The past few weeks has given us some great fishing! Sailfishing, which in my opinion was the worst season we’ve had in many years, has been AWESOME, with many trips seeing several caught. Live Herring and Pilchards have worked the best, but we’ve caught quite a few on dead baits as well.
May 1st was opening day for grouper. We had horrible weather that day, but we did run several “Super Grouper” trips on the Reward Won out of Bayside Marketplace within the next few days. On these trips we only used vertical jigs, no bait allowed. Even so, we did catch grouper each trip. Most notable was an 18 lb Snow Grouper caught by young Paul Weber out of nearly 400 feet of water! A 10 lb Golden Tilefish that was caught near another wreck in 510 feet of water by Adam Summers was an outstanding catch as well. Amazing to see how effective these vertical jigs are from top to bottom. We also got beat up daily by plenty of big Amberjacks! Since opening day we have caught about a dozen gag and black groupers. Not too shabby!
Big kings are also around, with some reaching over 30 lbs. Check out Reward Fishing Fleet on Facebook for some great photos. These fish are hitting ballyhoo on a three hook rig, fished with a wide variety of weights, depending on current.
This past week the big BF Tunas have shown up as well, with some to over 30 lbs being caught daily.
That same current that has helped day fishing has hurt us at night. The strong currents keep us from anchoring as deep as we’d like to. No worries though, we’ve still had nice catches of yellowtail, mutton, and mangrove snappers, with the big mangrove run right around the corner. It’s time to get on the night boat and enjoy this annual event!
Check out our web site www.fishingmiami.com and Facebook page Reward Fishing Fleet for upcoming special trips and events. We also are hosting a daily Summer Camp out of Miami Beach Marina, and a 5 day educational summer fishing camp out of Bayside Marketplace as well. Sign up your kids now!