As always whenever we have a holiday my phone rings off the wall withclient's wanting to get in a little fishing before and after Thanksgiving andthis Thanksgiving was no different. I always stress a little before theHolidays wondering if the weather will cooperate and will the fishing be asgood as I want it to be. I believe that this Thanksgiving holiday lived up toall of that. If you were one of my lucky clients that had an opportunity tofish with me during this Holiday I am sure that you had a great time. Insteadof going on and on with what I expect the fishing to be in the future let metell you how it was this past two weeks right up to yesterday.
Unfortunately for Andrew and his fishing buddy I probably tried to do toomuch during this four hour charter in stormy conditions in Biscayne Bay. Tarponis the species of fish that Andrew is always looking to catch but tarpon havenot been an easy target recently and won't be for another month or so. So I hadbeen having some real good gag grouper action in Biscayne Bay trolling largeRapala X Raps. We gave it a try but only managed a small gag grouper and twolost fish before trying for sea trout and bluefish before the guys decided itwas time to go do a little golfing.
On the Friday after Thanksgiving I participated in a two boat five hourcharter in Flamingo. There were six people in the party. Three guys and threewomen! I was given the three women. Angie her daughter Sharma and Imelda.Loaded with 12 dozen shrimp I headed for my first spot. As I was explaining tothe ladies what we were going to do the first bait out a shrimp under a CajunThunder float disappeared under the water. Sharma had that fishing rod andstruck the fish hard. A snook, her first ever! Landed and released the nextbait had the same results but this time it was a slot size redfish. For thenext two hours the girls landed four redfish three in the slot and released asmaller one. Besides the snook we had a couple of nice sheepshead, jacks,ladyfish and catfish. We lost a few nice fish before we moved on. The areaaround us was loaded with white pelicans, roseate spoonbills, terns, gulls,herons and skimmer birds. It was really pretty on this day. For the remainderof the day the girls landed jacks, ladyfish, catfish and sea trout.
Later that day I had David and his niece Ruby age 7 and a half in Flamingoagain. Another half day charter that resulted in a snook for each angler, alsotheir first snook ever on their first casts. For the next three hours the paircaught and released another 11 snook, redfish, sheepshead, jacks, ladyfish, seatrout and black drum.
There is no rest for the weary during the Holidays. Today I have Steve andJoel in Biscayne Bay. After loading two live wells with pilchards we wentlooking for some fish to feed them to. After a few hours of slow fishing andonly a few Spanish mackerel to show for it we hit a spot and the guys caught 25mutton snappers to 17 inches, three gag groupers to 7 pounds, bluerunners,porgies and mangrove and yellowtail snappers.
Today I have a half day charter with Marc and his son Johnathan in BiscayneBay. Once again the bait was easy and off we went looking for some action. Iset out a pair of Rapala #8 X Raps and in no time we were into a big Spanishmackerel and juvenile king mackerel bite. The guys caught about a dozen of thefish releasing half before we moved on. We fished a nearby grass flat withCajun Thunder floats and live pilchards and had steady action from sea trout,jacks, bluefish and two gag groupers.
With Thanksgiving behind us I now have a few days to get caught up but theweather was just too nice not to fish yesterday so I called up a good friendBrian to see if he was free to bend some fishing rods. Brian never lets a funday pass him by so he was up for it. We met a 8 AM and hit the water. Bait waseasy and we headed offshore of Miami with overcast skies and light winds. Onceoffshore you could see loads of birds feeding on baitfish that small blackfintuna were chasing. We started fishing. Brian missed a few right away but lockedonto a nice tuna to get the skunk off of us. I missed a few on a Rapala X Rapand then the sun broke through the clouds and the bite shut down. We eachhooked a small shark before we moved closer to shore. In this spot we caughtsome real nice mangrove and lane snappers plus a bunch of needlefish andbluerunners. Time to move on. Now closer to the beach we started chumming andin no time we had dozens of Spanish and juvenile king mackerel around the boat.Fishing with live baits was getting us tons of strikes but the fish keptcutting our Mustad long shank hooks off our lines. I switched to the Rapala #8X Raps and that was the key. For the next hour or more we caught small king orSpanish on almost every cast. With almost two limits of mackerel in the boat weheaded offshore again. Clouds were covering the sun and the birds were up andfeeding on small baits being chased to the surface. Soon after tossing ourbaits in the water we had dolphins all around the boat. These fish were in thesix to eight pound range and we landed five or six before the school left. Justlike that the sun came out again and the fishing shut down. We kept fishing asdrifted north with the current catching and releasing two artic bonitos alsoknown as skipjack tuna before the sun got covered up by the clouds. Just likethat the birds were up and feeding and we were in the midst of a dolphinfeeding frenzy. We caught over 30 fish releasing all but the bigger ones beforewe headed in.
have open dates and the fishing will continue to be good for some time.
This is what South Florida, Get Em Sportfishibng Charters and I have tooffer you! All you have to do is call, text or e-mail me and it's done.
I have open dates in my calendar so if you're interested in getting in onsome hot fishing action give me a call at 786-436-2064 or drop me an e-mail at shermana@bellsouth.net. Let's set itup today!