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ObservationsCaptain Piñeiro's Fishing Report
| This is an updated report of the Fishing conditions for the South Florida Atlantic Coast and the Upper Florida Keys. | |
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| Personal
Observations | |
Report Date: 01/28/02
Hello everyone. Hope that you had a chance to go wet a line. This is the
12th or 13th day in a row that the air temp rises
above 80 degrees. The weather
has been so nice that the past two weekends have looked like holidays at Homestead
Bayfront
Park and Black Point Marinas. The fish have been cooperating and
most people had a good time. The sailfish bite has been
mostly early morning
(before 10:30am) and/or late afternoon (after 3:00pm). There are schools of Ballyhoo
in most patches.
If you remember, I told you last time to be alert for other
predators when fishing the patches for bait, snappers, etc.
We caught one
sailfish a week and a half ago in 40 feet of water while catching bait. This last
week we got one in 45 feet of water, he was feeding on a school of ballyhoo,
and found OUR live Ballyhoo
irresistible.
As expected, dolphin were scarce at the beginning of the month, but the warm temps
have made them, come out in force. Last weekend we got a 34#, 26#, and 24# along
with schoolies, tripletail, wahoo, and almico jacks. Kingfish have been a little
shallower than before, 70-100 feet. We found a few very large bonito (Little Tunny)
this last week around 100-120 feet. These aggressive fish are a formidable adversary
on light tackle. Yellowtail snapper fishing has been excellent right around the
50-60 foot depth. We also found mangroves in the 1-1/2 to 4 pound class in the
same depth.
A couple of newcomers around area wrecks are large Amberjacks
(40# plus) and African Pompano. All the African Pompanos we've caught are around
the same size 22 to 25#. We have been picking up red grouper each trip, quite
a few of them over the 20" limit. Blacks and gags are not hot yet but they
will be over the next month or so, remember they have a 24" minimum. A mutton
snapper is also a possibility while targeting the groupers, but their peak is
still a few months away.
Live bait or jig and ballyhoo combination fished
near the bottom is the ticket for any of the above.
That's it for now, call us, we'll take you where they are biting, and please don't
forget to release some for tomorrow's anglers.
Capt. Ralph
Report Date: 01/07/02
1/7/2002 Happy New Century everyone! Hope you've had a chance to break-in that new rod Santa brought you, we sure have. Fishing is pretty good, the only problem is that it has been really cold every morning, and makes it had to roll out of bed. We've had a stretch of about three weeks now where the highs stay in the high 60's, maybe 70 or 71. This certainly been the coldest winter (so far) in several years. The water in Biscayne Bay is cold. My thermometer read a chilly 56 degrees yesterday, so you might as well forget about catching bait or just about anything else in the Bay. I hope the snook and such move outside or we might start seeing dead fish (due to cold) floating belly up. Bait continues to be hard to round up sometimes. We are marking it on the depth finder in the deeper channel but they do not want to hit the sabikis. The high winds and cold weather triggered the shrimp run. The few shrimp netting aficionados brave enough to go out at night are netting their 5 gallon bucket of the tasty pink delicacies in short time. Sailfish and Kingfish head the list of catches with the gulstream maintaining temps around 75 degrees F. Sails have been best at around 140 feet, and Kings at 110 to 125 feet. Bonito and a few scatter dolphin show up in the kite baits. 14 year old Tracy caught her first king aboard my boat yesterday, some nice mangrove snappers and a very large barracuda that decided to crash our reef fishing party. The kings and some grouper can be caught with jig/ballyhoo rigs, live baits, or even a whole squid, a fillet of mullet or other fresh bait. It's time to Go Catchin', call us we'll take you where they are biting, and don't forget to release one for tomorrow's anglers!
In case I don't update before then, I hope everyone has a Feliz Navidad (Merry Christmas) and a very Happy and safe New Year. I also wish that you all can enjoy the start of the new century in the company of that very special fishing partner. Call us, (305) 248-5745, we'll take you where they are biting. Feel free to call us also just to talk about fishing. Until soon, and please, don't forget to release one for tomorrow's anglers. Captain Ralph...
Hello again! While everyone else in the nation is freezing their butts off, Florida and especially So. Fla. is enjoying the best weather. (Air) temperatures have been around 80 degrees and fairly dry except for a very rainy day earlier this week. When I say a lot of rain, I mean it. I have two 5 gallon buckets on my boat, behind the transom by the motors. Each one of them had 12-1/2 inches of water in it. All this rain fell in less than a 24 hour period. An edge has been created with green water on one side and clear water in the outside. Fish the edge!!! Fishing has been pretty decent, but windy. Water temperature is still a balmy 78.5 degrees at the reef. The transition is almost over. We are seeing a lot more tuna. We've been catching blackfins in 200 to 250 feet off Triumph, Pacific and the Whistle Buoy. There are less dolphin, no more schools of 50 or 100 fish, but when a school comes around you'll know, they won't be shy about crashing your (fishing) party. These are small groups, pairs, 5 or 10 fish at most, but they are nice, 10-20#. They will readily attack your kite or flat-line baits. Royalty has also shown-up in large numbers. Kingfish (King Mackerel) are thick especially in 110-125 feet. Most are small fish around 8-12 pounds, so tackle down accordingly, 12 pound outfits with 200-250 yards of line will be perfect. Drag setting at 25% of line strength and very smooth... Their smaller cousins, spanish mackerel, can be caught shallower, 30-40 feet, on the patch reefs. I have been fishing south Biscayne Bay for the last 13 years, and this is the first time I've seen lots of spanish mackerel as far south as Turkey Point and the Arsenickers. Sometimes they make it hard to catch live bait. This proves that fishing continues to get better each year since the Florida net ban. We are also catching lots of grouper especially when jigging for kings (white jig with a ballyhoo and a stinger - treble hook). Drop the jig all the way to the bottom (but watch it because kings like to hit it while falling) then jig it all the way up. You'll catch kings and grouper this way, and an occasional mutton. There are African Pompano on some wrecks. Some very large bonito are also available, and while most people consider this species a nuisance, I assure you that a 15 or 20 pound bonito is a formidable adversary on 12 to 20# spinning or conventional tackle. Yellowtails are available in 50-70 feet but the speedo mackerels love your chum and will eat most of it, making it harder to get the chum to the 'tails. Also amberjacks, barracudas, sharks, and cero mackerel will invite themselves to the free yellowtail dinner. Just try to reel your catch as fast as you can unless you want to share. Problem is the uninvited guests like the best part of your snapper, and when they leave something is usually just a yellowtail head. Finally but certainly not least, the offshore darling, Sailfish are now in large fishable numbers and becoming more abundant each day. We have been hitting them anywhere from 120 to 200 feet. Live baits such as ballyhoo, blue runners, pilchards, and pinfish all make great baits. They work good on a kite or flat lined. If you want to put one down deeper use a 1 or 1/2 ounce weigth and a trace of 8 inches or so of #3 wire, otherwise or you'll loose your bait to the kings and won't even feel it. Call us, (305) 248-5745, we'll take you where they are biting. And please, don't forget to release one for tomorrow's anglers. Captain Ralph...
Hello again! While everyone else in the nation is freezing their butts off, Florida and especially So. Fla. is enjoying the best weather. (Air) temperatures have been around 80 degrees and fairly dry except for a very rainy day earlier this week. When I say a lot of rain, I mean it. I have two 5 gallon buckets on my boat, behind the transom by the motors. Each one of them had 12-1/2 inches of water in it. All this rain fell in less than a 24 hour period. An edge has been created with green water on one side and clear water in the outside. Fish the edge!!! Fishing has been pretty decent, but windy. Water temperature is still a balmy 78.5 degrees at the reef. The transition is almost over. We are seeing a lot more tuna. We've been catching blackfins in 200 to 250 feet off Triumph, Pacific and the Whistle Buoy. There are less dolphin, no more schools of 50 or 100 fish, but when a school comes around you'll know, they won't be shy about crashing your (fishing) party. These are small groups, pairs, 5 or 10 fish at most, but they are nice, 10-20#. They will readily attack your kite or flat-line baits. Royalty has also shown-up in large numbers. Kingfish (King Mackerel) are thick especially in 110-125 feet. Most are small fish around 8-12 pounds, so tackle down accordingly, 12 pound outfits with 200-250 yards of line will be perfect. Drag setting at 25% of line strength and very smooth... Their smaller cousins, spanish mackerel, can be caught shallower, 30-40 feet, on the patch reefs. I have been fishing south Biscayne Bay for the last 13 years, and this is the first time I've seen lots of spanish mackerel as far south as Turkey Point and the Arsenickers. Sometimes they make it hard to catch live bait. This proves that fishing continues to get better each year since the Florida net ban. We are also catching lots of grouper especially when jigging for kings (white jig with a ballyhoo and a stinger - treble hook). Drop the jig all the way to the bottom (but watch it because kings like to hit it while falling) then jig it all the way up. You'll catch kings and grouper this way, and an occasional mutton. There are African Pompano on some wrecks. Some very large bonito are also available, and while most people consider this species a nuisance, I assure you that a 15 or 20 pound bonito is a formidable adversary on 12 to 20# spinning or conventional tackle. Yellowtails are available in 50-70 feet but the speedo mackerels love your chum and will eat most of it, making it harder to get the chum to the 'tails. Also amberjacks, barracudas, sharks, and cero mackerel will invite themselves to the free yellowtail dinner. Just try to reel your catch as fast as you can unless you want to share. Problem is the uninvited guests like the best part of your snapper, and when they leave something is usually just a yellowtail head. Finally but certainly not least, the offshore darling, Sailfish are now in large fishable numbers and becoming more abundant each day. We have been hitting them anywhere from 120 to 200 feet. Live baits such as ballyhoo, blue runners, pilchards, and pinfish all make great baits. They work good on a kite or flat lined. If you want to put one down deeper use a 1 or 1/2 ounce weigth and a trace of 8 inches or so of #3 wire, otherwise or you'll loose your bait to the kings and won't even feel it. Call us, (305) 248-5745, we'll take you where they are biting. And please, don't forget to release one for tomorrow's anglers. Captain Ralph...
Too long without a fishing report, sorry. I will really try my best to do better from now on. I have a new computer and that was part of the problem. We are also in the process of updating the website. Now to the fishing report. It has been a great late summer season. We found larger shoolie dolphin all year, more than in years past. Maybe this is due to the fact that we have been going farther out than most people. With gas prices staying very high, most anglers and captains are happy to stay closer from shore. There are plenty of fish in close though they seem to be on the smaller side. Also most charters have raised their prices to reflect the higher gas prices. Our prices have not changed so keep this in mind when booking your next trip. Yesterday we had a great day. We caught several nice dolphin in 250 to to 440 feet of water (the edge of the Gulfstream). There were large patches of sargassum (weed) from 200 to 350 and most boats stayed there. After catching some dolphin, I was planning to do some bottom fishing but all the reports on the VHF (radio) were mediocre at best. We decide to go farther offshore in what proved to be a great call. We saw only one more boat out. In about 700 feet we found floating boards (though no weed). Near the other boat we picked up a few more dolphin and 1 wahoo, but decided to leave after spotting some frigates and other birds about a mile away. A large school of skipjack tuna busting bait on the surface proved to be responsible for the birds' activity. We had a ball catching quite a few on Billy Baits' Mini Turbo Slammers, and kept two for each angler. It took about an hour to clean fish at the dock. Our final tally was 23 dolphin, 5 to 12 pounds, 8 skipjacks 10 to 15 pounds, 1 wahoo, 2 large tripletails, and 14 almico jacks. Very nice day indeed. Sailfish and kingfish muttons, and grouper are on the reef when there is some current, but their numbers are still increasing and are not really plentiful yet. Another cold front past by last night and these 4 mentioned above will continue to increase. For the rest of the month, though, if you want numbers, dolphin and tuna will be the best bet. Call us and we'll take you where they are biting. Also don't forget to release some for tomorrow's anglers. Capt. Ralph...
Nature's show at its best! We had a very interesting outing last week. We found and ran with a pod of whales, around 50 of them. They stayed with the boat until we finally broke away to continue our fishing. Originally we thought they were pilot whales with some kind of illness because some had white potruding growths on their heads and faces. It turns out that these are RIGHT WHALES. It was quite a sight. On the same day we also found the ultimate ocean predator having a sushi dinner. Let me explain. We saw something floating that at a distance looked like a sunfish, we could also see a shark's fin circling it. When we got close, it turned out to be the carcass of a 150# tuna floating belly up. The shark, was a magnificent 12 foot GREAT WHITE, a species very uncommon off South Florida's coast. I estimated its weight at around 1,000#. The great white was not afraid of our boat at all, and in fact it kept positioning himself between us and his tuna dinner. Even though this would have been the ultimate catch, we did not try to catch him since we only had 30# tackle. Besides it looked so majestic that it deserved to be left alone so it can grow to about 4 times his present size. This species is in enough trouble (endangered) already. Dolphin fishing continues good to excellent. Lots of small fish 3-4 pounds, but plenty of nice size schools 8-20 pounders plus bigger fish if you spend the time, effort and lots of money (gas is so expensive these days) to run offshore 20 to 30 miles from the reef. Afternoon storms are getting nastier, we were pretty close to a water spout (a tornado over water) yesterday. Be extremely careful with these as well as with lightning. We try to make sure to start heading back in around 1:00pm, so you are not too far offshore when the storms start, usually between 3:00 and 4:00pm. Water temp is 88 degrees. Yellowtail fishing is hot, in 70 feet of water +/-. Mangrove snappers are biting well at night, and the biggest snapper of all, the CUBERA is at its peak right now if you are willing to pick a fight with the meanest of all snappers. The #1 bait for these bulldogs of the deep is a whole live Lobster. This presents a problem since lobster season doesn't open for another week and a half. Speaking of which, rules for lobster mini-season and season are the same as last year. Become familiar with them because none of the law enforcement officers have a sense of humor during the crazy mini season or the beginning of the regular season. Tickets start at around $250.00 and go up from there. Also make sure you keep safety first and foremost. Too many people are getting hurt during the mini-season, so be careful out there. If you are driving be on the lookout for people in the water. That it'll be all for now, call us, we'll take you where they are biting, and don't forget to release one for tomorrow's anglers. Capt. Ralph
July 4th, 2000 Happy 4th of July! BEWARE OF THE IDIOTS!!! We are in full summer mode, and as such we can expect hot sunny days, mild (mostly) South Easterly breezes, and afternoon thunderstorms. So was the day Saturday, July 1st. We had a great outing. Debbie caught her first Wahoo, a nice 18 pounder on a white jig, under a board. Debbie, Mike and their children also teamed-up to catch around 40 to 50 dolphin between 8 and 14 pounds. They kept a couple dozen fish and released the rest. On the way back, we encountered a strong rain storm with limited visibility (1/4 mile or less). About one hundred yards from Caesar's Creek a 40 foot cruiser failed to yield my right of way. He was traveling north, I was to his right heading west. I had to stop or else get run-over only to discover that there was no one at the helm on that boat. It seems that these morons did not want to get wet from the rain, so they set the auto pilot and went down below. I was so upset I did not think about getting the FL numbers. The lesson here, always assume that the other boater has not seen you, 'cause around here, he probably hasn't. My only regret is that the owner of the 40 footer missed the creek's head pin (and the very shallow shoal by less than 100 yards). Episodes like this one certainly raise a point in favor of boater's licenses. Enough of that! Dolphin fishing continues hot, anywhere from 200 to 500 feet, but we are finding bigger fish 12 to 15 miles out from Pacific. Around floating debris, Tripletail (remember the 15" limit), and Almico Jacks can be found. These look like small amberjacks (1 to 4 pounds), both of these are very good to eat. We are catching Wahoo on jig/ballyhoo combination, also around floating debris. Go deep, 100 feet or more with the jig. We also continue to find schools of Blackfin and Skipjack Tuna under large flocks of birds (you need a federal permit to keep the skipjack). We catch the Tuna using Billy Bait's Mini-Turbo-Slammer. I rig them with 50# Jin-Kai Mono leader since tuna have such keen eyesight and they tend to shy away from the wire. Troll these lures fast, 15 to 18 knots, Tuna are very fast swimmers. Yellowtail and Mangrove snappers are feeding really good around the reefs, and Tarpon fishing continues great. Snook (for release only), Trout and Redfish are hot in Flamingo (check the regs on trout, they changed again). That will be all for now. If you party, please designate a sober driver, the rest of us will appreciate it. Also lay off the auto-pilot inshore, a little rain is not going to kill you. Your big cruiser on the other hand, might seriously hurt or kill someone if you happen to run them over. Want to go fishing? Call us, we'll take you where they are biting, and don't forget to release one for tomorrow's anglers. Captain Ralph...
6/25/00 Want to catch fish on bare hooks? This is the time to do it! We got 7 dolphin on bare hooks yesterday, and we weren't even trying!!! We were fishing the West Marine (Cutler Ridge) tournament out of Black Point Marina and the Pirate's Den Restaurant, so we were looking for big fish only. I do not exagerate when I say that we saw close to 1,000 dolphin yesterday. They were so thick that we could not even keep our lures in the water without the small fish (in the 6 to 12 pound range) coming over and crashing them. Under boards, birds, pallets, and a piece of bamboo we saw several schools of dolphin numbering over 100 fish each. It literally looked as if the ocean was moving under the boat with the sight of dozens and dozens of hungry dolphin. I would like to be in this kind of predicament all the time. We saw a couple of big fish but could not get our live baits past the schoolies. We kept half a dozen for the tournament's fish fry. Carmen hooked up a fish that was over 20 pounds but pulled the hook after a couple of jumps, easy-come-easy-go. Maybe next year. The tournament's largest fish was 34#, 2nd place 24+ #, and 3rd place 21.9#. The two weeks before this last one have been unseasonably windy. Last weekends Joan Galley's Dolphin Tournament's anglers had to fish in East/SouthEast 20 MPH winds, winning fish just under 30#. The week before that the Perrine Kiwanis tournament was held under Small Craft Advisories and East winds of 25+ MPH. Winning fish right at 30 #. The weekend before was the 11th Annual Islamorada Coast Guard Station Dolphin Rodeo. Our boat took first place with my son Alex' 26.3 pound dolphin. The water on the reef is a sick looking green, but the good news is that it turns into a beautiful indigo blue at just around 300 feet which is were the gulfstream's edge is now. By the way in case you've been watching the news, we have not been affected in Homestead/Florida City area or the Keys by the giant sewage spill that occurred this week in Miami. Thank God that the Gulfstream runs North... The stream temperature is a perfect 86 degrees, (just great for a dip in 1,000 to 2,000 feet depth). Mutton snappers are completing their spawn and still around, and mangrove snapper should be getting ready for their spawn in 50 to 90 feet. Yellowtail snapper are very cooperative in 70 to 110 feet. The green water makes it hard for them to see the line. Big Tarpon are being caught outside Elliot Key and showing up around Flamingo. Give us a call, we'll take you where they are biting, and don't forget to release one for tomorrow. Captain Ralph...
Again I must say sorry for the delay. I'm glad I know fish a lot better than I know computers!!! So much has happened since the last update. We are now almost in full summer fishing mode. We did a trip to Bimini about three weeks ago. It was fantastic, our best Bimini trip ever. We caught lots of Tuna on the way over, Skipjack and Yellowfins. Also loads of dolphin and Tripletail. On the second day in Bimini, we caught our limit of Conch in the morning and went swimming with SHARKS in the afternoon. These were Caribbean Reef Sharks, 6-7 feet in lentgh and a mouth full of teeth. We were snorkeling while a dozen of these beautiful fish were being fed fish scraps from my boat. It was a fascinating, not to mention scary and humbling experience. I'm not sure that I would do it again, but I can say "Been there, done that!". The muttons snappers (our main target) where very cooperative. We got several from 10 to 18#. Also we caught lots of kingfish (these were running on the small side, 10-20 pounds) mackerel, dolphin, a 10# black grouper, and a 23-1/2# Yellowfin Grouper. We were humbled by the Amberjacks (50-60#) who ate just about every yellowtail that we hooked. The yellowtail were nice, running 1 to 5 pounds. I'll update the report again real soon, until then, don't forget to release one for tomorrow's anglers.
Date: 4/19 Fishing is GREAT right now! You can catch just about every species right now. The question is what to target. Muttons Snappers and African Pompanos are abundant around & near the wrecks, if you can get past the Amberjacks, Barracudas and Sharks. By the way, I don't know where they came from, but the Amberjacks around the wrecks are not the 20 or 30 pounders that we've seen the in last few years. These fish are 40 and 50 pounds plus, and boy are they hungry! A well placed live bait will not reach the bottom before it's picked-up. You can try to get past the AJ's by putting your bait INSIDE A PAPER SACK. Twist the paper bag to keep the bait inside, and upon reaching the bottom, shake it a few times to discard the bag. Hopefully Mr. Mutton will pay you a visit! A jig and ballyhoo combination also works well. My favorite jig color is white. Sailfish and kingfish are found on the dropoff 80 to 120 ft. or so. Groupers are beginning to move back to deep water but there are still many keepers around. Yellowtail fishing is excellent in depths of 70 to 80 feet. Dolphin can be found offshore, shallow, 300 to 500 feet. Don't go too far, it still a pretty clean ocean offshore until we get closer to summer. On shallow water, the spring tarpon migration is underway. Large bonefish are also being caught (over 10 pounds). By the way we will be offering flats and back-country trips very soon. That's it for now. Call us, we'll take you where they are biting! Remember, you haven't gone fishing until you've gon' catchin'... Also don't forget to release one for tomorrow's anglers... Capt. Ralph...
It's been two months since I do not update the report and I apologize for that. Fishing has been good to excellent in the past couple of months. Like most of the nation, January brought the only real cold weather of this "winter". It lasted only a couple of days. Kingfish (king mackerel), sailfish, grouper and some dolphin accounted for most of the action. Last month, February, brought large schools skipjack tuna (nice ones, 15 - 20#) offshore. You can usually see the schools busting the surface as sometimes they cover areas of a mile or more. We found them 5 to 15 miles out (500 ft to 1200 ft). I hope longliners and tuna boats don't read this report since that would probably mean the demise of these exciting tasty fighters. The end of February also brought hordes of dolphin. Would you believe that some captains where complaining that there were TOO MANY dolphin? They were trying to fish for sails and the schools of dolphin, kept beating the sails to the baits. WELL! Let me go out there and get rid of some of those pesky, great fighting, tasty, dolphin for you!!! Amberjack are on the wrecks and kings and sails continue on 70-150 feet. In the reef and wrecks, grouper have finish spawning and are moving away (though we always have the local population). They are making room for the exciting mutton snappers. It has been pretty windy most of this month so we haven't fished for yellowtail but reports from the party boats indicate that fishing for these is getting better as the season progresses. That will be all for now, don't forget to release one for tomorrow. Capt ralph...
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