Steve Addison : Muttons and More

Recent offshore fishing reports from the South region.

Muttons and More

Florida Sportsman member: gdholbrook

Forum member gdholbrook had some luck off of Miami recently. Drifting and fishing live pilchards over productive bottom was the ticket.

Click here for the full forum report.

Wahoo Success

Florida Sportsman member: CatchDog

We had a fantastic trip over in Bimini last weekend with multiple double headers and quality fish coming over the rail. Weather wasn't too bad so was able to make a video of our trip, turned out pretty well.

Click here for the full forum report.

Hillsboro Offshore

Florida Sportsman member: FLATS BROKE

We started slowing trolling at sunrise and did not get a bite. Decided to set a drift starting in 100 feet of water. South current was strong, so we set out a couple flats and a couple down baits. Ended up hitting a school of kings and boated three fish pretty fast.

Click here for the full forum report.

Catch and Release Snappers

Florida Sportsman member: Reef Bandit

Joe grabbed his fly rod and did a short cast. He was using mono core which pulled the fly down slowly. 20 seconds passed and Joe was holding on to a red snapper that was screaming drag.

Click here for the full forum report.

Miami Mixed Bag

Florida Sportsman member: gdholbrook

We setup over some wrecks and lost more fish then we landed but ended up with a decent mixed bag of kings, muttons, fat yellow jack, a bonus yellow tail on a bottom rod and a nice african pompano.

Click here for the full forum report.

Port Everglades Phins

Florida Sportsman member: NightOwler

We picked up some blue runners at the sea buoy and ran out to 850 feet. Saw a free jumper and trolled the area but could not raise him. Stopped the boat by two weed patches pitched a livie, spro jig, and ballyhoo plug.

Click here for the full forum report.

South Florida Variety

Florida Sportsman member: skully1968

Put out new baits a little time passed and we were in 120 feet of water and we got the bite we were looking for. A sail ate the long bait, after a short chase we had the leader touch and the release. At the time we were the fourth boat to catch a fish.

Click here for the full forum report.

One and Done

Florida Sportsman member: BigTime

We decided to push off a bit further and it paid off. Just finished getting a third flat out when one rod lights up like there is no tomorrow. Wouldn't you know it, it's the only setup with a 2/0 hook on mono. Worked the fish for quite a while and finally got the chance to put a gaff in its head.

Click here for the full forum report.

Solo Action

Florida Sportsman member: Tomm

As I was moving to another spot saw frigate birds working, plus tons of bait skipping the surface and trying to get away from predators. Trolled and picked up a nice lifter Mahi only about three miles off the beach. I noticed a few bigger brothers swimming along and pitched cut Bonita to one of them. Bam, hook up!

Click here for the full forum report.

Swords and More

Florida Sportsman member: farinco

We left the inlet on Saturday in hopes of getting a keeper fish and what happened next was truly epic. We made it out to the sword grounds and within 5 minutes of our first drop, tap! no need to play with this fish, he was ON and we were TIGHT!

Click here for the full forum report.

Taking Veterans Fishing

Florida Sportsman member: rhino2000

Shortly after leaving the 4×4 heading east ran into a school of Mahi that just hammered our spread from both sides. We had six rods out and six mahi on, got tangled like crazy and ended up with two in the boat.

Click here for the full forum report.

Day Timing Down South

Florida Sportsman member: type1F-team

About 30 minutes into the drift I decided to try and entice one to bite by bring the bait up a few hundred feet and dropping it back down. After bringing it up about 100 feet the rod doubled over and we were on.

Click here for the full forum report.

South Snapper Bite

Florida Sportsman member: miami mutton

The mangrove bite has been great from Fowey rocks to carrysfort light. We did catch some real nice size ones. The current was perfect to the north both trips, one trip we caught a bunch of nice ones and a couple of muttons. On the next trip, We caught two huge ones, before I noticed the boat was filled with water and we were about to sink.

Click here for the full forum report.

Solo Trip Success

Florida Sportsman member: Tomm

The plan was to go to the Islamorada Humps. Unfortunately, however, my buddy backed out so it ended up being a solo trip. The blackfin and skipjack tuna were everywhere. I trolled up a bunch then decided to deploy some live bait close to six diving frigate birds, unfortunately this also happened to be roughest part of the hump.

Click here for the full forum report.

Find the Birds, Find the Fish

Florida Sportsman member: SmittysTeam

Cleared the inlet around 8 and Sabiki'd about 2-3 dozen pilchards in the morning. Ran out to about 13 to 15 miles and found two frigates working hard. We slow trolled live pilchards into them and got into a huge school.

Click here for the full forum report.

Getting Revenge

Florida Sportsman member: on deck

Turned north into it and immediately got a 15 pound bull on a blue and white islander over a ‘hoo. Switched out to the live ‘hoo spread and it was game on. Couple schools of 18 to 25 inch fish. Put two in the box and followed the line north.

Click here for the full forum report.

Family Fun in Marathon

Florida Sportsman member: ReelObsession

The rest of the school comes up and we can see 4 or 5 other fish and 1 big bull. My dad pitches a whole ballyhoo to him and he takes it. The fight is on my dad works him closer and closer to the boat. After about 20 minutes we get him next to the boat and he is still pretty green. I sink a gaff into him and flip him over the rail.

Click here for the full forum report.

Hot Reef Bite

Florida Sportsman member: miami mutton

It's been non stop action on the reef, I've been fishing lately out of Miami, but here are some trips out of the upper keys also. The current has been decent moving north, which is my favorite.

Click here for the full forum report.

Making it Happen

Florida Sportsman member: snookyj

My oldest daughter told me the other night she wanted to catch her first mahi and then cook it and eat it. So me and grandpa loaded up the boat on Wednesday night and we were off at the crack of 8am on Thursday morning. The trip started out slow, but we found a floating chair about an hour into the trip and pulled some really nice fish off of it.

Click here for the full forum report.

South Florida Swords

Florida Sportsman member: farinco

We made it to the swordfish grounds and within 2 minutes of being down we get a tap. It was so subtle that I was second guessing it to be a fish or the lead bouncing but as always I reeled anyways. Second Tap, definitely a fish.

Click here for the full forum report.

Down South Mixed Bag

Florida Sportsman member: followotherboats

Not long after we found them, the first dolphin was coming over the side. Nice little lifter for my buddy's wife. She was happy as the last time we took her out, she only caught a barracuda. No followers once again so back on troll we went.

Click here for the full forum report.

Saved by the Storm

Florida Sportsman member: flybycrb21

All of that changed on the way in when we noticed a single storm formation hovering right over port Everglades and decided to put out a trolling spread to pass time and let the storm pass. First hit came 5 minutes later, barely legal peanut in the boat. 5 minutes later we have a 10 pounds cow and get her in the boat too. Turn around and reset the spread to retrace our path and 10 minutes later we get crushed by a big bull.

Click here for the full forum report.

Day Trip Success

Florida Sportsman member: OneFastt997

On Friday I got a call with an opportunity to cross to the Bahamas to target yellowfins with a friend of a friend. After my trip two weeks ago where we saw them but didn't hook up I knew I had to go back over and redeem myself.

Click here for the full forum report.

Miami Bottom Bite

Florida Sportsman member: miami mutton

As for yellowtail, they have been really hungry we have caught plenty on all trips and the kids and women have had a blast catching them one after another. The reef fishing will get better each day as summer is setting in and the day time mangrove bite will be coming soon.

Click here for the full forum report.

First Sail for the Boat

Florida Sportsman member: jtnole02

My buddy and I went out on Sunday afternoon to fly the kite for a few hours on my 18 seacraft. Picked up this sail which was my first on my boat and a few kings for the grill. We had 12 pilchards and landed 5 fish and were only out from 12 to 4pm.

Click here for the full forum report.

Down South Deep Dropping

Florida Sportsman member: copout@castaways

I fished with Angelo who holds the world record golden tile (65lbs), he manually dropped at most of the spots from 800 to 1000 feet, while I ran the T1000. We managed 2 tiles, one barrelfish, 8 rosies, 4 green eyed sharks and two throwback fins all off of Port Everglades.

Click here for the full forum report.

Sails Down South

Florida Sportsman member: andy5757

We headed north to the Steeple area and set lines out for a drift. Super calm with just a slight west wind and soft north current. Not 15 minutes into drift at 8:00am we hooked up to a sail. Erin fought the sail, admirably, and in short order the first sail was released.

Click here for the full forum report.

Haulover Swords

Florida Sportsman member: farinco

We made it to the grounds and within 1 hour we had our first bite. Fought the fish for about 15 minutes and got the harpoon in her. We dropped again and pulled a fish off down deep. Dropped again and hooked into a monster shark, probably a thresher, for about 25 minutes before he ate the hook.

Click here for the full forum report.

Leaving Them Biting

Florida Sportsman member: miami mutton

I started chumming in 65 feet and slowly brought the fish to visual distance and after a few test I did, to determine the best way to catch them, we started slowly picking at these nice size yellowtails. The current got better, after the wind dropped and the fish, turned on real good, letting us reach our limit and we left the big ball hungry for next time.

Click here for the full forum report.

Deep Dropping Out of Haulover

Florida Sportsman member: farinco

Got to the first spot and after a nice tangle on the first drop, we reset and BOOM, nice golden tilefish in the box. We got another golden, and then moved on to try to get other species. We managed 2 golden tilefish, 1 gray tilefish, 1 snowy grouper, and 1 yellowedge grouper before calling it a day.

Click here for the full forum report.

Wahoo on the Other Side

Florida Sportsman member: snookyj

We started trolling right out front of bimini, we decided to head south. Made it down around Cat and only had one sniff at our baits but it came unglued. Just south of Cat we had a good bite and new it was good fish. It was ripping line and after about a 20 minute tug of war we had him behind the boat. We leadered him in and I stuck him with the gaff.

Click here for the full forum report.

Barrel Bonanza

Florida Sportsman member: flybycrb21

We dropped the rig over some proven territory and pulled up 6 barrelfish and 2 rosies on 5 drifts. At this point I had more than my fair share of barrels and plenty of slime in the fish box so we decided to try dropping over a new spot a little bit shallower for some new species. Sent the rig down two more times and pulled up 4 more barrels.

Click here for the full forum report.

Limits out of Miami

Florida Sportsman member: miami mutton

We have been getting limits of yellow tails each day and today we did get grouper and a nice cobia to ad to the 4 man snapper limit. The current is stronger to the North as of today. bottom bite picked up or should I say, we didn't miss the bottom fish, because yesterday we lost 8 bottom fish.

Click here for the full forum report.

Day Timing Before the Front

Florida Sportsman member: farinco

I went out with my friend Jesse to try and get a sword before this cold front pushed through. We got to the spot and within 7 minutes of our bait being down we got a bite and we were on!

Click here for the full forum report.

Swords out of Haulover

Florida Sportsman member: farinco

Went out with forum member johnnywizman to try and get tight on a few swordfish. He guaranteed me a fish on this trip. We had an epic bite, landing 4 out of 5 fish, with 2 rat's released, and two 52″ lower jaw to fork swords in the box.

Click here for the full forum report.

Bringing Home Dinner

Florida Sportsman member: miami mutton

I got the chum going and we got the tails to come real close and started the kill. While catching the tails, we saw mahi show up and I quickly grabbed the toss rod, put a ballyhoo chunk and tossed it out, as I passed the rod to Carlos which had the fish on instantly.

Click here for the full forum report.

Dolphin off of Miami

Florida Sportsman member: ReelObsession

The pallet had all kinds of life under it and as soon as we trolled by it was game on. We caught 22 dolphins up to about 12 pounds. We threw back another 10 or so that were borderline keepers. After we caught enough dolphin we decided to jump in a spear a couple.

Click here for the full forum report.

Tearing up the Tortugas

Florida Sportsman member: Reef Bandit

Motoring a few hundred yards, we all readied. It didn't take long to find out that the next spot was loaded with big red snappers. We caught them one after another. The only problem was that they were out of season so we had to vent them and let them go.

Click here for the full forum report.

Down South Yellowtails

Florida Sportsman member: wahito

I don't know if it was the chum or just plain luck but we couldn't keep the yellowtail away. They were biting everything we would throw at them live bait, frozen, artificials, everything! We almost had our limit and we ran out of bait. So we pulled anchor and decided to head back.

Click here for the full forum report.

Miami Jig Bite

Florida Sportsman member: angryangler

Ray shrilled “it’s a warsaw!” already dreaming of how many different ways he would prepare and eat the fish, my kids will eat for days! High fives all around and the boat was rocking, group pics and all.

Click here for the full forum report.

Big Fish on the Bottom

Florida Sportsman member: The BEAST

We did another fun trip with family and friends down in Key Largo. They had fun swim fishing for hog fish and schoolmasters. We went after some muttons with the only 3 live ballyhoo we managed to catch. We got 3 nice muttons, 8, 9½, and 17 pounds.

Click here for the full forum report.

Mangroves and More Off of Miami

Florida Sportsman member: miami mutton

We have been having a strong current most days, making fishing very hard to the unexperienced, in some trips it has defeated the ability to hook the fish that bite. Not everyone can pick up this technique proven to work day after day and brake their own habits, they have had for years, all in one trip.

Click here for the full forum report.

South Florida Spearfish

Florida Sportsman member: Poseidon10/31

Today I put my hands on my first shortbill spearfish, which is super rare for these waters. I fish on the Miss Britt out of Coconut Grove with the legendary Ray Rosher. In his decades of commercial and charter fishing this is only the second one he's landed.

Click here for the full forum report.

Key Biscayne Bull

Florida Sportsman member: GameTimeFT

15 minutes into trolling, the rod takes off! A cow jumped and we immediately saw that she was a nice size fish. As we bring her in, directly behind her we see the bull jumping. Once we get the cow in the cooler the other rod takes off!

Click here for the full forum report.

Port Everglades Offshore

Florida Sportsman member: flybycrb21

Since we weren't catching fish we decided to give the potential spot a drop. On the first drop the bait hit the bottom and the rod immediately bent over. We ended up pulling up a 23 pound barrel fish from 1200 feet. We dropped three more times after that and got a 15 to 25 pound barrel fish on each drop.

Click here for the full forum report.

Summer Sails

Florida Sportsman member: snookyj

Headed in to the reef and saw sailfish free jumping everywhere, i think we must have seen at least 7 fish free jumping. We set up a drift in 200 feet and almost immediately the mid depth rod gets hammered and we have a sail in the air. Wound up only catching one, but it was one that counted. It was Monica's first sailfish!

Click here for the full forum report.

Miami Mutton Madness

Florida Sportsman member: miami mutton

It's been non stop action, weather has been great and it's supposed to continue good.The currents have been strong. The groupers are biting good and the yellowtails are also biting great. groupers have been more on the shallower reefs just below the tails.

Click here for the full forum report.

Down South Bottom Bite

Florida Sportsman member: Lucky Hook II

The bottom bite has been outstanding with good catches of grouper up to 30 pounds some nice muttons and a lot of yellowtails. Also, the mangrove snappers have started showing up on the reef in good numbers.

Click here for the full forum report.

Filling the Coolers Down South

Florida Sportsman member: GIT-R-DUnn

I put the rod in a holder to get a drink and not a minute went by she was buckled over. I grabbed the rod and knew it was big. But the reel with 50 pound braid put a whoopin on this fish and up came to be my best mutton.

Click here for the full forum report.

A Little Bit of Everything

Florida Sportsman member: cudaman

As the boat turned the engines on and started to move I let out the trolling rig and as I snapped the release clip on, I looked to the right I heard a scream and saw my rod bending, I picked it up and let the fish run a bit. I tightened the drag and started to fight the fish, I saw a big wide flash and screamed BIG DOLPHIN!

Click here for the full forum report.

Deep Dropping Down South

Florida Sportsman member: copout@castaways

Forum member copout@castaways got into some nice fish while deep dropping. Catching 7 barrel fish and 2 tile fish.

Click here for the full forum report.

Terrific Tortugas Trip

Florida Sportsman member: Reef Bandit

"We ended up catching over 100 groupers, a dozen muttons and limited out our snapper bag with yellowtails. I'd been down two days before this trip on a big boat and literally had to run away from all the red snappers, they're everywhere! We even caught 10 of them on fly!"

Want to catch huge grouper like these guys? Click here for how-to videos, feature stories, and more.

Port Everglades Sail

Florida Sportsman member: 23T

Forum member 23T caught this nice sail out of port everglades, While trolling for dolphin.

Click here for the full forum report.

Fishing on the Edge

Florida Sportsman member: Double Threat

Amberjack are biting pretty well on the wrecks (deep and even some shallower wrecks). We have had some king bites but it has been inconsistent. Lost some decent ones at the leader and a few other charter boats have caught them to 40 pounds. Blackfin tuna to 30 pounds are starting to show as well. Be careful live chumming though because the bonito have been insanely thick.

Click here for the full forum report.

Miami Muttons

Florida Sportsman member: Miami mutton

the screen was marking a load of fish so I gave it a couple minutes and brought up the first fish, that weighed on the Boga grip 13 pounds, after I bring this fish in, Al gets hit and is fighting another.Then Cal is on another fish on the other side, these fish were all big, I had a flash back and remembered, Captain Greg, from times on the Yankee Capts when we would get to a sunset spot and he would be marking a lot of fish and no one was catching for a few minutes while people would take the time to eat and he would sit there a few minutes longer and then , The bite started and the floor all around the boat would be pink and the mates would not have time to take each fish off the hook as they had to gaff another.

Click here for the full forum report.

King Cuda and Friends

Florida Sportsman member: The BEAST

This time the line got very heavy and for over an hour I watched Steve, then Rjon and even Devon, take turns on the rod. All 3 were grunting and working up a lather of sweat. The fish would give up a yard or two of line and then take back 3. Sometimes it would let them feel like they had it beat, allowing them to take in 25 or 30 yards of line, only to have the fish make a good run that stripped all that and more. This fish was doing whatever it wanted.

Click here for the full forum report.

South Florida Sails and More

Florida Sportsman member: The BEAST

The short rigger popped off and Devon put Jesse on the rod. He did the drop back and hook up perfectly. Sailfish on! Yeah Buddy! This fish went nuts for about 30 seconds and then dropped into the depths taking Jesse “down & dirty” for the remainder of the fight. It wasn’t a pretty fight, but it was a pretty long fight.

Click here for the full forum report.

Making It Happen in the Rough

Florida Sportsman member: danmanswag

Spent the day kite fishing with a few additional flat lines. We would catch 2 mahi and then reset, catch another 2 and then reset, pretty much the entire day minus 1 or 2 drifts. Was another grinder but made the best of it and finished with 9 mahi. Nothing big, but plenty of food on the plate. Our last drift produced a nice sail in about 150 feet just north of Triumph that hit the flat line.

Click here for the full forum report.

Swordfish on Soft Plastics

Florida Sportsman member: Captain Ross

The fish made two passes at the bait before getting hooked. Unfortunately the hook pulled just a minute or two in the the fight. With our adrenaline back up, we repositioned our boat and made another drop. This time using a Black 18 inch Hogy Soft Bait, just over the nose, we threaded a small pink octopus style skirt and added a squirt of pro cure scent.

Click here for the full forum report.

Hot Bottom Bite Down South

Florida Sportsman member: miami mutton

We hit the first spot in 60 feet and the current was just perfect, after chumming a little while, We had the yellow tail eating good behind the boat and the catching began. We fished this spot until the current got too strong and the big sharks showed up. After, we went deep for the mutton’s and King fish, but the kings did not want to eat dead bait today. We did get two nice muttons and lost a few big fish in the deep water.

Click here to read the full forum report.

Droppin' Deep for Big Fish

Florida Sportsman member: copout@castaways

Forum member copout@castaways Got into a mess of fish deep dropping with some buddy's including this beautiful tile fish and many other species. This is a great way to fill the cooler with some of the best fish there is.

Click here to read the full forum report.

A Full Day of Fun

Florida Sportsman member: The BEAST

We worked the area a bit longer and then I headed for a good mackerel spot I know. Within minutes of arriving in that area the down rod pops off and the reel is screaming. Brian jumped on it and we were thinking "smoker" king. Brian begins whipping up on the fish and soon we see color. Dang! It’s an extremely large Caribbean Spotted Mackerel, but darn impressive!

Click here to read the full forum report.

Rough and Tough Sailfish in the South

Florida Sportsman member: The BEAST

"As the day moved along we caught several skipjacks. This seemed to be the predominate catch rolling down the corridor we were fishing. The day dragged on and the seas built up with each minute. As the time was running low we had a taker on the short rigger and here we go, sailfish! The guys were happy to see that fish as it did its acrobatics out of the water…"

Want to tune in on the winter sailfish bite? Click here for how-to videos, feature stories, and more.

Florida Bay Cobia

Florida Sportsman member: Miami mutton

also hooked up with a Goliath, that was so big my friend could not lift it to the surface as it stopped where we could see it but could not lift it with his current rod, the fish looked around 400 pounds. We also caught and released a cuda and a few sharks, Then, we headed to the rivers and anchored in my favorite Gag spot. The first bait down got slammed by this 27 inch gag, we also got a snapper and lost three more gags to the bottom structure.

Click here to read the full forum report.

On The Fish, Offshore

Florida Sportsman member: e-money

Left LWI at 8 a.m. with west/southwest winds at about 12 to 15 miles per hour. John found some “pretty water” in 160 feet off Lost Tree and birds working. Set out a seven rod trolling spread and as I put last bait in the ‘rigger the pink Moldcraft/bally combo gets crushed! Cool, nice gaffer in box.

Click here to read the full forum report.

Deep Dropping Daylight Swords

Florida Sportsman member: ultraplayer26

From 1600-1700 feet it came right up. Once we got to the lead sinker the fish finally decided to take a dive back down to 400 feet. When the fish was brought back up to around 60 feet from the boat we see a big head splash above the water with a long bill. After 2 long hours we finally bring the fish boat side. It weighed 375 pounds at the scale.

Click here to read the full forum report.

Solid Reef Fishing Down South

Florida Sportsman member: miami mutton

I put out my new hoop net and ended up catching a load of ballyhoo for the well, with the bait secured, I rigged a butterflied ballyhoo and sent it down for my customer. Two minutes later he got his first mutton of the day. We caught a few yellowtail here and put down a few baits, one of which got inhaled by a big grouper, that took drag to the bottom for the second time as he was able to find his hole.

Click here to read the full forum report.

Offshore Kayak Action

Florida Sportsman member: gdholbrook

Right off the bat a big skipjack and double dolphins on the flatlines. Reset the kayak spread and another couple mahi make it to the boat. The limited cooler space on the yak was evident.

Click here to read the full forum report.

The Fish Are Chewing Down South

Florida Sportsman member: The Beast

Ivan gets the Cow to the boat and Devon sticks the steel to her. One down and one to go. Ken works hard, retrieving 20 and then losing 30, gaining 30 and losing 10. Finally we have the Bull at the boat and Devon clocks him with the gaff and stones him with one pull. We have a beautiful matched set.

Click here to read the full forum report.

Florida Bay Cobia

Florida Sportsman member: Miami Mutton

I see them come up and toss my bait in front of them and I’m hooked up with a 34 pound cobia, as I’m getting it close, I told Eddy "toss your bait close to my fish" and as soon as he did that he was hit, now we have a double hook up , after a 15 minute fight I bring mine close enough for a self gaff and got him in and then gaffed his fish.

Click here to read the full forum report.

Government Cut Offshore

Florida Sportsman member: snookyj