Winter is around the corner and so are the sailfish! The really great thing is that the dolphin haven’t left yet. I have never seen dolphin fishing like this in October and November. We have had good summers and early falls before but this has been better late season fishing than I have ever seen. The fish are not only close to the reef but they are the usual 4 to 12 lbs that we usually see in the fall. Add to the picture a few sails, kingfish and swords and you have a recipe for great fishing trips. I don’t know how much longer this will last but we’ll take it for as long as mother nature will provide it.
On the sailfish scene, congratulations to Capt. Bill Wheita and the Blue Time fishing team for their convincing win in the Sailfish Cup Tournament last week out of Miami. They caught 13 sails in the 2 day competition. Sailfishing has been good but not great overall. We have seen a lot of green water this past month after having huge amounts of rainfall in September and October. It shows signs however of clearing out and blue water moving in. That’s all for now—I hope you can get out there and enjoy some time on the water!—Ray
Nov
25
Aug
29
Fortunately we weren’t impacted here in Miami from the hurricane and hope for a quick recovery to all of those who were. One positive thing comes out of the hurricane season for offshore fishermen and that is the increased abundance of floating debris out in the dolpin waters. It seems that after a storm passes, especially if it travels near cuba and into the gulf, we will see lots of floating bamboo, trees and more. Last week I saw a tree so big that when the waves would wash over it the tree never moved, the waves simply rose and fell. This kind of debris usually houses an entire ecosystem around it. This ecosystem fortunately usuall includes dolphin (mahis), wahoos and tripletails. They hang around primarily because of the abundance of bait fish that will surround this kind of debris. For about the next month or two we will find this kind of debris fairly regularly and enjoy some of the best offshore fishing for nice sized dolphin, tripletails and wahoo. The second part of the equation that helps us locate this debris as well as creating very comfortable fishing conditions is calm weather. THe next two months are generally known for calm weather. These conditions allow us to fish what we call a “combo trip”. That is where we fish for dolphin… during the day, maybe make a drop or two for swordfish during the day, then stay out a few hours into the night and drift for swords near the surface. These trips are usually productive for several species.
If you ever get the chance to join us for one of these trips in September or October, i think you will enjoy it. Good fishing to you wherever you are—Ray Rosher
Jun
16
Fishing this past week has been good for dolphin (mahi). Most of the fish have been a little further offshore, about 15 miles off of the reef. We fished monday afternoon and caught a limit of dolphin before dark then released a sword about 50 lbs on our first drift after dark. The last two days we have caught decent sized dolphin from about 5 to 15 lbs. There are still lots of bonitos on the edge of the reef in addition to a few sails, tunas and the occasional kingfish. The yellowtails should start biting better after this full moon and through the summer. That’s all for now, remember, you can’t catch ‘em if you don’t go!