Fishing Report for Miami, Florida

What a nice week of fishing. We started the week with good news and bad. I had an uncle and 2 nephews out for the day, and what a day it was. The first drift produced a triple sailfish bite on flat calm seas. We got two of the three, but missed the strike on the other. One of the two we got was tail wrapped, but swam away, non the worst for the incident. The next drift brought a couple little tunny before a pair of sailfish joined in. The uncle was proving his lack of luck as once again his fish got away. The 18 year old nephew was now complaining quietly of getting seasick. Not on these flat seas. When the sailfish we were fighting was released, the 18 year old ask “what would be making my fingers and lips tingle?”. His finger nails and lips were turning blue and I DECIDED IT WAS TIME TO GET HIM TO THE DOCK. We got him to drink some water, poured water down his back, laid him on the deck with his feet high and ran toward shore. The water was to cool him down in case this was heat induced. While running full speed for shore, I contacted 911 and had Medics waiting at the dock when we arrived. A quick ride to the hospital confirmed a typical case of dehydration. This can kill in hot summer weather. When exposed to summer heat, drink loads of water, Use a sprat bottle to cool down and stay in the shade when possible. Also watch out for your friends. The uncle and other nephew left the sick guy with his mother and they went back out fishing with me. We got another sailfish, a big barracuda, a bunch of tunny and a nice king mackerel. Thursday we went to Bimini in the Bahamas. Over two days we had bunches of barracudas and sharks. We found a school of cero mackerel along the reef and caught them every cast on spoons for nearly an hour. We caught over 30 of them. The next day we got a bunch of beautiful big yellowtail snapper anchored in 130 feet of water. We finished the trip deep dropping in 450 to 500 feet of water and catching 5 pound yelloweyed snapper every drop. Saturday we fished the IGFA Youth Fishing Tournament an scored a few nice trophies and door prizes. We caught false albacore while those around us got wahoo and sailfish. Sunday we put a super effort into live bait wahoo fishing, but the current slowed and the wahoo disappeared. We got plenty of false albacore, a couple snapper, a king mackerel and a sailfish. Monday I took a busman’s holiday with a long time friend and my brother-in-law. We ran to Bimini, cleared customs and headed south in search of last weeks mackerel. The first 2 spots produced a king mackerel, a mackerel and a few nice yellowtail snappers. The third spot was a fisherman’s dream. We had clouds of 2 to 3 pound yellowtail snapper 15 feet from the stern of the boat. Behind them were loads of cero mackerel up to 5 pounds. We quickly switched to fly rods with sinking lines. The fish ate a variety of flies with Nick Cardella’s “eat me” fly working best. The action was beyond any angler’s imagination till we packed up and headed back across the stream for Miami Beach.