan Sherman and "Get Em" Sportfishing |
Capt. Alan Sherman (Shermana)
New member
Username: Shermana
Post Number: 3
Registered: 10-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, December 03, 2008 - 11:43 am: | |
Our recent weather conditions remind me of years back when I worked the Party Boats out of Haulover Marina. Back then it was common for me to don thermal clothing in October and November. It has been along time since then and for the past 10 years I can’t remember it being this cool so early in the year. So what has that got to do with fishing well as I remember the fishing was great then so maybe that’s what we have to look forward to.
Inshore fishing in North Biscayne Bay has been good for an assortment of species but mostly sea trout, Spanish mackerel, bluefish, jacks and ladyfish. South Biscayne Bay has had a lot of mackerel, bluefish, jacks, bluerunners, small groupers and small snappers for hot fast action. This fishery should only get better as the days go by and the groupers will get bigger as the water gets colder.
Offshore dolphins have been the main target but lots of mackerel and kingfish are available not to mention that occasional sailfish that comes by the boat. All of my charters start in the bay but on some days I will venture offshore if I think it is safe.
Flamingo has been the most consistent area and will continue to be for the rest of the year. Right now the bird life in the Park is unbelievable. On almost every trip we have seen white pelicans, Rosette spoonbills, skimmer birds, herons egrets, bottle nosed dolphins, alligators, crocodiles, sharks, manatees and turtles and then add the fish like snook, redfish, sea trout, permit, cobia, jacks, ladyfish, drum, groupers, mackerel, bluefish, pompano and sharks and you have set yourself up for a once in a lifetime experience.
Check out my updated Web Site’s Photo Page and see if your picture made it to the site! www.getemsportfsihing.com
The Holidays are just around the corner and what better gift for yourself, friend, relative or business friend then a full or half day fishing charter aboard the 22’ “Get Em” Pathfinder Bay Boat.
Recent Catches:
On Tuesday I took my wife out on a busman’s holiday looking for some dolphin’s action. After filling the live well with pilchards we headed offshore and quickly found what we were looking for. A large weedline, birds and plenty of dolphin’s. In no time we had 15 fish in the box and topped it off with a 22 pound cow that my wife Dana spotted as it swam toward the boat. Dana fought the fish perfectly and 30 minutes later she had the fish in gaffing range and then in the boat.
Frank Farraye fished a late afternoon and into the evening charter out of North Biscayne Bay and after catching a few dozen live pilchards in Gov. Cut we headed offshore in hopes of getting some dolphins. We had no hits after an hour so headed to the reef. There we released a shark and decided to try our luck in the bay. On the way in we saw some action in the Ships’ Channel and put a few baits in the water. Frank landed a nice 8 pound king but lost at least 10 others due to cut offs, hook pulls or missed strikes. Once in the bay we turned our attentions to snook and saw plenty but only landed a small snook and a few jacks before calling it a night.
Today I am in Flamingo with John H., John, Dave and Patrick. The wind is blowing 15 to 25 out of the northeast and we headed for some protected areas. By days end the guys had released 3 snook, 8 redfish, a dozen trout, catfish, jacks and loads of ladyfish and a bluefish. Dave hooked a fish that at first we thought was a big snook because it ate a live shrimp on a Hook Up lure but after a long fish it turned out to be a 60 pound bull shark caught on 8 pound Mustad Monofilament line and a 30 pound leader. Nice catch! All in all the guys had at least 60 fish if not more for the day.
Next it is Ray Sr. and Ray Jr. for a full day in South Biscayne Bay. We found a large school of pilchards and I was able to get my 10’ Lee Fisher Net over them and we had a well full. We headed for the first spot and caught 3 mutton snappers to 17 inches a 14 inch mangrove snapper and lost at least 15 nice mackerel to miss hits, spit hooks and cut offs before moving on. The next spot produced 6 nice Spanish mackerel before they quit biting and it was time to move on. The next area produced over 30 small red groupers more mutton snappers and 30 or more blue runners that will keep the guys arms aching for sometime.
Have a very Happy Thanksgiving!
If you’r in the market for a new landing net then you need to check out the Stow Master landing net line. I have owned two Stow Master landing nets in the last three years and the only reason I don't have my original net is because I allowed it to catch a mangrove tree in a small creek with a lot of current and it tore the net and broke the handle. The Stow master landing net is a knotless net that is coated with a material that almost makes hooks getting stuck a thing of the past. It has extensions and folds in half taking up half the space of a normal landing net and easily stows in a rod locker or hatch making it impossible to be blown out of you boat while traveling. Stow master nets can be bought in many of your local tackle dealers or on line at www.stowmaster.net/
Do you live on the water? Do you have a dock or sea wall behind your home? If your answer was yes and you have read my report then you need the Super Fish Light on your dock or sea wall. The Super Fish Light easily attaches to your sea wall or dock and runs off of a 110 volt power cord and once set up to go on at night and turn off at a specific time will have snook, tarpon, snappers, jacks, ladyfish and baitfish like pilchards, shrimp and glass minnows right at your back door. From there you can either name your new pets or catch them for catch and release or dinner. www.superfishlight.com I hope to have some pictures real soon of my Super Fish Light and the fish it has attracted.
Check out my report in the Miami Herald's Sports section under Fishing Updates each Thursday, the Florida Sportsman Magazines South Florida Internet Fishing Report (www.floridaspotsman.com), my monthly Action Spotter Fishing Report for the South Region in the Florida Sportsman Magazine each month or tune into the Florida Sportsman Magazines Live Radio Show on 1080 WMCU on the AM dial or listen on the internet at www.1080wmcu.com every Saturday morning from 7 to 8 AM and here the up to the minute fishing forecasts from some of the top Capt.'s in South Florida like Capt. Jimbo Thomas on the Thomas Flyer, Capt. Bouncer Smith on Bouncers Dusky, Capt Skip Bradeen on the Blue Chips Too out of Whale Harbor Marina, Capt. Wayne Conn on The Reward Fleet, the Newport Fishing Pier and more.
Check out my new web site and see the monthly catches!
Sponsors: Yamaha, Bob Hewes Boats, Maverick, Minn Kota, Lowrance Electronics, Daiwa, General Motors & Chevrolet, Rapala, Mustad, Ande Lines, Pure Fishing, Gulp, Berkley, Precision Tackle, Capt. Hank Brown's Hook Up Lures, Hydro Glow Lights, Costa Del Mar Sunglasses, Saltwater Assassins, Key Largo Rods, Lee Fisher Cast Nets, Smartshield, Master Repair in Stuart Florida, Power Pole, Stow Master Nets, superfishlight.com
Capt. Alan Sherman
"Get Em" Sportfishing Charters
786 436 2064
shermana@bellsouth.net
www.getemsportfishing.com
 |
Capt. Alan Sherman (Shermana)
New member
Username: Shermana
Post Number: 1
Registered: 10-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, October 29, 2008 - 7:26 am: | |
For the last two months I have been informing my clients and readers that this is the time to get out on the water to take advantage of some of the best fishing of the season and the ones that did get out I’m sure had some good fishing tales to tell. Now as I write the weather conditions are changing and temperatures feel more like December or January weather but we are still in October. I think the last time I felt temperatures like these in October it may have been 10 or more years ago. That could be a good sign because 10 years ago the fishing was good maybe better then it has been especially in North Biscayne Bay for the past few years. For what ever reason a lot of the migratory fish like the mackerels, bluefish and pompano never stuck in the bay much past November and hopefully this year they will. In the past these fish have been available throughout the year and I can only hope that this is one of those years because when you add the migratory fish to the local species it always gives you something special to fish for of quality in North Biscayne Bay. So far we have had a few bluefish in the bay but no mackerel or pompano as of yet and I expect that to change maybe as soon as today. Yesterday as I was writing the Miami Heralds Fishing Update I spoke with an employee on Anglins Fishing Pier off of Commercial Boulevard. The guy was so excited I had called because anglers had been catching pompano from sun up all the way into the afternoon and the fish were still biting. He estimated that maybe 1000 pompano had cleared the rail yesterday and before the front anglers were catching a lot of bluefish and Spanish mackerel. Recently the weather has been either very windy or very rainy and now quite chilly. Put all of these conditions together and it can make for a tough day on the water. Recently I have fished three short four hour trips in North Biscayne Bay with similar results and those being tough conditions with slow fishing. All of these trips were during strong winds taking away a lot of the bay that I had hoped to fish. Half day charters can be great if the fish are concentrated and cooperate but that wasn’t the case on these days. We started each trip with a live well full of finger mullet that I was able to catch with my 10’ Lee Fisher cast net at the boat ramp but the water was too dirty from all of the recent winds and rain and pilchards were not available. On each trip we covered a lot of water trying to find some action but only a few jacks, ladyfish, bluefish, barracudas, small groupers, lizard fish, sea trout and lizard fish came to our baits and not on each trip. Just days before the weather changes lots of tarpon were in the bay and actively feeding on large schools of finger mullet. Large jacks, snook, sea trout, barracudas and ladyfish were also feeding on the baitfish and allowing for some hot action. Things are changing now as far as the weather and I can only hope that when things calm down the baitfish schools will regroup and the mackerels, bluefish, pompano, tarpon, snook, jacks, ladyfish, sea trout, snappers and barracudas will be there waiting for my clients.
Offshore fishing had been producing hot king mackerel action and some dolphins, lots of small tunas and the first signs of sailfish and now with bluefish, pompano and mackerels cruising the beaches so things are looking good for the offshore fishermen.
South Biscayne Bay will start seeing the mackerel, bluefish, pompano, jacks, snapper and groupers moving into the Finger Channels and that can be a lot of fun for the Variety Fishermen.
Flamingo has been the place to be if you are looking for that fishing trip for snook, redfish, tarpon, sea trout and sharks and now with cooling temperatures the mackerels, bluefish, pompano, tripletail, cobias and groupers become part of the catch.
If your in the market for a new landing net then you need to check out the Stow Master landing net line. I have owned two Stow Master landing nets in the last three years and the only reason I don't have my original net is because I allowed it to catch a mangrove tree in a small creek with a lot of current and it tore the net and broke the handle. The Stow master landing net is a knotless net that is coated with a material that almost makes hooks getting stuck a thing of the past. It has extensions and folds in half taking up half the space of a normal landing net and easily stows in a rod locker or hatch making it impossible to be blown out of you boat while traveling. Stow master nets can be bought in many of your local tackle dealers or on line at www.stowmaster.net/
Do you live on the water? Do you have a dock or sea wall behind your home? If your answer was yes and you have read my report then you need the Super Fish Light on your dock or sea wall. The Super Fish Light easily attaches to your sea wall or dock and runs off of a 110 volt power cord and once set up to go on at night and turn off at a specific time will have snook, tarpon, snappers, jacks, ladyfish and baitfish like pilchards, shrimp and glass minnows right at your back door. From there you can either name your new pets or catch them for catch and release or dinner. www.superfishlight.com I hope to have some pictures real soon of my Super Fish Light and the fish it has attracted.
Captain Alan Sherman
"Get Em" Spotfishing Charters
7864362064
shermana@bellsouth.net
www.getemsportfishing.com
Check out my report in the Miami Herald's Sports section under Fishing Updates each Thursday, the Florida Sportsman Magazines South Florida Internet Fishing Report (www.floridaspotsman.com), my monthly Action Spotter Fishing Report for the South Region in the Florida Sportsman Magazine each month or tune into the Florida Sportsman Magazines Live Radio Show on 1080 WMCU on the AM dial or listen on the internet at www.1080wmcu.com every Saturday morning from 7 to 8 AM and here the up to the minute fishing forecasts from some of the top Capt.'s in South Florida like Capt. Jimbo Thomas on the Thomas Flyer, Capt. Bouncer Smith on Bouncers Dusky, Capt Skip Bradeen on the Blue Chips Too out of Whale Harbor Marina, Capt. Wayne Conn on The Reward Fleet, the Newport Fishing Pier and more.
Check out my new web site and see the monthly catches!
Sponsors: Yamaha, Bob Hewes Boats, Maverick, Minn Kota, Lowrance Electronics, Daiwa, General Motors & Chevrolet, Rapala, Mustad, Ande Lines, Pure Fishing, Gulp, Berkley, Precision Tackle, Capt. Hank Brown's Hook Up Lures, Hydro Glow Lights, Costa Del Mar Sunglasses, Saltwater Assassins, Key Largo Rods, Lee Fisher Cast Nets, Smartshield, Master Repair in Stuart Florida, Power Pole, Stow Master Nets, superfishlight.com
Capt. Alan Sherman
"Get Em" Sportfishing Charters |
Capt Rick Rodriguez (Gulfgrouper)
New member
Username: Gulfgrouper
Post Number: 87
Registered: 8-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, October 16, 2008 - 7:32 am: | |
Charter Boat Gulf Grouper Fishing Report
Hernando Beach
16 October 2008
Grouper fishing is good, we have been catching allot of small Red and Gag Groupers. Each day we catch over a hundred fish that are released. At the end of the day we usually have enough keeper size Grouper to make anyone happy. The Kingfish are starting to show up here and there; however the Spanish Mackerel are all over the place in all depths of water. Many Mangrove Snapper and Grunts are caught each trip and are a welcome addition to any fish fry. The best baits are Threadfin Herring and live Pinfish.
Hernando Beach Fishing Forecast: More King fish will be in the area after the next cold front passes. Larger Gag Grouper will be pushed down also as the water temperature continues to drop. Fish slower and chum a little to get the Grouper bite going.
Sea ya on the water,
Capt Rick Rodriguez
727-992-9494
www.gulfgrouper.com |
Captain Rich Smith (Captrichsmith)
New member
Username: Captrichsmith
Post Number: 6
Registered: 5-2006
Rating: 
Votes: 5 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, July 01, 2008 - 8:12 am: | |
Snook fishing in Flamingo has been excellent and should only get better approaching what generally marks the peak of Snook action, the full moon in July. The beaches of the Everglades have also been getting better as a few Snook have shown up there to spawn. You can also find Spanish Mackerel tearing into schools of bait in the early mornings.
Biscayne Bay has been very good over the past week for Bonefish and Permit on the flats. Good schools of fish are pushing through Burger King Flat, Midnight Pass, and Petrol Point. During the low tides, tons of tailing Permit are eager to eat shrimp or crabs.
In the southern part of Biscayne Bay, Tarpon up to 60 Pounds have been jumping on Bass Assassin Eels in the Silver and Black colors, imitating mullet.
www.captainrichsmith.com
www.miamiflatsfishing.com
www.everglades-fishingguide.com |
Captain Rich Smith (Captrichsmith)
New member
Username: Captrichsmith
Post Number: 5
Registered: 5-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, July 01, 2008 - 8:11 am: | |
Snook fishing in Flamingo has been excellent and should only get better approaching what generally marks the peak of Snook action, the full moon in July. The beaches of the Everglades have also been getting better as a few Snook have shown up there to spawn. You can also find Spanish Mackerel tearing into schools of bait in the early mornings.
Biscayne Bay has been very good over the past week for Bonefish and Permit on the flats. Good schools of fish are pushing through Burger King Flat, Midnight Pass, and Petrol Point. During the low tides, tons of tailing Permit are eager to eat shrimp or crabs.
In the southern part of Biscayne Bay, Tarpon up to 60 Pounds have been jumping on Bass Assassin Eels in the Silver and Black colors, imitating mullet. |
Captain Rich Smith (Captrichsmith)
New member
Username: Captrichsmith
Post Number: 4
Registered: 5-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, March 28, 2008 - 6:04 am: | |
Snook and redfish fishing has significantly improved in the everglades. Large snook over 30 inches were eating Rapala X-raps in Whitewater Bay, Hells Bay and Pearl bay. Fly fishing, on the other hand, remained difficult. Unless, of course, you find a good spot out of the wind.
The same goes for Biscayne Bay, with wind posing a major problem on the flats. A few schools of bonefish in the seven to nine pound range have been entering the shallow flats from the deeper channel of Angelfish Creek. If you are looking for entertainment, barracuda up to four feet long are pounding artificial lures and making drags scream along the shorelines. |
Captain Rich Smith (Captrichsmith)
New member
Username: Captrichsmith
Post Number: 2
Registered: 5-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 15, 2008 - 10:41 am: | |
Miami, FL If you are able to time the weather patterns to work in your advantage Biscayne Bay can be very productive working grounds for all your Bonefish chasing needs. The key to your success lies primarily on water temperature. Bonefish are most active in water temperatures above 72 Degrees. During these winter months cold fronts can drag the bay water temperatures below this critical number and force the Bonefish to refuge to deeper warmer water. This is why you will often see Bonefish in large schools waking in
2-4 feet of water. So what this means is if your temperature gauge is indicating colder water you should move toward the edge of the flat and begin your search. The majority of Permit are still hanging out on the offshore wreck located outside Biscayne Bay. However, there are a few lost schools hanging out on the West side of the bay. These are not out typical spring time numbers but if you are lucky to stumble across one a quarter sized crab will certainly entice him to do a little drag screaming action for ya like my buddy Blair often says on his television show Addictive Fishing. If its Tarpon you are after you should primarily turn your focus
north ward to Government Cut Canal. Most of the numbers will be found in areas like the cut due to deeper warmer water and a constant abundance of bait fish so they don’t have to travel far for their meals. Crabs, Mullet, and Pinfish, and Pilchards are the baits of choice for these Jurassic creatures. Tarpon can also be caught on Rapala X-Raps in bright colors in Flamingo and the Everglades National Park.
www.captainrichsmith.com |
CaptainIDS (Captainids)
New member
Username: Captainids
Post Number: 51
Registered: 9-2007
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, September 05, 2007 - 10:19 am: | |
Are you a Licensed Coast Guard Captain?
This is for you
http://www.captainids.com/ |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Username: Bouncer
Post Number: 67
Registered: 9-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, November 30, 2005 - 5:21 am: | |
New contact information for Bouncer;
Phone 305-573-8224 e-mail capt.bouncer@bellsouth.net
Hurricane season ends today. Hurrah!!! Now the winter fishing season starts. Thanksgiving morning we had fishing at it’s best. Good weather and family out for some fun action with light tackle and fly gear. We anchored on a county wreck in 45 feet of water and caught fish by the dozens on fly and spinning rods rigged with jigs or live bait. Live chumming with small pilchards, we had the blue runners, small amberjacks, juvenile kings and mackerel boiling behind the boat. Everyone had sore arms when we quit to head in for the family dinner and football games on the TV.
Friday it was back to big game fishing. With plans for sails and swordfish, we left the dock with hopes high after hearing about some sails caught between 11 and noon. By the time we caught bait, the bite was over. No action came our way over the afternoon.
The swordfish were a little more active. As the radio hummed with reports of action, we had a couple false starts as bites came better than hook-ups on both squid and runners. Finally around 9:30 we got a solid hook set. The fish jumped twice and charged the boat. My deckhand, Leo leader the fish along side the boat and when the fish offered a shot with the gaff, Leo took it. He now had a 160 pound swordfish, about as tired as a linebacker coming out of the tunnel at the start of a big game, gaffed through the lips with his one gloved hand holding the bill. I sank another gaff into the fish and we pulled it aboard before it knew what happened. Everyone ran for the bow as this enraged gladiator swam around the cockpit breaking it’s bill loose at the eyes and wearing it’s tail lobes off. The anglers were thrilled as it was John’s first swordfish and they were having swordfish steaks for Sunday’s cookout back in South Carolina.
The weekend brought rough weather. We trolled up a few mackerel in the ship channel on Saturday and cancelled Sundays trip.
Monday we fished with Cindy and Jeanne Pemberton. Seas were still rough and we had Government Cut to our selves. We trolled plugs and spoons for a couple hours and caught a dozen Spanish mackerel, a couple dozen small king mackerel and bunches of jack crevalle. We all had a riot of fun. We had to try the ocean for a couple hours. We should have stayed in the bay. It was rough and all we caught outside was a Spanish mackerel and a 14 pound king. We made a quick pass through the action area of the cut, and the fish were still feeding at will.
Sails, dolphin, kings and grouper should be very active through the end of the year. Mackerel should be wearing out anglers near shore and the swordfish will be thick if the weather ever let’s us get out there. LET’S GO FISHING!!!!! Contact me at 305-573-8224 or capt.bouncer@bellsouth.net |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
New member
Username: Bouncer
Post Number: 66
Registered: 9-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, November 11, 2005 - 6:06 am: | |
Well we survived the hurricanes with no major problems. Just like last year, we lost most of two months of fishing to hurricane season. And, I don’t mean the football team. We had no damage. I think of those unfortunate people in the Gulf States, or those less lucky around here, I wish I could do something more for them.
We have gotten back into the fishing mode. We fished last Wednesday and caught a small tiger shark, a 100 pound Atlantic sharp nose shark, more dolphin than we could keep track of ( released all but 6 to eat) and a sailfish.
Last Thursday we caught 6 dolphin and a sailfish. We had tough luck, in missing more dolphin than we caught. Both days there were loads of mackerel and jacks at all the favorite bait spots. We wanted bigger things, and the sails filled that bill.
I worked the boat show over the weekend and saw a lot of good friends and made some new ones.
This week we have fished everyday. We wreck fished on Monday and caught a big African pompano, 25 pond black grouper, 2 amberjacks, a big barracuda, several small king mackerel and a few Spanish mackerel.
Tuesday we fished north Biscayne Bay for tarpon and jacks. We saw plenty of tarpon, but they had lock jaw. We fished a couple ocean wrecks on the way home and caught some big bar jacks.
Wednesday it was drifting the edge of the reef. We found good action in 50 to 100 feet of water. We caught kings to over 30 pounds, Spanish mackerel and a small shark. It was good fun. In the afternoon we tried out deep and caught a couple dolphin.
Early Thursday morning found those kings and mackerel hungry again. We fished numerous wrecks with no action. We then fished the color change in 500 feet of water and caught some dolphin. Our final move was into 70 to 90 feet of water and produced a couple nice kings and a sailfish to end a nice day on the water.
Sails, dolphin, kings and grouper should be very active through the end of the year. Mackerel should be wearing out anglers near shore and the swordfish will be thick if the weather ever let’s us get out there. LET’S GO FISHING!!!!! 305-945-5114 or capt.bouncer@att.net
We will be sharing 40 years of swordfish and sail fishing knowledge with you, if you come to our seminar at Dusky Sport Center 110 N. Bryan Road in Dania Beach on Thursday , November 17th. Call them at 954-922-8890. |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Username: Bouncer
Post Number: 65
Registered: 9-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, October 11, 2005 - 7:03 am: | |
Boy! Have we been lazy with the reports. The truth is with storms and getting ready to move, I haven’t been thinking about fishing in my spare time. No we are not moving the boat, just the home. Since our last report we did one Bimini trip. It was very good and a lot of fun. We fished with a fleet of Dusky owners who caught yellowtail snapper, grouper, big king mackerel and plenty of other fine fish. Every afternoon ended in the pool at the Bimini Sands Beach Club where fish tales ran rampant.
We have done some swordfish trips. We fished 3 nights with 8 pound line. The first night we caught one about 40 pounds. You learn how tough these fish are when they are heavier than the line. It took 8 hours and 20 minutes to defeat this fish. When released, he swam away in good condition. The next night we fought one for about 45 minutes before he escaped and the last evening we fought one for about 20 minutes before we ran out of line. We will catch them on 8 pound line again in two weeks.
We fished a tournament this last Saturday night and caught 2 swordfish of about 50 and 65 pounds, a 100 pound hammerhead shark plus 3 night sharks from 10 to 140 pounds.
Yesterday we targeted bottom fish. We spent half the day going for mutton snapper and caught a 7 pound mutton and a 6 pound African pompano. The other half of the day was aimed at grouper and we caught 4 gray grouper from 8 to 15 pounds and a 8 pound red grouper. As a bonus we caught a 10 pound blackfin tuna on a flat lined herring in 200 feet of water.
Last evening we went after the grouper again. The bad news was that we went 0 for 4 on the good strikes. The good news was that we caught a nice sailfish on that flatlined herring. We snooked fished for about 90 minutes without any action.
Sailfish season is rapidly approaching and we will get pretty busy, so let’s stat planning those trips. We are still available for the Hydro Glow, Dark Side of the Moon tournament and the Fort Lauderdale billfish tournaments. There is a fly division in the Fort Lauderdale tournament if you want a special challenge. To plan your trip email me at capt.bouncer@att.net |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
New member
Username: Bouncer
Post Number: 64
Registered: 9-2003
Rating: 
Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, September 09, 2005 - 7:04 pm: | |
It has been a nice week after a rough weekend. We went looking for dolphin before setting up for swordfish on Tuesday night. We found numerous boards and lobster floats, but no mahi mahi. We scored big with a nice cobia under a board about 15 miles off. Our first bait out for swords was eaten by a beautiful 80 pound tiger shark, which we released.
We had 3 swordfish bites fought one a while and briefly fought another, but it was 3 outs for the night.
Mike Shapiro and his son had a good time with bonitos, kings and cudas on Wednesday morning. Wednesday afternoon and evening found Brooke and Joe catching snook to 25 pounds and a tarpon.
Thursday Brooke and Joe caught a bunch of cudas, bonito and hook a nice sailfish. For the first time in my 39 years of full time fishing, a huge mako shark came up and ate the sailfish about 50 feet from the boat. What a huge dorsal fin cut through the water when that beast rose to the surface. Later in the day, Joe caught and released his first whole sailfish.
Friday morning I got together with some class mates from my elementary school days at Norland. We had a lot of laughs and caught some bonito, a king and a super 50+ pound wahoo.
Friday afternoon the George Bubrick family caught 1 of 2 sailfish, a couple bonito, a couple barracuda and a couple nice snook.
We are sold out for September, so let’s start planning the months ahead. E-mail me at capt.bouncer@att.net |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
New member
Username: Bouncer
Post Number: 63
Registered: 9-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, September 01, 2005 - 9:01 am: | |
We have had some really good fishing the last two nights. We took out some guys from the MTV awards show on Tuesday night. They only had two and a half hours to fish. In that time we caught bait ( not very easy at the time), executed a rescue with EMS and the Coast Guard and caught a few nice fish. We targeted snook in the inlet. The first bait in the water was struck when it hit the water, but the fish got away. The second bait was a nice tarpon. With 3 or 4 breaks in the action to help a hooked angler on the jetty get rescued, we still ended up with that tarpon, 4 snook and a bunch of “big ones that got away”. The guy on the jetty had a plug with two big treble hooks rigged on his rod. He had a 5 pound jack on one hook and the other hook in his arm. He had no pliers to cut the line or hooks. Being out on the jetty’s rough terrain with no tools had him stuck in place. EMS couldn’t risk climbing out to him. We couldn’t drive into the rocks to get him. We convinced the Coast Guard to dispatch an inflatable to pull up to the rocks and pick up the poor guy. Always keep a pair of cutting pliers on you when your fishing. They need to be on you all the time. They may save your life.
Wednesday night we went sword fishing with Steve and Darin. On the way out, I spotted a 8 foot 2X4 floating 15 miles offshore. We caught 20 dolphin in short order. I was sure we had caught 8 or 10 and released a couple of those. You could have knocked me over with a sneeze when I learned we had put 18 dolphin in the box. It was a good lesson in staying in touch with your catch count. We never would have kept that many if we had realized how many we had caught.
We ran a couple more miles and put out the swordfish spread. We fished two rigged squid and two live baits. With no moon, we fished one bait with no lead other than the batteries in the blue light 30 feet above the bait. This bait hung 80 feet below a jug float. The other lines were down 100 to 300 feet. Fishing in 1140 to 1160 feet of water we caught 4 out of 5 swordfish. 4 of the fish were hooked on the same setup described above. The other swam up to the boat while we fought the first fish of the night and we fed him a live speedo. We saw one other swordfish in the glow of the Hydro Glow Fish Light. All the fish were 46 to 52 inch lower jaw to fork of tail length. One that was hooked deep down the throat was kept for dinner. Each time we caught a swordfish we ran back to the same numbers, set up another drift and caught another swordfish or a shark.
Our last action was catching one of two shark that struck about 11 PM. The shark was a night shark of about 125 to 150 pounds.
Prime swordfish season is over the next two months. We have a few dates left, so let’s plan a trip. E-mail capt.bouncer@att.net |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Username: Bouncer
Post Number: 62
Registered: 9-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, August 21, 2005 - 7:35 am: | |
August has produced above normal action for this time of year. We spent a few days in Bimini with Lee Lavery and Pat Flury from Dania. The yellowtail snapper were challenging, but we caught enough to have fun. We also caught some nice yellow eye and button snapper in the deep water. Lee scored big with her first cobia. This 30 pound fish found us on a shallow wreck east of the island.
When we got back from Bimini it was time to test the local bottom fishing. We fished for 4 days with Renny and his friends from Hong Kong. They caught a tagged 80 pound sailfish in 300 feet of water on a live herring. During their 4 days they caught a bunch of big vermillion snapper, dozens of porgy, a few snowy groupers, a couple black grouper, a kingfish and some almaco jacks. They had sore arms a couple times.
This past Thursday Bill and 8 year old Wyatt Rubin fished with us. Wyatt stole the show. He caught 3 kingfish, but the tail got bit off the biggest one. This 20 pound fish lost a race with a shark and turned into a 15 pound king mackerel. Wyatt also caught a nice barracuda and really showed off with a 25 pound wahoo and a sailfish. Bill was snake bit. After falling out of the boat, the fish were so Leary of him, that they spit the hook if he touched the rod.
Thursday night J Dawg, a.k.a. Jacob or Jake Reiner did something that I have feared, but not seen before. His first snook ever was a 15 pound beauty before a 40 pound barracuda bit it in half 20 feet behind the boat. That was a bummer. He and his dad did catch and release a couple nice ones, in whole condition.
Friday Jake and his dad, Mike joined us for a couple days in Bimini. We fished shallow wrecks for fast action the first half of Friday’s fishing. Gray snapper to 3 or 4 pounds were hot and heavy along with big blue runners. Jake used live pilchards while his father learned how to scored with the fly rod. The second half of the day was spent on wrecks in 90 feet of water and produced 6 big horse eye jacks and a 18 pound black grouper.
Saturday morning was back to shallow wreck fishing. We had a ball catching fish as fast as the baits hit the water. 2 cobia made both Jake and Mike instant heroes in the scoring department. They caught yellowtail snapper, big blue runners and sharks till the J Dawg collapsed on the bench with exhaustion. Mike is now a fly fishing master. His cast are long and straight. The sharks and big blue runners fear him. Mike caught a lot of fish on the fly rod, but there were a couple he wants a rematch with. That cobia that nibbled the back of the fly will bug him the rest of the year.
Needing a break, we ran to the drop off. We anchored in 60 feet of water and the fish were waiting for the chum to hit the water. Clouds of yellowtails fought the chubs for lunch. After missing a couple big grouper, catching several yellowtails and fighting a couple mackerel and barracuda, we moved to 100 feet of water in search of the missing giant shark. Jake had caught a couple 80 pound beauties on Friday and a bunch of 15 pound sharks in the morning, but he needed a monster. In 30 minutes three sharks answered our call. The first ripped 80 pound line from the reel like a north bound freight train, cutting our line on the drop off. The second abused Jake for several minutes before breaking the 100 leader. Finally Mike beat a 75 pound attacker as time ran out on our adventure. We sure had a lot of fun and action on this trip.
To join the fun e-mail capt.bouncer@att.net |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Username: Bouncer
Post Number: 61
Registered: 9-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, August 06, 2005 - 5:25 am: | |
Good bye July and hello August. July went out with a bang. We were so busy catching fish, that we did a bad job of updating our reports.
On the 17th we caught 6 mutton snappers, a black grouper, a big red grouper, a sailfish, king, 6 bonitos, a yellow jack and an amberjack for an action filled day. All these fish were caught while anchor fishing over reefs and wrecks in 90 to 120 feet of water with the Lyndon Fly party.
On the 18th we fished an evening trip with Brad and Drew Orvieto and caught 8 snook to 18 pounds, 3 jack crevalle, 2 barracuda and 2 out of 3 tarpon that we hooked. We fished around the inlet with live herring for bait.
On the 19th Gary and his guest fished from 5 to 9 PM around the inlet with us. They caught 20 snook, most of which were 12 to 21 pounds and 3 big jack crevalle. They used 71 live herring during the trip and had strikes on nearly every bait.
On the 20th Ziad Sultan fished with us by himself. He caught a sailfish, 4 grouper 12 to 20 pounds, a big porgy, a mutton snapper, a snook and 3 barracudas.
We took a little vacation till the 29th. On the 29th Mariano, his brother and sister Annie caught a 17 pound red grouper, a 13 pound genuine red snapper, a dozen almaco jacks, 6 bonito and a barracuda.
That evening Brian and his son Mitchell Adam caught 7 snook, 2 barracuda and 2 jack crevalle up to 15 pounds.
Saturday, the 30th, Armondo Montalvo and his son Eddie and I headed for Bimini. On the way across we caught 4 dolphin. The afternoon produced 25 yellowtail snapper, 2 big amberjack, a barracuda, a shark and black grouper of 24 and 28 pounds.
Sunday they caught 8 big yellowtails, a 16 pound red grouper, 6 school size dolphin, 6 barracuda, a wahoo over 30 pounds and a matching bull dolphin over 30 pounds.
Monday they finished their trip with a bunch of yellowtail snapper, 6 big horse eye jacks, some 5 pound blue runners and 5 sharks from 75 to 150 pounds.
Wednesday we were back to Miami fishing. Mike, Mike and Alex caught 4 sailfish. 3 of these sails ate baits that were at least 60 feet below the surface on weighted lines. The weighted lines also produced 4 king mackerel over 10 pounds each, 6 bonitos, 2 barracudas and a 35 pound African pompano.
That evening was slow at the inlet. We caught 2 small snook and 2 small barracuda.
Thursday George and Georgie caught 1 of 2 sailfish. We had a nice blue marlin eat a bait, but escape. 3 kings and 3 bonito filled out their day.
On the evening trip 11 year old Jamilea caught a blackfin tuna over 30 pounds plus a bonito. Her sister 12 year old Desiree caught a couple kings and a bonito and they let their dad, Gary, catch a bonito as well.
Friday, young men, Sam and Matt cashed in on their first prize from the Lighthouse Point Light Keeper’s Tournament. They caught 3 out of 6 sailfish, a big blackfin tuna, 4 kings, 4 bonitos and a jack crevalle.
Friday evening produced a snook, a jack crevalle, 3 kings and 2 bonitos.
It is swordfish time. Let’s go catch some. E mail me at capt.bouncer@att.net |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Username: Bouncer
Post Number: 60
Registered: 9-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 27, 2005 - 8:34 am: | |
Hey we finally did some more fishing off our home coast. As you all know, we normally fish off Miami Beach, Florida. As many of you know, we have been spending a lot of time in the Bahamas. We started this week there. It was raining every afternoon, along with 30 knot winds and lightning. We caught a few fish between the storms. We had barracudas, cero mackerel, yellowtails and small jacks on fly. We had plenty of yellowtails on light spinning tackle and plugs or bucktail and we even caught a few fish on live bait. We had a lot of fun, but none of the spectacular fish we have been spoiled by over the last couple months.
We fished with old friends and new on Thursday. They wanted dolphin for weekend barbeques, so off we went. We trolled lures at 10 knots as we searched for birds or other signs of fish. We hit a school of undersized fish at about 11 miles. We hit a single 6 pound fish at 14 miles. Thing were looking bad, when we were tipped off on a bunch of fish at 20 miles. We hurried out there and hit the jackpot. We caught dolphin from 5 to 12 pounds on pilchards. We caught a bunch of nice ones on fly as well. Jay Stafford caught our best catch with a 15 pound bull dolphin on fly. It was a great fish for a guy who started the day telling us about his previous best fly catch. That was a 20 inch brown trout in Montana.
Friday we fished the edge, in an effort to have all day action. Wrong, it was slow. A small barracuda from time to time, a nice king mackerel and some missed bites consumed most of our time. Knowing that the tide was perfect for the inlet in the afternoon saved our day. Both anglers, father and son, caught snook, jacks and barracuda before the day was over.
Saturday was back to the dolphin hunt. With 3 tournaments scheduled off Miami and beautiful weather, I thought it would be tough fishing. It turned out great. We had 3 generations of fishermen on board and the fishing was good. We hit a real good school under a bird picking in the grass at 16 miles. We caught a bunch of 5 to 8 pound fish and the 12 year old member of our anglers scored with a 21 pound bull. This fish was extra tough, being hooked in the tail. We hit a bunch of fish at 11 miles under a flock of birds. Half were under the 20 inch fork length required by law and the others were up to 6 or 8 pounds. One more school of under sized fish was spiced buy the 12 year old catching another 9 pound bull.
We ran back inshore and put out the live bait for a while. We were rewarded by a 19 pound tuna, before going home.
Saturday night was the Hydro Glow Summer Swordfish Slam tournament. They had 79 boats hunting the gladiator of the seas. We were fishing this event on Marty Arostegui’s Cabo, “Timely Sale” as the Hydro Glow Fishing Team. We had the baits out by 8 PM, but fishing was slow. About 10, the radio started to crackle with reports of swordfish catches. We were getting into shallow water, so I called for another set. We moved offshore and set up again. The fleet had several fish boated and released by midnight, when I called for another move. I stopped in 1776 feet of water off Haulover Cut. As we were setting out the lines, the one I was adjusting got hit. I called for 13 year old Martini to catch the fish. He locked up and the fight was on. It didn’t take long before he had a 52 inch fork length swordfish on the deck. It had swallowed a rigged squid down 225 feet on the long jug rod. We put the lines back out and about 25 minutes latter the same rod screamed for attention again. This acted like a bigger fish. At 1 hour on the rod, Martini was frustrated that no fish had ever made him work so hard and then ran off another hundred yards of line. It took a while, but finally the fish were in sight. The fish were? 1 bait, 1 hook 1 rod, what is this the fish were? Martini’s 137.8 pound beautiful swordfish was escorted by another bigger fish. Right up to the boat it came. Marty hit Martini’s fish with the gaff, handed the gaff to our mate Aaron and grabbed his fly rod to make a few cast at the following swordfish. It was gone and we headed for the weigh in. Second place in the tournament for the Hydro Glow Fishing Team pleased us all.
July is fast approaching. Bimini beckons and the prime months for swordfish are upon us. Snook will be filling the inlet Let’s plan some great fishing adventures. E-mail capt.bouncer@att.net |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Username: Bouncer
Post Number: 59
Registered: 9-2003
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, June 19, 2005 - 4:06 am: | |
We just finished another super trip to Bimini. We were there with the Aizpuru family, dad Rick, sons Matt and Dan, and their friend John Mahoney. The weather was flat calm with 88 degree highs.
The first day we ran across the Gulf Stream, checked in with Bahamas Customs and our hotel and then went fishing. We tried a couple wrecks on the bank and caught small black grouper, tons of big blue runners, barracuda, yellowtails and a couple of nice sharks for the boys. We stopped on a ledge on the way back to the island and scored some 2 to 3 pound gray snapper for dinner.
Day two started with a 25 mile run to the south. We found the yellowtail snapper to be very hungry. You could catch them as fast as you baited your hook. For spice we added a few cero mackerel on pilchards and a barracuda on fly. About noon, the current picked up and the fishing slowed. This inspired us to run up on the bank and try another wreck.
At the wreck, Josh, my fellow crew member and I could not keep the guys rigged. They were catching sharks, barracudas, blue runners, groupers and who knows what. The action was non-stop. Rick got a shark on fly and John tricked a barracuda into eating his fly as well. It was obvious why everyone slept all the way back to the hotel pool.
Day three produced a couple big sharks for the boys. Matt got a 80 pound reef shark and Dan got a 150 pound hammerhead. When the current picked up the big yellowtail snapper turned on. It was fast action for them as well as cero mackerel and some sea monsters that would occasionally eat the yellowtails if you wound too slow.
Day four was planned as a slower pace as we continued an urgent search for a big grouper. The Aizpurus snorkeled a shallow wreck with nurse sharks and barracuda plus all the snappers and other reef fish. Then they explored a shallow ledge with beautiful reef fish and corals. In the afternoon we tried a deep drop north of the island with no results. I was beginning to worry that John would go home without his dream grouper. I ran 14 miles to a very good deep grouper spot. We dropped 1250 feet down and soon hooked up. The fight was on. 15 minutes latter the cat shark had been caught and released. The next drop produced some good snapper bites and we seemed to have one on, but the hooks came up empty. We dropped again. We had a good bite, but we were hung in the bottom. We jerked, we pulled with the boat, we pulled harder with the boat, we tightened the drag and pulled some more. The sinker broke off, but the rod stayed bent. We had a fish on. John pushed the button as the fish rose from 1290 feet below. It was his 25 pound mystic grouper. Smiles and cheers went up all around.
It was after 4 and the boys needed some action before hitting the pool. We tried one wreck, but nothing happened. We tried another wreck and as soon as the chum hit the water, the yellowtail snapper were solid behind the boat. It was fast action on light tackle. Suddenly the heavy deep rod was slammed. Matt jumped on it and caught a 24 pound black grouper. Another grouper ate the bait as it was going down on the very next drop. John scored with a 18 pound black grouper. The yellowtails were joined by rainbow runners and Dan got a good black grouper on the bottom before we headed to the pool.
The action for 4 days had been great. Fresh fish for dinner every night, plenty of fish for everyone to stock their freezers for great dinners over the next month, super memories, but it was time to head back to the real world. Day 5 would be passed by searching for dolphin, tuna and billfish while trolling west for home. Of course with this group, that would mean plenty of action. 10 miles from Bimini we found our first weeds, birds and fish. 3 to 6 pound dolphin surrounded the boat and were ready to eat. Just as action got hot and heavy, Matt hooked a monster on a light action bonefish rod with 12 pound line. I called for everyone to clear their lines as Matt went to work. 90 minutes latter Matt had beaten the biggest 35 pound bull dolphin anyone will ever see. It had the profile of a 45 pound fish, but the scale said 35. It was a spectacular battle, won by a fine angler.
Every ten miles we would find another little school of dolphin. We caught a couple on fly and plenty of catch and releases on bait as well. Then 16 miles off Miami Beach we found the dream floater. It was an Amazonian log. This piece of natural wood was at least 10 by 6 by 3 feet. It was surrounded by dolphin, a couple sharks and assorted other offshore fish. We finished our trip with nonstop action on fly rods and spinners catching and releasing fish from 4 to 14 pounds till the bait well was empty and the arms were tired.
July is fast approaching. Bimini beckons and the prime months for swordfish are upon us. Snook will be filling the inlet Let’s plan some great fishing adventures. E-mail capt.bouncer@att.net |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Username: Bouncer
Post Number: 58
Registered: 9-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, June 12, 2005 - 11:38 am: | |
Can you find us now? We have been to Germany and the Bahamas since our last report. Germany was great, but no fishing.
While I was gone, Capt. Josh produced 2 big tarpon and a cobia for our guest on his one evening trip.
On my first trip after Germany we caught 10 species’ of fish. We caught a 20 pound king and a cero mackerel. Then we caught a sailfish. The next spot produced 3 yellowtail snapper, ½ mutton snapper, a black grouper, a big rainbow runner and a big yellow jack. Finally we made a drift out deep and caught a dolphin fish and small tuna. It was a very interesting day.
We went to Bimini with Ron and Jina Crowder as well as John Nilson and Capt. Allan Engel. We were there from Wednesday till Sunday. With a tropical storm passing by we had plenty of wind and rain. Through it all we caught some very nice fish.
When all was tallied, we had several cero mackerel to 16 pounds. That is world record size. We had 4 mutton snapper to 10 pounds, a bunch of gray snapper from 3 to 4.5 pounds, 4 king mackerel, piles of yellowtail snapper, a mess of big blue runners and to many ocean tally. The biggest were, amberjack of 39, 42 and 42 pounds. The black grouper were 21, 19, 14, 11 and 23 pounds. We only caught a few barracuda and sharks this trip.
In the 22 boat tournament we were fishing, we won top male angler, top female angler, top amberjack, top gray snapper and top cero mackerel.
It is back to Bimini tomorrow. We have plenty of days available in July and August, so let’s go fishing. E-mail capt.bouncer@att.net . |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Username: Bouncer
Post Number: 57
Registered: 9-2003
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, May 29, 2005 - 8:31 am: | |
We have been having a ball in Bimini. We went over on May 15th with a bunch of friends from Wisconsin and caught fish till everyone collapsed on the deck. The 16th started slow with a long search for dolphin going dry. We saved the day with lots big yellowtails on fly and amberjack, sharks and ¾ of a 30 pound grouper on the heavy tackle.
The 17th was phenomenal. We fished 20 miles south of Bimini and when the dust settled we had caught a pending world record cero mackerel for Emmett. It was 10.5 pounds on 20 pound tippet fly. Emmett also caught a 17 pound king on fly, a bunch of yellowtails snapper on fly and several more cero mackerel on fly. Pat had a bunch of yellowtail and cero on the fly, plus a 16 pound dolphin and a 14 pound king on fly.
The BIG action was the 6 or 7 amberjack, in the 40 pound class, that ate their flies right behind the boat, abused them for 3 to 10 minutes each time and escaped. You have to see these brutes eat a popper to appreciate that strike.
The 18th was more of the same, more ceros, plenty of yellowtails and at least 8 or 9 amberjack that gave the boys a sense of hope before getting away.
Kip Kerr and his buddies were down for a few days when we got back to Miami. The fishing was a little slow, but on two days we got sailfish, tarpon and dolphin. We caught blackfin tuna, king mackerel, barracuda and bonito for spice and had a good time.
We caught a few tarpon on night trips and headed back to Bimini on the 24th.
Don and Sandy Blake were fishing with us and it was a ball. Day one was 2 to 4 pound snapper on fly, plug and spin for hours. Of course a bunch of assorted jacks and barracuda added to the game.
Late in the day, I decided to try one more spot. It was a dream come true as potential world record almaco jacks swarmed around the boat. When the day was called by approaching darkness, we had a couple possible records in the boat.
Don had a 10 pound fish on fly 15. Sandy had 14 pound fish on 12 spin. Both could be world records as well as Miami Beach Rod and Reel Club records.
Day two was off to the shallow wrecks. We caught snapper and assorted jacks for hours. Then Don and Sandy must have thought things were too slow. Sandy hooked a big fish on 8 pound spin. Don hooked a huge barracuda on 6 pound general. The two of them danced under, over, around and through each other for 25 minutes. Finally Sandy boated a beautiful 24 pound king mackerel on a little Tsunami rubber sand eel, rigged on 8 pound spin tackle. Don caught and released a whopping 26 pound barracuda on 6 pound general tackle. What a double header.
The day settled down with several more big barracuda on fly and tackle as light as 4 pound test.
Day three started slow. A sunken barge showed plenty of snapper and big runners, but they were slow to bite. A big amberjack showed up and while I tried to get it excited about Don’s fly, I hooked it on 12 pound tackle. It was a great fight, but I wanted Don or Sandy to catch that fish. Don scored with a nice cobia on fly as the tide changed and fishing got slow on this wreck.
We moved to where the almaco jack had been two days before. They were there and hungry. We missed 6 on fly and caught 4 of the 10 we hooked on tackle with 4 to 8 pound test line. We may have added 3 more world records. All this plus several cero mackerel and when they stopped biting, we were off to find more.
I ran 5 miles north to another spot when a feeling came over me to run another 4 mile east to a different reef. Sometimes you have to listen to your inner being.
This reef was full of yellowtail that were slow to eat, and I was starting to chew myself out when the action exploded. Schools of 6 to 12 pound amberjack invaded our waters. Don and Sandy were hooked up on anything as fast as it hit the water. More of the under and over, around and through dances raced around the cockpit. This one on fly, that one on 8 spin. What tackle was that? It was the best.
A couple barracuda and handsome pompanettes and we were headed back toward the falling sun and aspirin bottle. There were some sore arms to treat with big smiles to wash them down.
3 great ones fished with us the last two days. Larry Scheroder, Captain Sam Crutchfield and Captain Terry Shawnessy are well known in the fishing world. We spent 2 days chasing fish and fun around Bimini. We caught a bunch of yellowtail snapper, a slew of gray snapper, a couple of sharks, a cobia, some cudas, jacks and some I forgot.
Oh! Captain Sam caught a nice mutton snapper and a whopping 50 pound black grouper on a little plugging outfit. Larry won a old Pfleuger Supreme tournament with 3 strawberry grouper and a queen trigger fish.
It was some month of May. We will be on the water a lot over most of June, but we are available from the 27th through the 30th of June. Plan your trip for this summer or the distant future. E-mail capt.bouncer@att.net . Tight lines and good fishin’. |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Post Number: 56
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, May 15, 2005 - 5:28 am: | |
Boy, have we had some good fishing. Wednesday we fished with Patrick Fixter from New Jersey. He wanted his best chance for sailfish and tarpon, so we left the dock at 1 PM. This would give us some day fishing as well as the evening tarpon. I hope that by now he can use his arms. Pat fished alone because his daughter is too young for a day on the water and his wife stay with her. Pat caught 4 blackfin tuna up to 30 pounds, 3 out of 8 sailfish a king mackerel and 15 bonito. We missed a couple dolphin along the way. This was off Key Biscayne in 120 to 180 feet of water with live bait on flat lines and the kite. We did miss out on the tarpon as we ran out of time before we could get a hook up on the silver king.
Thursday we only fished the evening trip. Ben and Dominick were still trying to get Dom his first sailfish, so we started there. He got it, but it was tough. Dominick fought this sailfish for 70 minutes. It was one very tough 65 or 70 pound fish. After the sail, we headed back to the beach to catch Ben one more tarpon before he headed back north for the summer. Not to be out done, he caught a very tough 100 pound tarpon in another marathon battle.
Friday we fished with John Kunz and one of his friends. It was a good day of action. We caught 15 dolphin up to 15 pounds, 6 king mackerel all around 12 to 15 pounds, a bonito, a sailfish and a blackfin tuna in waters from 100 to 250 feet deep of Miami Beach. Friday evening we were treated to the presents of the Pemberton family. Tom and Cindy with daughter Jeanne. Tom started things going with a nice tarpon. Jeanne followed with a 29 inch snook. Then it was Cindy with a 45 inch barracuda. Here was a slow down in the action, so we changed locations and Cindy scored with a 100 pound tarpon on a live crab. After she had brought the fish to the leader in 15 minutes, she let Tom fight it for 25 minutes. Then Tom turned the rod over to Jeanne who fought it for another 20 minutes before the tarpon finally surrendered.
Saturday we fished a 15 boat tournament for Avborne Corporation. Our angler was Phil Fields from Seattle Washington. Phil was the hottest hand in town. We left late, and came in early, but Phil caught a load of fish. Phil caught 4 blackfin tuna up to 36 pounds. He caught a king and a bonito. And along with all that he caught 4 sailfish, his first sails ever. Unconfirmed reports indicated that Phil won this event.
Saturday night Nick Santori fished with his son Nick and friend Tom. They all were called upon to battle a magnificent 175 pound tarpon that ate a crab at Government Cut. This big lady took them on a guided tour of the area off Miami Beach for over an hour before releasing them to return to the safety of shore. The sight of this lady jumping clear of the water half a dozen times will stick with all of us through many fish stories.
May should bring plenty of dolphin into our waters. Blackfin tuna, sailfish and king mackerel should keep smiles on anglers faces daily. Tarpon and snook will be hot near shore. We will be presenting a seminar on dolphin fishing at Dusky Sport Center 110 N. Bryan Road Dania Beach at 6 PM on May 19th. Call 954-922-8890 for details. |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 09, 2005 - 7:20 am: | |
Rain, rain ,rain. What a way to start the month. We had some serious rain to start the month of May. At least it quit after a few days. With the rain and stalled front that brought it, fishing was a little slow for a few days. We missed a couple trips and caught just a couple fish over the first few days of the month. Friday, that all changed for the better. The front got through, the wind came up from the northeast and the Gulf Stream current moved near the reef. This brought a day with 4 sailfish, a 25 pound king and a tarpon for Dick Dolloff and his guest from Seattle Washington.
Friday night we fished with a couple fellows nad jumped a sailfish before going for tarpon. The tarpon have been a little slow to start at night, but after dark the action has been good. As soon as darkness fell the guys caught a couple tarpon before going home.
Saturday was extra special as a mother took several friends of her family fishing for a Mother’s Day sailfish. Carrie Ferguson of Lake Worth, Fl. Brought Matt Mills, Claes Bell and Nick Freeman out on her adventure. They caught 6 sailfish, 2 dolphin, 2 barracuda, 2 bonito and a king mackerel. For a great day on the water. They fished from 100 to 200 feet of water off Key Biscayne with kite and flatline herring and sardines.
May should bring plenty of dolphin into our waters. Blackfin tuna, sailfish and king mackerel should keep smiles on anglers faces daily. Tarpon and snook will be hot near shore. We will be presenting a seminar on dolphin fishing at Dusky Sport Center 110 N. Bryan Road Dania Beach at 6 PM on May 19th. Call 954-922-8890 for details. |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, April 28, 2005 - 7:00 am: | |
April is coming to an end with a bang. We fished Friday with Tom and 11 year old Peter Kane. They had heard that permit might be found around the full moon in April as well as hoping that they could match their friend Ben Cohen at catching a “Gold Coast Grand Slam”. Friday broke with no wind and no current. That meant that catching sails and dolphin might be tough, but it was good conditions for permit. It was a good call. Peter lost a couple permit before he landed a 20 pound beauty. Then it was Tom’s turn. Luck was not coming his way as several fish got away. Peter thought another lesson was called for. Peter proceeded to catch our best permit in a couple years. He scored with a 38 pound slab of power and handsome looks. That was enough for Tom. He then caught a permit around 20 pounds and we went searching for new game.
As the afternoon progressed, Peter and Tom both caught king mackerel. A small dolphin escaped from the kite bait and unfortunately, Peter did a great job fighting a sailfish before the hook pulled. Don’t worry the boys will be back Saturday night.
Friday night Ben Escanazi and his buddy Dominick entertained a couple of friends with some tarpon fishing. Things were slow till the sun went down, but then the tarpon went on a shrimp hunt. 4 tarpon found our shrimp, and 2 fought their way along side the boat for photos and releases.
Amanda and Steve Nichols, her father, decided to follow the Kane’s lead and try those permit. It was a good move as they caught 4 permit up to 32 pounds over a few hours. With no wind and thousands of boats out for the beautiful day, the other fish were in hiding. We caught 1 barracuda the rest of the trip. That was spending 2 hours running around looking for dolphin and anchoring on 3 wrecks.
Back to Tom and Peter. They joined us for the evening trip. The sails have bit just about every day between 5 and 7 PM. The Kane boys decided to give them a try before going for tarpon at dark. It was a great call as Peter caught and released a 35 to 40 pound sailfish and Tom did the same with a estimated 75 pound sailfish. Both fish fought very hard and long, so the boys were ready for some relaxing tarpon fishing. WRONG!!!
Just after dark a tarpon found our shrimp and Tom took the rod. 1 hour and 40 minutes latter, we released one very tough 120 pound tarpon. Rumor has it that Peter had to hold a straw to Tom’s lips for him to drink an ice tea the next day.
Hey we have some more fish to tell about. Sunday was a little slow, but we got 2 king mackerel and 3 bonito.
Sunday night found Jeremy and Genienne Hockensmith fishing with us. Genienne had a sailfish threaten to make her day before dark, but it never felt the hook. Even before dark, Jeremy was hooked up with a crazy tarpon. It jumped all around the area and other boats were running for cover. Next it tried to attack a cruise ship. After about 40 minutes of wild battle this 140 pound lady was worn out. A bunch of photos were taken and she was released to fight another day.
Monday Alan Clapp joined us to celebrate his 70th birthday while visiting his daughter. Alan has come from England to Florida every couple of years for 25 years to visit his family and fish with us. Monday he caught 3 of 4 sailfish, 4 dolphin, 4 bonitos, 2 barracudas and a kingfish. What a nice trip.
Monday evening Genienne and Jeremy were back. Genienne caught a beautiful sailfish and Jeremy missed a couple. They both caught 25 pound blackfin tuna at the same time and Genienne caught a tarpon while Jeremy caught a monster ladyfish.
Tuesday Alan Clapp was back for more. This spry young 70 year old scored with 4 of 4 sailfish, 3 blackfin tuna up to 28 pounds, 2 kings, 4 bonito and then fought a tarpon for a while, before it jumped off and then caught his first snook.
Tuesday night Jay Hanson caught 2 bonito, an 18 pound king and then did long battle with a spectacular 140 pound tarpon that towed us back to the marina.
If your ready to try and have a day like these, we have 5 days left in May. Let’s go catch some. E-mail capt.bouncer@att.net |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Post Number: 53
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, April 20, 2005 - 7:44 am: | |
The action has stayed hot in April. We tarpon fished with live shrimp the other night and caught 3 out of 3 strikes on live shrimp. These fish were 100, 120 and 75 pounds and were released as always. The next night we had the same anglers, but they wanted to try sailfish. We fished from 4 to 8 PM. with live herring and caught 2 out of 3 sailfish plus a couple dolphin fish.
Friday we fished with light tackle experts, Don and Sandy Blake from Homestead, Florida. We started with Don catching a 5 pound Spanish mackerel on 8 pound test with a bucktail jig. Sandy made the next catch. She caught a beautiful 35 pound amberjack on 20 pound tackle. That opened the floodgates of fish. We soon had 3 more amberjacks on 20 pound tackle. Don added 3 on 15 pound plug tackle and a Tsunami rubber minnow. Then Don caught a 16 pound gray grouper on his minnow. Sandy added 2 amberjacks on 10 pound spin with a jig and worm combo. Worn out from jigging in deep water, we went hunting some surface action. Sandy soon caught a 12 pound dolphin under a frigate bird. While trying to entice a following 15 pound dolphin to eat a rubber minnow, a sailfish ate a herring behind the boat and Don made short work of it. 20 minutes latter Don scored again with a 15 pound bull dolphin released from under another frigate. When the birds retired we set up the kite in 130 to 170 feet of water off Government Cut and produced a king, another sailfish and a couple more dolphin, all caught and released, before calling it a day.
Saturday was a little tough. It was blowing 25 to 30 so we were forced to do our fishing in the bay. Mathew Azipuru had flown down from Minnesota to celebrate his 14th birthday by catching a tarpon and anything else that would bite. We fished the bay for several hours. We had a lot of chances at several tarpon over 100 pounds each, but they were driving us nuts. We had a couple that took the bait and burst into the air to throw the hook. We had a couple that bent the rod over, ran drag rose to the surface and spit the bait out. Then we hooked one. He raced across Biscayne Bay jumping and running as he covered 150 yards. He was in the air half the time. BANG! The line had broken. It was fairly new, but for some reason it had failed. The next 45 minutes brought no more bites, so it was time to try the beach south of Government Cut. Fishing with live shrimp we caught a couple nice jack crevalles. Then we had a 50 pound tarpon on for several jumps before he threw the hook. Finally just after dark we hook a tarpon over 100 pounds. It ran, it jumped and it fought, but it was no match for Mathew. He finally caught his tarpon and went home smiling.
Monday and Tuesday we fished with Brooke and Joe from Connecticut. Monday we started late so we could finish with evening tarpon. It worked out well as we caught a 25 pound blackfin tuna, several dolphin, a 15 pound kingfish, a sailfish and 2 90 pound class tarpon. Brooke scored a “Gold Coast Grand Slam”. Tuesday was perfect fishing conditions for this time of year. We had a east wind about 15 to 20 and a light north current. The water was blue right up to the reef. We had solid action for 5 hours as we caught and released over 25 dolphin from 7 to 14 pounds in water from 120 to 200 feet deep. We spiced our catch with a kingfish, a barracuda and a bonito. The only thing that shocked us was our lack of sailfish. It turn out that they started feeding about 30 minutes after we headed for the inlet. Well we sure had a colorful fun day anyway.
The kind of action we had this week will be common all the way through May. We have a few days left in April and May, so e-mail us at capt.bouncer@att.net to plan your trip. |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, April 13, 2005 - 8:33 am: | |
Spring fishing is off and running. This is a great time of year to be out fishing. Two weeks ago we made three evening tarpon trips. The first was two young ladies, a boy friend and their dad. They caught 8 tarpon from 40 to 70 pounds while having a ball. The second trip was three young men and their uncle. The boys had a lot of tough breaks, but caught 4 out of 8 tarpon up to 100 pounds. Then the third night we stopped for an hour on the way home from offshore and caught 3 out of 4. Two of these were one hundred pound tarpon, producing some wild action.
Day trips were so good As well. The kingfish were so thick, that they sometimes made sailfish tough. 4 to 12 pound fish are eating the bait on a regular basis. Some big blackfin tuna and a few yellowfin tuna were crashing the party along the coast. Our only visit was a big yellowfin that emptied a 20 pound spin outfit and broke the line just above the leader.
Then we got sick. A super cold or something put us down. We have struggled through a few days of regular fishing and the Miami Billfish Tournament. 500+ sails and we only went 5 for 7. We fished great looking water with all the right appearance and did not see many fish. We’ll get ‘em next year.
Since the tournament we have fished 2 days. Rick and John did the sailfish thing on Monday and caught 2 out of 3 plus a dolphin. We went back to the dock at 4 to switch charters and the boats that stayed out caught 4 or 5 sails over the next two hours. But by the same token we picked up Myron Ware and his daughter Melita, and they caught 2 out of 5 tarpon over 80 pounds each. A lot of laughing and cheering went on during those fights.
Tuesday we fished with JR and Rachel from Michigan. The tarpon really schooled us over the day. We fished 5 locations found tarpon in 4 (both bay and ocean side). The first we saw was on and jumping before he threw the hook. The second was over one hundred pounds and we got the leader on her. We wore her down till she was starting to lay over on her side, but the hook came out before JR got his dream picture. Still a great release catch. We had a bunch that came up and looked at the bait, but did not bite. Finally late in the day Rachel caught a tarpon of about 50 pounds. We jumped one more at the whistle and called it a day. Great people dealing with some tough fish.
The evening trip was once again with Rick and John. Those tarpon have been slow to eat anything but live mullet the last couple days. That has made the hookups tougher. Again tonight we had several on before one finally ate a shrimp. As is the way with shrimp, we caught that 80 pound tarpon after a good fight, but the hook was in there solid. Those mullet produce great strikes, but they are harder to land.
April offers some super fishing as does May. We have several openings for a day of sails, dolphin, tuna and kings. We also have a few evening tarpon trips open. E mail us at capt.bouncer@att.net and let’s go catch a great day. |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, February 28, 2005 - 8:32 pm: | |
Well we survived the Boat Show and are back to some red hot fishing. Tuesday we did pretty good with the bottom fish. We caught a couple big amberjacks and a couple nice gray grouper over some wrecks. The surface fishing produced 2 barracuda, 3 dolphin and a double header of missed sails.
The evening found us searching for swordfish. We caught a very aggressive 70 pound swordfish to release and lost another. The tinker mackerel were thick in most places.
The breeze came up on Wednesday, and the fish came up with it. We caught 4 big amberjack, a nice gray grouper and a big red grouper on the bottom. The surface action produced 3 sailfish releases and a nice king mackerel. The evening fishing around the inlet produced two snook and a one tarpon.
Thursday the wind continued to rise and the fishing got even better. We hosted a bachelor party and caught 5 out of 10 sailfish and 3 dolphin between the party pranks. The evening action remained slow, producing 1 of 2 tarpon.
You guessed it, Friday found stronger wind and still better fishing. Now the wind is around 20 knots from the south. The current is a knot or two toward the north and fishing with live herring on the kites in around 120 to 150 feet of water is hot. The day ends with 13 sails caught and released. 7 more broke lines or threw hooks in the confusion. I guess the 12 dolphin to ten pounds, 6 kings to 15 pounds and a couple bonitos added to the fast action.
Saturday the wind quit and we targeted bottom fish with the same group as Friday. Jeff Lapnow and his buddies caught 2 amberjacks and a nice gray grouper for their efforts.
Jeff, Tom and Craig were back on Sunday, and the wind came with them. With a strong south wind and a little current, 13 more sailfish releases, plus a couple dolphin and a bonito made a great 3 day weekend for the guys from Connecticut.
We are sold out for March, but April and May offer very good fishing too. Get your reservations in soon. We will be at a Dusky Seminar on March 24th at 6 PM. The topic is what you can catch after work as daylight savings time arrives in early April. Learn to catch those tuna, big kings, snook, tarpon and swordfish after work. For seminar details call 954-922-8890. For fishing info call 305-945-5114 or e-mail capt.bouncer@att.net . |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, February 20, 2005 - 4:55 am: | |
Boy are we getting slow. I can’t believe it has been at least 3 weeks since the last fishing report. I guess it is fishing 12 hours a day, plus boat shows and all. This week fishing was as hot and as cold as fishing can get.
We fished three days with Don Dietrich, Mark Brecher and Jon Colton. The first day we started out for tarpon late in the afternoon. With no fish showing on the sonar, and none rolling on the surface we threw in the towel after about 45 minutes. We ran back to the dock and grabbed the swordfish gear.
A mad dash 18 miles offshore got us to the swordfish grounds just as darkness started to take command of the world around us. It was a nice night with calm seas a a good piece of the moon surrounded with stars. It wasn’t long before Jon was hooked to a swordfish of about 50 pounds. A quick photo and Jon’s swordfish was back on the prowl. By evenings end we saw Don catch a matching swordfish and Jon fill the well with tinker mackerel, but no big fish for Mark.
Day two started with hopes of afternoon daytime action. We were not lucky enough to find much of that action. A couple good bottom fish escaped our hooks. One 6 pound grouper looked awful lonely in the fish box as we headed offshore toward swordfish town. On the way out, a tree branch floating in 800 feet of water gave us a 5 pound dolphin to join the fish box crowd.
We set out the swordfish spread as darkness feel. 4 strikes kept us on our toes over the next couple hours. The bait set at 150 feet was the hot rod. We had a shark bite off one bait. Then it was a beautiful 130 pound swordfish for Mark. While we photographed this fish, the same rod got struck again. Don leaped into action and soon had a wild 90 pound swordfish up to the boat and trying for all it was worth to assault Ron. It jumped and thrashed around the boat in the glow of the Hydro Glow Light for several minutes before we could get close enough to cut it loose. Half an hour latter Jon scored with a swordfish about 70 pounds and we headed home with smiles all around the boat.
Wednesday produced a little better day fishing as we caught a sailfish for Mark, a couple nice dolphin around 15 pounds each and a couple big blue runners on fly for Jon. The evening trip produced a lot of action, but not enough catches. Over 3 hours of fishing we had 5 swordfish strikes on live speedos and got one fish in the boat for quick photos and another up to the leader to allow a “legal” release before he slipped off the hook. Another strike on a squid never even bent the rod.
Now back to the bummer day time fishing. Thursday we fished from 7 AM till 8 PM. We took 2 hours off at mid day to change charter parties. The total days catch was a double header of barracudas and two gray snappers.
And then the wind blew. Friday morning we were greeted by north winds of about 15 knots as we left the inlet. That combined with a current running about a knot to the north offered great sailfish conditions. Steve, Jill and little Taylor Mote proved “what a difference a day makes” as they caught 6 out of 7 sailfish that ate the baits, plus a couple dolphin and a couple bonitas. The evening trip produced 1 of 2 tarpon, 4 big bluefish, 4 large ladyfish and a small king mackerel for some fun action with the guys from TR-1 Gladiator auto pilots.
We are working at the boat show while we hear about plenty of sailfish caught Saturday. And head back to the show today (Sunday).
Tune in to The Outdoor Channel at 9 PM on Monday Feb. 21st to watch “Mark Sosin’s Saltwater Journal” with Mark and I enjoying sailfish, grouper and jacks off Miami Beach.
February is sold out and there are 3 trips left in March. Fishing is at it’s best in April and May, so you better get those reservations in. E-mail me at capt.bouncer@att.net to make your fishing plans. |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 25, 2005 - 8:10 am: | |
Bouncer’s Dusky 33
Capt. Bouncer Smith
16850-112 Collins Ave. #291
Sunny Isles, Fl. 33160
305-945-5114
capt.bouncer@att.net
www.captbouncer.com
Boy has this been a hectic month! Certainly no lack of wind around here lately. Of course that wind can add up to some great sailfish action. We had one trip without a sailfish. That trip we caught a 35 pound wahoo and spent a lot of time fishing for them and wreck fishing.
Early in the month, the sailfish were frequently in very shallow water and very small in size. Some were 8 to 12 pounds. Then last week the sails were out in 200 to 400 feet of water. Now they are back where we expect them. That is around 120 feet.
That wahoo wasn’t the only nice bonus this month. We caught a 35 pound yellowfin tuna on the kite one trip. Some of the boats fishing a little further north have caught quite a few trolling in 400 to 600 feet of water this month. We have had some very nice dolphin as well. Rick Azipuru and John Mahoney caught a double header of dolphin that were a 28 pound bull and 23 pound cow. Yesterday a school of dolphin invaded our kite spread and produced 5 fish about 8 pounds each. A few big amberjacks have been found on the wrecks. Lots of small kings have been feeding off South Beach the last few days.
Yesterday we fished with Brett Gelber and a friend of his, Jan from New Jersey. We spent the morning searching from 180 feet of water out to 400 feet. We had that dolphin invasion and a couple remoras to show for our efforts by 2 PM. We relocated off South Beach in 100 feet of water. In 2 hours we caught 3 king mackerel and 7 out of 8 sailfish that ate our flat line herrings. One of these fish was tagged 369 days ago off Key Largo Florida. When you see a 6 inch growth hanging off the side of a fish you catch, you should bill the fish, get a firm grip on the growth and cut it as close to the fish as possible. Release the fish. Clean off the tag and follow the instructions on the tag. There was a time when sailfish were thought to live 3 to 5 years. A fish recaptured after 12 years at large changed all the thinking along those lines. That was very instrumental in encouraging catch and release for sailfish.
If you know me, you know I am a major advocate for circle hooks. We are involved in a hook study for NMFS. We were asked to use J hooks to capture 30 sailfish, so the results could be compared to our circle hook catches. Out of the first 15 fish we caught on the J hooks, we felt that 8 were severely injured. 4 were gushing blood and 4 more were gut hooked. If you enjoy catching fish, USE CIRCLE HOOKS to allow some fish for tomorrow.
We are booked for all the major sailfish tournaments except the Miami Billfish Tournament. We have won this one twice. Let’s make it 3 times. Call to book the tournament, your dream trip to Chub Cay in May or a day off Miami. The schedule is filling up. We want to fish with you, so get those reservations in. E mail capt.bouncer@att.net today. |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 11, 2005 - 8:26 pm: | |
What a start to the new year! Although it has been windy, the fishing has been great. We started the year with Gary Friedman. He and his guest caught 4 sailfish, 2 dolphin and a 35 pound barracuda. On the 2nd, we caught 3 sails, king mackerel of 20 and 30 pounds, 3 school size kings and a couple dolphin. That night Brad Vince and a friend, Kevin caught tarpon of 40, 60, 80, 100 and 120 pounds.
On the 3rd, the John Folker family fished the morning with us and caught 4 dolphin fish and 6 king mackerel.
The 4th produced 8 sailfish, 3 African pompano of about 30 pounds each, ½ of a 50 pound amberjack (Fan Fan thought it was a big bait), 6 barracuda, 1 king and 2 dolphin for the boys from Calder.
The 5th it was 2 sailfish, 6 kings, 4 dolphin and a 30 pound wahoo.
Lee Goodrick fished with some of his buddies on the 7th and they caught 6 sailfish, a king, a big whole amberjack, a barracuda and a scamp grouper.
The 8th we used rubber hooks. We managed to catch 1 of 5 sailfish and a small shark. We did have Drew Orvieto catch a tarpon of over 120 pounds that evening.
The 9th Cindy and Jeanne Pemberton, two great lady anglers, caught 6 sailfish and a dolphin. We caught 2 tarpon that evening.
The 10th was 3 sails and 4 dolphin for the Irwin Appel group.
The 11th was awful good. Sam Gable and Jason Dennis, both from Georgia, caught 6 sailfish, a 30 pound yellowfin tuna, 2 dolphin, 1 king mackerel and 2 tarpon. Both anglers captured the coveted “Gold Coast Grand Slam”s.
The reservation book is filling fast for the winter/spring season. Please get your reservations in soon. We are still available for the Miami Billfish Tournament. We have won it a couple times, and are ready to win again. For reservations e mail Bouncer at capt.bouncer@att.net . |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Post Number: 47
Registered: 9-2003
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, December 30, 2004 - 7:40 pm: | |
Somebody turn off the fan. Windy is the word for the last week of the year. The fish are around, but it is tough catching them. Sunday the wind blew up to 40 knots from the west. We anchored in 90 feet of water and the Adam family caught 4 king mackerel and 2 sailfish before throwing in the windblown towel at noon.
Monday was the nicest day of the week. It only blew 15 to 20 the first couple hours with sails chasing ballyhoo all over the ocean. By the time 13 year old Eric Hamilton told his grandfather Gill it was time to go home, Eric had caught and released 4 sailfish and a 30 pound amberjack.
Wednesday George and Guillermo Rodriguez released a sailfish and boated 3 school dolphin plus 15, 20 and 25 pound dolphin. Wednesday night Joe Lobianco, his wife Diana and Glen Tatem caught and released 13 tarpon and a 30 pound permit. Winds 20 to 30 knots.
Thursday The Spencer Pepe party caught 2 sailfish, a dolphin, a cero mackerel, a king mackerel and a small shark. Winds 25 to 32 knots.
Well the year is coming to a close. We started the year with a tournament victory, suffered family tragedy and four near misses with hurricanes, caught some great fish, gained some fantastic new friends and clients and lost others. The year went out with a big blow. May 2005 be a great one for all of us.
We are available for the Billfish Masters and the Miami Billfish Tournament. We look forward to many days and nights of fun fishing trips. Give us a call at 305-945-5114 or e-mail at capt.bouncer@att.net to join the fun. Tight lines, Bouncer |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Post Number: 46
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, December 24, 2004 - 2:50 pm: | |
What a week of fishing!!! We had George Palzak and a friend of his, Allen out Monday and they caught 2 sailfish, a 25 pound king mackerel, several other kings and caught a tarpon about 120 pounds after breaking the line on another tarpon.
Tuesday we fished with Dave Barry and Eric. They had a slower day with 6 kings up to 25 pounds and 7 amberjack up to 50 pounds.
Wednesday it was back with George and Allen. They turned it up a notch and caught 4 tarpon to 100 pounds, 2 kings of 25 pounds each, 4 more kings, a dolphin fish and 2 sailfish. Wednesday night Dave Barry fished alone with us and caught 6 tarpon from 50 to 80 pounds, 2 bluefish and a big ladyfish.
Thursday was really hot as well. We caught 2 out of 6 tarpon in the morning, 3 sailfish in the middle of the day and 2 out of 5 tarpon in the afternoon. Thursday night Don and Sandy Blake each caught and released a swordfish. Don’s about 70 pounds and Sandy’s about 50.
Yes, that is 4 tarpon, 3 sailfish and 2 swordfish in one day of fishing off Miami Beach. That was a real thrill for the crew as well as the anglers aboard Bouncer’s Dusky 33.
Friday was tough. Whenever the sky is blue, the wind in dead and there is no current, you know fishing will be great, but catching will be slow. Still we caught a 17 pound mutton snapper, gray groupers of 15 and 22 pounds, 3 almaco jacks and a 25 pound amberjack.
We are still available for the Mayor’s Cup, Billfish Challenge and Miami Billfish Tournaments. To plan your day on the water, e-mail capt.bouncer@att.net or call 305-945-5114. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all. |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Post Number: 45
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, December 13, 2004 - 6:33 am: | |
Grouper has been our key word lately. We can tell you that the sailfish have not liked our pilchards this week. We were anchor fishing with live pilchards on the surface, while chumming heavily with them as well. We saw several sailfish in our chum, but they would not eat them. They were chasing ballyhoo, and had a one track mind. The bottom fish were keeping us in the game. Friday we caught 2 nice black grouper, a big bonito and a king. Saturday we got a nice gray grouper, a nice mutton snapper, yellowtail, yellow jack and a kingfish. Sunday we fished with John and Ben Cotrone from North Miami. They wanted grouper, grouper and grouper. The bigger the better. We started the morning trolling the shallow reefs for grouper, but they were not biting our big plugs. After about an hour, I recommended that we switch to live bait. The first pinfish we dropped to the bottom was greeted by a gray grouper as soon as it hit the bottom. This was the second largest gray grouper ever the grace Bouncer’s Dusky with it’s presents. John had captured a real beauty at 35 pounds. Ten minutes later a 12 pound gray grouper joined the first in the fish box. With no more action at this wreck, we moved to a second. It produced no bottom action, but it did offer quite a show. At least a dozen sailfish attacked free roaming ballyhoo all around the boat. Sailfish with their dorsal fins blowing in the breeze raced all around the boat slashing their bills at the fleeing bait fish. Only one sailfish decided to taste our pilchard. He spit it out the first chance he got. The third wreck produced a 6 pound almaco jack, a 12 pound gray grouper and a 10 pound black grouper, plus a couple that got away.
There is a sad part to this story. Gray grouper are great eating. We all looked forward to some fabulous dinners with this catch of grouper. In June we caught a 38 pound gray grouper and found the meat to be terrible eating. It was tough as rubber and nasty to the palate. The big grouper yesterday had dark gray blotches throughout the meat. I think in the future our big gray groupers will be on the release them for the future program. It is a shame to harvest a beautiful fish like that and then find it unfit to eat.
With the fish box full of grouper we speed trolled for wahoo for 2 hours without a bite and went home early.
Sunday evening we headed out with Mike Elliot, from Denver Colorado in pursuit of his first tarpon. We fished live shrimp along the beach and action was good. Things started a little rough with the first two tarpon spitting the hook on the first jump. Thing got better after dark. Mike caught photographed and released tarpon of 100 and 75 pounds. There were lots of jumps and smiles with that action. Tarpon action should be good all winter and spring. It is a lot of fun and only five minutes from the dock.
We are in the sailfish tournament season. For the first time in years we have openings to take on new teams to fish these events. Cocoplum Sailfish is January 14-16. The Mayor’s Cup is January 29 and 30. Bob Lewis Billfish Challenge is March 5 and 6. Billfish Masters is March 19 and 20. And the Yamaha/-Contender Miami Billfish Tournament is April 8-10. Most of these dates are still available on Bouncer’s Dusky 33. If any of these appeal to you, let us know and we will give you all the details.
December means the sails are here along with African pompano, big jacks, groupers, tarpon and a lot of others. So give us a call at 305-945-5114 or e-mail capt.bouncer@att.net to make a reservation. Let’s go catch some fish!
Happy Holidays
From all of us to all of you |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Post Number: 44
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, December 09, 2004 - 8:07 pm: | |
December is coming up action. We have had a pretty good week. We had 3 fellows from Washington D.C. out to celebrate an upcoming wedding. The guest of honor was Coddy. They caught a triple header of sailfish out in 350 feet of water after seeing a sailfish “free jumping” and firing the baits out in front of the fish. With the big game taken care of, it was off in search of food for Sunday’s cook out. We got a nice gray grouper and 3 small cobia off a couple wrecks. Near the end of the day, we set up one more drift for general action. Coddy was dropping a “Mega Bait” spiced with a pilchard down to the bottom in 125 to 135 feet of water. In fifteen minutes he caught 3 mutton snapper from 3 to 8 pounds. We were shocked. A nice king finished off this trip.
Sunday produced 3 mutton snapper, 1 gray grouper, 1 snowy grouper, 1 scamp grouper and several amberjacks while dropping on some wrecks.
Tuesday produced a sailfish on a deep line in 350 feet of water. That was after catching 3 beautiful black grouper on live pinfish, 4 kingfish and a bonito on live pilchards on the surface and a nice mutton snapper on a live pilchard fished on the bottom. The evening was a little frustrating with 6 tarpon bending the rods, but only one brought to boat side.
Wednesday our catch was a pair of new 225 Mercury Optimax engines for Bouncer’s Dusky 33.
Thursday, Our only angler, Jim Lonbeau caught two sailfish on the kite, three kingfish, a nice dolphin and a red grouper. The afternoon produced no tarpon action.
We are in the sailfish tournament season. For the first time in years we have openings to take on new teams to fish these events. Cocoplum Sailfish is January 14-16. The Mayor’s Cup is January 29 and 30. Bob Lewis Billfish Challenge is March 5 and 6. Billfish Masters is March 19 and 20. And the Yamaha/-Contender Miami Billfish Tournament is April 8-10. Most of these dates are still available on Bouncer’s Dusky 33. If any of these appeal to you, let us know and we will give you all the details.
December means the sails are here along with African pompano, big jacks, groupers and a lot of others. So give us a call at 305-945-5114 or e-mail capt.bouncer@att.net to make a reservation. Let’s go catch some fish!
Happy Holidays
From all of us to all of you |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Post Number: 43
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, November 27, 2004 - 7:25 am: | |
Happy Thanksgiving to all. We all have things to be thankful for. Among those things I am most thankful for are my family, friends and clients. THANK YOU one and all.
We can be thankful for our evening trips this week. We fished with 3 generations of Bates on Monday night and the youngest, Russ caught a beautiful 66 inch fork length swordfish. That’s a nine foot battling gladiator. Both the swordfish and Russ were extra tough in that battle.
Tuesday night I fished with Mike Walsh. He had a surprise visit from his mom, so she joined us on an evening tarpon trip. The action was great. We left the dock after 5, caught 2 out of 4 tarpon jumped, plus a ladyfish and a jack and were back at the dock by 7:30 with both anglers worn out and ready for a nice dinner at Monty’s.
Friday night it was back out for swordfish with John Wierman and birthday boy Ed North from South Carolina. Ed got us off to a great start with a awesome 67 inch fork length swordfish. That’s another nine foot beast of a warrior. John was not quite so lucky as his swordfish came right to the boat and then ran off several hundred yards of line before the hook pulled.
For those trying for the swords, all three fish this week ate a green lighted bait set around 150 feet below the surface. That is the bait closest to the Hydro Glow light.
Now about those day trips. What a slump! 3 days of fly fishing in the Fort Lauderdale Billfish Tournament and we caught 2 blue runners. Raised 3 sails, but none that would eat chicken feathers. 2 day trips with great guest produced a couple barracudas, a couple mackerel, a big amberjack and a couple missed sailfish. We did have one very good day trip. It was a Thanksgiving morning family trip with my nephew from Germany, another nephew from here in town and two brother-in-laws. We had a ball with 2 out of 3 tarpon, a bunch of blue runners and several big Spanish mackerel.
We only have 5 or 6 dates left in December and the winter book is filling fast. Let’s plan that dream trip soon. E-mail me at capt.bouncer@att.net and we can set up your trip on Bouncer’s Dusky 33. |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Post Number: 42
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, November 08, 2004 - 8:30 am: | |
Well we ended October with a bang and November is off and running. Our last trip of October was with some guys from TR-1 auto pilots. We left the dock after 7 and were tied up at 11:45 with two swordfish releases.
The first trip of November was in pursuit of light tackle casting action. We got a few spanish and cero mackerel, king mackerel and assorted jacks on plug and spin. The biggest challenge was several Bermuda chubs on fly. Don’t laugh, they fight like crazy and are challenging to get the strike. We fished the bay one night and caught 3 small tarpon, 2 ribbon fish and a big ladyfish. Had a lot of strikes, but they were tough to hook. Friday and Saturday each resulted in a couple sailfish catches. We had a couple dolphin and a nice grouper to top off Friday. A couple kings topped off Saturdays sailfish action. Sunday night produced 6 tarpon strikes along the beach, but only one fish around 80 pounds got along side the boat for pictures.
We are rapidly approaching the tournament season. For the first time in years we have openings to take on new teams to fish these events. The Fort Lauderdale Billfish Tour. is November 19-21 (booked). A new tournament takes place in Miami December 11th and 12th. Cocoplum Sailfish is January 14-16. The Mayor’s Cup is January 29 and 30. Bob Lewis Billfish Challenge is March 5 and 6. Billfish Masters is March 19 and 20. And the Yamaha/-Contender Miami Billfish Tournament is April 8-10. Most of these dates are still available on Bouncer’s Dusky 33. If any of these appeal to you, let us know and we will give you all the details.
November means the sails are arriving along with African pompano, big jacks, groupers and a lot of others. So give us a call at 305-945-5114 or e-mail capt.bouncer@att.net to make a reservation. Let’s go catch some fish! |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Post Number: 41
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, October 26, 2004 - 7:30 am: | |
Well it is hard to believe that October is coming to an end. We were looking forward to a bunch of swordfish trips this month, but we got a lot of rough NE winds. We had Jeff Shore out with his fishing partner John Freitag. They wanted to try some bottom fishing and then tackle some swordfish. The bottom fishing produced a nice amberjack, a couple smaller jacks and snapper and one nice gray grouper. 75 year old John got a nice swordfish. This 62 inch fork length, 120 pound swordfish was the fish that gave John a “World Billfish Grand Slam”. That was a thrill for all aboard. We have caught some pretty good bottom fish since then. Groupers to 20 pounds, amberjacks to about 40, an 11 pound porgy to name a few. Mackerel have been good enough to keep it interesting.
Last night was a milestone of sorts. After a couple slow evenings fishing live baitfish for snook and tarpon, I decided to try shrimp last night. I hope the shrimp fishing season has arrived. We had a ball with Lawrence Berlyn and his guest, Megan, Adam and Meredith. They caught several big ladyfish and a 5 pound Spanish mackerel on 12 pound spinning tackle. The best catch of the night came right at quitting time. We had jumped a big tarpon earlier, and as we were getting ready to go home, Lawrence hooked a big tarpon. He fought that fish from 4th street to 30th. It ran and jumped and rolled and fought through the hours. Paparazzi Adam never miss a photo op. The girls cheered for the fish and angler. And after two and a half hours we got a solid catch and returned to the dock. What a great start to the winter tarpon season.
We are rapidly approaching the tournament season. For the first time in years we have openings to take on new teams to fish these events. The Fort Lauderdale Billfish Tour. is November 19-21. A new tournament takes place in Miami December 11th and 12th. Cocoplum Sailfish is January 14-16. The Mayor’s Cup is January 29 and 30. Bob Lewis Billfish Challenge is March 5 and 6. Billfish Masters is March 19 and 20. And the Yamaha/-Contender Miami Billfish Tournament is April 8-10. Most of these dates are still available on Bouncer’s Dusky 33. If any of these appeal to you, let us know and we will give you all the details.
November means the sails are arriving along with African pompano, big jacks, groupers and a lot of others. So give us a call at 305-945-5114 or e-mail capt.bouncer@att.net to make a reservation. Let’s go catch some fish!
|
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Post Number: 40
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, October 06, 2004 - 8:41 pm: | |
October is here and fishing is back to normal. Last week we fished with Terry Jackson and his two sons one afternoon. We fished live herring and speedos by slow trolling flatlines and a downrigger. The Jackson family had a lot of fun catching and releasing 4 big barracudas. Even more fun was catching king mackerel of 10 and 18 pounds and then eating them at Monty’s. I stole a filet of their blackened leftovers while waiting for the captains meeting for the Miami Swordfish Tournament and it was great.
The swordfish tournament was greeted by 15 to 20 knot winds out of the east. 16 boats had fairly good action on very small swordfish. 11 fish were released the first night and 8 the second. On board our boat 12 year old Martini Arostegui released the second fish of the tournament to secure “top junior angler” honors. Hopes of defending our title from 2003 were not in the cards, but we had a good time trying. Our congratulations to #1 Complete Angler, #2 Git Lit and #3 Chips Ahoy.
A couple days after the tournament we fished with Sandy and Don Blake. We were out for fun action on light tackle. The Blakes had a lot of fun with several king mackerel up to 9.5 pounds on 6 and 8 pound tackle, about a dozen Spanish mackerel up to 5.75 pounds, loads of small amberjacks, numerous big blue runners, a 6 pound jack crevalle and a dozen bluefish on tackle as light as 4 pound test. That was a lot of action for several hours.
We are rapidly approaching the tournament season. For the first time in years we have openings to take on new teams to fish these events. The Dark Side of the Moon, swordfish tournament is October 23rd. The Fort Lauderdale Billfish Tour. is November 19-21. A new tournament takes place in Miami December 18th and 19th. Cocoplum Sailfish is January 14-16. The Mayor’s Cup is January 29 and 30. Bob Lewis Billfish Challenge is March 5 and 6. Billfish Masters is March 19 and 20. And the Yamaha/-Contender Miami Billfish Tournament is April 8-10. Most of these dates are still available on Bouncer’s Dusky 33. If any of these appeal to you, let us know and we will give you all the details.
October is the prime month for the fall migration. That means a lot of action on a wide variety of fish. In October we are booked solid till the 14th, but plenty of friends are available. We have a bunch of open dates between the 14th and 28th . November means the sails are arriving along with African pompano, big jacks, groupers and a lot of others. So give us a call at 305-945-5114 or e-mail capt.bouncer@att.net to make a reservation. Let’s go catch some fish!
We are having a swordfish seminar at Dusky Sport Center on October 14th at 6 PM. Give them a call at 954-922-8890. Hope we see you there. |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Post Number: 39
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, September 26, 2004 - 8:37 pm: | |
South Florida is in good condition. I know many of you must be wondering what is left of our state. Four hurricanes have ravaged Florida. By some miracle the south end of the state has been untouched. The highest winds from Miami to Key West have been no more than a severe thunderstorm. A couple of trees fell within the area and a fair amount of trees have lost branches, but nothing that would alter a nice vacation.
The fall migration of bait and inshore game fish has been very strong. Beach anglers have had a ball catching bluefish, ladyfish, mackerel, snook and tarpon between the storms. We have caught a few sailfish and some beautiful grouper and snapper whenever the boat has been out of storm storage.
With October around the corner we are looking forward to great swordfish action to top off a month of grouper, snapper, snook tarpon, more sailfish and dolphin moving closer to shore. All this plus cooler temperatures and very low amounts of boat activity should make every trip a super good time. We have several openings this week. In October we are booked solid till the 14th, but plenty of friends are available. We have a bunch of open dates between the 14th and 28th so give us a call at 305-945-5114 or e-mail capt.bouncer@att.net . Let’s go catch some fish!
We are having a swordfish seminar at Dusky Sport Center on October 14th at 6 PM. Give them a call at 954-922-8890. Hope we see you there. |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Post Number: 38
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, September 01, 2004 - 12:49 pm: | |
September is blowing into south Florida. Over the last 10 days we have suffered from tough fishing and reveled in hot action. We snook fished on the 22nd with the Pemberton family. Tom caught a couple of snook, but it was tough fishing. Monday night we fished with Monty Richardson and his dad and the fishing was great for snook. We will never know if it was karma or weekend traffic, but we caught 7 snook to 44 inches (about 30 pounds). Tuesday night Monty caught a very important fish. He had caught every billfish in the world except a swordfish, and caught and released a nice swordfish before midnight. This completed a super lifetime goal.
Wednesday we caught another swordfish with the Gary Forman party. Then the bottom fell out of our fishing luck. We fished the Islamorada Swordfish Tournament without a swordfish bite over two nights. We did catch a pending world record almaco jack on fly, a small tuna and a skipjack tuna on the way out for the second night of the tournament. And we caught way too many 15 pound sharks during the tournament.
Monday night was my last attempt at cubera snapper till something changes. All the conditions were right, but for the 5th trip over two years, we failed to hook a fish. I think the resource is shot. We released nearly all we caught over the years, but others don’t. These great game fish also look just like gray snapper in their early years, and we know they are over fished.
The good ending of this story came Tuesday afternoon. We fished with New Jersey residents Sue and Phil Lidlow. Sue caught and released her first two sailfish ever and Phil released a sailfish and boated two king mackerel.
Well batten down the hatches, cause here comes Frances. We hope all come through this in good shape. Once all is clear let’s start planning those great winter fishing trips. E-mail me at capt.bouncer@att.net |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Post Number: 37
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, August 22, 2004 - 5:26 am: | |
We don’t want monsters, we want monster yellowtails” those were the words of Lee, one of the two wonderful ladies we took to Bimini this week. Lee and Pat have years of fishing experience. They have no desire to catch fish that take 20 minutes to fight to the boat, and then release. They like to catch a few fish for dinner and laugh a lot while catching them. Well, I can tell you that fishing with these ladies is a lot of fun. We started fishing about 1 PM on Wednesday. By 5 the fish box was yellow with our target fish. The biggest was 5 pounds on a certified scale. These ladies could sneak a 2 or 3 pound yellowtail snapper past a 100 pound shark like no other angler ever has. Of course Lee spent a lot of time fighting the sharks and cudas, while Pat filled the fish box with chunky yellowtail snappers for future dinners.
Day two found us sight seeing over shallow wrecks and then heading north for new territories to capture those flag yellowtails. Our first stop produced yellowtails up to 3 pounds at a steady pace, till the ladies said they had enough action from that spot. We moved west, and ran out of current. We tried a couple more spots, but with no current, you get no fish.
This called for a change of targets and methods. The ladies were interested in trying deep dropping, so off we went toward 1300 feet of water. There we caught silk snappers from 1 to 5 pounds. Trying to catch a variety of species, we moved to 1150 feet of water further south. Here we scored big. With our bait only on the bottom for a few minutes, we had a strike. The big heavy rod bent toward the water And the electric reel groaned. The rod bucked and we all chewed our lip as we hoped the hooks would hold as this monster rose through the depths. When the rod would jerk and jump, we would resolve ourselves to an amberjack catch, but when the line scoped out behind the boat our spirits would lift with hopes of grouper. After ten minutes color appeared in the depths, bubbles burst as they reached the surface and a 34 pound grouper topped off our fish box. The ladies had enough. They were ready for cool drinks, hot dinner and had minds filled with great memories of good times fishing in Bimini.
Saturday we fished off Miami with Juan and his daughter, Mariana, her friend Ariel and Juan’s friend Jonathan. The morning action was terrible. We were targeting snapper and grouper. The current was ripping to the north, but the bite was off. As the moon rose about 12:30, the fish turned on. We ended the afternoon with 2 sailfish (Mariana and Jonathan’s first ever) 2 bonitos, 2 yellowtail snapper, 6 mutton snapper up to 10 pounds, 2 remoras, a ray, a shark and a moray eel. From the greatest to the strangest of catches. A fun day for all.
It’s August and September is around the corner. That means hot temperatures during the day and hot fishing at night. Swordfish, cuberas, snook and snapper should please most anglers. Be very careful running the boat as divers will be thick this month. Don’t forget all those yellowtail snapper waiting in Bimini. Look for all the target fish from snappers to sailfish to be further from shore and deeper below the surface. Hey we have a few trips open this month and next, so give us a call. 305-945-5114 |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Post Number: 36
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, August 17, 2004 - 3:18 pm: | |
Hey! We do still go fishing from time to time. Over the last week, we did a couple swordfish trips. The bad part is we only had one bite and it got away. We skipped a few days as the bad guy attacked the west coast of Florida. Our prayers go out to those who endured so much of natures wrath.
We had a good snook trip on Saturday night. We caught 8 snook and a couple of jacks. We had another evening trip last night, but suffered a banana attack. One of our guest brought both bananas and trail mix with bananas. We had a struggle catching bait and never got a strike while wreck fishing or snook fishing. We went home with our tail between our legs.
Today we had Scott Kenny and a couple of his friends out. Scott and John both caught their first sailfish, both on 12 pound tackle. We were anchored in 90 and 120 feet of water. We also caught 2 king mackerel, a big cero mackerel, 2 yellowtail snappers, 2 bonitos, a barracuda and a mutton snapper.
It’s August. That means hot temperatures during the day and hot fishing at night. Swordfish, cuberas, snook and snapper should please most anglers. Be very careful running the boat as divers will be thick this month. Don’t forget all those yellowtail snapper waiting in Bimini. Look for all the target fish from snappers to sailfish to be further from shore and deeper below the surface. Hey we have 5 or 6 trips open this month, give us a call. 305-945-5114 |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Post Number: 35
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, August 09, 2004 - 6:40 am: | |
August Action
What a rainy start we have had this month. Over the past few days, we have spent more time dodging rain than fishing. Several times this week the Brian Wall family fished with us. Brian was joined by his two fine sons, Brendan and Collin. On their first trip we caught numerous king mackerel and bonitas. A few barracuda finished out the day as the rain closed in. A couple days latter we had a very slow day with the boys. We tried live bait drifting, wreck fishing, tarpon and back to live bait. All our effort produced 2 bonita, a double header at that.
Thursday night we fished with a couple local fellows, and the action was very good. We ended the evening with 10 snook. These beautiful fish ranged up to 20 pounds. Of course with the season closed, it was catch and release, with great care not to hurt the fish.
Friday our charter had two request. They wanted eating fish for a bunch of people and back to the dock in 5 hours. We got back in time with loads of fine eating fish. Christine caught four snow grouper. The best part of that, was the fact that she caught a 16 pound snow and a 18 pound snow on the same drop. That was two fish on a single three hook rig. That was the best string of snows on one drop I have seen since the 70s. We jumped a sailfish and added a king mackerel for spice that trip.
Friday night Brian and Brendan were back. They wanted to try the snook and it worked. They caught 12 snook up to 16 pounds and a big barracuda. It was a shame the tarpon got away, but they will be back for him.
Saturday was good action with 6 kings and 4 bonitas. We missed as many as we caught for some reason. No angler mistakes, just bad luck I guess.
It’s August. That means hot temperatures during the day and hot fishing at night. Swordfish, cuberas, snook and snapper should please most anglers. Be very careful running the boat as divers will be thick this month. Don’t forget all those yellowtail snapper waiting in Bimini. Look for all the target fish from snappers to sailfish to be further from shore and deeper below the surface. Hey we have 5 or 6 trips open this month, give us a call. 305-945-5114 |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Post Number: 34
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, July 20, 2004 - 6:38 am: | |
We went back to Bimini this past week. The weather was flat calm for the crossings and the fishing was HOT!. We took a bus- man’s holiday and fished aboard Marty Arostegui’s 35 foot Cabo. Marty wanted to target yellowtail snapper on fly with his wife, Roberta and son Martini.
The first two stops were very slow. We tried two wrecks up on the bank and caught several barracuda, small yellowtail snapper and several beautiful schoolmaster snappers.
Our next stop was very promising when we caught a 2 pound yellowtail within minutes of arriving. The nice sized yellowtails were here, but would not rise off the bottom. They were either out of range of the fly tackle or not eating flies. With enough yellow- tails iced down for dinner we moved on.
Our next stop was quite exciting. Clouds of yellowtails rose behind the boat. We caught them on flies till it was time to head for the hotel for the night. Just as we were wrapping things up, a big horse eye jack raided the party. Martini hooked it on a live bait, and the battle was on. It took a while, but he boated, photographed and measured his world record horse eye and released it (junior world records may be weighed at sea and released).
Day two started with catching live pilchards and then running to some remote wrecks. We caught small yellowtails, sharks, barra- cudas and blue runners for hours. Action was great. Roberta caught a record shark on fly and Martini got a junior angler record shark.
Our next two stops produced some good action, but the same fish, the same size as the first. We were looking for bigger yellowtails.
The next stop was our bonanza. Within minutes of our arrival, clouds of yellowtails rose behind the boat. Marty and Roberta were catching them on fly with great regularity. Martini was fishing the bottom with his heavy outfit and catching big horse eye jacks every drop. In two hours we boated 8 possible record yellowtail snapper on fly plus numerous fish that were very close. Martini beat his record horse eye from the previous day twice. Martini also caught two very big Nassau grouper that he released.
We got back to the dock as the sun set with 11 possible world records and a pile of great memories of fast action.
Our final day was a little anti climatic with a nice bonefish to start the day, some big barracudas on light casting tackle, clouds of yellowtails on bait and flies, but only one possible record in the bunch. Boy are we spoiled.
We are back in Miami, the boats are catching a few sailfish on the edge, dolphin offshore and snappers on the reef at night. We hope to find snook piled up in the inlets by now. We are having a seminar on Swordfishing Tuesday night, the 27th of July at 6 at Dusky Sport Center 110 north Bryan Road, Dania Beach . Hope we see you there. |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Post Number: 33
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 12, 2004 - 7:40 am: | |
We have had another great week on Bouncer’s Dusky 33. We spent the holiday weekend bottom fishing off Miami. We had the same group for 3 days. We started with an attempt at cubera snapper. We had one cubera strike, the teeth marks leave no doubt, and caught 2 almaco jacks. That first day was a bust.
Day two was a big improvement. The guys wanted bottom fish to eat as well as trophy sized grouper. The current was running very strong on Sunday, so we anchor fished in several spots. By days end we had 9 mutton snapper, 4 yellowtail snappers, a 40 pound amberjack and two small grouper. The top lines produced 1.5 king mackerel and 1.5 bonitas. Hey the cudas have to eat too.
Day three the current died. This opened the possibility to fish deeper waters. We had a banner day with a bunch of grouper up to 15 pounds, a couple of almaco jacks and four gray tilefish to 8 pounds.
Our next adventure was four days in Bimini. We fished with Rick Aizpuru and his son Matt, nephew Robbie and good friend John Mahoney. After John’s catches, I hope they are still good friends. Day one brought smooth running to Bimini. Bait catching was tough in the harbor, but good on the bank. With a well full of ballyhoo and yellowtail, plus a couple barracuda for action, we headed for the drop off. Anchored up for a couple hours produced some very nice fish. We got a big yellowtail snapper, a beautiful dog snapper, three big amberjacks and a horse eye jack. For extra action we caught big ocean tallys and the world’s largest hound fish. A swim in Bimini Beach Clubs cool swimming pool and dinner of our fresh yellowtails completed day one.
Day two produced loads of yellowtail snapper up to 3 pounds, two very nice grouper (John got one of the big ones), several big sharks (John got the only one on light tackle) and an assortment of jacks, tallys and hound fish.
Day three was fishing shallow wrecks. It was non-stop action for jacks, yellowtails, Nassau groupers, sharks a few gray snapper and lots of barracudas. All the fish were on light spinning tackle rigged with jigs or plugs. A lot of laughs were had by all. At the last spot of the day, John Mahoney scored big with a nice 35 pound cobia. Matt caught a huge lane snapper.
Day four was back to the reefs. We found the yellowtails a little tougher and smaller, but still caught plenty. Robbie spiced the action with a nice mutton snapper. Several sharks provided big fish action. And of course John stole the show with his 35 pound king mackerel. The last hour was spent deep dropping. Fishing in 700 feet of water produced 10 nice yelloweye snappers and stories of the one that got away. Of course John caught the most on one drop (4). The run homes was flat calm and future trips are already on the drawing board.
In July and August you should plan to visit the Bahamas, fish for snapper on the reef at night, swordfish a lot and do some catch and release snook fishing around inlets and beaches. We have a swordfish seminar at Dusky Sport Center on July 27th at 6 PM. Call 954-922-8890 for details. See ya on the ocean, Bouncer |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Post Number: 32
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, July 03, 2004 - 7:48 am: | |
Welcome to July. Happy 4th . We had such a great last half of June that I have fallen behind in my reports. We had Stephen Bartholomew out with a friend of his and they both caught “Gold Coast Grand Slams”. They released 5 dolphin, 2 sailfish and 4 tarpon on one trip. The dolphin were small, but the tarpon were 80 to 100 pounds. We caught a lot of tarpon and sailfish through the last couple weeks of June. We also had one trip with a dozen muttons and 3, 15 pound king mackerel.
We closed out June and opened July with the Lapnow family from Connecticut. We had Jeff, Rachel, 12 year old Cody and 10 year old Taylor. We went to Bimini in the Bahamas for 4 days. It was the best trip you could ask for.
The day we arrived we took a quick walk around town to show them the photos on the walls of the Complete Angler and the shops of the straw market. Then it was off to the hotel. We stayed at the Bimini Sands Beach Club. The rooms were cold and the the food was great. The marina was in very good condition. Just like the boys, we were ready to fish. We ran to a sunken barge off the north end of the island and anchored down. With the chum flowing out and lures on their lines, the boys started catching barracuda and blue runners. We filleted and hung a barracuda off the stern to draw sharks. The sharks arrived in minutes. The boys caught several sharks up to about 60 pounds while their dad caught a couple nice gray snapper. Cody had a big horse eye jack eat a pilchard and Rachel caught a bigger horse eye on a barracuda fillet. The action was red hot with jacks, sharks, cudas, grays and even a nice mutton snapper. When everyone’s arms were aching, we moved to a small airplane wreck, for a little snorkeling. Everyone dove down to look at the snappers inside the plane while visioning the last minutes of flight for this plane and crew. We do know that all aboard got off safely.
Day two was off to some other fishing hot spots. The first produced a bunch of barracuda and stories of the permit that got away. The second spot was just what the boys wanted. Lots of 30 pound sharks and 8 pound barracudas. Taylor wanted a grouper, and 5 or 6 he caught. All the anglers caught both black and Nassau groupers, big gray snappers and yellowtail snappers. My mate Ron and I could hardly rig rods and remove fish fast enough to keep up. After several hours we moved on to another spot where we caught much of the same plus, Jeff catching a big horse eye jack of 22 pounds. This spot got so thick with sharks, we had to move.
Our next move was to deeper waters. We anchored up and when we threw in the chum, the water turned yellow with yellowtail snappers. The boys caught a bunch of these fun game snappers on fly. They then used the snappers for bait. It is always exciting when the bait weighs a pound or more. The heavy tackle got hot, but the fish were getting away one after another. We hammered down the drag and warned everybody to be careful of the rod attacking them if the line parted, and dropped another bait. The next three baits produced a 100 pound shark, a 50 pound amberjack and the fish we were targeting. Jeff caught a 43 pound black grouper. There were high fives all around for this beauty. Cody took over the big rod. He tried to beat dad’s fish till we had to leave to get back to Bimini before dark. We told Cody, “tomorrow is your day”.
The hotel cooked up our fish and we feasted on fresh snapper and grouper as we relived fish caught and lost. The boys went to bed with visions of fish to come.
Day three we did a snorkel stop and then hit the reef for the big guys. Cody wasted no time. He put a 53 pound black grouper in the boat less than 30 minutes after we started fishing. We also caught and released black grouper of 12 And 30 pounds. The yellowtail snappers provided plenty of action as did sharks and lost monsters of the deep. Our other major success story of the day, was the capture of the sneaky Bermuda chub.
Our final day was as great as every other. We caught a bunch of big gray snapper off another wreck. We snorkeled on a beautiful shallow reef full of colorful fish and corals and then finally we monster fished one last time. On this spot we caught and released 3 amberjack from 28 to 36 pounds. Taylor caught the biggest on the lightest tackle. Jeff caught and released another 25 to 30 pound black grouper and we released another horse eye jack before heading west for Miami.
It is time to enjoy the Bahamas, catch dolphin offshore, gray snapper and yellowtails off Florida reefs at night, sword fishing is very good, release snook in the inlets and plan your lobster hunts for the end of the month. Release some for the future, Bouncer
We will hold a swordfish seminar at Dusky Sport Center on July 27th at 6 PM. Call 945-922-8890 for details. |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Post Number: 31
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, June 15, 2004 - 11:44 am: | |
Boy! How time flies. It is hard to believe 10 days have passed since our last report. We had some good inlet trips lately. A week ago, we caught snook of about 5 and 15 pounds in the afternoon, along with a couple jacks and cudas. As the sun was setting we caught two tarpon over 100 pounds. Two days later, the snook were hiding, but we caught one tarpon over 100 pounds and lost another before trying for the snook. The snook, that were not biting, were replaced by a couple 30 pound tarpon. Now for the down side, over the weekend we fished the same area and nothing bit in the inlet. To make matters worse, we missed 3 big tarpon on the same trip, bringing us to a zero trip. See, we can all have a bad day.
Day trips were scarce over the last week. We fished with Don and Sandy Blake on Tuesday. The morning produced a couple mutton snappers and a couple barracudas. The afternoon was red hot. We caught a 22.5 blackfin tuna on 8 pound line for Sandy, then a 32 pound tuna for Don on 12 pound tackle. Then a 22 pound tuna on 8 for Don, while Ron got a 10 pound tuna and Sandy caught a 18 pound cuda on 12. That was a wild triple header.
Since then we fished day trips on Sunday and Monday. We caught a few dolphin 20 miles offshore each trip. On Sunday we caught 3 nice mutton snapper anchored on wrecks around 150 feet deep. Several barracuda added a little more rod bending action. Monday’s wreck action was slower like the current. We caught a 8 pound gray grouper, a 15 pound amberjack and a 40 pound almaco jack.
Sunday night was a trip to remember! We fished with Tom and Cindy of Boynton Beach and their daughter Jeanne from Lauderdale. From 6 to 7 PM they caught 5 sailfish in 130 feet of water off Key Biscayne. Tom’s two sails were his first ever. On the way home, Jeanne caught a 120 pound tarpon on a live crab at Government Cut.
Monday night, we headed out for swordfish. About 9:30 another boat caught a fish of 60 inch fork length just north of us. The current was half of normal and all the boats were having a slow night. About eleven we move a couple miles offshore. The current was a knot faster and we hooked a fish in 5 minutes of fishing. 30 minutes later we boated a 120 pound, 63 inch fork length swordfish. Once again the current slowed and so did the fishing. Another slow hour of fishing sent us home happy with our 1 fish caught on a squid, fished at 150 feet. Oh! I almost forgot about the school of sailfish that swam up to our Hydro Glow Light. We boated and released a sail about 1.5 inches and watched the rest in the light. We caught a flying fish with whiskers about 1/3 it’s body length in the net and also caught a 6 pound tripletail.
June should offer a few more blackfin tuna before the season ends. Snook are now catch and release only. Good tarpon action should last for one more month. And dolphin should be hot!. For those who like late nights, it is mangrove on the reef time or swordfish offshore. Please release some for the future, Bouncer |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Post Number: 30
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 07, 2004 - 6:48 am: | |
June is treating us well. We ended May with a lesson in frustration as 9 times on Sunday night our squid were attacked by swordfish. We had a big sword up and jumping, till the hook came out. We had swordfish banging on the bait till they lost interest without getting hooked. We had leaders within a couple feet of the boat when the hook came out of the swordfish. 9 strikes and no catches.
June first we went sword fishing for a couple of hours. Put the baits in the water at 9 PM. We pulled the hooks on a very small swordfish about 9:30. We caught and released a swordfish about 45 pounds and 47.5 inches before 10. Swordfish must be 47 inches from the tip of the lower jaw to the fork of the tail to meet the federal limit. I think it should be about 55 inches. At 11 we had another strike. With a solid hookup we were in the game. An hour latter we landed a nice 100 pound swordfish, which our anglers were already dreaming of grilling and headed home.
For those trying sword fishing, we had both live bait and rigged squid out 2 of the last 3 trips. We had no strikes on the live bait. We had a four strikes at the 150 foot depth, one strike at 250 and eleven strikes below 300 feet. This fishing was all under a bright moon.
We didn’t fish again till Friday. We spent most of the day wreck fishing a caught a black grouper, a gray grouper, 4 mutton snappers, 4 big lane snappers, 2 kingfish and a couple bonitos.
Saturday we fished the “Miami Dolphins/Cigna Health Care Tournament”. 80 top local boats fished for dolphin, tuna, wahoo and kings. At the end of the day Paul Castronovo aboard his Hectic Days II had won with 106.5 pounds of dolphin found under a tree in 2500 feet of water. Our boat, Bouncer’s Dusky 33 with lead angler Ben Blanco, came in second with 60 pounds of kingfish. We had another 30 pounds which were not allowed due to some angler registration confusion. Of course this would not have affected the outcome. Third place went to the L&H with Captain Neil Orange. Ben also took top kingfish honors.
June should offer a few more blackfin tuna before the season ends. Snook are now catch and release only. Good tarpon action should last for one more month. And dolphin should be hot!. For those who like late nights, it is mangrove on the reef time. Please release some for the future, Bouncer |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, May 30, 2004 - 10:08 am: | |
It must be time to target dinner fish. We have had a great week of angling action for those looking for some great meals. Monday we caught some dolphin in 1100 feet of water. These fish were found under birds and traveling rapidly to the south. In the afternoon we caught a big almaco jack, one king mackerel and a rare for south Florida, mystic grouper. Monday evening we had the Yori family out. They caught a sailfish, a cero mackerel, a remora and at 8:35 at night caught a big blackfin tuna.
Tuesday it offshore again to catch a 20 pond bull dolphin and a bunch of school sized dolphin under the birds again. The afternoon produced some gray tile fish and a yellow edged grouper. The evening trip brought us a double header of blackfin tuna of 28 and 32 pounds. With dinner in the box, it was in to the beach where we caught and released a tarpon well over 125 pounds.
Thursday we set out for some more bottom action as our angler had to stay within phone range of shore. It was a banner day. We caught a 20 pound black grouper on the first bait in the water. Then it was a couple mutton snapper followed by an 18 pound gray grouper. The next fish was the biggest mutton snapper I have seen caught. This 23.5 pound beauty was a sight to behold. Another gray grouper released, a sailfish released, 3 king mackerel and 3 bonito rounded out the day. Thursday evening we had a super group of anglers up at Dusky Sport Center for our seminar on dolphin fishing. A special thanks to Bo Walker for joining us.
Friday, Thursday’s angler brought help. They wanted more of those bottom fish. They caught 5 mutton snapper and another “biggest ever”. Tom caught a 38 pound gray grouper off of one of the Dade County artificial reefs.
Saturday found us bottom fishing again, but no monsters came to the boat. We had 9 mutton snapper from 4 to 6 pounds and a blackfin tuna of 30.5 pounds. Saturday night we headed out for some swordfish action. The action we got, but not the score. We had four good swordfish strikes, had 4 on, but some how pulled the hook on all of them. We got 3 close enough to see in the glow of the Hydro Glow light. I hope we get them closer tonight.
June should offer a few more blackfin tuna before the season ends. Snook are now catch and release only. Good tarpon action should last for one more month. And dolphin should be hot!. For those who like late nights, it is mangrove on the reef time. Please release some for the future, Bouncer |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, May 23, 2004 - 7:42 pm: | |
What a week!!!! Last Saturday we fished the Avborne Tournament out of Miami. This tournament had about 40 boats fishing for eating fish to weigh at 1 point per pound, no more than 3 per species. Plus 3 sailfish releases at 25 points per fish. We won with 3 tuna from 29 to 31 pounds, a cero mackerel, a king mackerel, 2 mutton snapper, 1 dolphin and a sailfish release.
Sunday we ran to Chub Cay, Bahamas for three days of fishing with a group of men from Wisconsin fishing on 3 boats. All the boats had dolphin action that dreams are made of. We caught far more dolphin than we could keep track of. Our best were 40 pounds on 20 pound spin tackle and a bullyhoo cast and retrieved and a 25 pound bull on fly. One of our anglers, Pat Helland, caught more than 20 dolphin over 12 pounds on fly in 5 hours. We had a blue marlin on for a few seconds and raised 1 sailfish in the few hours we trolled for billfish. The big dolphin were soooo thick that we would stop fishing with them all around the boat while we took refreshment breaks. Thursday we ran home in 5 hours.
Friday we went tarpon fishing in the evening and caught 2 tarpon out of 5 strikes plus some blue runners for the young kids on the boat.
Saturday we caught a mutton snapper and a gray grouper on the bottom. A couple barracuda ate our surface baits to provide a little action. We caught a couple bonitos on the kite. Fishing was slow till we stumbled onto a school of permit on the surface. We caught 4 of them. 2 in the mid 20 pound range plus a 36 and a 37 pound fish. Those were our best permit so far this year. This trip was a birthday present from Meg to her husband Jeff Wright. It was a great present.
The Saturday evening trip was a tuna special and produced a big sailfish and a 15 pound king for Jim Herndon plus a 30 pound blackfin tuna for John Herndon.
Sunday was like a dream come true for some long time friends who love bottom fishing. We caught 5 mutton snapper up to 12 pounds, 3 gray grouper to 18 pounds, a cobia, several barracuda and a 25 pound blackfin tuna for a great day.
June is knocking on the door, so plan on dolphin offshore, snapper on the reefs, both day and night with snook and tarpon around the inlets.
Mark your calendar. We will be doing a dolphin seminar at Dusky Sport Center on May 27th from 6 to 8:30. I hope we fish together on Bouncer’s Dusky 33 or we see you on the rip, Bouncer |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, May 05, 2004 - 8:58 pm: | |
When will the weather break! We had a spectacular last trip of April. It was an evening tarpon trip with Ben Eskanazi and his relatives. We caught 5 tarpon from 80 to over 130 pounds plus a big ladyfish. We hooked a fish about every 10 minutes the lines were in the water. The largest fish fought for nearly an hour. All were caught on 20 pound tackle baited with live shrimp.
We then lost a four day Bimini trip to the winds that blew 25 or more over the weekend. We heard about all the sails and tuna caught here, but replacing a charter on short notice is hard to do for a Monday or Tuesday.
We finally got to fish again today. It was a day to remember for variety. We started with a 18 pound dolphin on the kite. Then came a schoolie size dolphin. A little while later a big hammerhead shark swam into our kite spread. We hooked him on our 20 pound tackle and settled in for a long fight. After an hour Tom, our angler, was worn out. The shark never surfaced and I think Tom was glad the wire leader failed.
We caught a 10 pound dolphin a little latter and then headed for a spot where we had found permit in the past. We got one strike in an hour. It was a beautiful 30 pound permit to photograph and release.
With no more action there we headed up to some clear water off Government Cut to try for a sailfish. Sure enough after a couple bonito we caught a nice sailfish on the kite with a live herring. The sailfish wore a tag from the Billfish Foundation. We cut the tag off the fish and called their office to report the recapture. This fish was originally tagged on July 20, 2003 off North Carolina.
Hoping for a Gold Coast Slam for Tom, we headed back to the inlet to try for a tarpon. We had caught the sail, and the dolphin, so all we needed was the tarpon. They rolled all around the boat, but would not bite before time ran out.
This evening we were back out there tarpon fishing with Ben and his pal Domenic. Using the same crab as Tom had tried, we hooked our first tarpon of the trip within 5 minutes of putting the lines in the water. We caught and released 3 tarpon from 90 to over 130 pounds, plus fighting one for 40 minutes that never even showed itself. The big one we caught was about a 45 minute fight and it was pretty worn out. Sounds like the “BIG ONE GOT AWAY”
While we were tarpon fishing 2 boats were fishing in 100 to 150 feet of water off the inlet. 1 boat caught 2 sailfish and a blackfin tuna. The other boat caught a 20 pound king mackerel and 7 tuna from 20 to 30 pounds. He also lost 3 sailfish.
May is here, dolphin will be bigger and more abundant, tuna should be hot, sails will still join the party, tarpon will be very hungry and snook will be in the inlets. It is time to GO FISHING!
Mark your calendar. We will be doing a dolphin seminar at Dusky Sport Center on May 27th from 6 to 8:30. I hope we fish together on Bouncer’s Dusky 33 or we see you on the rip, Bouncer |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, April 27, 2004 - 8:57 am: | |
Fishing is way up from recent weeks. The conditions have been good and the fishing has followed suite. The conditions we look for are north current near the reef and easterly winds. We have had these conditions for about a week and the fish have been biting. Thursday we had a young couple out and they caught a couple dolphin fish, a barracuda, 4 sailfish and a 42 pound wahoo. I wish everyone could have seen that strike on the kite.
Friday we caught a couple sailfish and a big blackfin tuna. This was a trying days as we somehow lost about 10 fish over the course of the day.
Sunday we fished with the Arostegui family. They caught 3 sailfish, 5 mutton snapper, a bonito, a 9 pound rainbow runner, a porgy, a big barracuda and a 32 pound blackfin tuna.
Monday we were doing some bottom fishing while we waited for the afternoon sailfish and tuna bite. I must mention that every sailfish, tuna and wahoo we have caught lately has been caught after noon. The current was a little strange as it ran north, then stopped and ran south and then ran north again. We caught a nice king mackerel, a big barracuda, three mutton snappers, half a yellowtail snapper and gray grouper of 7 and 30 pounds. Our anglers wore out and we called it a day. Another boat that was starting when we headed home, caught 5 sailfish in the afternoon.
The down side of the week, was the fact that the tarpon were showing everywhere, but not biting very good. We did catch tarpon on every trip but one, but only one per trip. Tarpon action is usually good all the way through June, so this should be a short term set back in the action.
May is around the corner, dolphin will bigger and more abundant, tuna should be hot, sails will still join the party, tarpon will be very hungry and snook will be in the inlets. It is time to GO FISHING!
Mark your calendar. We will be doing a dolphin seminar at Dusky Sport Center on May 27th from 6 to 8:30. I hope we fish together on Bouncer’s Dusky 33 or we see you on the rip, Bouncer |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, April 11, 2004 - 7:30 am: | |
I wish I could rave about our fishing action this week, but I can’t. During the Miami Billfish Tournament we had shots at 6 sailfish. We only caught 3 and it took 4 to come in the money. We caught a lot of dolphin, a few kingfish and bonitos plus a cobia to fill out the days.
Wednesday we tarpon fished all day. The tarpon rolled around the boat and they swam under the boat in nearly every spot we tried, but they never took a bait. We missed a permit and another cut us off in the bottom. The onlt good action was Spanish mackerel and big blue runners on light tackle while begging for a tarpon.
Thursday afternoon we had a couple young children out with their Grandfather and mother. We got a nice barracuda, a bonita and a huge sailfish on a trip lasting less than 4 hours. The sail fought an hour of that time!
Thursday evening we had 2 youngsters and their dad and grandpa. They caught several Spanish mackerel, a bunch of big blue runners and two tarpon over 100 pounds each.
Friday was very slow with a couple grouper and Spanish mackerel during the day and two lost tarpon in the evening.
Saturday was a lot better. The Gulf Stream moved in near the reef and the fish fed a lot better. We caught several kingfish, a mutton snapper and one of two sailfish that bit. The evening trip produced tarpon of 50 and 110 pounds plus mackerel, snapper, blue runners and bluefish.
April is here. Look for a run of big king mackerel this month. Blackfin tuna will appear in good numbers. Both of these fish will feed very well at sundown. The good news is that Daylight Savings Time started on April 4th, meaning sundown is about 7:30 at night. Lots of fishing time after work hours. Sailfish will be very active all month, dolphin will bigger and more abundant, tarpon will be very hungry and snook will move out toward the inlets. It is time to GO FISHING!
Mark your calendar. We will be doing a dolphin seminar at Dusky Sport Center on May 27th from 6 to 8:30. I hope we see you on the rip, Bouncer |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, April 01, 2004 - 4:02 am: | |
Good bye March! What a month. Wind and more wind. We closed out that miserable month with fairly slow fishing this week, but at least it was calm. We had 4 days totally blown out a week ago. Saturday was still a mess with high winds, but we fished the bay and caught a few ladyfish, a very small permit and a 18 pound jack.
Sunday the wind was gone. We fished a small club kingfish tournament and caught a small kingfish. Only 4 or 5 boats competed and rumor had it that we caught the biggest king at 6.5 pounds. Of course a king had to weigh 15 pounds to qualify. There was no winner.
Monday through Wednesday we have been fishing with a three escapees from Chicago. The weather has been great. This means the fishing has been tough. Monday we caught a couple sailfish and a couple kingfish. Tuesday we caught a couple sailfish, a couple kingfish and a 25 pound permit. Wednesday was even slower with a small barracuda, smaller mutton snapper and a 120 pound shark. The good news about Wednesday is that we stayed out for tarpon in the evening. Fishing with live shrimp and crabs, we caught 80 and 90 pound tarpon. A third was lost in a tangle with another boat’s line. For some reason, this year there are a lot of boats, fishing for tarpon, that have no manners. If you see a boat fighting a tarpon, you should take all measures to give them room to catch it. This will result in the same courtesy when you hook up.
The Miami Billfish Tournament is this weekend. There will be lots of fun taking place from 4 to 6 PM Thursday through Saturday afternoon and 1 to 7 on Sunday. Come on down to Miami Beach Marina and check it out.
April is here. Look for a run of big king mackerel this month. Blackfin tuna will appear in good numbers. Both of these fish will feed very well at sundown. The good news is that Daylight Savings Time starts on April 4th, meaning sundown is about 7:30 at night. Lots of fishing time after work hours. Sailfish will be very active all month, dolphin will bigger and more abundant, tarpon will be very hungry and snook will move out toward the inlets. It is time to GO FISHING!
Mark your calendar. We will be doing a dolphin seminar at Dusky Sport Center on May 27th from 6 to 8:30. I hope we see you on the rip, Bouncer |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Username: Bouncer
Post Number: 23
Registered: 9-2003
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Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, March 21, 2004 - 8:13 am: | |
Well it has been a week to remember. The wind blew and then it blew some more. Luckily we were fishing with some tough anglers. Paul and Kathy Herman fished with us for 5 days. The first day it was blowing so hard we stayed in the bay. We caught some good sized jacks in a canal as well as enjoying some sightings of nesting night herons. This was the first time I ever had a conflict with a great blue heron. He repeatedly attacked our live bait, and even tried our surface plug once. A couple ladyfish gave us some action in the bay.
At 3 PM I was worried about finding some action to fill the final 3 hours of our day. The tarpon rescued me. Fishing live shrimp at Government Cut we caught 5 out of 6 tarpon that struck over the next 3 hours. They ranged from 60 to over 80 pounds and saved the day.
The next day was a little calmer and the dolphin fish made the day with fish averaging about 8 pounds coming frequently to the live herring under our kite. We closed this day with a sailfish. Even fishing an extra hour failed to allow Kathy to catch a grand slam as both her tarpon threw the hook and got away.
Day 3 was hot. 4 out of 6 sailfish raised were brought to boat side and released along with several dolphin, cero mackerel, barracuda and bonito. Once again an extra hour saw two tarpon get away.
Day 4 was slow. We caught a sail early in the day and then the wind and current quit. Bottom fishing did not produce, deep water live baiting was a flop and a ship cut off Kathy’s tarpon after an hour of hard fight.
Days 5 was high winds and loads of dolphin for most of the day. Sail were being caught, but the ones we saw came to the baits and swam away. Paul and Kathy were a pleasure to fish with and I hope they come back and get their grand slam next year.
The Lapnow boys fished with us the last two days. Dad was acting as coach as Taylor (9) caught a sailfish, a 30 pound cow dolphin and 60 pound tarpon along with some smaller dolphin, a skipjack tuna and king mackerel. Cody (11) caught a 15 pound dolphin, 8 pound mutton snapper, some smaller dolphin and a king. In the bay they caught several ladyfish, 2 flounder and a pompano. In the final hour of their trip, Cody scored big with a 80 pound tarpon, while Taylor closed out their trip with a 12 pound jack crevalle.
If you see us out there on Bouncer’s Dusky 33 say hello. Or we will see you at the kingfish and tuna catching seminar at Dusky Sport Center on March 23rd at 6 PM. Guest experts will be from Penn Reels, Strip teasers and Evinrude. Call 954-922-8890 for further information |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Username: Bouncer
Post Number: 22
Registered: 9-2003
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, March 11, 2004 - 8:29 pm: | |
We have had some great fishing this week. The Della Monicas fished with us Tuesday and Wednesday and caught 5 sailfish each day on live herring fished on the kite and flat lines. A couple bonito spiced up their action. Tuesday night we caught 1 tarpon and 5 Spanish mackerel with Al Fisher and his sons. Wednesday night Aaron Teele and his fishing partner caught and released tarpon of approximately 110, 120, 20 and 130 pounds while fishing with live shrimp at Government Cut.
Today we had Benjie Hiller, his son Gabriel and friend Jack out with their ultra light tackle. They caught and released 5 sails, 2 bonito and 2 barracuda on 6 pound test line. Benjie caught and released 2 sails on 4 pound test line. And Jack added another sail on 8 pound test line. They caught 8 of 9 sailfish that bit. Their only loss was a sail that got away when another sail ate the kite marker on the line. They were fishing live herring on Eagle Claw circle hooks, in 100 to 140 feet of water off Key Biscayne. Gab, fought a big tarpon on 6 pound line for an hour tonight till the line broke while slugging it out with this big fish in the ship channel.
Monday night, March 15th we will be fishing on the outdoor channel at 8 PM eastern time with Mark Sosin on Mark Sosin’s Salt Water Journal. The show will also air on the Sunshine Channel 11:30 AM on Friday the 19th. Repeats of the show will air through the week on both channels.
If you see us out there on Bouncer’s Dusky 33 say hello. Or we will see you at the kingfish and tuna catching seminar at Dusky Sport Center on March 23rd at 6 PM. Guest experts will be from Penn Reels, Strip teasers and Evinrude. Call 954-922-8890 for further information |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Username: Bouncer
Post Number: 21
Registered: 9-2003
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 08, 2004 - 8:42 pm: | |
Fishing lately has been a breeze, a strong breeze most of the time. 10 days ago we caught 11 sailfish with Jeff Lapnow. He was a busy guy till about 2 PM when the wind switched and the fish turned off. We have struggled with lots of wind lately. We have had to cancel some trips and fish the bay others.
On the 29th we caught small trout in the bay after watching tarpon roll around the boat for a while. On March 2nd we caught a couple sailfish and several dolphin fishing live herring on kite and flatlines. On the 4th we caught 10 to 12 pound jacks in the bay on the out going tide. The 5th produced 15 dolphin from 7 to 16 pounds on live herring fished from the kite. It was easy to get the kite up with those 30 knot winds. A couple sailfish slipped by during some angler learning periods. Saturday morning we slept in to get well rested for afternoon sails and evening swords. Of course the sails and dolphin ate like crazy in the morning while the wind blew. Then when the wind quit and we got out, the fish disappeared. We did find a couple bonito and one sailfish. We jumped a big swordfish in the evening, ending a tough day.
Sunday was exactly the weather we wanted to wreck fish for amberjacks. Our goal was to find a permit along the coast and then an amberjack on the wrecks. 11 year old Martini Arostegui caught a 29 pound permit on a crab and a 27 pound amberjack on a live goggle eye. A very strong current made it tough to wreck fish.
Today was our day to shine again. Jeff Lapnow brought out the luck again. With a nice north wind this morning and a strong north bound current all day, we nailed some hot fishing. When the day ended Jeff had caught 9 sailfish and 5 bonito. The only down part of the day, was the fact that we missed or lost 8 sailfish. All said and done it was a lot of fun.
Monday night, March 15th we will be fishing on the outdoor channel at 8 PM eastern time with Mark Sosin on Mark Sosin’s Salt Water Journal. The show will also air on the Sunshine Channel 11:30 AM on Friday the 19th. Repeats of the show will air through the week on both channels.
If you see us out there on Bouncer’s Dusky 33 say hello. Or we will see you at the kingfish and tuna catching seminar at Dusky Sport Center on March 23rd at 6 PM. |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Username: Bouncer
Post Number: 20
Registered: 9-2003
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, February 25, 2004 - 8:44 am: | |
Boy, it has been a busy week. Some great catches ands some just good. We shot a TV show with Mark Sosin which should air in March. It would be seen on OLN at 8 PM eastern time on a Monday night. We should know the date before it airs. We caught big jacks on plugs and flies as well as a big permit and amberjack.
Friday evening we caught 2 tarpon over 90 pounds on live shrimp. Saturday we caught and released some amberjacks in the morning, a sailfish release and some bottom fish in the afternoon and a nice swordfish release in the evening. I wish everyone could enjoy one of these trips. Flat calm water, a million stars and the Hydro Glow light attracting flying fish, tinker mackerel, ocean oddities and swordfish. We had a 200+ pound swordfish chasing bait in the light for what seemed like minutes. It was breath taking.
Sunday we had Gary and TJ Gullo out with their dad. They caught a few kingfish, a 25 pound amberjack and a 40 pound Warsaw grouper. We catch an average of 1 Warsaw per year, so that was quite a thrill. On the evening trip, we were supposed to go tarpon fishing at the inlet. That changed to a swordfish trip when Bruce Sher saw how calm it was. It was a good move. We had 4 swordfish bites, jumped a little one, boated a swordfish about 75 pounds and released one about 90 to 100 pounds.
Monday was very slow for us. We caught one of two sailfish, a couple bonito and a couple small bottom fish. The evening produced a short unsuccessful battle with a tarpon. Tuesday produced plenty of bonitos, a king, a big rainbow runner, a big amberjack and a small grouper.
If you see us out there on Bouncer’s Dusky 33 say hello. Or we will see you at the kingfish and tuna catching seminar at Dusky Sport Center on March 23rd at 6 PM. |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Username: Bouncer
Post Number: 19
Registered: 9-2003
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, February 18, 2004 - 8:13 am: | |
Good bye Boat Show. This was probably the best boat show ever for me. Spent some quality time with the Browns, who own Dusky boats, the guys from Gladiator autopilots, Lowrance electronics, Eagle Claw, too many people to name from The Big Game Room, Darrell Keith from Hydro Glow and most importantly all the wonderful fishing people I have known from 5 minutes to 40 years. It was a great weekend.
Beyond that we had some nice fishing too. Wednesday we had some kings during the day and lost both a sailfish and a tarpon. I guess that got the bad luck out of the way, because fishing was pretty good after that. Wednesday evening the tarpon were fairly active. We fought a big one on the beach for a few minutes and then caught 2 out of 3 in the ship channel around low tide.
Thursday we had a couple from Illinois and their daughter out. They each caught a sailfish, several dolphin, a couple bonito and we were escorted by a big school of spotted dolphin which they had hoped to see before we left the dock.
After spending Friday at the show, it off to 1400 feet of water to try for swordfish. The radio reports were slow, but we got lucky. About 8 we had a strike on a squid at 100 feet. That fish came quickly to the boat, but about 30 feet away, the hook came out. When I pulled the hook and remaining 3 tentacles into the light of our Hydro Glow light a swordfish was in hot pursuit. Ron flipped the fish a live blue runner and the fish ate it without hesitation. This 75 pound fish put on a really good fight before a few photos and a good release. We tried for a while longer, but both the fish we hunted and the radio fish were done for the evening.
Saturday night the wind was up, so we targeted tarpon instead of swordfish. It was a good move. As soon as the sun set, the fish turned on. We were off South Beach, fishing with live shrimp and the fish were hot. We caught one around 110 pounds on a shrimp, jumped several and lost one after 20 minutes when he worn through the leader. As a bonus, one angler caught a tarpon about 90 pounds on a DOA Terroreze fished on 12 pound spin.
Sunday we were at the show all day, but the fish were waiting for us Monday. We caught 4 sailfish on live herring fished on flatlines and the kite in 120 to 140 feet of water plus a couple big amberjacks off a wreck. In the evening our primary angler was about 10 years old. He and his dad had a ball catching a couple tarpon of 50 and 80 pounds, plus jacks, macks and runners.
Over the next few weeks, look for good tarpon action using live shrimp along the beaches of Miami-Dade County. Plenty of sailfish will be caught from Government Cut south to Ocean Reef. Be ready for cobia wherever you fish in the ocean. And if all else fails, it is time for big amberjacks to dominate all the artificial reefs.
If you see us out there on Bouncer’s Dusky 33 say hello. Or we will see you at the kingfish and tuna catching seminar at Dusky Sport Center on March 23rd at 6 PM |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Username: Bouncer
Post Number: 18
Registered: 9-2003
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, February 08, 2004 - 5:34 am: | |
No two days have been the same lately on Bouncer‘s Dusky 33. Saturday we fished a fishing club event and caught a sailfish, a dolphin, a bonita and a kingfish. Sunday was a rain out. Monday night we fished with Herb Ratner and he caught two swordfish on our 5 hour trip. The first was 158 pounds, that’s 67 inches fork length, for those learning to estimate their swordfish weights. Within 20 minutes of the first fish, Herb caught and released a 40 pound swordfish. Both fish ate squid fished below 300 feet.
Tuesday morning we tried for tarpon, and they were everywhere. The bad news was they had lock jaw. It appeared that 6 boats hooked 1 fish in a couple hours. We changed targets and tried some deep drop bottom fishing. This produced some 3 to 4 pound yellow eye snappers, assorted groupers and tile fish.
Tuesday evening we were back out after those tarpon. They were gone. We searched long and hard for them, but they hard left the area. We found a couple smaller tarpon off the south jetty and jumped one. We caught a small snook there as well. We found a few tarpon in the ship channel when the tide started to fall. We jumped one and caught 2 gray snapper and two red grouper. It had been a tough day for catching.
Wednesday was good for us. We fished live pilchards and herring on kite and flat lines. The day produced 4 sailfish strikes with 3 caught and released. For the frying pan we caught 3 dolphin. Wednesday night we tried the swordfish again. We thought we had a slow night. We had two fish on, but both pulled the hook. The rest of the fleet reported no strikes.
Thursday it blew 30 with 5 to 10 foot seas. Friday it was down to 20 knot winds and we knew the fishing would be hot with a strong north current. We did catch a fair amount of dolphin, but only one sailfish. The action was spiced with a nice mutton snapper, a black grouper, a king fish and a bonita.
The night trip we found no tarpon. We caught a small cobia and a small shark.
Saturday we fished with Sonia and Pete Tenuta from Michigan. They were thrilled with catching the bait. My mate Josh and I knew this was going to be one of those special trips. We caught two big African pompano, a kingfish a bonita and most of a yellowtail anchored in our first spot. The next spot produced a nice black grouper. The rest of the day we caught a barracuda, but had a lot of laughs till the rain chased us home. Once again the tarpon let us down in the evening. We caught a bluefish, a blue runner and a ladyfish.
We will see a lot of you at the Dusky booth during the Miami International Boat Show on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Also don’t miss the Big Game Room upstairs where we will be speaking at noon on Saturday and Sunday. |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Username: Bouncer
Post Number: 17
Registered: 9-2003
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, January 26, 2004 - 7:49 pm: | |
Victory at sea!!! Bouncer’s Dusky 33 with Capt. Bouncer Smith, mates Ron Cook and Glenn Morgan helped top notch anglers Scott Segal and Tom Schramm win the inaugural Miami Mayor’s Cup Sailfish Tournament. The tournament was host to 78 tournament boats. All the participants were thrilled with the quality of this new angling event.
The crew on Bouncer’s Dusky 33 fished live herring and sardines on Penn circle hooks (produced by Eagle Claw). Four of their fish ate flat lines and one came off a kite assisted by a helium balloon.
Saturday the action consisted of 3 single fish between 1 and 4 PM. These were caught off Miami Beach, after a run 5 miles south of Fowey Light and two hours of fishing there produced 3 bonito. Bouncer’s Dusky ran back to Miami Beach and found their three fish in 105 to 115 feet of water.
Sunday, the line on one of their kite reels got caught in behind the spool. Bouncer took the reel apart and found that he lacked one part to get the line free. Then he cut the kite line with the kite flying in the air. Holding the kite line in his hand, he was clearing the line from behind the spool when a double header of sailfish ate the flat lines. Finding that driving the boat and holding the kite line was too challenging, He handed the kite line over to Scott Segal. Both fish were released and the kite line was reassembled. These fish came from 150 feet of water off Pacific Light.
Bouncer’s Dusky 33 saw 5 sailfish over the two days and caught all five.
Monday night Bouncer’s Dusky 33 had a group from Miami and Minnesota out for tarpon. They caught 3 out of seven strikes plus a mackerel, a small king and a jack crevalle.
Bouncer will be in the Dusky Booth Feb. 13th, 14th and 15th at the Miami International Boat Show. Bouncer will be speaking at the Big Game Room, upstairs at the boat show about how and why to use circle hooks on the 14th and 15th. He will also speaking at Dusky Sport Center on March 23rd. This seminar will be about catching king mackerel and blackfin tuna. |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Username: Bouncer
Post Number: 16
Registered: 9-2003
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, January 16, 2004 - 8:00 pm: | |
It’s been a grouper week. Tuesday we had a bottom fishing charter. The angling couple on board had never caught a grouper, and wanted to cure that. The cure has worked. They caught a 35 pound amberjack, a barracuda, a shark, a 30 pound gray grouper and a 20 pound black grouper on live pinfish over a couple wrecks. While they were catching all that, a sailfish came along and ate a flat lined live pilchard. With sore arms, they requested a change of action. They though a little live bait sail fishing would give them a rest. In a little over an hour, they caught 5 more sailfish and called it a day.
We caught 1 of 3 swordfish in 3 hours Friday evening, but Tuesday evening the swordfish wanted nothing to do with us. 4 hours of fishing produced several squid bites.
Wednesday we caught a nice black grouper and a real nice gray grouper in about 30 minutes and then went drifting with live bait. We caught 1 of 2 sailfish, 6 kings, a couple schoolie dolphin and 2 mutton snappers to finish out the day.
Thursday produced 2 amberjack of 35 and 50 pounds, 3 black grouper, a dolphin, a couple kings and one of the most beautiful sailfish ever seen. It was lit up like a neon sign right next to the boat early in the fight and then danced all over the ocean. At the finish, it stood on it’s tail 4 or 5 times right next to the boat. What a show!
Thursday evening was too calm, but we still caught and released a tarpon near 100 pounds on a live shrimp.
Friday the current was much stronger. The day produced 5 big amberjacks, a 15 pound black grouper, 4 kings including one of 25 pounds hooked in the tail, a mutton snapper, a couple dolphin, a couple bonito and 1 of 2 sailfish.
Don’t miss our seminar 6:30 Tuesday night at Dusky Sport Center. We will be discussing all the different fish you can catch under a fishing kite, and how to catch them. Call 954-922-8890 for details. |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Username: Bouncer
Post Number: 15
Registered: 9-2003
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Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 08, 2004 - 5:33 am: | |
The week started slow with just a few fish over the weekend. The last two days have been much better for catching. Tuesday was flat calm with blue skies. We decided to try some wreck fishing while listening for action to pick up on the radio. Our first 5 drops on wrecks produced 3 black grouper from 15 to 25 pounds, plus two more lost. As the radio stayed slow we tried some very deep wrecks and lost a couple big fish and caught a mystic grouper and a snow grouper. Our efforts at surface action matched the rest of the fleet. We caught a small shark and lost a kingfish to a barracuda. A final shot at a shallow wreck produced a beautiful African pompano and a almaco jack.
Tarpon fishing off the beach has been great. We had one trip last week with 4 out of 5 up to 110 pounds and another trip Friday night with 3 out of 4 to 120 pounds. Tuesday evening we arrived on location to tarpon rolling everywhere. We figured on another great evening. Wrong! 1 bite equaled 1 fish about 40 pounds plus a couple blue runners and a 3 pound bluefish. The fish were there, but the bite was off.
Wednesday morning the wind was blowing about 20 out of the northwest. We caught herring and headed out to try for sailfish. Starting in 80 feet of water, the kingfish ate the baits as fast as we baited the hooks. Over the next couple hours we lost track of how many kings our one angler caught and released. These were 10 to 15 pound fish and a lot of fun. Through the morning the wind continued to rise. We caught a big sailfish about 10:30 and another smaller sail about noon. By now the wind was blowing 30 or more. This made fishing difficult. The kite line broke and we lost the kite, we caught a couple smaller kings and a 20 pound barracuda. The wind switched to the northeast, the seas grew to 8 feet and we headed home. We had some fast action and nice fish, but the weather finally won. Numerous fronts forecast for this weekend should produce plenty of sailfish for the very sea worthy anglers.
Be sure and join me at Dusky Sport Center on January 20th at 6:30 PM for “Everything You Can Catch on a Kite”. This should be a really good seminar. |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Username: Bouncer
Post Number: 14
Registered: 9-2003
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Votes: 2 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 01, 2004 - 7:13 am: | |
Hi Ya'll, Fishin's been pretty good.This weeks catches;
`12/26;Michael Shangold (13) from Washington DC got a gold coast grand slam, released a 60 lb. sailfish, 3 dolphin, 2 kings and a 80 pound tarpon (daytime-live shrimp-Govt. Cut). His host were Rob and 14 yr old Ben Cohen.
12/26 evening Steve and Mike(14) Fiebus of Austin, Tex. caught 4 tarpon from 70 to 120 pounds on live shrimp.
12/27 John Skrzypek caught and released 2 sailfish, several kings and several dolphin to 25 pounds on live herring off Gov't Cut in 100 to 150 feet of water.
12/28 Pamela Hart, wife of FSU atheletic Director(here for Orange Bowl), caught numerous kings, several dolphin and released a 60 pound sailfish.
12/29 Chris and Amy Toner from NJ released 3 sailfish, numerous king fish and a couple small dolphin
12/30 wreck fishing produced 6 amberjacks from 20 to 60 pounds, 3 grouper to 12 pounds, 1 red snapper and a couple smaller snapper plus 6 gray tilefish.
12/30 evening Herb Ratner from Pa. released a 75 pound swordfish and pulled the hook on another. Herb had a bump on the fly minutes before the swordfish was caught.
At 6:30 on January 20th Dusky Sport Center will host a seminar on "Kite Fishing for Everything" featuring Capt. Bouncer Smith and a represetative from "Bob Lewis Fishing Kites".Have you used your kite for bass, sea trout, dolphin, trolling, tarpon, redfish or bonefish? For information call 954-922-8890.
Happy Holidays, Bouncer's Dusky 33 |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Username: Bouncer
Post Number: 13
Registered: 9-2003
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Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, December 18, 2003 - 7:50 pm: | |
Looks like today was our day on top of the fleet. We had 2 Ted Sahleys and Ron Waselenchuk out for the day. The day started freezing cold and windy. We caught herring and headed offshore to find sails and anything else that was hungry. A couple kings in the 7 pound class got us started. About an hour into our fishing we hooked a small shark. We released him and missed a nice dolphin. Soon another small shark swam up to the boat. He ate a bait we were putting out. Suddenly a sailfish appeared near the shark. It ate a bait and raced around the bow. As this sail swam under the kite baits another sail ate the short kite bait. As the anglers dodged and weaved around each other, the long kite bait was eaten by a third sail. When the dust settled, we had released two sails and a shark, but the line had broken on the third sail.
As the day progressed, the action stayed consistent and good. We soon caught 3 dolphin from 8 to 20 pounds. The next couple king mackerel were 12 to 15 pounds. As the day was coming to an end, the sailfish turned on. We caught 3 sailfish in about 30 minutes and lost at least one other when the wire leader broke.
The anglers and crew were all very pleased with a total of 5 sailfish releases, 3 dolphin releases, 2 shark releases, several kings released and two more kings kept for dinner at the marina.
Tarpon have appeared in good numbers around the inlet and we are looking forward to reporting good action on them soon.
Happy Holidays to all from Bouncer and Ron aboard Bouncer’s Dusky 33. |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Username: Bouncer
Post Number: 12
Registered: 9-2003
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, December 12, 2003 - 7:31 pm: | |
Today was a day of fishing that merits a special report. Don and Sandy Blake chartered us for the day, in an effort to add some angling points to their annual tournament score as well as spend another day doing what they love, fishing together. Things started a little rough. A sailfish knocked the bait off one hook, another sailfish ate a bait and the 8 pound line fouled around the reel and broke. Then a kingfish got off. My assistant captain, Ron, said a home made cookie snack would end the trouble. After sandy’s home made cookies were passed around the fishing got a whole lot better.
A kingfish on 6 pound test caught and released got things started. A energetic little sail ate the bait on an 8 pound outfit. He put on a great show before a good release. That little sail was soon followed by a full size 40 to 50 pound sail caught and released on 12 pound tackle. The kingfish action became steady. Sandy was desperate to qualify for the club spin championship. She had 9 fish on spinning tackle, using artificial lures cast and retrieved. Sandy needed one more to qualify. A kingfish of 28 inches or more would put her on the board. Don added a black grouper release on 8 pound test. Sandy got an 8 pound king on 12 pound line. Sandy hooked a good fish on spin. The fight lasted several minutes. The hook pulled without anyone even knowing what kind of fish it was. Sandy’s jig and rubber tail is eaten half way to the surface. Her drag screams as line rushes from her reel. The fish has gotten into some bottom structure. It must be a grouper. Jerk the rod, pull harder, try anything. She has to get him out of the bottom. Try giving him slack. Open the bail and give him free line. Close the bail, wind fast, he’s out of the bottom, pump and wind, he’s coming up, I see color. Sandy got him. He’s a nice 7.25 pound gray grouper on 8 pound spin. Sandy has qualified for the spin championship.
The good fishing is far from over. Soon Don gets a 12 pound kingfish on 8 pound plug. Sandy follows with a 14.5 pound king on 8 pound general. Don’s turn produces a 19.5 pound king on 8 general.
We try another spot after 5 hours in one place. It’s not so good. Don and Sandy each get kings. Don’s on plug, Sandy’s on spin. Ron observes that you should never leave fish to find fish. This has been one day that couldn’t be hurt by a little slow action at the end of the day.
We have several days available next week. Call or e-mail today to join the fun on Bouncer’s Dusky 33. |
Captain Dave Kostyo (Knotnancy)
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Username: Knotnancy
Post Number: 6
Registered: 8-2003
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, December 10, 2003 - 7:01 am: | |
The fronts are coming through on a steady basis. It's the time of year when 3-5 foot or higher seas are the norm. Anything less is considered a calm day. Kingfish and sailfish with a few dolphin and an occasional tuna become the predominant and sought after species. Inshore, the tarpon will make its strong winter showing to feast on shrimp. The question is when will they make that showing?
On Monday (12/8), Jim Sebastiano and Paul Dana from the Bradenton, Florida area got to experience some good kingfish action. The wind was N/NW @ 9-17 mph. There was a roaring south current and green water. Our second drift off Government Cut produced a large remora. Not the greatest of starts, however, it got the skunk out of the boat. We moved north to the middle of the anchorage area where we found the fish. The bow rod got hit first, but after a brief fight the hook pulled. Next it was the downrigger with an 8# king. Another drift produced nothing, so we slow trolled out to 400'. The
results were 1 bait chopped in half and several other nervous baits. Back to the anchorage area and this time we slow trolled two flatlines and 1 on the downrigger. Steady action started almost immediately with Jim catching a 12# king, then Paul adding another 8# fish. We released another fish, pulled the hook on another, and had another knock the bait off. The last hit of the trip came on the downrigger and after an intense 15 minute battle, Paul landed his 20# king on a 12# spinning outfit. All our fish were caught on herring in the 75-105 foot range.
Monday evening (12/8) was a see if the tarpon are in yet trip. By now, the wind had switched to the E and picked up to 14-21 mph. The wind combined with the incoming tide had us flying in to Haulover Inlet. Moving down the beach slowed our drift dramatically. Usually at this time of year, the fish will average in the 30-50 pound range with an occasional larger one. Our one and only strike of the evening turned out to be the larger one. The 100# tarpon made a short run, jumped twice, made another short run, made a spectacular cart wheeling stretched out jump, and then threw the hook. After a couple of more drifts, we had enough rock and rolling and came in. We answered the question, YES there are tarpon on the beach. Now all that has to happen is for the wind to calm down some to allow us better conditions in which to catch the silver king.
Tuesday (12/9) was a big boat day. With the wind from the E @ 14-21 mph, it was to be a day of ones. After catching herring at Government Cut, it was off to the anchorage area to see if the kings were still cooperating. The first bait was put in the water at 1:00 pm. We caught one king. The next move was north to 88 street where we finally found some good north current. After the current pushed us north of Haulover, we ran back to 88 street and reset. The short kite bait got hit (105') and we fought and released a sailfish. While fighting the sail, we saw a large group of birds working a grassy area to our north. We ran to the area and added a large spanish mackerel. We tried trolling the dolphin juniors in the 150-400 foot range and caught and released 1 bonito. As the sun was setting, we called it a day and made the run back to Haulover Inlet.
Captain Dave Kostyo
Knot Nancy Fishing Charters
305 620-5896 Charter
305 732-2628 Beeper
www.knotnancy.com
nkostyo@bellsouth.net |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Username: Bouncer
Post Number: 11
Registered: 9-2003
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, December 09, 2003 - 7:24 am: | |
Winter is upon us and the great fishing that comes with it, is here too. Friday we caught 4 sailfish, several dolphin and some king mackerel.
11 year old Martini Arostegui tested that idea on Saturday. He caught two sailfish on 12 pound tackle, several king mackerel, a couple small amberjacks and a couple Spanish mackerel. One of his mackerel was a 4.5 pound beauty on 10 pound spin and a mirrorlure.
Sunday we had Jeanne Pemberton and her mom, Cindy, out. They wanted some quality eating fish as well as some big game. The results were, 7 mutton snapper, a few small amberjacks, a king mackerel and two sailfish at the same time. Cindy’s sailfish was on 12 pound tackle.
Monday the action was so good that we stayed on one drift all day. We started off the south end of Key Biscayne and the drift ended off Elliot Key. We worked from 90 to 180 feet of water and caught a sailfish, 3 mutton snapper, a red grouper, several dolphin and a bunch of king mackerel. We had action all day.
We have several days available next week. Call or e-mail today to join the fun on Bouncer’s Dusky 33. |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Username: Bouncer
Post Number: 10
Registered: 9-2003
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, December 04, 2003 - 4:53 pm: | |
Good fishing comes from bad weather. It has been a good week for catching, but you have to pay a price for the seasonal changes in the fishing. On Friday we had Eddie and his dad out for some bottom fishing. They got some vermillion snappers, small grouper assorted jacks and a nice 35 pound amberjack to exercise Eddie’s muscles.
Saturday was a blowout, but Sunday the wind dropped enough for Sandy and Don to get in some hot mackerel and jack fishing. They caught mackerel and jacks on live bait, plugs, spoons and all classes of fly tackle from 4 pound test to 15 pound. Sandy’s mackerel on fly was her first catch on fly tackle. We were all proud of that catch! It was great action for several hours. When that action slowed, we moved offshore to the edge of the reef, where we caught a king mackerel, 8 pound mutton snapper and a nice sailfish to end the day.
Tuesday we had a good day with several dolphin to 25 pounds, a couple sailfish and several king mackerel. Wednesday started out with winds like the rest of the week, N to NE 15 to 20 knots. By noon it was NE at 25 to 30 knots. The only way to fish was anchored. We already had a bunch of kings to 14 pounds. As soon as we anchored, we started seeing sailfish. First a single tailing down a sea. It came up on a bait, turned black to feed and a small dolphin ate the bait. Then a sail in the live chum. No bite. Then a unseen strike on the kite produced a sailfish of about 5 pounds. What a beautiful fish! If you ever catch one of these baby sails, do not bill it! The skull will crack from the leverage of holding the fish by the bill. These little guys should be grabbed by the tail for a photo or not taken out of the water at all. Only minutes latter we got a full grown sailfish on a flatline bait. Then came a nice 25 pound African pompano. During our time at anchor, dolphin would swim up every few minutes to inspire a little chaos before moving on. We kept several and released more. It was a really nice day of catching, but a little bumpy.
It looks like plenty of wind for the next several days. If we get a break in the wind look for lots of mackerel near shore and kings, sail and dolphin in 75 to 150 feet of water. The season for catching is here. We still have a couple openings on Bouncer’s Dusky 33 over the next couple months, call or e-mail for reservations.
|
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Username: Bouncer
Post Number: 9
Registered: 9-2003
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, November 27, 2003 - 5:06 am: | |
Happy Thanksgiving! We have a lot to be thankful for today. Healthy family and friends, the opportunities to fish or do as we please in a great country and many other things that could fill volumes.
We tried for another swordfish on fly Monday evening. We put out one rigged squid 250 feet below a float. Then we put a squid with no hook down 100 feet as a teaser while Marty worked his 10 inch swordfish fly in the glow of our Hydro Glow light. We were in about 1100 feet of water off Miami Beach at 9:30 when a swordfish about 100 pounds ate the squid with the hook in it. We released the swordfish at 10 PM and called it a beautiful night.
The last couple night have been very calm and the swordfish have been hitting very well. The bad news is that we were only able to get out once due to day trips, family obligations and sick clients. Several boats caught 2 or 3 fish in an evening this week, including fish to 200 pounds. We have some dates open in December, Let’s fill them up and hope the weather will let us get out and catch these great fish.
When the weather was flat calm, the mackerel slowed down. Wednesday the wind was up and the mackerel were biting again. This is great light tackle fishing from the inlet to 60 feet of water. Chum, small live pilchards or shrimp and a little luck will allow for some fast action and good eating.
There are some small sailfish around, scattered king mackerel and Wednesday afternoon the dolphin were swarming in about 500 feet of water. They were a little slow to bite, but if they are out there, they have to eat some time.
Tuesday it seemed like fishing was slow, but by days end we had 3 kings, 12 mackerel, 2 mutton snapper and 4 dolphin.
Have a great Thanksgiving and we will see you on the water this weekend! |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Username: Bouncer
Post Number: 8
Registered: 9-2003
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, November 23, 2003 - 9:15 pm: | |
Red hot mackerel make for fun fishing. The mackerel have been running real well for the last couple of weeks. We have not had the opportunity to fish for them due to the fact that most of our charters are targeting the bigger game fish. Today we had two young men and one father. We loaded up with live pilchards and headed for one of the mackerel hot spots. It was hot. Within minutes we had the mackerel chummed up behind the boat. The boys caught 3 to 5 pound mackerel till they were worn out.
The father had requested a grouper for his wife, so we headed out to deep water after the tide changed and the mackerel slowed down. In three drops we 1) lost our lead in the bottom, 2) caught a nice gray tile fish and 3) caught a 4 or 5 pound grouper. We headed home with everyone’s fishing desires filled.
Yesterday we caught a sailfish, a mutton snapper and a good sized barracuda on a day when action started out red hot and dropped to nothing within an hour. The fleet was catching sails, dolphin and kings till 10 AM and then it was terrible for everyone for hours. I guess that’s fishing.
Look for good sailfish, mackerel, kingfish and dolphin through December. If you plan on fishing the holiday period in late December, you need to get your reservations in quick. We still have a couple openings over Thanksgiving weekend if you have the urge. Happy Thanksgiving, Bouncer and Ron on Bouncer’s Dusky 33 |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Post Number: 7
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, November 17, 2003 - 6:58 am: | |
It must be November. We have our new Mercury Optimax 225s on the boat and the fish are biting. We were off the water last week while the new engines were installed and we took a little trip to North Carolina. Ron, our mate on the boat, spent the week in Freeport, Grand Bahama.
We got out fishing on Saturday and bait was solid in the inlet. Mackerel were there too. They were helping the sabiki manufacturing industry. The Spanish mackerel and small king mackerel cut a bait rig off in a split second. With the live well full of assorted sizes of pilchards, we headed off to find some fish.
We found plenty of 5 to 8 pound kingfish in 90 to 150 feet of water. They came best on the downrigger, fished at 50 feet, but quite a few nailed the flatlines as well. Over the course of the day we raised 5 or 6 sailfish. I will never understand why there are days that fish don’t stay hooked, but Saturday that was the case with the sailfish. We only got one to the boat, and he was lassoed, not hooked. All the sails were small, indicating they were from this years spawn. A good sign for the future of the sport.
In the afternoon, we got a couple dolphin fish for a little spice in the action.
Sunday we loaded up with pilchards and headed out again. This time we anchored in 105 feet of water instead of drifting. We fired up the kite, put out the flat lines and lowered one bait to the bottom. In an hour or two we had 3 big false albacore and three king mackerel from 10 to 15 pounds. We also had worn out our senior anglers from rocking and rolling in the seas that were running 5 feet. We headed into some residential canals to find some tarpon, but the tarpon had other plans. We saw some great homes and enjoyed the day, but the catching was over.
The boats that stayed offshore got plenty of sailfish, kings and dolphin.
I am playing amateur research scientist at this time, and I need your help. If you have ever caught or seen any sailfish or marlin swimming around with a piece of line longer than it’s body attached by a hook (fish that broke off or was released with a long piece of leader), I would like to hear about it. I believe that they don’t survive this situation. Please e-mail me at capt.bouncer@att.net if you are aware of any billfish surviving with a long piece of line attached. Thank you.
We are doing a seminar on Thursday evening at Dusky Sport Center 110 N. Bryan Road, Dania Beach, Fl.. It will be about “The variety of winter fishing” and starts at 6:30 PM. Please come on by, Bouncer |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Username: Bouncer
Post Number: 6
Registered: 9-2003
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, November 10, 2003 - 3:47 pm: | |
Windy would best describe fishing this past weekend. Worse, is supposed to be the word for the next couple days. We fooled the weather men this time. We are at Dusky Sport Center, where they are mounting brand new Mercury 225 Optimax engines on Bouncer’s Dusky 33. The old engines are a little over 10 months on the water and have run for 1240 hours each. This is three sets, with over 1200 hours each, of Mercurys without a significant problem.
Friday we had a day we all dream of. We caught herring in Government Cut and headed offshore. On the way out we saw a frigate bird working in 25 feet of water. Fish were showering bait, so we offered them some baits with complimentary hooks. In short minutes we had 4 or 5 yellow jacks from 10 to 15 pounds. Great fighters to start the day.
From there we ran out to 120 feet of water. There was a nice color change and for the first time in weeks, we found the current to be running north. Within 5 minutes we had 3 strikes. This resulted in two sailfish caught and released. Before 10:30 we had added a 15 pound dolphin out of a nice school of fish with a knack for turning the hook back in the bait. I don’t know why that happens from time to time, but streaks of hooks turned in baits seem to occur with J hooks or circle hooks every now and then. We added a couple kings and another dolphin before heading in to switch anglers for the second trip.
The second trip left the dock after 3:30. We caught herring till 4. Then we ran back to that nice edge off the inlet. The first bait in the water produced a sailfish caught and released. Things that start too good, can back fire. We then missed or jumped 2 or 3 sailfish in a row. Buck fever anyone? Two good anglers, but no fish to the boat. At 5 we headed out for swordfish.
There were plenty of boats fishing for swordfish. You could tell by all the complaining about the lack of bites. About 10:30 that changed with one boat reporting a release. Then another boat hooked up. I drop our straight down bait from 350 feet to 400 feet and it was immediately eaten. We enjoyed a nice battle with our swordfish and the anglers said “take us home“. I guess flying down, fishing the afternoon and evening and catching the swordfish wore them out.
The same guys fished all weekend with us. There were no more big fish in our cards. My mechanic told me “we are a spoiled bunch of guys, for complaining about only catching a snook, a bunch of kingfish to over 20 pounds, a big barracuda and several dolphin over the weekend”. Among those dolphin, were a couple on fly, a first for that angler.
Loads of big Spanish mackerel are being caught from the inlets to 60 feet of water. I heard of 5 swordfish over 200 pounds being caught this past week. Sailfishing has picked up along with dolphin. It is time to make your winter fishing reservations as the booking book is filling up for the next several months of fishing on Bouncer’s Dusky 33. |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Username: Bouncer
Post Number: 5
Registered: 9-2003
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, October 27, 2003 - 7:42 am: | |
What a week we are wrapping up. We had some great people out during the week, but the fish treated them and us terribly. Surface action and fishing in general was tough during the day. We fished wrecks, we kite fished we ran offshore for dolphin, and it all left us lacking. We did catch some small tuna on jigs. We were having a good time with them on 4 and 6 pound spinners. I could spend the day catching 2 pound tuna on light tackle, but most anglers would like more than that. We caught our first cobia of the season. It was all of 6 or 7 pounds. That is far short of the 33 inch fork length required to keep them.
We had some Yankees fans out for a full day and a half day. Of course we know how their luck was running, but to spend all day without a fish is worse than any client or guide deserves. We had some great bottom fishing earlier in the week, with grouper and gray tile fish to 10 pounds coming fast and furious, so we offered that action to those poor guys from New York. We went to the places that were red hot on Tuesday and caught almost nothing.
Then things picked up. We went out in the evening to catch some bait for the 1st Miami Swordfish Tournament. While fishing for bait around an anchored ship, we found a school of tarpon. We caught a 60 pound tarpon on fly on the second cast. Ron was fishing a “Leo” pilchard fly on a ten weight Penn outfit. After that catch it was time to head home.
The big event of the week was the 1st annual “Miami Swordfish Tournament”. This was the accomplishment of Captain Richard Peeples. It was a 2 night event targeting only swordfish. It was a release tournament for swordfish under 60 inches, with the option to boat fish over 60 inches. The weather forecast was bad at the time for the captain’s meeting. Winds were to be 10 to 15 out of the NE Friday night and 20 out of the east on Saturday night. This reduced the entry to 25 boats instead of the 50 expected. The 25 were top notch fishermen, so completion would be strong.
The weather man was wrong. Friday night started out with NE wind of 15 to 20 and 6 to 8 foot seas where we all fish for swordfish, about 15 to 20 miles offshore. The severe weather required some daring and creative methods to keep the line down deep below the surface. The “Double D” with Captain Dean Panos got things started with a release about 7 :50. 11 year old Martini Arostegui fishing with his father, Darrell Keith, mate Ron Cook and me aboard their 35 foot “Timely Sale” caught and released a swordfish at about 8:15. Our trick to keep the baits down deep and our anglers in the boat, was to constantly back into the seas. The bad part was that the boat had a dive platform, and seas would break on it causing spray to cover the whole boat every few minutes. I sure missed my 33 foot Dusky, in which we would have drifted with a big sea anchor, allowing us to fish bow into the seas. Over the next few hours the fleet caught a total of 8 swordfish. At 1:30 we were blessed with a second swordfish caught by Marty Arostegui. That fish moved us from second place to 1st.
In the last half hour of fishing on the first night of the tournament, two more swords were hooked. One was shark bit and disqualified. The other was hooked by Peter Miller. He was fishing from the bow of the 53 foot Viking “Get Lit“. That’s right he spent two pitch black nights hanging on by his toes to the foredeck of a rocking and pitching boat in his effort to win this event. He had already released one fish. This 1:50 AM hook up could boost their team to second place. If the fish was over 60 inches they could boat it for one point per pound. This meant that if it weighed 100 pounds plus even one ounce they could take the lead. About 2:30 Captain Ray Rosher reported the sad news that they got it up to the leader, failed to get a picture and lost the fish before determining if it was over 60 inches. They thought it was very close to the magic 60 inches.
The evening ended with “Timely Sale” in first with 2 fish, “Double D” in second with the first fish and seven others hot on the trail with one fish each.
Saturday the winds blew around 30 knots all day. Captains called each other all afternoon to discuss the idea of fishing or not in 15 foot seas. To beat “Timely Sale” a boat would need a total of 3 fish or a combine score of weight fish plus releases of 200 points plus any amount. Swordfishing is considered hopeless in any kind of rough seas, but Friday night the fleet caught a total of 13, 10 qualified in rough seas, so swords could be caught under these terrible conditions. L&H, a 46 footer was first to head out fishing Saturday afternoon about 4:15. That set the fleet in action. By 6, ten boats were beating their way through 15 foot confused seas to the fishing grounds. About 7:20 the first boat, a 28 footer reported he was heading home. At about 7:25 we hooked a swordfish on “Timely Sale”, but lost it a few minutes later. The “Get Lit” with Peter Miller on the bow hooked up about 8. They got their release about 9. Tension was high aboard our boat, but with one team member very sea sick and others turning shades of green and constant drenching from the spray, our team leader Dr Marty Arostegui with input from assistant Joe Singer gave the orders to head home. We were all in favor of this decision. We got to the dock in time to listen to the ninth inning of our Florida Marlin’s World Series victory. We then chewed our finger nails till the fleet still fishing was down to two boats that had not caught a fish the first night and not had a bite the second night. We left our fate in their hands as we headed home. Sleep was hard to catch as I worried that one of these two great fishing teams would catch a big fish. One of them did get a bite, but no fish were hooked. The 43 foot “Freedom” and 31 foot center console “Hot Rods” headed home when the tournament hours ended at 2 AM.
Final results were “Timely Sale” 1st with 2 releases, “Get Lit” 2nd with 2 releases (time of release determines position in standings) and “Double D” 3rd
With the first release of the tournament. All who fished this fine event were truly tested in seamanship and creativity to fish under the worst of conditions. Every captain showed the true spirit of the sea, as they checked the location and condition of each other through the duration of the tournament. The fellowship of fishermen shown throughout this event was probably the best reward this tournament had to offer. |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Post Number: 4
Registered: 9-2003
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, October 20, 2003 - 7:38 am: | |
What a beautiful weekend! It was a combination of great weather and good fishing. Sunday we went bottom fishing with a couple of brothers, who have fished with me for years. They have talked of catching snowy groupers for years, and it finally came to happen. We were supposed to go sword fishing Friday and Saturday nights. Friday night we tried for swordfish, but the rolling seas got one fellow seasick before the lines were in the water, then the rain came and the lightning soon followed. We gave that up quick. The Saturday night trip was cancelled due to the charter being very sick. This left Sunday open. I called the Cotrone boys, and ask if they wanted to catch that snowy grouper, and they were ready to go.
We left the dock with plenty of cut bonito for dead bait. A stop at a buoy gave us a live well full of blue runners and speedos. We fished wrecks and rock piles from 275 to 475 feet deep. The trip produced several vermillion snappers, too many almaco jacks, numerous gray tilefish, a couple very rare cardinal snapper and 5 snowy grouper up to a little over 10 pounds.
Last night we had three generations of Richard Chase celebrating Ricky chase’s eighth birthday. He wanted a snook. Not any snook, but a legal snook. That means the snook must be between 26 and 34 inches. The trip started with catching live sardines, herring and pinfish. Then we moved up to jacks and ladyfish in the first snook spot. Just after dark we missed on snook and had another cut our leader in some pilings. Then it happened. Ricky got a 30 inch and very fat snook. A few minutes later Ricky scored again with a 27 inch snook. We tried a couple more spots, but no more fish. I guess, once Ricky got his snook, the fish went off to celebrate.
With daylight savings time ending this Sunday, we will be offering 5 hour swordfish trips again. Bouncer’s Dusky 33 is ready to make your fishing a success. Let’s go catch ‘em. |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Post Number: 3
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, October 14, 2003 - 1:28 pm: | |
Fishing stays at rock bottom. Another tough week has ended. We started the week with a tarpon trip that produced one tarpon of about ten pounds and a bunch of jack crevalle from 1 to 12 pounds. That was followed by 3 swordfish trips cancelled due to weather. An afternoon tarpon trip produced two lost tarpon, a ladyfish and a couple jacks. When we finally got in a swordfish trip, it produced nothing but a lot of rock and roll.
We fished the last three days. We resorted to bottom fishing to produce some pretty good action as well as some great eating. Saturday we got a 17 pound American red snapper. This was the first caught aboard my boat in 40 years as a full time professional fisherman. We also got a nice grouper, a mutton snapper and a big barracuda. Sunday we had a couple wonderful young anglers that caught a boat load of amberjacks, almaco jacks, porgy, snapper and other bottom dwellers. Monday had been chartered strictly for bottom fishing, and it even got better. We had ten grouper to 12 pounds, gray tiles, assorted jacks, assorted snapper and some others we didn’t even know the names of.
We had one more swordfish trip, but the bananas got us. We caught a night shark around 90 pounds. Around 10:30, as the anglers got restless, I ask if anyone brought a banana. All laughed and assured me that no bananas were aboard. At about 11 we hooked a good sized swordfish. We fought it for about ten minutes. Suddenly the line broke. We could not understand how 80 pound line breaks with 11 pounds of drag. While cleaning up the boat, back at the dock, the cause was found. A couple of our guest spoke no English, and one had brought a bag of snacks. While cleaning the boat, I found the bag of snacks, complete with a bag of plantain chips, first cousin to bananas. We all know how those bananas effect fishing.
Fishing has got to get better, it’s reached the bottom and fall is upon us. There are lots of openings this time of year and sailfish, swordfish and all the rest are being pushed this way by cooler water. Let’s go catch ‘em. |
Bouncer (Bouncer)
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Post Number: 2
Registered: 9-2003
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, October 06, 2003 - 7:00 am: | |
What a week. We had some very tough fishing lately. When we got back from Bimini, we suffered a week of fall slump. We had one trip all week and it was an evening snook trip. We did catch a couple nice fish. We had snook of 12 and 16 pounds and a 12 pound jack crevalle. We tried to go sword fishing, but northerly winds made that a no go. We ran three day trips over the last week and it would be better if we could forget them. We had guest in from out of town and they were hoping for some of the tarpon or sailfish that make south Florida famous. We would finish each day with a couple small king mackerel, maybe a bonito or two and for something big enough to fight we would catch an amberjack on one wreck or another.
If we were fishing for dinner it could have been a better week. My mate Ron fished a couple wrecks in the afternoons and each time the vermilion snapper were snapping. They would catch their limit in short order. Last night we had a trip from 5 to 9. It was set up as a introduction to fishing for an eight year old girl. We anchored on a wreck in 95 feet of water and put out 2 top lines and 2 lines on the bottom. In about 2 hours we caught 12 kings from 3 to 6 pounds ( kings must be 24 inches), several rainbow runners, some blue runners and a nice mutton snapper. None of these fish would warrant coming to Florida for a fishing trip. But they sure were great for fast action and good eating. I could imagine what a guy could have done with a fly rod there last night with those kings.
It’s fall. That means fishing changes daily. A couple boats caught sailfish over the weekend and we are getting a strong north wind for a couple days. All this means that We may see a bunch of sailfish or another push of bait and game fish migration this week. We’ll be out there on Bouncer’s Dusky 33 to catch ‘em, I hope you will. |
Hawghunters
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, July 10, 2002 - 12:47 pm: | |
Subject: FL Peacock Bass
Rain, Rain and more Rain but the Peacock bass are still biting. Fish are schooling again; shad are moving all over the place.
Early morning bite is great if it's not raining. Once you find the fish there usually pretty thick. We have had several fish over three pounds this week including a few 4 and 5's.
Look for clean water and eddies around bridges and corners of canals. Some big fish still spawning but majorities have gone in to post spawn mode.
Top water lures working good first thing, after the sun raises (if it does) them go to rattle traps, crank baits or tube bait.
Shiners are still catching a few.
Tight lines,
Todd
www.hawghunter.com
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Hawghunter
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Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, July 05, 2002 - 6:45 pm: | |
Subject: Miami Peacock Bass
On Friday, I guided Carl & Sara Ward from Louisiana to another successful day of Peacock Bass fishing in South Florida. We laugh joked around and just had a great time all day long, what a great couple to fish with. We started out about 8:30am hitting one of my favorite spots catching 9 Peacock's and 1 Largemouth, the largest being about 3.5lb. Due to weather condition, and with a little lighting, we decided to break for lunch and relocate, and thanks to Sara this turned out to be a wise choice. In two hours we worked the Blue lagoon area and managed to boat another 12 Peacock's, but this time they were all 3.5 - 5lbs. With the exception of Carl's trophy which can be seen on my site www.hawghunterguideservice.com this was probably the smallest peacock ever caught on a shiner. Although he did catch the most, Sara caught the biggest as you can see from the picture. Today bait of choice was free lining small shiners and pitching into the deep holes. You just don't know what your missing till you try Florida Peacock Bass fishing with "The Hawghunter" which guides 7 days a week. Good Fishin', Capt. Frank Carbone
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Lynda Wilson - IGFA
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, March 27, 2002 - 1:38 am: | |
Subject: Yamaha Contender Miami Billfish Tournament
News Release
International Game Fish Association
Fishing Hall of Fame & Museum
300 Gulf Stream Way, Dania Beach, Florida 33004 USA ! Phone (954) 927-2628 ! Fax (954) 924-4299 E-mail: IGFAHQ@aol.com ! Website: www.igfa.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 22, 2002
Yamaha Contender Miami Billfish Tournament becomes Qualifying Event for Junior World Championship
The International Game Fish Association (IGFA) has announced that the Yamaha Contender Miami Billfish Tournament has been accepted as a qualifying event for the IGFA Junior Angler World Championship. The junior winner of the tournament will be invited to represent the tournament at the championship event being held in the Florida Keys in summer, 2003. Yamaha Contender Miami Billfish Tournament is April 4-7, 2002 in Miami, FL. For further details, contact Karen McGinley at 305-598-2525 or visit their website at www.miamibillfish.com
This is the first Junior Angler World Championship and already there are 24 qualifying junior tournaments, or adult tournaments with junior divisions that have become qualifying events for the championship. The qualifying tournaments are in eight countries and territories as well as several US states. More qualifying events will be approved by IGFA in the upcoming months.
IGFA is a non-profit conservation and record keeping organization founded in 1939 with members in over 120 countries and territories. IGFA opened its 60,000-square feet Fishing Hall of Fame & Museum in 1999 in Dania Beach, FL.
For further information on the IGFA Junior World Championship contact Chelsea Krezmien at the International Game Fish Association, Fishing Hall of Fame & Museum, 300 Gulf Stream Way, Dania Beach, Florida 33004 - (954) 927-2628 - Fax (954) 924-4299 - E-mail: ckrezmien@igfa.org - Website: www.igfa.org |
Cutting Edge
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, March 05, 2002 - 12:08 am: | |
The Weekend
Fishing over the weekend mostly consisted of fishing for sailfish, during the
Bob Lewis Billfish classic. Fishing on the Dr. J we were in it after the
first day with two fish. The lead boat did have 5 but with the fish traveling
in pods we were confident we would find some doubles and triples the second
day. We were not so lucky; we never saw a fish the second day. We were not
the only boat struggling. Most of the top contenders in the Tournament never
saw a fish or only caught one on the second day. A couple of small boats
stepped up and took a leap into first and second place. The Blue Runner with
Capt. DJ Dorsey was the hero the second day with 4 fish to give him a total
of 6 fish and the win. Over all the fish were found deep; 190 to 230 ft. was
the average depth of the fish. We caught ours in 190 and did see several
more the first day in the same depth. Overall the event was a great success.
Everybody had a good time and there was fun for all ages. It will be fun to
get back to the Cutting Edge this week and go fish for what's biting. A big
thanks to Gary and Marty for the Boat Center Team for putting on a great TIME>
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Lynda Wilson - IGFA
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, February 19, 2002 - 5:12 pm: | |
Subject: Miami Beach Rod & Reel Club Tournament
News Release
International Game Fish Association
Fishing Hall of Fame & Museum
300 Gulf Stream Way, Dania Beach, Florida 33004 USA ! Phone (954) 927-2628
! Fax (954) 924-4299 ! E-mail: IGFAHQ@aol.com ! Website: www.igfa.org
Miami Beach Rod & Reel Club Tournament approved by IGFA as Championship Event
The International Game Fish Association (IGFA) has announced that the Miami Beach Rod & Reel Club Tournament has been accepted as a qualifying event for the IGFA Junior Angler World Championship. The junior winner of the tournament will be invited to represent the tournament at the championship event being held in the Florida Keys in summer, 2003. The Miami Beach Rod & Reel Club Tournament starts in January and runs through December 2002. Fishing takes place worldwide! For further details, contact Dr. Martin Arostegui at 305-531-1233.
This is the first Junior Angler World Championship and already there are 20 qualifying junior tournaments, or adult tournaments with junior divisions that have become qualifying events for the championship. The qualifying tournaments are in eight countries and territories as well as several US states. More qualifying events will be approved by IGFA in the upcoming months.
IGFA is a non-profit conservation and record keeping organization founded in 1939 with members in over 120 countries and territories. IGFA opened its 60,000-square feet Fishing Hall of Fame & Museum in 1999 in Dania Beach, FL.
For further information on the IGFA Junior World Championship contact Chelsea Krezmien at the International Game Fish Association, Fishing Hall of Fame & Museum, 300 Gulf Stream Way, Dania Beach, Florida 33004 ? (954) 927-2628 - Fax (954) 924-4299 - E-mail: ckrezmien@igfa.org - Website: www.igfa.org
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Lynda Wilson - IGFA
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, February 19, 2002 - 5:09 pm: | |
Subject: Bart Biscayne Annual Roundup Tournament
News Release
International Game Fish Association
Fishing Hall of Fame & Museum
300 Gulf Stream Way, Dania Beach, Florida 33004 USA ! Phone (954) 927-2628 ! Fax (954) 924-4299
E-mail: IGFAHQ@aol.com ! Website: www.igfa.org
Bart Biscayne Annual Roundup Tournament
"Approved By IGFA for Rolex/IGFA Offshore Championship"
Dania Beach, Florida, USA - The International Game Fish Association (IGFA) is in its fourth year of the Rolex/IGFA Offshore Championship Circuit, an international fishing competition that is expected to draw teams from all corners of the earth. The event will take place in the spring. The Bart Biscayne Annual Roundup Tournament has been named by IGFA as a qualifying event for the championship, and the winner of this tournament will be invited to bring their team of up to four anglers to compete in the championship. As a qualifying event, each participant in the tournament will receive a one-year membership in IGFA. The Bart Biscayne Annual Roundup Tournament is scheduled for May 11, 2002 in Miami Beach, Florida. For further details, please contact Allison Turk, phone: 305-285-0667, fax: 305-285-0858, email: turkallison@aol.com
This is IGFA's fourth year in sponsoring a tournament series, and there is no doubt that it will be an exciting event that will attract international interest. The 2002 championship tournament was represented by 82 tournaments from 26 countries and 12 U.S. states representing over 20,000 anglers. We anticipate an even greater participation in 2003 as a result of the excitement generated for the 2002 championship.
IGFA is a 62-year-old nonprofit, membership-supported conservation organization best known for maintaining world gamefish records in freshwater, saltwater, fly fishing, and junior angler categories. IGFA members are located in approximately 125 countries. IGFA welcomes visitors to its 60,000 square foot Fishing Hall of Fame and Museum in Dania Beach, Florida.
For further information on the Rolex/IGFA Offshore Championship contact IGFA, phone: (954) 927-2628, fax: (954) 924-4299, email: Lwilson@igfa.org. |
Lynda Wilson - IGFA
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, December 04, 2001 - 12:18 am: | |
Subject: Yamaha Contender Miami Billfish Tournament
News Release
International Game Fish Association
Fishing Hall of Fame & Museum
300 Gulf Stream Way, Dania Beach, Florida 33004 USA | Phone (954) 927-2628 | Fax (954) 924-4299 |
E-mail: IGFAHQ@aol.com | Website: www.igfa.org
YAMAHA CONTENDER MIAMI BILLFISH TOURNAMENT
"Approved By IGFA for Rolex/IGFA Offshore Championship"
Dania Beach, Florida, USA - The International Game Fish Association (IGFA) is in its fourth year of the Rolex/IGFA Offshore Championship Circuit, an international fishing competition that is expected to draw teams from all corners of the earth. The event will take place in the spring. The Yamaha Contender Miami Billfish Tournament has been named by IGFA as a qualifying event for the championship, and the winner of this tournament will be invited to bring their team of up to four anglers to compete in the championship. As a qualifying event, each participant in the tournament will receive a one-year membership in IGFA. The Yamaha Contender Miami Billfish Tournament is scheduled for April 4-7, 2002 in Miami, Florida. For further details, please contact Karen McGinley, phone: 305-598-2525, fax: 305-598-2512, email: fish@miamibillfish.com
This is IGFA's fourth year in sponsoring a tournament series, and there is no doubt that it will be an exciting event that will attract international interest. The 2002 championship tournament was represented by 82 tournaments from 26 countries and 12 U.S. states representing over 20,000 anglers. We anticipate an even greater participation in 2003 as a result of the excitement generated for the 2002 championship.
IGFA is a 62-year-old nonprofit, membership-supported conservation organization best known for maintaining world gamefish records in freshwater, saltwater, fly fishing, and junior angler categories. IGFA members are located in approximately 125 countries. IGFA welcomes visitors to its 60,000 square foot Fishing Hall of Fame and Museum in Dania Beach, Florida.
For further information on the Rolex/IGFA Offshore Championship contact IGFA, phone: (954) 927-2628, fax: (954) 924-4299, email: Lwilson@igfa.org. |
Capt. Bouncer
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, September 12, 2001 - 10:05 am: | |
Subject: Bimini, Bahamas
We just returned from three great days of fishing in Bimini, Bahamas. We fished wrecks in 20 feet of water most of the trip and got nonstop action on barracuda, sharks and assorted jacks on plugs and fly casting. On our first stop of the first day my 2 anglers caught (4) 20 to 25 pound cobia and a barracuda on their first (5) cast. On days 2 and 3 we started each day with 4 bonefish, followed by the continued destruction of plugs trough the day. A couple times we stopped on the reef for part of the time and chummed up clouds of yellowtail snapper up to 4 pounds catching them at will. This area also produced a 40 lb king mackerel, a couple big horse eye jacks and a 60 pound shark. As if we needed more , we got a small tuna, a small barracuda and a 15 pound dolphin on the way home. |
Capt. Bouncer
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, July 10, 2001 - 9:13 am: | |
Subject: bahamas fishing
We spent the last couple weeks fishing in the Bahamas. The last week of June we fished our first blue marlin tournament in 20 years. We got a strong lesson in how much effort it takes to go after these beautiful fish and how disappointing it can be. 80 boats fished 4 days and caught 40 marlin. When you consider that several boats caught more than one, you realize that about 50 boats did not catch a marlin. Yet they go back again and again anticipating the beautiful sight of a huge marlin bursting from the water on the end of their line.
The good news is that last week we spent 3 days in Bimini fishing 6 pound line over wrecks that dot the Bahamas Bank. The three anglers fishing with me caught 3 kingfish to 38 pounds, 6 cobia to 30 pounds, dozens of grey and yellowtail snapper, assorted jacks, sharks, barracuda to 25 pounds, cero mackerel and other fish. It was 3 days of all day action. By the way, most these fish were released, as only a few were kept for dinners. |
Capt. Bouncer
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, June 15, 2001 - 12:30 am: | |
Subject: Tarpon tonight
Tonight we went out for tarpon for a couple hours after dinner. We fished live crabs at Government Cut and caught and released two fish, one about 110 pounds and the other about 120. We also lost two more in between catching those two. The anglers were John Watson and Mark Wagner from outside London, England. Marks fish gave him a flats grand slam, having caught a 20 pound permit and a 7.75 pound bonefish during the day with guide Bob Brahnam. Way to go Mark! |
Bouncer
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, June 13, 2001 - 11:58 pm: | |
Subject: 6/13/01 catching
Last night I had a father and his 12 year old daughter out and we had a ball. She got one of two tarpon (about 80 pounds), a snook about 8 pounds and 6 barracudas.
Today my anglers wanted tarpon, sailfish, wahoo and barracuda. The tarpon ( about 100 lbs.) ate a live crab at Government Cut, the sailfish and barracuda ate live herring of Cape Florida in about 100 feet of water and for a bonus we got a mutton snapper. So we're not perfect, we'll get the wahoo next time. |
Bouncer
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, June 10, 2001 - 12:37 am: | |
Subject: fishing on 6/9/01
Today the fishing was slow, but with anglers that enjoy any exciting fight, we were happy to catch 3 eagle rays of approximately 60, 100 and 160 pounds. We missed a couple tarpon and in the afternoon, we went offshore and got a sailfish and 1 of 2 kingfish.
Tonight was another matter. Fishing the reef with live pilchards and herring and then Government Cut with live crabs, Dr. Bill Bailey caught a sailfish and a bonita, his 12 year old son Danny got 1 and 7/8 bonitas and a 90 to 100 tarpon. Co-worker Jeanne Pemberton got 2 bonita and a tarpon of about 110 pounds. |
Bouncer
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, April 28, 2001 - 11:11 am: | |
Subject: fishing report
Fishing off Miami Beach remains hot. This week there were numerous sailfish on live bait in 90 to 140 feet of water as well as loads of king mackerel from 6 to 30 pounds. School dolphin were best 7 to 8 miles offshore though some were found with the sails. Scattered blackfin tuna round out the menu. May is a great month for all of the above plus tarpon along the coast. Tight lines, Charterboat "Bouncer's Dusky 33" |
IGFA
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, March 02, 2001 - 3:15 pm: | |
Subject: Bart Biscayne Annual Roundup Tournament
BART BISCAYNE ANNUAL
ROUNDUP TOURNAMENT
“Approved By IGFA”
Dania Beach, Florida, USA -- The International Game Fish Association (IGFA) is in its third year of the Rolex/IGFA Offshore Championship Circuit, an international fishing competition that is expected to draw teams from all corners of the earth. The event will take place in March , 2002. The BART Biscayne Annual Roundup Tournament has been named by IGFA as a qualifying event for the championship, and the winner of this tournament will be invited to bring their team of up to four anglers to compete in the championship. As a qualifying event, each participant in the tournament will receive a one-year membership in IGFA. The BART Biscayne Annual Roundup Tournament is scheduled for May 12, 2001 in Miami, Florida. For further details, please contact Ms. Allison Turk, phone 305-285-0667, fax 305-285-0858, or email: allisonturk@msn.com.
This is IGFA's third year in sponsoring a tournament series, and there is no doubt that it will be an exciting event that will attract international interest. So far, over 51 tournaments from 18 countries and 10 U.S. states representing over 10,000 anglers have already been invited to accept the challenge to send their teams to the event, and more tournaments are expected to be approved by IGFA in the near future. There were 59 qualifying events in 2000.
The international championship competition has been held in Kona, Hawaii the first two years. Currently several locations, including Kona are under consideration to hold the 2002 championship event.
IGFA is a 61-year-old nonprofit, membership-supported conservation organization best known for maintaining world gamefish records in freshwater, saltwater, fly fishing, and junior angler categories. IGFA members are located in approximately 125 countries. Recently IGFA has constructed its 60,000 square foot Fishing Hall of Fame and Museum in Dania Beach, Florida.
For further information on the Rolex/IGFA Offshore Championship contact IGFA, phone: (954) 927-2628, fax: (954) 924-4299, email: igfahq@aol.com, website: www.igfa.org.
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