Recent offshore fishing reports from the South region.
Deep Dropping Down South
Florida Sportsman member: copout@castaways
Forum member copout@castaways got into some nice fish while deep dropping. Catching 7 barrel fish and 2 tile fish.
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Terrific Tortugas Trip
Florida Sportsman member: Reef Bandit
“We ended up catching over 100 groupers, a dozen muttons and limited out our snapper bag with yellowtails. I’d been down two days before this trip on a big boat and literally had to run away from all the red snappers, they’re everywhere! We even caught 10 of them on fly!”
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Port Everglades Sail
Florida Sportsman member: 23T
Forum member 23T caught this nice sail out of port everglades, While trolling for dolphin.
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Fishing on the Edge
Florida Sportsman member: Double Threat
Amberjack are biting pretty well on the wrecks (deep and even some shallower wrecks). We have had some king bites but it has been inconsistent. Lost some decent ones at the leader and a few other charter boats have caught them to 40 pounds. Blackfin tuna to 30 pounds are starting to show as well. Be careful live chumming though because the bonito have been insanely thick.
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Miami Muttons
Florida Sportsman member: Miami mutton
the screen was marking a load of fish so I gave it a couple minutes and brought up the first fish, that weighed on the Boga grip 13 pounds, after I bring this fish in, Al gets hit and is fighting another.Then Cal is on another fish on the other side, these fish were all big, I had a flash back and remembered, Captain Greg, from times on the Yankee Capts when we would get to a sunset spot and he would be marking a lot of fish and no one was catching for a few minutes while people would take the time to eat and he would sit there a few minutes longer and then , The bite started and the floor all around the boat would be pink and the mates would not have time to take each fish off the hook as they had to gaff another.
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King Cuda and Friends
Florida Sportsman member: The BEAST
This time the line got very heavy and for over an hour I watched Steve, then Rjon and even Devon, take turns on the rod. All 3 were grunting and working up a lather of sweat. The fish would give up a yard or two of line and then take back 3. Sometimes it would let them feel like they had it beat, allowing them to take in 25 or 30 yards of line, only to have the fish make a good run that stripped all that and more. This fish was doing whatever it wanted.
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South Florida Sails and More
Florida Sportsman member: The BEAST
The short rigger popped off and Devon put Jesse on the rod. He did the drop back and hook up perfectly. Sailfish on! Yeah Buddy! This fish went nuts for about 30 seconds and then dropped into the depths taking Jesse “down & dirty” for the remainder of the fight. It wasn’t a pretty fight, but it was a pretty long fight.
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Making It Happen in the Rough
Florida Sportsman member: danmanswag
Spent the day kite fishing with a few additional flat lines. We would catch 2 mahi and then reset, catch another 2 and then reset, pretty much the entire day minus 1 or 2 drifts. Was another grinder but made the best of it and finished with 9 mahi. Nothing big, but plenty of food on the plate. Our last drift produced a nice sail in about 150 feet just north of Triumph that hit the flat line.
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Swordfish on Soft Plastics
Florida Sportsman member: Captain Ross
The fish made two passes at the bait before getting hooked. Unfortunately the hook pulled just a minute or two in the the fight. With our adrenaline back up, we repositioned our boat and made another drop. This time using a Black 18 inch Hogy Soft Bait, just over the nose, we threaded a small pink octopus style skirt and added a squirt of pro cure scent.
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Hot Bottom Bite Down South
Florida Sportsman member: miami mutton
We hit the first spot in 60 feet and the current was just perfect, after chumming a little while, We had the yellow tail eating good behind the boat and the catching began. We fished this spot until the current got too strong and the big sharks showed up. After, we went deep for the mutton’s and King fish, but the kings did not want to eat dead bait today. We did get two nice muttons and lost a few big fish in the deep water.
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Droppin’ Deep for Big Fish
Florida Sportsman member: copout@castaways
Forum member copout@castaways Got into a mess of fish deep dropping with some buddy’s including this beautiful tile fish and many other species. This is a great way to fill the cooler with some of the best fish there is.
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A Full Day of Fun
Florida Sportsman member: The BEAST
We worked the area a bit longer and then I headed for a good mackerel spot I know. Within minutes of arriving in that area the down rod pops off and the reel is screaming. Brian jumped on it and we were thinking “smoker” king. Brian begins whipping up on the fish and soon we see color. Dang! It’s an extremely large Caribbean Spotted Mackerel, but darn impressive!
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Rough and Tough Sailfish in the South
Florida Sportsman member: The BEAST
“As the day moved along we caught several skipjacks. This seemed to be the predominate catch rolling down the corridor we were fishing. The day dragged on and the seas built up with each minute. As the time was running low we had a taker on the short rigger and here we go, sailfish! The guys were happy to see that fish as it did its acrobatics out of the water…”
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Florida Bay Cobia
Florida Sportsman member: Miami mutton
also hooked up with a Goliath, that was so big my friend could not lift it to the surface as it stopped where we could see it but could not lift it with his current rod, the fish looked around 400 pounds. We also caught and released a cuda and a few sharks, Then, we headed to the rivers and anchored in my favorite Gag spot. The first bait down got slammed by this 27 inch gag, we also got a snapper and lost three more gags to the bottom structure.
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On The Fish, Offshore
Florida Sportsman member: e-money
Left LWI at 8 a.m. with west/southwest winds at about 12 to 15 miles per hour. John found some “pretty water” in 160 feet off Lost Tree and birds working. Set out a seven rod trolling spread and as I put last bait in the ‘rigger the pink Moldcraft/bally combo gets crushed! Cool, nice gaffer in box.
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Deep Dropping Daylight Swords
Florida Sportsman member: ultraplayer26
From 1600-1700 feet it came right up. Once we got to the lead sinker the fish finally decided to take a dive back down to 400 feet. When the fish was brought back up to around 60 feet from the boat we see a big head splash above the water with a long bill. After 2 long hours we finally bring the fish boat side. It weighed 375 pounds at the scale.
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Solid Reef Fishing Down South
Florida Sportsman member: miami mutton
I put out my new hoop net and ended up catching a load of ballyhoo for the well, with the bait secured, I rigged a butterflied ballyhoo and sent it down for my customer. Two minutes later he got his first mutton of the day. We caught a few yellowtail here and put down a few baits, one of which got inhaled by a big grouper, that took drag to the bottom for the second time as he was able to find his hole.
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Offshore Kayak Action
Florida Sportsman member: gdholbrook
Right off the bat a big skipjack and double dolphins on the flatlines. Reset the kayak spread and another couple mahi make it to the boat. The limited cooler space on the yak was evident.
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The Fish Are Chewing Down South
Florida Sportsman member: The Beast
Ivan gets the Cow to the boat and Devon sticks the steel to her. One down and one to go. Ken works hard, retrieving 20 and then losing 30, gaining 30 and losing 10. Finally we have the Bull at the boat and Devon clocks him with the gaff and stones him with one pull. We have a beautiful matched set.
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Florida Bay Cobia
Florida Sportsman member: Miami Mutton
I see them come up and toss my bait in front of them and I’m hooked up with a 34 pound cobia, as I’m getting it close, I told Eddy “toss your bait close to my fish” and as soon as he did that he was hit, now we have a double hook up , after a 15 minute fight I bring mine close enough for a self gaff and got him in and then gaffed his fish.
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Government Cut Offshore
Florida Sportsman member: snookyj
We were stoked to be hooked up so quick, after about a 30 minute battle, Kristy had her first sailfish boatside ready for the release [...]
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Party On The Patch Reefs
Florida Sportsman member: Gettin’ Jiggy
For grouper, mutton snapper and cero mackerel, I use whole live ballyhoo or cut into plugs, depending on the size of the baits. I fish my baits on the bottom in the sand, near the edge of the rocks for grouper, and for muttons I like to cast my baits far from boat in the grassy areas, either on a sinker or free-lined live. There are some nice yellowtails that can show up as well, best baits for those are thin strips of ballyhoo fillets on tiny trollrites.
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Dolphin Bite Down South
Florida Sportsman member: The BEAST
We were sizing up the Cow and guessing it to be somewhere around 20 pounds. She was spent and reluctantly came to the boat where Devon put the steel to her. As he pulled the fish over the side she just kept growing. The tail finally crossed the gunwale and we couldn’t believe her size. This fish was large for a cow dolphin. We took some measurements after we settled down. She was over 49 inches long and pulled the scale down to 35 pounds.
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Miami Bottom Fishing Mixed Bag
Florida Sportsman member: miami mutton
Today I was lucky to have another mate that helped me a lot, by taking fish off the hook, as I was baiting hooks and catching bait and directing the fishing to keep the frenzy going. we got at least 30 yellow tails here and then moved on as the current dropped too much shutting the bite down to very slow. We got to another spot miles away to find a slow but fishable north current [...]
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Miami Muttons
Florida Sportsman member: miami mutton
Went to the famous missing buoy, the past two days, did good as the current has been moving north at a good flow.The muttons have been scattered lately, picking at some, as many have moved to very deep structure and wrecks. Ballyhoo have been plentiful on the reef and we have been seeing some nice dolphin in the edge of the drop off in 50 to 85 feet, we have tossed live hoos at them but they rather hit our 12 pound yellowtail line and being fish over 10 pounds, they didn’t last on the hook too long before fraying the line and cutting us off
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Big Bull out of Haulover
Florida Sportsman member: sflskier
Went out early Saturday out of Haulover on my new 24 foot Sailfish. Weather was nice and we went about 10 miles offshore. Found a nice slick, trolled it for a while got nothing. Saw some birds diving, pitched out a livie and hooked into a giant blue runner. No other birds, nothing. Started blind trolling on the way back with belly strips of that blue runner. About 7 miles offshore the spinner in the wash starts singing. 40 minutes later the bull was in the boat.
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Mutton Snapper out of Elliott Key
Florida Sportsman member: farinco
I have been itching to get out there again w/ my good friend Benny (Miami Mutton Man) to further improve my bottom fishing techniques. Last year we fished out of Haulover and this year we decided to head a bit more south towards Elliott Key to try and take advantage of some spots Benny knows and a little better fishing. After 1 re-scheduling due to weather, this Saturday was our day to go out there and try to make it happen.
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Marlin Double Header
Florida Sportsman member: Team Mayhem
Last weekend some buddies and I headed down to Tavernier to fish the Plantation Boat Mart Owners Tourney. After a 7:30 shotgun start out of Snake Creek We headed out to the 409 hump. I told the guys the plan was to run a little past the 409 Hump, put the spread out, and then troll over it with the current for as natural a presentation as possible. On our very first past the right mid (Squid Bait) gets hit and starts running.
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Tuna Time out of Gov’t Cut
Florida Sportsman member: JustinZ
I went out yesterday late afternoon/evening with my friend Mike. After reading all the reports of the big blackfins lately we were ready for some of our own. I wait all year for this time when the big tunas are around. My favorite fish to catch. Luckily Pedro was near government cut and sold us a few dozen nice pilchards.
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Haulover Mutton & Yellowtail
Florida Sportsman member: farinco
Today was a guest trip as I was taking out my mother and one of her client’s and kids. We pulled up to the first spot and had great north current. Got a bunch of yellowtail, but no muttons on the bottom. We went out a little deeper and fished the tail end of a dying north current and managed 3 muttons, with 2 of them making the box. All in all it was a great time. Tight lines out there!
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Port Everglades Blackfin Tuna
Florida Sportsman member: SmittysTeam
Caught this just north of Port Everglades Inlet. The tuna was caught on a free-lined pilchard. The conditions were perfect for live bait fishing. This huge blackfin tuna took 25 minutes to get to the boat. This tuna measured in at 28.5 pounds.
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Dolphin are Plentiful
Florida Sportsman member: cnunez3024
Went out Monday morning to fly the kites. Could not find live bait anywhere, so decided to look for dolphin. Ran out to about 400-500 feet looking for birds. Within 20 minutes, we saw 8 birds diving down like crazy. We tossed some cut ballyhoo where they were diving and then BOOM. We had a fish on within 10 seconds. After fighting the first fish for about 20 minutes we landed it on the boat.
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Port Everglades Sail, Blackfin & More
Florida Sportsman member: SmittysTeam
We trolled all the way to about 800 feet then decided to go live bait. We started live baiting around 300 feet. There was a massive color change around 200 feet and right when we went over it the line starts screaming. Then BOOM! fish off… Once we got to shallow, we did our second drift at 300 feet again. Then we drifted to 120 feet and the line screaming out!
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Miami Muttons and Yellowtail
Florida Sportsman member: miami mutton
This trip I took off in my boat, with my old time friend Billy, we fished back in the 80’s and early 90’s In the Tortugas aboard The Yankee Capts with Capt Greg and also fished Flamingo together, years ago. I called him and he was free, so we planned to be at the spot by 4 am and that is what we did, he is a bottom fishing fanatic, so it was easy to get him out there early. We got to the spot and the current was great we had frozen speedo and goggle eyes for bait, so he sends down a speedo head first and gets a nice mutton in just a few minutes and then I sent down a chunk of the body and soon enough I was hooked up too.
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Big Mahi Out of Haulover
Florida Sportsman member: Big_Boy
Decided to stop for lunch around 11:30 am, put out some pilchards and within 10 minutes a small group of schoolies showed up. Managed to pick up 3. Twenty minutes later we saw a tern working the water hard and managed to pick up 3 more. And then Mr. Frigate decided to join the party. Decided to change our game plan and troll a purple islander-long and a green one-short. We patiently tracked him for 20 minutes when BANG!
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Out of the Cut : Grouper, Pompano, Dolphin
Florida Sportsman member: JustinZ
Headed out of government cut this morning with my buddy, Mike. We went down to bug light to meet Frank to buy some pilchards. Apparently it was tough getting bait this morning around Government cut. We set up over the wrecks off key biscayne in 130 feet and did a bunch of drifts over the same area. We caught four african pompanos, two of which were big enough to come home for dinner. We landed one really nice grouper that had to go back, probably my biggest one ever.
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Port Everglades Bull
Florida Sportsman member: Blue Chip
Needed to run the boat and decided to head out into a choppy 2-4 foot sea with occasional 5 footer. It settled nicely later in the evening as the wind died a little. Trolled from Port Everglades to Hollywood ball zigging and zagging from 180-350 feet on a nice edge for about 1 1/2 hours with only a knockdown trollying Island lures and a few bally’s. Seen a nice sail all lit up behind the blue and white islander but didn’t eat. Decided to head north at the ball and head a little deeper being down sea. Found a magic temp break from 73.3 to 73.9 in 400 feet and port side short gets slammed. Fish on! Seeing the size of the fish when he jumped, I knew it was a good one.
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Push it to the Limit
Florida Sportsman member: miami mutton
We got to a spot in 58 feet and started chumming with a perfect current going north and a beautiful ocean less than a foot. Chris fished the bottom, releasing a nice black. As the tails were gathered behind the boat, Dylan, an 11 year old, and his grandfather took a crash course to quickly pick up my technique and bring in many double hook ups of nice size tails. Even though they never got a big flag, they had fun catching 15 to 18 inch tails. As they took a lunch break, Chris the Capt took over to finish off the limit of 40 fish.
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Easter Weekend Bull and Cow
Florida Sportsman member: Mahigator
Headed out of PE for some Easter weekend fun with my bro in law Mark and step dad Mark. We have been fishing together for years from WPB to the Keys. Managed to set a boat record bull 52 pound and 34 pound cow combo. We got an official weight at Lauderdale Marina. The cow hit the short line and the bull hit the out rigger. We were roughly off Haulover in about 1,000 feet with sparce weed.
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Haulover Mahi & Mutton
Florida Sportsman member: Reef-Chief
I went out yesterday w/ my cousin farinco and we tried to get some muttons and tails but only got 1 mutton so that means they are not thick out of Haulover yet so we will have to keep waiting.
The day started off flat calm with a west wind and once it shifted to the northeast it got snotty out there. We went offshore into 7 foo t+ Swells and setup a few deep drifts. We managed 6 Mahi to 15+ pounds and then were taking in too much water and it got scary a few times so we decided to play it safe and head in for the day
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Hillsboro Wahoo
Florida Sportsman member: JVL
Got a late start on Saturday. We Cleared Hillsboro at 9:30 a.m. in search of the edge. We found it, but the wind wasn’t blowing nearly as hard offshore as it was at the dock. Down goes the kite rigs and out comes the dragging gear. The first knockdown was a screamer that hit around a tuna school shortly after lines in. That fish hit a skirted Bally, and as we suspected, zebra stripes emerged from the blue water as we got him close.
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Miami Wahoo
Florida Sportsman member:ReelDeep
Went out of Matheson Sunday morning. Plan was to high speed troll down south and then do a couple drifts on the edge. We caught one nice wahoo and lost two other rigs. We caught this fish in about 100 feet near pacific reef. We did try to do a drift but there wasn’t much current and went straight north. Not much action on the edge so we headed in.
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Kings on Fire
Florida Sportsman member: farinco
The fishing has been tough this winter, very spotty, with few cold fronts and unpredictable fishing. Went out yesterday with my cousin, uncle, and 2 friends in search of kings and mackerel, and we found them. They are chewing. Go get em.
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Port Everglades Blue Marlin
Florida Sportsman member: JVL
Snuck out Friday AM with a couple of good friends to drag baits on what was supposed to be a light southwest wind and, as I have come to expect, the forecast was wrong again! Pulled for three hours in choppy seas with nada when the mid positioned just behind teaser starts to scream. Knew it was a big fish from the start and thought it may have been a nice YFT after 10 minutes of digging, circling and head shakes. Then the slob began to rise in the column and a bill pops out of the water….MARLIN.
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Hillsboro Inlet Tripletail
Florida Sportsman member: Gary M
I got my Forum buddy Kevin (Treetopflyn) to join me for a day of trolling and trying for some dolphin. The Portuguese Man-O-Wars were thicker than I have ever seen in 30-plus-years of fishing off of South Florida! We pressed on beyond most of them but after two hours of zero hits and finally finding a scattered weedline, we nearly ran over a big pod of nice tripletail!
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Wahoo out of Port Everglades
Florida Sportsman member: TRalph
Fished out of PE, Saturday, on the 28 Hydra- Sports with my son and buddy Justin. We could only fish the morning because I had to coach my daughters soccer game and the guys had to teach a ladders class in the afternoon. We pushed from the dock at 5:45 am. Live well filled with gogs and pilchard with the plan to fly the kite for a few sails.. We also knew the timing was right for a possible wahoo bite. We cleared PE after holding for the march of the cruise ships and looked to see what ships were still anchored in the anchorage. There were 4 vessels moored but the ocean yacht transport has been hooked to the bottom the longest so she was are target and we planned to set up the kite. Since it was about 30 minutes before sun up, low tide, 5 days after full moon and overcast… well out went the wahoo rigs.
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Christmas Gags & Muttons
Florida Sportsman member: farinco
We went out today to try and get a Christmas Special and like clockwork the Gags came out to play. We hit three spots and all of them produced strikes. We caught & released about eight just-short muttons, at least 5 just short gags, a few strawberries, and kept one 21-inch keeper mutton & two Big Gags (one 16 pounder) for the fish paella my uncle is making for my grandmother’s 75th birthday on Thursday I’m taking a few days off now because I’ve fished the past six days and I am officially beat
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Patch Reef Mutton
Florida Sportsman member: FlagMaster
Was fishing a patch reef in 20 feet of water. After bringing in one small tail after another, my son got slammed by something big two times that broke the 12 pound leader. I upped the leader to 20 pounds and the third time was the charm. Line started to scream and I knew he had something big. Helped him a little after Mr. Pink wrapped him up around some fan corals, but we were lucky enough to get him up boat side before the leader could break.
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Great Day Off Haulover
Florida Sportsman member: No_Bananas
Today was amazing. We left the dock at 9:00am today and had lines in by 9:30am. I begin with the vertical jig and by the third drop I had a fish on, 5 pound Almaco Jack. A few drops later I get a small king and get the feeling its going to be a good day. We’re fishing and all I hear is line getting ripped off the reel of one of our regulars named Bravid who was bottom fishing a double ballyhoo plug. This is a big fish. The way it was running line off and fighting i could have sworn he had a big shark on but he stopped him, got him turned and started putting the heat on him. After about 15 to 20 minutes and a mile of line we see a monster Gag coming up. The first mate Mike puts the gaff in him, and brings up the biggest gag i have ever seen. A 50 pounder, unbelievable.[...]
Gag Grouper in the Bay
Florida Sportsman member: UrbanAnglerMiami
“Caught some pilchards and pin fish and hooked onto some gag groupers, a nice cero mackerel & some mangrove snappers at night. We got our limit of gags in less than 5 minutes. on 4 casts. We saw some tarpons rolling but no cigar. Good times in Miami, FL. with Capt Rob Munoz a.k.a. “Gettin’ Jiggy!” on his Key West. Hard core angling at its best, especially by a local in our own back yard[...]”
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Muttons on the Move
Florida Sportsman member: Gettin’ Jiggy!
Muttons have been on my mind lately and figured since the waters much cooler now, thought we should give it a try. Actually the water temps were about 12-14 degrees cooler than before hurricane Sandy. Average temp in the bay was 70 degrees. It turned out that it wasn’t a bad idea. First spot resulted in two nice pinkies at 23 inches and 19 inches. Great fight on my favorite light outfit using 6lb Sufix and 20lb flouro leader and tiny size 2 Mustad live bait hooks [...]
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Bulls in the South
Florida Sportsman member: tonyfern
Went out Saturday on HydraMax to see if we could find some dolphin. We did not find many, but picked up two 10-pound cows and this nice 20-pound bull in 1100 feet off of Government Cut. Caught the bull trolling a naked ballyhoo on the long-line and the cows on live baits around scattered weeds. Not much out there and we were lucky to find these fish [...]
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Mack Attack off Miami
Florida Sportsman member: miami mutton
Back on my feet, this weather has been terrible and finally the winds dropped. The fish are there, but so are the predators and big AJ’s. We left Key Largo and headed north. On Edwin’s Yellowfin 36 we headed to the first intended spot in 60 feet, only to find very slow current crossed with a north wind, so we didn’t even put a line out for the tails, we just headed deeper to find some bottom fish [...]
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Three Hours of Catching!
Florida Sportsman member: The BEAST
I received a phone call from Josh Bailer whose friends were in town. They had but one afternoon available to fish before they had to fly out that same evening. He had 3 days to put this together and wanted to know if we had that day available for him. We did and of course we said sure! I never recommend doing a ½ day because it’s like putting handcuffs on Devon and me. Half days still require the same run time to and fro, and it limits your fishing time to 3 hours or less [...]
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Paying it Forward!
Florida Sportsman member: The BEAST
A very good customer of mine, Jon from Atlanta, booked an all day trip with us to acclimate his kids to offshore fishing. Jon has fished with me well over 50 times dating back as far as 1998. I’ve fished with his wife, Melissa, a time or two but this was the first time I ever met the children. I remember when the kids were born and now Ryan is 11 and Caroline is 8. I must be getting old! His plan was to see how the kids could handle the blue water scenario before he took them to Costa Rica in April [...]
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Epic Day off Port Everglades
Florida Sportsman member:
Sometimes, you have that feeling that you are in for an epic day of fishing. It’s the combination of preparation, the right crew, and perfect conditions which leave you spending the whole day in anticipation that you are in for one of those special days where the stars are going to align and you are going to have an unforgettable day on the water [...]
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Cubera Snapper Finale
Florida Sportsman member: The BEAST
We turned The BEAST out and made our way to grab a few quick Hardtails for backup bait. That happened with relative ease and in short order the Zuke 300’s were running for our Cricket patch. Although Uncle Al and I are, for lack of better terms, a senior crew, we managed to grab enough bugs in a reasonable time. Uncle Al may have a few years on Devon but he is still a bug snatching maniac. Since Jorge also brought along a custom jigging rod with 65# braid on a nice shiny Shimano Stella reel, we decided to give the “Grunt & Sweat” wreck a tryout [...]
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Key Biscayne Muttons
Florida Sportsman member: miami mutton
This trip was out of Miami, waited for one of the two doctors to go to a meeting early, then we left the dock at 8:30 a.m. and headed straight to the Bug Light. There, we caught some cigar minnows and a few pinfish, then we headed out. The first spot was in 65 feet. The current was heading north, and moving a little too fast for the yellowtail fishing, but for the bottom fishing it was good. Shortly after getting down the first bait, one of the docs hooks into a nice mutton and in he comes [...]
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Spectacular Mutton’s out of Haulover
Florida Sportsman member: Reporte de Pesca
One of our club members went out today out of Haulover and caught some phenomenal muttons, the smallest ones were 12 pounds and the biggest was 16 pounds, weighted not estimated. Also some nice 12 pound kings to top it off.
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Rod and Reel Yellow Eyes
Florida Sportsman member: Ufhalbert
I love fishing in South Florida, because on any given day you never know what you are going to catch. With not much current we headed to some numbers between 200 to 225 feet out of Port Everglades and caught 2 yellow-eyes and a giant porgy on squid and pilchards. I have seen yellow-eyes caught deep dropping in the Bahamas, but never on rod and reel and never off of South Florida. Either way, we were stoked to catch a new fish on the boat on an otherwise slow day.
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Gaffer Saves the Day
Florida Sportsman member: danmanswag
In 800 feet we see a LONG weed line, longest I think I’ve ever seen, went on for miles. Five minutes into the troll we hook up and our day is saved with a nice gaffer size mahi, only problem is we didn’t have a gaff. So I basically leave the fish in the water for an extra 10 minutes on light drag to let her get tired and my buddy finally puts on some gloves and grabs her by the tail and throws her into the boat [...]
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Big Groupers and Muttons
Florida Sportsman member: Lone Drifter
I had been really anxious to do another trip with Benny (on my boat of course) and get some payback on those runaway trains I wasn’t able to stop last trip. Huge groupers and snappers I was hoping to target I told Benny. I wasn’t really interested in any yellowtail, big groupers or muttons would be the intended target of the day [...]
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Miami Dolphin Report
Florida Sportsman member: ReelObsession
Headed offshore today in search of dolphin. We found them from 350 to 800 feet under birds and scattered weeds. Got most of the them on trolled ballyhoo. Found one school of about 10 and picked off a couple but couldnt get any more to bite. By 10 a.m. we had 6 dolphin and decided to head in to do a little free-diving. Got one nice hogfish and saw a lot of shorts. Called it a day by 12 and headed for the barn.
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Spectacular Muttons
Florida Sportsman member: Reporte de Pesca
One of our club members went out today out of Haul