Fishing Report for Miami, Florida

We fished the Fort Lauderdale Billfish Tournament this past weekend. Over 70 boats trying to catch and release the most sailfish and marlin over 3 days. Thursday the boats fishing off Key Biscayne reported some sailfish and big king mackerel, so we decided to fish that area on the first day of the tournament. The kings were gone, but the sailfishing was pretty good. I don’t know if it was picky fish or tournament nerves, but instead of our usual 80% catch rate with circle hooks, we got about 40%. That means we caught 4 sailfish while the leading boat got 10. This put us in 10th place. Day 2 we had very rough seas, but we returned to the same area. We improved a little with a 60% catch rate and got 4 sailfish again. After 2 days the top boat still has 10 fish. Second place is 8 fish caught by noon and we are 3rd with 8 fish caught by 3:45. On the 3rd day it is a little calmer, but we have very high winds and scattered rain. Some boats caught several sailfish the 2nd day to the north. With a shorter day, those reported fish and gut feelings, the fleet went north. With hot action in the afternoon of the second day and 2 good days south, we went right back where we had been both other days. The fishing was red hot to the north. The first place boat caught 2, second place caught 4 some boats caught 5 and we never even saw one. The fish off Government Cut disappeared. Bouncer’s Dusky 33 with angler Ray Stormont, mate Ron Cook and I took 5th place boat, top boat on day 2 and top charter boat. I would like to remind you that this Thursday, November 21st, Dusky Sport Center and I will present a seminar on Swordfishing off South Florida at 6:30 PM. Please call Dusky Sport Center for further information at 954-922-8890.