and Miami. Fishing for Tarpon, Bonefish, Permit, Snook, Redfish and Sharks.
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Fishing Reports 2009
May 2009 Fishing Report for Miami, Biscayne Bay and Flamingo
May is a great month for fishing Miami and Biscayne Bay. There are a lot of Tarpon around moving to and back from the Keys. Good Bone fishing and Permit, lots of Sharks swimming the flats of Biscayne Bay.
I had the chance to take a good friend of mine, Ozzie, out for some Bone fishing. Ozzie has earned the reputation of no matter how good the Bone fishing has been, that when he goes fishing for them they disappear. He had been given the nice name of “Bonefish Repellant”. We set out to try to fix this given name, but first I wanted to do some Tarpon fishing. We get right off the bat around a 100 to 110lb. Tarpon. I always have good luck with Ozzie and Tarpon fishing. Then we headed out for some Bone fishing. Great start!
We had a few shots, but nothing great. Here comes a nice school right at us. Ozzie made a perfect cast, hooks up and about 10 to 15 minutes later he got his first Bonefish! After getting a Bonefish and a Tarpon so far this day, we decided to try for a Permit and see if we could get a Grand Slam for the day. The tide was low and not many Permit around at that time though. Maybe next time.
I had a great night of fly fishing for Tarpon out of Miami with Steve Clark. It looked like we might get some bad thunderstorms, but just missed us. We did get some great fishing in. We hooked 3 in the first 10 minutes of fishing. We had a large school of Tarpon feeding like crazy. The rest of the night went well with Steve hooking a total of 17 Tarpon that night, all fly fishing.
I fished a day with Doug and his friend Nils out of Flamingo. We started out fly fishing for Tarpon and found some laid up Tarpon, all giants. Doug hooked up to around a 130 to 150 lb Tarpon on fly. This Tarpon was so crazy running all over, jumping everywhere. I think it jumped 15 maybe 20 times. It broke through the bite tippet after about 25 minutes of fishing it. We did catch lots of Snook on the fly that day, I think around 7 maybe 10, and had some Redfish on the fly too.
Joe O’hara and his buddies, Glen and Darren, and I had a great morning Tarpon Fishing Miami. We hooked 3 and Glen landed his first Tarpon that would weigh in around 100lbs.
If you’re in Miami, Fort Lauderdale or Palm Beach areas, and you would like to do some Tarpon fishing, Miami is the place to be in May.
April 2009 Miami and Biscayne Bay Fishing Report
I started the month off fishing with Mark DeAngeles. I know that Mark would like to get a Tarpon of 100 pounds or more on the fly rod. We have caught several Tarpon on conventional tackle and hooked a lot of Tarpon on the Fly rod, but never landed one yet on fly. We ha a early departure from Miami and found some nice 35 to 50 lb Tarpon feeding on shrimp. We hooked 2 Tarpon that jumped off, but landed the third. Mark got his first Tarpon on fly.
The next day we did the same trip out of Miami, but this time we hooked a monster Tarpon using the fly rod fighting this fish for a while. I was a bit nervous to leader this fish because I did not want to lose it. Some crazy jumps late in the fight as I was trying to grab the Tarpon, but we got it. She would weigh around 100 to 110 lbs. Later that day we did some bait fishing while fly fishing for some more Tarpon. Mark hooked up to another monster Tarpon that would run 150 lbs or more. This Tarpon ran us all over Biscayne Bay. After around 45 minutes to an hour, I got a chance to grab it. I could just get my hands to the big Tarpon when it would pull away and then pulled the hook out. Considered a caught fish. I still would have loved to have gotten some photos of that monster boat side. It’s difficult to appreciate the true size of this Tarpon.
I fished with Clinton on a nice calm Saturday morning. When we found lots of slow rolling Tarpon right off Miami Beach. We had one bite the fly right off the bat, but did not get the hook into him solid. Hooked a couple more on bait and landed one right in front of Miami South Beach. That Tarpon was around 100 pounds.
I fished Francois and his nephew Alejandro (Alex). We fly fished for Tarpon in the morning. There were lots of Tarpon around but could not get a bite on the fly rod. It was very over cast and windy. We went for Bonefish. Alex had never Bone fished in his life of 12 years and had just a little experience with fly fishing. He was very sharp and learned fast. He hooked and landed his first Bonefish around 9 pounds and hooked 2 more that day. I had the Bonefish pull the hook right by the boat. That one looked like 9 or 10 lbs. On the last Bonefish he caught, a shark ate it. It just came from no where, ran the Bonefish down and bit it’s tail off. Before Alex could reel in the rest of the fish, the seven foot Lemon Shark took the rest of the Bonefish. I hate when that happens and we try to break them off, but this shark took it so fast, we could not do anything for the Bonefish.
The next day I fished with Steve and his son. We started fast hooking up to a Tarpon just as I was letting the bait out. Steve fought it for a while then lost it after about 30 minutes of fighting. His son hooked the next one and landed this Tarpon that would weigh around 70 lbs. The Tarpon quit biting so we headed off to do some Shark fishing. First we needed some Shark bait so I fished an area for Ladyfish. They both had a blast catching Ladyfish on light spin tackle. We then headed out for Shark. Right away a small Lemon Shark came up and takes the bait, ran off about 50 yards and just came off. We reeled the bait in to check it out. Everything was fine with the rig. I could see another Shark in the chum slick, a very hot Shark! I cast the bait out and as soon as it hit the water this Shark charged at it and ate it in seconds. Hooked up again. This time a very big Spinner Shark. It took off running and jumping, probably took 150 yards of line off the reel before I could get the boat going. After about a 40 minute fight, we landed it, weighing around 100 to 125 lb Spinner Shark.
I had a great night fishing with Teemu from Finland. The weather did not look good from the start, but they wanted to go. It was blowing 30 mph with gusts to 45mph. It laid down later in the night to winds of around 20mph. We got some great fishing in. We hooked 2 Tarpon on fly and landed 3 Tarpon. That was a great job of fishing. After having such a good night, I told Teemu to try 1 more spot. I told him where to cast his fly, he layed it in there perfectly and a giant Tarpon jumped out of the water and landed on his fly. Hooked up solid. This big Tarpon took off, jumping like crazy. At one point it looked like a giant rock skipping across the surface of the water. Teemu really put the hurt to this fish, got him boat side in 20 minutes. He broke his rod but we still landed the Tarpon that would weigh around 130 lbs.
I had a great day fishing with Doug from Texas. We went out for Tarpon and Sharks. We hooked 9 tarpon that morning and a couple sharks, but was unable to land any. It just happens that way sometimes.
March fishing report for Miami and Biscayne Bay
It started out cold and windy, but after it warmed up, the Tarpon fishing was good all month long.
I fished with Jay from Montreal, Canada on a cold windy morning. We hooked up to 3 Tarpon off Miami that day, but could not land any of them. Jay did land one nice size Permit. We did have a lot of big Bull Sharks and a 12-foot Hammer Head Shark circling his bait, but maybe it was just too cold that day.
I was able to fish with Mark and Sam Schwan again. I think Sam has grown another 5 inches since last year while he has been practicing his fly-fishing that he has improved quite a bit over that time. I think that he caught around 6 different species on the fly rod and a few Lemon Sharks on bait.
When the weather got nice again, I took a good friend, Chuck Veith, out to Flamingo for some Tarpon fishing in the Everglades National Park. The Tarpon were there and the bite was on! Chuck hooked up to 18 Tarpon that day all ranging from 80 to 150 lbs. We got to see so many Tarpon jumping and slamming his lures that day. It was great fishing that day.
I had Shawn and his girl friend show up just as they got off the cruise ship. Shawn runs an offshore fishing charter business out of the Northeast. We got into some good fishing right away and landed a nice 7-foot Bull Shark. They hooked up a couple Spinner Sharks that broke off after jumping several times. They also got a couple 3-foot Barracuda and one nice Bonefish.
Daniel and his daughter, Daphnine, had a great weather day with some very good fishing. Daphnine had her own gear and this very cool little Avet reel with a g-loomis rod that I wanted to see her land a Tarpon on. She got a hit by the first Tarpon while letting line out. She hooked it up and landed it in about 30 minutes. She hooked 2 more Tarpon; one that would have been close to 150 lbs. Daniel then got hooked up and landed his first Tarpon that day. We then went Shark fishing and got a couple bites from Spinner Sharks. We moved on to try some Permit fishing when Daphnine hooked one and landed it. From there, we decided to try to get the slam, which is catching a Tarpon, a Permit and a Bonefish in the same day. We had a couple of shots at Bonefish, but lost our sun and ran out of time. Maybe next time.
February fishing report for Miami and Biscayne Bay
This February was a very cold and windy month for us. We still managed to get some good fishing even on the bad weather days. Richard took his 12 year old daughter Crosby out for a half day of fishing.
She has been taking fly casting lessons at her school and they both thought it was time to cast at some fish instead of just casting in the grass. Crosby landed three different species of fish that day, all on the fly rod. She also learned how to fight and land saltwater fish on fly.
Bill Denkin came down again and we fished a half day that was cold and windy. It was too cold for the tarpon to be around, but he caught plenty of other fish that day, including 2 nice Pompano that he and his wife had for lunch. Bill also got one very big Lemon Shark.
Jim Wong had a very nice weather day. We hooked up some Big Tarpon that morning, but pulled the hooks on them. Went out for Sharks and found some nice ones. Jim got two big Lemon Sharks and one big Nurse Shark. He had lots of Big Bull Sharks circling the bait that just weren’t hungry that day.
Emily Weiss and her husband got hooked into a couple nice Tarpon in the morning. Emily landed one that was around 120 lbs.
Isaac Mizrahi and his son Evan, who has become quiet the accomplished angler and boat captain came to fish Miami and had a nice weather day. We found lots of Tarpon that day, but just could not get a bite--lots of boat traffic from the Miami boat show. We were able to catch some big sharks though.
The next day we fished out of Flamingo which is in the Everglades National Park. We again found lots of big Tarpon but could not get a bite. We did have one Tarpon crash a jerk bait, and Evan got a nice Jack while fishing a mangrove shoreline.
December-January Fishing Report for Miami Biscayne Bay
On a cold windy morning I took a fellow fishing guide Guy Warren and his mother to Flamingo for some bait fishing. They both caught around 10 different species of fish with around 12 Red Fish and around 10 Goliath Grouper.
The next day we fished out of Miami for Bone Fish. Guy's mom got one around 6 lbs. which is small for Biscayne Bay. Guy caught several fish on the fly rod, some of them were Blue Fish, Lady Fish and Blue Runners and a couple nice Jacks.
I have had two trips this year with Chuck Veith, both have been good days. The first day we hooked 3 Tarpon off Miami and landed one Tarpon around the 75 to 80 lb class. We had some good shots at Bone Fish that we tried to get on the fly rod.
Our next trip started out in dense fog and my GPS does not like to work when I need it. But I managed to find the spot off Miami where the Tarpon had been. We fished for a while without getting hooked up, but waited to see if we could get one of these Tarpons to eat. We hooked one, while still in the fog, and it was very cool not knowing where we were. Nothing was visible but fog and yet he hooked up to a big Tarpon. Chuck fought that Tarpon perfectly and we landed it, she weighed around 120 lbs. We did not get hooked up to any more Tarpon that day. We found some Bone Fish but no luck hooking them. The clouds and wind came up from an approaching cold front, so we went to fishing the channels where we hooked 2 large Barracuda and caught 1 big Spinner Shark that jumped about 6 feet in the air and we landed it. The Spinner Shark weighed around 150 lbs.
Captain Doug
