Fishing Reports

One of the windiest winters in recent memory continues unabated. With the briefest exceptions, temperatures remain warmer than average for this time of year as well. As a result, King Mackerel which are a mainstay of our fishery this time of year are all but absent. Sailfish numbers are also down. Both of these species will remain in greater numbers north of our area until and unless cooler temperatures drive them into our area. With the wind being such a big factor, there has been little consistency in what type of fishing we do. Strong North winds have generally found us hunkered down on the reef edge behind the shallowest patch reefs which knock the seas down. Strong South winds often mean a weather cancelation as the seas build from the open ocean. We have had some good Snapper fishing on the moderating South wind, caught a few Sailfish live baiting on the East wind, and had some good Dolphin and Wahoo fishing on the occasional calm day between blows. There have been several very large Dolphin caught recently, in spite of it being off season, including a 59 pounder that was chasing bait along the bar in 90 feet of water.

Large numbers of Ballyhoo remain on the Hawks Channel patch reefs and also in many areas along the fore reef. Areas with high concentrations of Ballyhoo are prime locations to fish particularly if you “match the hatch” by using both live and fresh dead Ballyhoo. Expect Cero, Jacks, Mutton, Mangrove and Yellowtail Snapper as well as out of season Black, Gag and Red Grouper to be associated with these schools of Ballyhoo.

Blackfin Tuna are also available to those with access to quantities of live Pilchards. Drifting or anchoring the deep water wrecks and heavy chumming with the Pilchards particularly late in the day has produced good results. Tight lines and good luck,

Capt. Brad Simonds

We’ve had plenty of wind but only a modest amount of cool weather to begin the winter season. Out along the reef edge in the lower Keys, water quality has been an issue. Veterans of the fishing scene point to an ongoing lack of strong east current and clean blue water. Historically this has been a common condition but recently, a rare event. East current with clean blue water on the reef is conducive for the pelagic species such as Sailfish and Tuna. Notwithstanding the water quality, Both Sailfish and Tuna have increased in numbers but have often followed a pattern of one day on, one day off. We’ve had several good days on Sailfish with 6-8 bites but then had trouble finding a fish on a subsequent day. The Tuna have been scattered, often biting on the troll for an hour or so first thing in the morning or holding on various wrecks where heavy live bait chumming can stimulate a bite.

Wahoo which are most often associated with the afore mentioned east current have been scarce, although we may see action during the full moon later in the month. With lots of west current and off color water Yellowtail snapper fishing has been about the most consistent fishing activity. Large schools of Ballyhoo can be found around the patch reefs and high rocks along the reef edge and although it hasn’t happened much yet, should lead to better fishing as virtually every predator from Cero to Mutton to Dolphin and Sailfish will find these food sources and feed aggressively. Be on the lookout for these “bait showers” and be ready to match the hatch by casting a live Ballyhoo into these feeding frenzies. Hawks channel patch reefs start to get productive this time of year; expect all three common Grouper species, Red Black and Gag, many just short of legal size, and a few you can’t stop. Slow trolling the patch reefs is another way to score with Grouper before the season closes Jan 1^stHappy holidays to our entire readership. Tight lines and good luck.

Capt. Brad Simonds

Temperatures are falling and the wind is up as we transition into the fall and early winter season. Windy conditions can make it difficult for smaller boats to get out but north and northeast breezes with accompanying cooler temps are a necessary precursor for triggering the winter migrations which over time will improve the quality of fishing in the lower Keys. Already schools of Ballyhoo are congregating along the reef edge. This bait will in turn attract and sustain the game fish we associate with the late fall and early winter; Cero Mackerel, Sailfish, Blackfin Tuna, and King Mackerel. Localized concentrations of Ballyhoo will also produce feeding frenzies featuring Jack Cravalle, Yellow Jacks and Mutton Snapper.

The presence of Frigate Birds along with your own sharp eye sight will help determine where the ballyhoo are located. Ballyhoo are relatively easy to catch this time of year and will keep for a day’s fishing in a live well which is round or oval and through which fresh salt water is pumped. If you anchor up current of where the ballyhoo are holding, soon enough they will swim up in your chum slick. I use a very fine mesh bag when chumming Ballyhoo so I don’t attract too many Yellowtail and Cero who will spook the bait. Use a 3/8 or ½ inch cast net or hair hooks to catch them live. 50lb mono with a 5/0 live bait hook is good for Sailfish while #3 wire with a trailing “stinger” hook is good for the toothy critters. Use a short piece of copper wire to secure the ballyhoo’s bill to the shank of your hook.

Fresh dead ballyhoo can also be trolled this time of year with good results. I rig with 60lb mono for Sailfish and Tuna and #8 wire for Kings and Wahoo. Fresh dead ballyhoo will troll for long periods without washing out and with the use of small chin leads can be made to swim like the real thing. Dead baiting allows you to cover more ground, look for color changes and current lines from tight to the reef edge out to about 300’.

I have often mentioned the eating quality of fresh Cero in this column so; given that this is the time of year when Cero are a commonly caught I’ll leave you with a simple recipe:

Filet the Cero and leave the skin on. Cut out the rib cage bones and the pin bones which extend for a few inches along the lateral line at the front of the filet. Place two filets of Cero, skin side down in an oiled baking pan, sprinkle with S&P and drizzle with lemon juice. Bake in a pre heated 350 degree oven for 6 minutes. While the fish cooks mix two parts mayo with one part stone ground mustard and a spoonful of horse radish. After 6 minutes slather the filets with this mixture and sprinkle the top with Panko bread crumbs. Return the pan to a higher rack in the oven and brown under the broiler, delicious.

Tight lines and good luck,

Capt. Brad Simonds 

This month’s fishing report might be more accurately titled, my northern fishing vacation. Just as many of my readers leave the local area during the heat and humidity of Hurricane season, I too like to get away and wet a line in an utterly different fishing venue. This year I traveled to Wedgeport Nova Scotia to participate for the second year in a row in the annual Wedgeport Tuna Tournament. This 4 day event at the end of August attracts a fleet of “working” boats, (there is no such thing as a sportfishing boat in this area) who compete to catch the largest Bluefin Tuna, of which only one may be weighed per boat, or go for the greatest combined poundage of Bigeye Tuna and Long Finned Albacore.

The largest Bluefins are always caught on the various 30 fathom banks within 20 miles of shore while the Bigeye’s and Albacore are caught along the edge of the continental shelf which is 100 miles away. None of the participating boats has a cruising speed above 8 knots so they must strategize whether to make the long run offshore and remain at sea for the entirety of the tournament or stay inshore and target the Bluefins. Our group chose to fish for one large Bluefin, knowing that if we got lucky early, we could return to the wharf and rejoin the dockside merriment with a fish on ice, ready for the weigh in at the end of the tournament.

At 7:00 pm on Aug 22^nd a lit flare and a blast from an air horn signaled to the assembled fleet that the tournament was on. Our destination was German Bank, a plateau of 30 fathom water lying some 20 miles south south west of Wedgeport. The Herring boats were reporting good catches from this area. Herring comprise the main food source for all the large Marine predators including Whales, Seals, and Bluefin Tuna. Find Herring and you will find Bluefins.

Three hours after leaving the dock we were located on the Bank. Twinkling lights near and far signaled the presence of the Herring fleet, a combination of Purse Seiners which wrap a net around a school and Gill netters who set a vertical net on the bottom. Herring fishing is done exclusively at night when the Herring rise higher off the bottom. There are strict seasons and catch quotas now for Herring as fisheries managers have come to understand the importance of Herring in the food chain.

We set up a drift close to a group of Seiners who were hauling back, knowing that Bluefins are often attracted to the scales and fallout herring from the nets. We had our own Herring aboard, some 500 pounds, and began the methodical process of chunking and chumming to attract the feeding Tuna. In the wheel house our Captain anxiously watched the depth machine for signs of the Tuna “marking” under the boat. Our Tackle was as big as it comes in the world of rod and reel fishing, the equivalent of Elephant guns. Shimano Tiagra 130 class reels filled with 200 pound test Dacron and a header of 200 pound test mono. These reels were mounted on custom roller guide rods with aluminum bent butts. Fished out of a fighting chair gimbal and a bucket harness, an experienced angler can exert over 75 pound of drag to subdue a Giant Bluefin which is by a wide margin the most powerful fish in the ocean. We rigged 3 herring baits and deployed them at staggered depths as we chunked and drifted. Every hour or so we would pick up and move back up current to cover another section of the bank.

Located at the mouth of the Bay of Fundy, this area has tremendously strong currents and some of the largest tidal changes in the world. As the night wore on we had periodic visitations from Grey Seals and several times heard the great inhalation of whales in the darkness, but we didn’t mark the Tuna and we didn’t get a bite. The air temperature dropped and a heavy mist drenched us with a clammy cold. The water temperature was 54 degrees. I found myself adding layers for warmth and donning full rain gear. At dawn, stiff and cold we began dropping quill rigs down to the bottom in hopes of hooking a few live herring to deploy on our Tuna hooks. For some reason the Herring never bite a quill at night so this was our first opportunity to try for live bait. No sooner did the first quill hit bottom and load up with quivering bait than the light rod bowed up and then straightened, something had eaten the quill off. Moments later the deep rod seemed to get very heavy but the drag didn’t immediately crack.

We had something on but it seemed more like a Porbeagle Shark which infest these cold waters. Speculation turned to a Seal as the line angled up, still without any drag being taken. Just as we became certain it couldn’t be a Tuna- whatever it was wasn’t pulling hard enough, line started peeling off the spool and very quickly the mono header was off and we were well down in the backing. Nothing but a Tuna could sustain such a run against the 60 pound drag setting. Twenty five minutes later the fish was in sight, circling slowly 20 feet down. It was a good fish probably close to 500 pounds but maybe not a winner. We deliberated about whether to take the fish and decided slow as the fishing was, having one in hand was better than hoping to hook a bigger one. Leadering a giant Tuna requires strength, finesse and no small amount of courage. The idea is to make the fish swim towards the leader man as he shortens on the leader and then hold his head so he doesn’t turn and kick back off, all the while avoiding pulling the hook or breaking the leader. This time it was deftly accomplished and within minutes thanks to a hydraulic boom, the fish was aboard. We noticed in examining the fish the remains of our quill rig protruding from his mouth. After a few quick pictures, the fish was lowered into an ice filled slush tank for the ride in.

Two days later at the weigh in our fish tipped the scales at 501 pounds gutted. It was the second largest caught in the event. The winning fish was also caught in the same location and weighed 676 pounds, that’s a lot of Sushi!

Next month, back to the local fishing report.

Capt. Brad Simonds

We have had a long stretch of unsettled weather featuring South and Southeast winds of 15-20 knots combined with lots of rain, squalls and thunder storms which has no doubt disrupted plenty of fishing trips over the last several weeks. As we move deeper into hurricane season there seems little relief in sight. Early forecasting suggests that steering currents are favorable for the so called Cape Verde storms to track more consistently to the west in our direction rather than veering to the north as they did last season. Vigilance is the watch word. The offshore fishing report is pretty mediocre of late. Most of the Dolphin around are small, either side of the 20 inch minimum, with larger fish far and few between. The best action of late has been inshore from the reef edge to about 300’. Mixed in with the dolphin have been plenty of Little Tunny- particularly on the shallow side with a few small and medium Blackfin Tuna primarily outside of 250’. There are also scattered Wahoo bites in this depth as well as the occasional Sail. A week or so ago we did catch and release a Blue Marlin of about 175 pounds, the first Blue we’d seen all spring.

Fishing on the reef edge has been inconsistent, owing in large measure to rapid changes in the current condition along the reef. In the space of a week we’ve had everything from roaring East tide to no tide to West tide. With the prevailing Southeast wind a medium West tide has been best for Yellowtailing. Grey or Mangrove Snapper are spawning this month and have already been biting decently in spots from 45’ to 60’. The Mutton Snapper have also been active here and there, although their spawning activity is petering out. This is a good time of year to fish the sunset and early evening parts of the day when it’s a little cooler. All in all, the next couple of months is probably not a bad time to accept your buddy’s offer to come fish with him “up north”. The Florida Keys may be the fishing capitol of the world, but the summer months are not our best. Good luck and tight lines.

Capt. Brad Simonds

To those who were expecting a May fishing report last month, I apologize, I couldn’t find the time to get the report written with a busy fishing schedule and ended up missing the deadline. This month’s report is part catch-up as a result.

Going back to May, we had no “color change tailing condition” as we often have early in the month. Wind and current were never right to create this phenomenon. Instead we had excellent Dolphin fishing beginning the first week of May which is a bit earlier than normal. This first of the season push of fish is characterized by the presence of Frigate birds following these migrating fish and by the tendency of these fish to be relatively close to shore. (from 400’ in to the reef edge) These first run fish also tend to be relatively large sized. In addition to the Dolphin, May fishing produced quite a few Wahoo, typically found under debris or along current breaks or weedlines. Most of these spring Wahoo are small fish from 10 to 25 lbs with only the occasional larger specimen. Billfish bites were relatively common particularly in the first half of the month, with the vast majority being Sailfish. The May moon was on the 25^th and a large fleet was on location to target the Mutton Snapper spawn. Poor weather and spotty results rapidly thinned the fleet.

Looking at June, first and foremost it represents the official start of Hurricane season and right on cue, our weather has changed. Low pressure, large areas of moisture and abundant cloud cover will typify our weather. Boaters venturing offshore will want to carefully check radar imaging before and during their trip. This time of year squall lines can pack dangerous winds and lightning strikes. As for the fishing, the best of the Dolphin run is already over but schoolies will be plentiful. Finding larger fish will be hard work on many days. Paying close attention for bird life and floatsom is a must. Big fish “are where you find them” and that of course could be anywhere from the reef edge to well outside the wall. The June full moon will offer another chance to target Mutton Snapper as well as Mangrove, and Yellowtail. A pleasant reef trip can be had by departing the dock around 5:00pm and fishing through the sunset till full dark period. Good luck and tight lines.

Capt. Brad Simonds