Miami, Florida - Offshore

Even though the heat has been almost unbearable, the Dolphin fishing has been holding up well, and anglers are still finding it relatively easy to bring home a few for the freezer. Most of the fish have been schoolies. Pompano Dolphin have made a showing this past week and are two to four pounds. Start looking for birds from 400 feet which is about four miles from the edge of the reef, on out to twenty miles. Petrals are still following the Dolphin, but they also have been following the prolific schools of Bonito. You have to investigate every flock of diving birds to find out whether they are on Bonito or Dolphin. Remember, when the birds are diving on Dolphin, they will tend to stay over an area and not retreat higher into the air. On the other hand, when they are over Bonito, they will hover over the water and then when the Bonito move on, they move high in the air until the Bonito surface again, possibly a couple hundred yards further along. Binoculars are a great help. Many times you can watch the birds from a distance and tell when they are on Dolphin and when they are on Bonito. Captain Marty Locke from the “Naked Furniture” (305-788-5991) reported bottom fishing difficult. The current along the reef has been very swift, making it almost impossible to fish a bait down deep, without a tremendous amount of weight. He normally fishes in waters from 100 to 240 feet. The current may slow down as we move away from the full moon. If the current is too fast it can also make it difficult to fish for Yellowtail which has been very good during the past couple of weeks. Mutton Snapper should be around the deeper ledges and dropoffs. The summer heat will keep them in deeper waters. Early morning and late afternoon should be better fishing. Live Pinfish should do the trick. A few Cubera Snapper were caught during the last full moon. The action was good. I predict the action should be great during the full moon in August. The days before the moon will usually have the best action. Preliminary observations of the lobster action were not good. I spoke with a few divers that were investigating their spots for the opening day of the mini-season and they were not happy. They found many spots were void of lobster, while other spots only had a few. However, they could move during the dark of the moon and those spots will fill up in a hurry. I’ll give you a post-opening opening report next week.