Sailfish are here!

Report Date: April 1, 2014

It’s been a very slow start this year but we are finally starting to see some great fishing. Spring time is when we catch a variety of fish close to shore. The gulf stream generally pushes up tight to the reef allowing blue water and north current. With these two ingredients coming into play the fishing has been on fire. There have been more sailfish caught in the past two weeks then there have been all year long. Double digit days have become frequent as the conditions are coming together like they should in the spring.

  In the beginning of the month I had a young family with small children on the boat. They haven’t done much fishing before. I left the dock very early in the morning to catch pilchards in the dark and picked the group up at 8 am. A good friend of mine has been having some good reports of bluefish biting on the beach. With that in mind, we left the inlet and started making our track to the south along the beach. My plan was to troll a couple lures until we found the fish and then anchor up and chum the livies.
We trolled for about an hour with no bites. I was beginning to worry until both rods went off with a double header bluefish. After we boated the two fish and shot a couple pictures I made a circle and before the third rod was out we had two more on the line. This time whhen the clients pulled the fish up, there was a school of about two hundred bluefish following the hooked ones. We found them! I quickly dropped the anchor and threw a big scoop of pilchards out. Within seconds there were bluefish everywhere tearing up the surface. It was game on. The bluefish were biting like mad dogs and everybody on the boat was catching fish, one after another. A few moments later one of the young boys yelled, a shark just ate my bluefish. I looked in the water and noticed a blood trail with a sharks fin out of the water. I quickly grabbed a big spinning pole with some heavy wire and threw out a chunk of fresh bluefish. As soon as that bluefish chunk hit the surface a big spinner shark pounced on it. The line was screaming and then the shark jumped completely out of the water. The spinner did ten back flips like an acrobatic gymnast. What a sight to see. People swimming off the beach with a frenzy of sharks just outside of them.
After Pavel landed the shark and we snapped some pictures, I asked if anybody else would like to catch a shark. Pavel’s friend said he would like to catch one. So I baited another bluefish chunk. This time it took a little bit longer to get the bite. Five minutes later the next angler had a spinner shark on. Three or four more sharks later and the boys had enough. Everybody was exhausted. So why they were eating lunch and resting I decided to throw a spoon out to see if the bluefish were still around. To my surprise I landed a big Spanish mackerel first cast. I threw five more times and caught five more Spanish mackerel. The boys then had a second wind and it was continuous action once again. Instead of bluefish, there were solid Spanish mackerel behind the boat. In an hour, we caught our limit of mackeral and were on our way to the dock. What a day!

  Asides from the great inshore fishing, offshore has been just as good if not better. The greater amberjacks show themselves every year in March, April, and May to spawn on the deep water shipwrecks. The bite has been better on the southern wrecks. We have been catching these back breakers on live blue runners and butterfly jigs. A strong north current is best when targeting amberjacks. I had a few days this past month where we have caught ten big jacks in an hour. The average fish being 40lbs.

  March has been a very productive month for anchoring up on the shallow wrecks. When we anchor up on wrecks we will put out a kite and a few surface rods. I also fish two bottom rods. That way we have both top and bottom covered. With this method, we have been catching cobia, mutton snappers, grouper, sailfish, kingfish, and some big sharks. The best time to bottom fish is with a light wind and a north current.

Sailfishing has been phenomenal over the past ten days. A brisk northeast wind with lots of north current have driven them in. On March 21 a boat named Sweet Release set the record off Ocean reef with 30 sails in one day. Weez in the Keyz wasn’t far behind that day catching 21.
We have been catching the majority of the sailfish kite fishing. Most of the multiples have been coming off free jumpers. I have also heard of four giant Bluefin hooked which were all over 400lbs. You don’t stand a chance to catch these giant fish on light tackle but from what I hear the bite is intense. Seeing a giant tuna sky rocket on your kite bait must be an incredible sight.

The sailfishing should be very good for the next two months as April and May are by far the best times of year for fishing Miami. It is a great sign to see the sailfish showing up in these record breaking numbers. Now would be a great time to catch one if you haven’t yet. Catch them while they’re here because they can leave as fast as they come.

 

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