Florida & Georgia - Hows the bite off Miami ?

Heading out tomorrow 7am - probably run SE from Fowey....

Dont see any recent reports...

Mahi deep or shallow ?

Thanks

NNN :thumbsup:

Let me know how you did, were heading out of Key Largo 5/5 for some dolphin. Had some reports off floridasportsman in 400' of water catching some here and there. Its been windy so not many chances for advice.

i went out of port everglades on 5/5/12. trolled for hours chasing do any avialable leads off the guys on the radio channel 72. all reports were of slow fishing. i struck out another day going home without fish. i need some help. i havent found anyone reports one or two fish per trip and those reports have been of jacks or maybe a king fish. i was just wondering how u made out on your trip. do you think fishing is just slow off of port everglades?

Went to Miami for the Grove Slam and that full moon really took a toll on fishing. :bashhh:Thursday ran down to Miami via the ditch too much slop for fun. Friday caught 3 dolphin schoolies, Saturday caught 2 more, the winning fish were caught in the middle of the key's. There were guys running 150 - 200 miles with no luck. We still had fun but this tournament was not like others in the past. It wasn't put together as nice as it used to be.
Great ride home Sunday.

We just got back from sebastian. The bite was terrible, spent 3 days fishing. Took us till day 3 to even find a decent rip w scattered weeds. Found a few scattered fish but the mahi just weren't home.

Next time anyone says hows the fishing during a full moon - remember this thread..

Grove slam had horrible results and those guys ran all over the place...

what a shitty time to learn how to fish a new area. this will be my first lesson learned dont waste gas on a full moon! im from long island new york, i usually fish heavy for striped bass in the spring and fall. the worse the weather the more fish. we have been killing the bass in the same spot for almost 7 years no hunting trolling searching. drop the chum cast the lines and wait them out. some day 2 or 3 (calm) some days 30-40 (miserable weather). i moved to ft lauderdale last year, bought a boat 3 weeks ago and 3 trips later no mahi. maybe this friday will bring a little luck.

went out on monday and trolled for about 3 1/2 hours and only picked up a blackfin. Found a really nice weedline at about 600 ft stretching from haulover to gov. cut. I trolled it on the outside and there was another boat trolling it on the inside, neither of us picked up anything. I did see a huge sail jump @ least 10 times really close to the boat and also the biggest turtle ever just hanging out at the surface. The ocean was almost glass the whole time I was out there.

On a brighter note, I did my first solo trip ever about two weeks ago and picked up two blackfins and a real nice phin. It's a lot different fishing by yourself than when you go out with all ur peeps.

I'd be interested in some opinions. I'm from the FL West Coast and only have a handful of Mahi trips under my belt. We do and annual trip each year and last year we discovered on days similar to those mentioned above....Nice rip, weeds, debris, but no hookups, that parking on the rip and throwing some live bait down 30-40 ft produced some nice size bulls.

I had a hard time this year convincing the guys I go with that it would be a worthwhile attempt but instead they wanted to keep trolling around and catching nothing?

What do you say, live bait it if the bite sux?

I always run 2 lines deep ... either with cigar weights or down rigger.... They produce for sure....

I'd be interested in some opinions. I'm from the FL West Coast and only have a handful of Mahi trips under my belt. We do and annual trip each year and last year we discovered on days similar to those mentioned above....Nice rip, weeds, debris, but no hookups, that parking on the rip and throwing some live bait down 30-40 ft produced some nice size bulls.

I had a hard time this year convincing the guys I go with that it would be a worthwhile attempt but instead they wanted to keep trolling around and catching nothing?

What do you say, live bait it if the bite sux?

I fish a lot up on the treasure coast off of Ft. Pierce and this is common practice. If the trolling is slow, and we find a fishy area we drop chum, live baits and always send 1 or 2 deep, 1 on the surface one a few feet down. It has produced in the past. On the troll we will run deep baits on cigars or planer. as well 2 normally depending on the crew

Blackfin tunas up to 30lbs on kites today around 130'. Plenty of sails still around.

Live bait so is so easy to catch coming out of Miami that it's hard to pass up. It's also my preferred method.

With a consistent east wind for a couple of days you get your best shot at some nice mahi on the edge.

When trolling for dolphin what do you guys usually run on you deep running rigs? How deep do you run them?

I don't have down riggers so I was going to use planners. I assume you would want to use wire in case a king or wahoo show up. I was thinking a skirted ballyhoo??? Any particular artificals that work well?

Thanks
Michael

Depending on the crew - I will run 1 or 2 downriggers with an artificial rattle jet, or a spoon or cedar plug... Works well...

We also run a cigar weight to get a bait below the surface....

Tell you what - I usually catch more below the surface....

Thanks triplenet.

Ill have to try out the planners on the next trip.

How deep do you run these? If you get to deep will you stop targeting mahi?

Michael