November 10th Report by Capt Bouncer for Miami

[Mike]

Sailfish and Swordfish

Windy would best describe fishing this past weekend. Worse, is supposed to be the word for the next couple days. We fooled the weather men this time. We are at Dusky Sport Center, where they are mounting brand new Mercury 225 Optimax engines on Bouncer’s Dusky 33. The old engines are a little over 10 months on the water and have run for 1240 hours each. This is three sets, with over 1200 hours each, of Mercurys without a significant problem.

Friday we had a day we all dream of. We caught herring in Government Cut and headed offshore. On the way out we saw a frigate bird working in 25 feet of water. Fish were showering bait, so we offered them some baits with complimentary hooks. In short minutes we had 4 or 5 yellow jacks from 10 to 15 pounds. Great fighters to start the day.

From there we ran out to 120 feet of water. There was a nice color change and for the first time in weeks, we found the current to be running north. Within 5 minutes we had 3 strikes. This resulted in two sailfish caught and released. Before 10:30 we had added a 15 pound dolphin out of a nice school of fish with a knack for turning the hook back in the bait. I don’t know why that happens from time to time, but streaks of hooks turned in baits seem to occur with J hooks or circle hooks every now and then. We added a couple kings and another dolphin before heading in to switch anglers for the second trip.

The second trip left the dock after 3:30. We caught herring till 4. Then we ran back to that nice edge off the inlet. The first bait in the water produced a sailfish caught and released. Things that start too good, can back fire. We then missed or jumped 2 or 3 sailfish in a row. Buck fever anyone? Two good anglers, but no fish to the boat. At 5 we headed out for swordfish.

There were plenty of boats fishing for swordfish. You could tell by all the complaining about the lack of bites. About 10:30 that changed with one boat reporting a release. Then another boat hooked up. I drop our straight down bait from 350 feet to 400 feet and it was immediately eaten. We enjoyed a nice battle with our swordfish and the anglers said “take us home“. I guess flying down, fishing the afternoon and evening and catching the swordfish wore them out.

The same guys fished all weekend with us. There were no more big fish in our cards. My mechanic told me “we are a spoiled bunch of guys, for complaining about only catching a snook, a bunch of kingfish to over 20 pounds, a big barracuda and several dolphin over the weekend”. Among those dolphin, were a couple on fly, a first for that angler.

Loads of big Spanish mackerel are being caught from the inlets to 60 feet of water. I heard of 5 swordfish over 200 pounds being caught this past week. Sailfishing has picked up along with dolphin. It is time to make your winter fishing reservations as the booking book is filling up for the next several months of fishing on Bouncer’s Dusky 33.