Mahi’s, Mutton’s, and Swordfish

Report Date: July 1, 2014

This past June has been the busiest for me in years. I sailed 28 out of 30 days . On top of that the fishing was spectacular!

The mahi mahi fishing has been the best in over 25 years. From the Florida Keys to the Carolina"s there have been outlandish numbers of mahi’s coming thru.
We have been catching our limit or close to it on almost every trip. Some local charter boat friends of mine in the keys have been catching there limit as early as 9am. The dolphin limit in South Florida is ten per person up to sixty. Most of the mahi’s we catch this time of year are called schoolies. These fish range from 3-8 lbs. They have to be 20 inches from the lower jaw to the fork of the tail to be considered a keeper. Some day’s there are plenty of close fish which makes it challenging to measure and hold. There have been some big dorados swimming with the smaller ones. We caught several from 20-40lbs last week. Most of the mahi we find our located under birds, sea weed, or floating debris. Sea weed is a safe haven for smaller jacks, trigger fish, crabs, shrimp, and puffer fish which is the primary diet of the dorado.

  I did one swordfish trip this past month. We left the dock at 1 and were back at 6pm with a 150 lb swordfish. We lost one prior to the fish we captured. The swordfish ate a squid on the bottom. The broadbills are also biting at night right now. Summer is the best time to night time swordfish because of the light winds and calm sea’s. It is also nice to get a break from the hot sun and gaze at the beautiful star’s, moon, and planet’s.

  Bottom fishing was excellent this past month. May and June, on the full moon ,are the spawning time’s for mutton snappers. I made one trip to Ocean Reef a few week’s back. We captured 35 muttons in one night and two big cubera snapper. The mutton’s averaged 8-15 and the cubera’s were 30-45lbs.
Next moon is when we target the cubera snapper’s. On a good night we can catch 15-20 of these beast’s. They are a blast to catch and the best thing about it is that they bite at night! These fish average any where from 15-50 lb’s.

  June, July, and August are the calmest months of the year for Miami. Summertime is a great time for traveling to the Bahamas, offshore dolphin fishing, and swordfishing. If you would like to do one of these specialty trips just pick up the phone or send me an email.

  I hope everyone has a safe Fourth of July and a great Summer!

Capt. Freddie David

 

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