Capt. Chris Johnson and SeaSquared Charters took this group out for a day of dolphin and tuna fishing. While enroute to the Marathon hump, they found a weed line 14 miles offshore and decided to run down it for awhile to see if they could find any dolphin. Within 5 minutes, deckhand John Callion spotted a 20 pound cow swimming down the weed line. He pitched a bait to her, she ate it right away and they caught her. A half mile further, they encountered a huge school of gaffer size fish but unfortunately none of them would eat a bait despite throwing everything at them. From there they moved on out to the hump where they jigged for tuna. They made 7 drifts and caught 7 fish - 5 blackfin and 2 skipjack. They also saw a white marlin tailing but missed the opportunity to catch it. Upon hearing reports on the radio of another weed line producing lots of dolphin, they decided to head back in and work it. They found the weed line at approximately 15 miles and began running the edge. John once again spotted a pack of dolphin around a floating piece of bamboo. All the fish were large schoolies or gaffers. They caught 9 more up to approximately 12 pounds and called it a day. Shown L-R: Marc Arseneau of New Port Richie FL, Tommy Davis Jr. and Tommy Davis Sr. of Tucson AZ, Luis Sepulveda of Glendale AZ and, kneeling, Paul Puzzanghern of Clearwater
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Something for everyone
With another lobster mini-season come and gone, the local fishing venues are less congested and the overall conditions are returning to normal. Offshore, the dolphin fishing remains constant with many catches of very respectable size fish reported. I saw an impressive 47.5-pounder at the Key Colony Beach Marina last week. The most productive spots are weed lines and, especially, any floating debris caught in the weeds. What will frustrate you is that some of the schools will not take a bait at all. It seems they fill up on the myriad of baitfish abundant in the weeds. Perseverance pays and you will usually get at least one or two dolphin to take your bait. Currently, I find live pinfish to provide the greatest success but the dolphin will take a rigged ballyhoo as well.
At the Marathon hump, the tuna fishing is first-rate for fish in the five to ten pound range. I was there last weekend and saw some outsized blackfin breaking the surface chasing bait but we could not get them to eat. We ended up taking five mid-sized fish on Shimano butterfly jigs. We also caught a couple of skipjacks among the blackfin and saw a white marlin tailing on top of the hump but, unfortunately, we could not get a bait to it in time.
Inshore on the reef the night fishing for mangrove snapper is still excellent. They are hitting a wide variety of baits, although the biggest fish (in excess of five pounds) are most attracted to live pinfish or live pilchards. There are also many sizeable yellowtail in the mix at night plus the occasional bonus mutton snapper. During the day, the ‘tails dominate the catches and are anywhere from just barely legal to five-pound flags. It seems the deeper you fish, the larger the snapper. As always, take plenty of chum – a minimum of two cases for a half day of fishing – and be sure to include a wide variety of baits. On any given day, the yellowtail show a preference for one bait over another and you just cannot predict ahead of time which one will be the winner. The absolute finest bait – if you can find them – is small, two to three-inch pilchards. Even the largest, smartest yellowtail cannot resist a live pilchard. On the reef bottom there are still some decent grouper being caught using live pinfish or grunts.
If you have a day that is a bit too breezy to fish the ocean side, there is plenty of action on the bay side, where you can hide from the wind. Following their spawn on the reef, the mangrove snapper are returning to their bayside homes. You can also revisit some of the larger holes you found during mini-season and fish for red grouper with live pinfish as bait. Either drift over or cast toward the rock and you will quickly discover if the grouper is home and waiting for a meal. Be prepared to encounter many goliath grouper as they are becoming more and more prevalent in these holes. In the 33 holes I dove on the opening day of mini-season, I found 18 goliath grouper and, of course, no lobster.
The eight-month regular lobster season opened this week. When you are out on the water, please be watchful for both recreational divers as well as commercial buoys. Divers and snorkelers who get caught up in the excitement of the hunt may roam far from their boat and not be readily visible. Carefully navigate around the buoys to avoid entangling the line in your props, which not only destroys the commercial guys’ investment, but puts a dent in your repair budget as well. |
