March 29, 2016 Report (Video!)

Two years ago Jim and his two boys fished with me and had a banner day with tarpon, permit and big spinner sharks and this year the goal was tarpon, fresh fish dinner and sharks. Three tarpon spots later and none to be found we fished a spot that has been producing for me and while the silver goliaths were around in good numbers it was impossible to get them to eat. With this painful rejection we turned our attention to dinner and sharks. The team had a different look from two years ago though as this year older son Tommy was replaced by granpa Storm. Sixteen year old Matt still remembered his older brother landing a big shark while his broke off and redemption was also on the agenda. Keeping hogfish, lane snapper, mutton snapper and mangrove snapper we used 3lb live baits for the sharks that I was marking on my Raymarine. Eventually, the rod doubled over, the reel started screaming and Matt was on to the fight of his life. Fifty minutes later we land a 200lb bull shark, way to go Matt! The day ended fishing for trout where Jim hooked a spinner shark, Matt caught a few and Storm absolutely killed them on our last spot catching the biggest and most trout. What a trip!

Capt. Mo Estevez www.MiamiBoneFishing.com 786-853-1409 Follow me on Instagram @MiamiBoneFishing

March 28, 2016 Report

Fresh out of the Orvis fly fishing school at the Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo came Brian ready for a full day of fly fishing Biscayne Bay. The day was spent practicing and reinforcing the techniques he learned while catching a few fish on fly to boot. Concluding the day by putting the fly rod down and using spinning rods Brian caught a nice 7 pound mutton snapper and a host of other fish in the last hour and a half of the trip. What a great guy and he really started to figure out the mechanics of saltwater fly fishing, he impressed me and is off to a great start. Congrats Brian!

Capt. Mo Estevez www.MiamiBoneFishing.com 786-853-1409 Follow me on Instagram @MiamiBoneFishing

March 26, 2016 Report

This trip will hold a very special place in my heart for years to come. Andy and Andy jr. fished with me last year and this year we were able to fish again. Andy jr is now 9 years old and had a shell in his pocket all trip long asking me for a piece of fishing line which I told him I would give him when we got back to the marina. In the meantime, the tarpon bite was slow but they aught a number snappers and jacks and we ended the day targeting and hooking a big spinner shark over 100lbs that jumped and spun 3 times before breaking off. But on to more important things. When I pulled up the anchor little Andy asked me again for fishing line and I cut him a piece. He then hands me the shell and asks me to make a necklace because he picked the shell for me and wanted to give me a shell necklace. My heart just melted, what an amazing little boy! I wore Andy’s shell necklace the rest of the trip and all the way home. I’ll keep that for a long time!

Capt. Mo Estevez www.MiamiBoneFishing.com 786-853-1409 Follow me on Instagram @MiamiBoneFishing

March 25, 2016 Report

Cec used to live in Miami but now lives in Montana and was down visiting family. Six am was our meeting time but a lighting storm over the marina kept us confined to fishing an area close by that held some tarpon but not in the feeding mood. As soon as we got some current they started to feed but within minutes they disappeared. With the storm clearing we tarpon fished for a while without a bite so we targeted sea trout on fly and caught some on fly and on spinning tackle.

Capt. Mo Estevez www.MiamiBoneFishing.com 786-853-1409 Follow me on Instagram @MiamiBoneFishing

March 24, 2016 Report (Tarpon video!)

Ohio high school seniors Frank and Holden boarded my skiff at 6am and off we went in search of tarpon. Based on conditions and the past few days I believed our best bet at tarpon would come at first light. On our first drift one of the rods goes down and Frank is on to a 130lb tarpon high jumping in the dark! Fourty five minutes later and now in daylight we got the release on Franks first tarpon. Changing spots we targeted sea trout for their dinner but Frank hooks an estimated 180lb tarpon on bonefish tackle! Chasing the fish all over creation it finally cut us off on a bridge about a mile away after a 25 minute fight. URGH! The trip ended with the guys taking home some fresh seatrout dinner and some great videos!

Capt. Mo Estevez www.MiamiBoneFishing.com 786-853-1409 Follow me on Instagram @MiamiBoneFishing

March 23, 2016 Report

Today I was fishing with David again on his boat and two of his friends Mark and James. We started at noon and the conditions were again limiting with a hard east wind blowing 20-25 MPH. Finding a few tarpon we gave it a few drifts but no takers. Hitting another 2 spots also proved fruitless and then we gave the port of Miami a quick look, boy was it brutal! There were 5 foot rollers were it is usually calm and although David’s 32’ Intrepid easily handled the waves, it was definitely not comfortable to fish in. After a nice cruise we called it a day Capt. Mo Estevez www.MiamiBoneFishing.com 786-853-1409 Follow me on Instagram @MiamiBoneFishing

March 22, 2016 Report (Tarpon Video!)

This was the trip that almost didn't happen. With yesterday's slow fishing, tough conditions and forecast for similar conditions I told Kerry today would not be a good day. However, he was much more optimistic than I was and decided to give it a try. I am so glad he did! Fly fishing, Kerry landed number of trout, Lady Fish, Blue Fish and hooked and fought 100 pound tarpon for about 10 minutes until the fish spit the fly on the second jump. We ended the trip locating another big group of Tarpon but they had no intentions on eating this time around. As I told him during the trip I'm so glad he decided to go through with it because today was definitely a solid day!

Capt. Mo Estevez www.MiamiBoneFishing.com 786-853-1409 Follow me on Instagram @MiamiBoneFishing

March 21, 2016 Report

What a brutal day this trip was. Today I was fishing aboard me friend and client David's 32 foot Intrepid. What a machine! So far every time we have fished on this boat we have landed tarpon but today conditions were definitely tough. With a hard northwest wind blowing 20-25 miles an hour and gusting higher we fished a number of different locations with little success so after 4 hours we called it a day, licked our wounds and headed back to the marina. Capt. Mo Estevez www.MiamiBoneFishing.com 786-853-1409 Follow me on Instagram @MiamiBoneFishing

March 19, 2016 Report

Local transplant John and his cousin from SC Lou boarded this morning for a full day on the water.   John's been living in South Florida for 6 months now and hadn't seen Miami from the water so it was a great experience for him.   Tarpon fishing remained slow with zero fish in spot one and a few in spot two and with increasing winds and rough conditions we headed for the refuge of the shallows.  Using artificial lures they caught a bunch of trout with Lou catching the biggest of the day.   We decided to cut the trip short due to the high winds and dirty water that had slowed fishing.  But,  it's Miami and you never know what will happen next.   As we fished the port of Miami we witnessed a fire rescue boat save someone in the water that was drifting out to sea and with the strong tide,  rough surf and high boat traffic it didn't look good for the person!  

Capt. Mo Estevez  www.MiamiBoneFishing.com  786-853-1409 Follow me on Instagram @MiamiBoneFishing

March 17, 2016 Report

Dave is an avocado farmer from California and a great day. On our half day trip today we searched for tarpon and finding quite a few threw flies, shrimp, crabs and lures at them to no avail. Not wanting to waste time on picky fish we fished deeper with jigs and Dave caught an aquariums worth of species including grouper, snapper, trigger fish, big hog fish, big jack crevalle and a grunt. Using the live grunt as bait for spinner sharks we had one come up twice to it but not eat it. What? A few drifts and marking them on the machine I decided to use the 7lb jack Dave caught as live bait and in no time he was on! Unfortunately we got back the now headless jack but no shark. We kept using the dead jack for bait and it kept getting smaller with eat bite but the sharks would spit the bait before the hook could sink it. On one occasion we got back the chunk of jack after a bite and noticed the bite was 1/4 inch short of the hook. URGH! One of the sharks Dave hooked was about 100lbs and jumped 6 feet in the air 30' from the boat! Dave ended up hooking 7 sharks and landing zero. Lots of action with no releases. See you next year Dave!

Capt. Mo Estevez www.MiamiBoneFishing.com 786-853-1409 Follow me on Instagram @MiamiBoneFishing

March 16, 2016 Report Unbelievable! (Video)

This morning Tom and his son Matt jumped aboard my skiff since they were down on vacation for spring break from New York. Repeating yesterday's game plan we started off with tarpon fishing and Tom hooked a fish that may have very well been a tarpon but ended up breaking off. After catching a number of different species such as two different species of grouper, several species of Snapper and others we used some of the fish we caught as live bait for spinner sharks again. Today was even better than yesterday and we ended up hooking 7 to 9 sharks landing two and watching a number of them free jump and spin 6 feet in the air. Matt was on the rod when one of our live baits got crushed by a shark in front of us hooking up, peeling off line at a blistering pace then spitting the bait.  Another group of sharks moved in within moments and ate the now half dead bait.   This process repeated itself 4 times until finally a big 200 pound bull shark showed up, gobbled it just 15 feet from us and the race was on.  Fifty minutes later Matt released a huge 200 pound bull shark and got quite a workout. Hooking three or four more sharks including a doubleheader we ended the day with Tom hooking up and after a prolonged fight watching his 5-foot spinner shark get eaten next to the boat by a 300-plus pound bull shark. What an amazing sight and what an amazing day!

Capt. Mo Estevez  www.MiamiBoneFishing.com  786-853-1409 Follow me on Instagram @MiamiBoneFishing

March 15, 2016 Report (Video!)

George is a regular client of mine and we fished back on the 2nd and he tore it up so today we wanted a repeat.  We repeated the same game plan as last time but this time we didn't hook a tarpon but that was ok.  After catching a bunch of fish using jigs we began to fish for the big numbers of spinner sharks that were lighting up my Raymarine Fishfinder. It didn't take long for the action to get hot as the rods stayed bent, reels kept screaming and we kept hooking up big shark after big shark after big shark. We ended up hooking 7 and landing one in the hundred thirty pound range. Needing to be back to the marina by 11 a.m. we squeezed every minute we could out of the trip and spend back to the marina.   I love spring in Miami! 

Capt. Mo Estevez  www.MiamiBoneFishing.com  786-853-1409 Follow me on Instagram @MiamiBoneFishing

March 14, 2016 Report

Day two with Mark and his friend and today we had gorgeous conditions,  calm wind, little boat traffic and clean water. The morning started in the search for Tarpon off of South Beach and while we found tons of them they refused to eat. This is getting frustrating! Giving tarpon fishing a good effort we decided to switch gears move out 25 feet and started using jigs that produced a number of bites, several fish and Mark hooking up to some monster that he fought for a while only to have his leader cut off on the bottom. I suspect it may have been a big grouper, Snapper or some other mystery fish that we wish we could have seen. We ended the day catching a few more trout on fly.

Capt. Mo Estevez  www.MiamiBoneFishing.com  786-853-1409 Follow me on Instagram @MiamiBoneFishing

March 13, 2016 AM and PM Reports

AM Report I was looking forward to this charter today because I was fishing with Francisco and his friend Luis. They are both from the Dominican Republic but a few years ago Luis moved to Miami and Francisco comes into town a couple times a year. These guys are absolutely hilarious together and had me in stitches the entire trip. We started off fishing around South Beach where Francisco outfished Luis however to make matters worse Francisco kept rubbing it in. They caught big Hogfish, mutton snapper, mangrove snapper, jack's and missed another bunch of bites from other species. With the wind kicking up and the water getting rougher we decided to head in to shallower water and target sea trout. The first flat was a bit slow but the second spot proved to be the magic one and Francisco picked up another bunch of trout while Luis landed a single trout. Seeing how the day was unfolding Luis was already regretting his unfortunate hand and was getting ready for a week's worth of grilling and teasing by Francisco. These guys were great and they definitely have some great tasting dinner tonight.

PM report  My afternoon trip was with Mark and his friend Matt and conditions could hardly be worse. We had a steady 20 mile-an-hour wind gusting even higher, dirty water, tons of boats and Jet Skis everywhere which relegated us to about 3 fishing spots in the entire Bay to successfully fly fish. Spot one picked up where it left off in my morning trip and Mark caught a few trout on fly. Water started getting dirty so we moved to  a crystal clear flat that had zero Trout on it but a bunch of different manatees grazing on the bottom. The last spot with even higher winds left us with a nice ending to our trip as Matt landed a few trout on artificials and Mark landed a couple of other trout and missed a few more bites. We're scheduled to fish again tomorrow and I look forward to fishing with these guys. Capt. Mo Estevez  www.MiamiBoneFishing.com  786-853-1409 Follow me on Instagram @MiamiBoneFishing

March 11, 2016 Report

Chris is a local Angler born and raised in Miami and always brings his granddaughters aboard whenever they are in town. Today his granddaughter Blue and her friend Gaby joined us and we had a great time as always. Blue had the hot hand right behind Chris but Gabby struggled missing quite a few bites. Finally while they decided to eat lunch I grabbed the rod and started working a lure for Gaby and she quickly landed 3 trout which made my day! I seldom have had to work so hard for a fish but I was glad that Gaby was able to get a few fish under her belt. What a relief! These are great people and always a pleasure to fish with.

Capt. Mo Estevez www.MiamiBoneFishing.com 786-853-1409 Follow me on Instagram @MiamiBoneFishing

March 8, 2016 Report

Today was round two between the Machado's. Once again Ken and his son Dave boraded my skiff in order to have a good time, spend some quality time together and catch some fish. Dave is attending the University of Miami and Ken lives back in Massachusetts so time together between the two is always precious and I am always thrilled to be a part of it. Last year Ken out fished Dave but this year would be a different story. Dave definitely had the hot hand and caught a number of trout as we tried to hide from the relentless 20-25 mph wind.  Ken on the other hand missed a few fish and landed a single trout which was the opposite of what happened on our previous trip last year. The highlight to illustrate Ken's struggles was when they both made a cast just a couple of feet apart at the same time and Dave hooked and landed a trout while Ken stood by watching. These guys are great and we always have a great time. On our way to wrap up the trip we ended up rescuing two girls that were paddle boarding and the wind blew them over a mile away from the marina. Poor girls! Capt. Mo Estevez  www.MiamiBoneFishing.com  786-853-1409 Follow me on Instagram @MiamiBoneFishing

March 6, 2016 Report (Insane action) (Video!)

Chris is from Massachusetts and came down to Miami for 3 days just to fish and today was the day. Our first stop was of course for tarpon and while we found a ton of tarpon at two different spots we could not buy a bite. I was beginning to take this personally but none of the other boats could buy a bite either. Not sure if this makes me feel better. However, while tarpon fishing Chris landed a huge sheepshead and a nice Barracuda within seconds and we were off to a hot start. From that moment on the rods remained bent almost constantly with a number of different species. Then I started to mark the spinner sharks on my Raymarine and we decided to target them instead. Using a live 2 pound jack and 50 pound class spinning tackle we dropped one down and it did not last two minutes before Chris had a ferocious strike and an amazing drag burning run before we lost the first fish. Chris wanted a spinner shark so we dedicated the rest of our time to getting him one so we repeated the process. I all we hooked 7 spinner sharks and landed the last one we hooked. The take on the last one was amazing as we can see the live jack struggling on the surface and a big spinner shark coming in from about a hundred feet zigzagging looking for the live jack. Within 40 feet we could see another 2 spinner sharks and within 10 feet all 3 spinner sharks looked like a squadron of fighters as they bolted towards the jack. A large explosion later the rod doubled over the reel started to scream and Chris was on shark number 7. After an hour and 20 minute fight he released the big spinner shark at almost 200 pounds and at that point it was time to head in. Chris you will have sore arms tomorrow!

Capt. Mo Estevez www.MiamiBoneFishing.com 786-853-1409 Follow me on Instagram @MiamiBoneFishing

March 5, 2016 Report (Video!)

Today started slow on my full day with local angler and regular client Alec and his brother Kevin. Finding tarpon, and lots of them, we couldn't buy a bite but Kevin caught the biggest sheepshead I've ever seen. I checked out another 5-6 tarpon spots to no avail. Temporarily shelving the search for tarpon, we focused on smaller predators and caught some sea trout. Halfway through the trip we went back to the morning's first spot and the tarpon were still there but the spinner sharks were in thick. Trying hard for tarpon and not getting any bites, we shifted our focus to spinner sharks. It didn't take long for Alec to hook up to a big shark that gave the Quantum Boca 60 drag a workout before breaking off. Kevin was up on deck and he got a take but early on in the fight the spinner shark spit the bait. What a way to end a day that started off slow!

Capt. Mo Estevez www.MiamiBoneFishing.com 786-853-1409 Follow me on Instagram @MiamiBoneFishing

March 4, 2016 Report (Video!)

Being off yesterday and with the fresh memories of the epic fishing day we had on Wednesday I was eager to get regular client David and his son Tommy out. Our first few drifts provided just a few tarpon and no hook ups but the morning wouldn't continue this way for long. As we changed it up the rods starting bending and the drags started to get burned up. There were schools of different species of fish around the boat but most wouldn't reach the boat as spinner sharks were in thick. We took advantage of the situation and got numerous hook ups on high flying spinner sharks and what a sweet sound hearing the drag scream non-stop until having to chase these fish down to prevent from getting spooled. Today was another day where my guys were worn out before the end of the trip. At one point we had a double header and another time when chasing a fish down for David the other rod got hit twice with both times the fish making a long run then spitting the hook, one of the few times I looked forward to losing a fish, twice! I love it!

Capt. Mo Estevez www.MiamiBoneFishing.com 786-853-1409 Follow me on Instagram @MiamiBoneFishing

March 2, 2016 Report (Video!)

Today was the day that I've been waiting for since mid February because it was the day when Biscayne Bay finally went off! The morning started with George from New York, a regular client of mine, and his friend and coworker Joe meeting up at the marina at 6 a.m. We scooted off to South Beach in our search for Tarpon and once again there were tons of fish around with one big difference, the water temperature having increased about two degrees and the fish were friendlier than usual. George quickly hooked up to about an 80 pounder that gave us twoo savage jumps before spitting the hook. Drifting through waiting for another bite we were quickly distracted by big schools of spinner sharks. Taking advantage of the opportunity presented to us we quickly rigged up for them and proceeded to have an absolutely banner morning. We landed two and hook between seven and nine sharks. Most jacks and mutton snapper that we hooked wouldn't last long as we reeled them up to the boat and the spinner sharks making quick work of them. Close to the end of the trip I prepared for another drift or two when the guys said they've had enough, were exhausted and didn't think they could catch another fish. That is what fishing in Miami is all about and that is what I've been waiting for! Spring is here and its Tarpon time in Miami!

Capt. Mo Estevez www.MiamiBoneFishing.com 786-853-1409 Follow me on Instagram @MiamiBoneFishing

February 29, 2016 Report

Today was day 2 with George and today was a full day. Our trip started in search of tarpon and there were tons! George threw flies while I threw shrimp and lures to no avail, they were on a diet. Switching off to bonefishing we found a school of nice bones but no hook ups and the rest of the day we spent poling gorgeous flats with little life on them. The trip ended back at the tarpon spot but while there weren't any tarpon around there were big spinner sharks that would chase our lures but not commit. Urgh! Tough day today. Capt. Mo Estevez www.MiamiBoneFishing.com 786-853-1409 Follow me on Instagram @MiamiBoneFishing

February 28, 2016 Report

I had two trips today but had to reschedule my morning trip due to wind so George was able to fish in the morning instead and off we went. We fished two tarpon spots finding a few 60-80 lbers at the 2nd spot but couldn't get them to eat a fly. Making a long run down to the flats we set up and waited for the tide to turn. Once it did the fishing remained slow. As I poled off the flat here comes a school of bonefish and George takes a few shots but it was tough to overcome the wind. Another school and a few more shots. yet another school and this time they come right to the boat, George lands the fly perfectly, strip, strip, the bonefish eats! The strike came a second too late and the bonefish spit out the fly and took off. OUCH! No worries, we're scheduled to fish all day tomorrow. George had never bonefished before and he piked it up rather quickly. Redemption awaits us tomorrow!

Capt. Mo Estevez www.MiamiBoneFishing.com 786-853-1409 Follow me on Instagram @MiamiBoneFishing