August 3rd, 2013

My what a difference a day makes! Today the early morning calm evaporated and we started fishing at 7:00am with 10MPH winds. Getting to our trout spot, we quicky hooked several trout and were treated to some close up manatee encounters. I then took Tom and son Matt to the finger channels where we were treated to a steady supply of bent rods and peeling drags including some big 3lb mangove snappers and nice sized red grouper. As the end trip ended we had gone through nearly five dozen shrimp with only a few to spare. That is a nice day in Miami's hot Biscayne Bay!

August 2nd, 2013

Calm winds and HOT weather has been the summer pattern we are finally getting now in Miami. Today I had Dan and his son Andres on board for a full day of sight fishing for bonefish and permit and then some potluck fishing. We started with slick calm water and a school of mullet being destroyed by a host of predators. A few casts of a top water lure into the school later the lure gets whacked but no hook up and the school moves on and settles down, the predators having had their fill of mullet breakfast. About 100 yards later we start seeing permit cruising along the shoreline along with small tarpon. We had some shots but none produced a hook up. Moving on, we caught some trout and then fished the channels for a host of snappers and grouper ending the day with a nice variety of fish and some incredible opportunities at world class gamefish.

July 26th, 2013

It’s finally feeling life summer with calm mornings and high humidity. We started this morning chasing bonefish in slick calm conditions and while we did find some exciting big waking fish, they were not around in big numbers. Moving on to permit, I found about 5 schools of permit in the slick calm edge of an oceanside flat but they were all swimming at an off angle to the boat but we managed a couple of shots. We did end the day fighting a nice 60lb tarpon which gave us some nice runs and three big jumps before breaking us off. By summer standards it was an overall slow day but I did manage to get my angler some solid shots at the big three (bonefish, tarpon and permit).

July 24th, 2013

Whew, I made it back alive! As expected there were hundreds of boats out today with divers searching for lobsters. I chose to fish the south bay shoreline and found a decent number of bonefish and had some great shots in slick calm conditions. The permit were MIA and the oceanside fish disappeared with all the diving activity. We did change gears and Carlos and Eric had a blast catching big mangrove snappers, bar jacks, jack crevalles, grouper, mutton snappers and one big monster fish that broke Carlos off on a coral head after about a 100’ run. Ouch! I will be back out on Friday, I’ll report back then.

July 22nd, 2013

Today the bonefish and permit were very active. I had Axel and Alex from Argentina fly fishing for bonefish and they had numerous shots at fish throughout the day. The best time was the last of the incoming tide and the last of the outgoing tide. The permit were moving in schools of 8-15 fish with one fish tailing in about two feet of water! The bones were all over the place with single, schools, mudding fish, tailing fish. It was great! I will be out during the first day of lobster mini season again, wish me luck because it gets crazy out there!

July 8th, 2013

Summer time I get plenty of calls from parents that want to take their kids fishing, many of which have never been fishing before an day was one of those days. I fished Al, Sophia and Laura for a laid back half day of potluck fishing. The morning started with a steady 20MPH east wind an I headed towards a reliable spot for one of the best baits in Biscayne Bay, pilchards. A few throws of the net and we had our bait in the well and we were off. Arriving at the finger channels, I deployed the chum bag and freelined the live pilchards which produced legal sized mutton snappers while the shrimp produced yellowtail snappers. With the tide shifting, we moved spots and arrived at the right place at the right ime as planned. The steady flow of chum raised a cloud of hungry mangrove snapers not 10' behind the stern and freelined shrimp and pilchards lasted no more than a few seconds. Several large mangrove snappers in the cooler and numerous others released it was time to head home and smiles were present on the ride back.

July 5th, 2013

Today I had the pleasure of fishing with Gary and Joel for a 6 hous of fun rod bending action. We had a strong 20MPH east wind that made fishing challenging but I made sure my guys had a great time and caught fish. Fishing the outgoing tide, we chummed the South Bay finger channels and freelined live shrimp behind the boat and had steady action on mangrove snappers, yellowtail snappers,mutton snappers and grouper. We lost 4-5 monster fish including a big black grouper right under the boat. In the clear water, I motored on top of the big black grouper which we hooked on 8lb test and promptly rocked itself and watched him give in to the max pressure we could apply. Sadly, he rocked himself again for good and we admited defeat. We were able to land a nice black grouper but wished the other 4-5 fish, some of which I am certain were big mutton snappers, would have been landed on our 10lb braid.