Spring Bling

Report Date: April 5, 2012

The fishing has really picked up in South Florida. There have been a big push of white marlin, mixed in with sailfish from 100-400 ft. of water . Over the last ten days there have been at least three white marlin caught per day. Some fish pushing 100 pounds. The sailfish action has picked up as well with a number of boats getting in the double digits. Aside from the pelagics, the wreck fishing has been hot. There are a lot of big amberjacks, the occasional snapper, cobia, and a fair amount of groupers.Unfortunately groupers are out of season until May 1.

  On March 13 I fished with my brother and an old friend Jim Knapp with his son Scott and friend Bob. Our goal was to catch a sailfish for Jim’s son. On the way to the sailfish grounds we noticed some birds offshore and made a quick detour to catch 15 nice dolphin up to 15lbs. We then put the kites up and had one sailfish come up but faded away. We gave it some time with no results and decided to hit a ship wreck. We made six drops and caught 6 big golden amberjacks. On the way back to the north we saw a couple big cobia on the surface that wouldn’t eat. We later put the kites up for the last hour. Fortunately this time we had a sailfish come up on the bait and Jim’s son caught his first sailfish.

On March 15 Dan Pimental and his son Jack came down to fish Miami from Boston, Mass. Everytime Dan comes down the weather is horrible at best. This time was no different. It was blowing 30kts with rain and lightning. I had a feeling this day wasn’t going to last long. So we fished in front of fowey light and put the kite out with a few flatlines. We caught one twenty pound kingfish and then the rain started to drizzle. I know we didn’t have much time to fish before our kite would crash. About ten minutes later the mate cried sailfish on the right middle. I looked down and noticed a big sickle fin circling the bait. This was no sailfish, it was about a 90lb white marlin. The fish ate the bait and took us in to forty ft. of water for about 30minutes. Dan’s son Jack was on the rod and got the leader on his first white marlin. The fish was an acrobat and jumped about 25 times right next to the boat.

  On March 17 Dan his son Jack, and his three buddies caught 6 big amberjacks up to 60 lbs, a 10b kingfish and a mutton snapper.

On March 23 we fished the Miami Billfish tournament aboard the Jichi. Gene went 2-2 on sailfish.

On March 24 the second day of the tournament Gene Lebron went 6-6 on sailfish. This captured him the prestigious master angler award. Hats off to Gene Lebron going 100%!

On March 25 I fished Boynton Beach with Mike. We landed one nice cobia and lost two sailfish

On March 29 I fished with Bob Bulack his son Brian and Bernd and his son Alex. Bob likes to sailfish but there was no wind and lots of sea weed which makes it difficult. We tried it for about an hour and had not bites. So we decided to hit a few ship wrecks. The wreck fishing was good and we ended up catching three amberjacks two sharks and a 30 lb cobia.

On March 30 I fished the K Rock aboard Jichi. The first day we went 11-11 on sailfish, caught a 20lb tuna ,and jumped off a White marlin.

On March 31 the second day of the K rock we went 5-5 on sailfish and another 20lb tuna. This was good enough for third place overall and top junior for my brother’s son James David. Good job James!

  April 2 I fished Boynton Beach with a group of people from Michigan. We caught 2 tunas, a nice dolphin, 20lb cobia, and a 30lb kingfish.

April 5 I fished with Gerard and his son Luis. The fishing was very slow but we managed to catch a 45lb cobia.

  We are coming into my favorite time of year. April and May in my opinion are the best months to fish Miami. Big dolphin, blackfin tuna, cobia, smoker kings, sailfish, swordfish, and big tarpon on the beach are just a few of the species that are available to catch. If its action and variety you want now is the time!

 

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