Recent offshore fishing reports from the South region.
Muttons off Miami
Florida Sportsman member: miami mutton
After we had a good looking yellowtail cooler, We headed out to catch the muttons, we anchored over a good mark of fish, where we also released a nice black grouper and caught a nice porgy.
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First Sword
Florida Sportsman member: wahoowillie754
So about 9:30pm we get the first hit and my cousin gets the fish boat side and see that it’s a nice fish over a 100 pounds and then the hook pulls! Get set back up on the second drift and at 11:00pm we get the second bite.
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Haulover Swordfish
Florida Sportsman member: farinco
Fourth drop, tap tap, drop it down, fish on! We fought the fish for about 30 minutes and had her by the boat in short order. She was all lit up and was a beautiful sight to see.
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Day Trip to Bimini
Florida Sportsman member: Tomm
We did not start fishing until around 11:00am. Unfortunately we missed the best tide (outgoing) and also the moon phase was not the best, but we took a stab anyway and landed a wahoo about 30 minutes into the troll.
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Haulover Deep Dropping
Florida Sportsman member: farinco
We started the day fishing State waters for blueline tilefish and got a few really nice ones, including my personal best. We then proceeded to try and find the yelloweye snapper but they are thinning out and it was a bit of a challenge.
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Miami Flags
Florida Sportsman member: miami mutton
After three times missing the spot I wanted to hit, we hit it right on the fourth try and it worked out great. We started the chum, after anchoring in 95 feet, minutes later the tails started showing up and after a few technique demos and instructions, these guys were ready to start the catching.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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.
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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…”
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.
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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.
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Deep Dropping Daylight Swords
Florida Sportsman member: ultraplayer26
From 1600-1700 feet it came right up. Once we got to the lea
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