Miami/Miami Beach Aboard Knot Nancy

[knotnancy 10]

The offshore action continues to be outstanding with avariety of fish. Just to name a few,we’ve been catching sailfish, blackfin tuna, dolphin, kingfish, amberjack,barracuda, and bonito. Making the runwell offshore and searching for dolphin is now worth the effort.

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The tarpon action inshore continues to be good with fish inthe 40 to 100 pound plus category.

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Conditions: wind from ESE/S @ 2 – 11 knots. Light north current.

Oscar and Jacyn Damera got to see what happens when verylight winds pick up a bit and ruffle a flat calm sea. Prior to the wind picking up some, there wasalmost no action except for 1 bonito. Alittle breeze and Jacyn hooked up to his first sailfish. The sail put on a great show and battle priorto being released. The baits went backout and almost immediately both Oscar and Jacyn were hooked up. This time it was a pair of large bonito. We had no further action and just enough timeto make a drift or two for tarpon. Thefirst drift produced no action. A quickmove did the trick and the spinning rod doubled over as line screamed off thereel. By the time the rod was picked upand the fish made a jump, it threw the hook.

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Conditions: wind from S @ 2 – 4 knots. Blue/green edge in 230 feet.

Brad Coren and I watched several sailfish free jumping aheadof us along a blue/green edge in 230 feet. We kept working the edge and doing some light live bait chumming andfinally got our reward. The sailfishgave Brad all he wanted and was soon released. With no further action along the edge, we ran offshore and found plentyof large patches amongst scattered grass. We found several dolphin and a barracuda after working numerous patches.

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Conditions: Wind from SSE @ 6 – 8 knots. Tide coming in and going out during the trip.

Chris Brackett wanted to catch a large tarpon. For numerous drifts, we watched tarponrolling all around us. Finally we gotsome cooperation and we were off to the races. The tarpon’s first run was easily 150 yards. Chris had the fish on that he was lookingfor. We took the tour of the area fromshallow to deep, back to shallow, out deep again, back shallow, to the south,then the north, and back shallow again. During the fight, the fish ran toward another boat that was also tarponfishing. The fish did this several timesand each time the other boat moved so we could pass by them. A very big THANK YOU of appreciation to theanglers on that other boat. Chrisfinally got a good view of the fish he as battling and was amazed at itssize. After a very long fight, the 130pound tarpon still had enough energy to make one last short run and huge jumpbefore being released. We made a move tothe other side and it turned out to be the right one. On 4 drifts we hooked 3 more tarpon andlanded 2 of them before Chris had enough and the trip came to an end.

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Conditions: wind from E/SSE @ 6 – 12 knots. North current and blue water.

Michael Laskow and Tony Vanveen got the offshore portion oftheir trip in. We caught a sailfish,blackfin tuna weighing in at 24 pounds, and a kingfish as we watched the lateafternoon thunderstorms moved over the tarpon grounds. The heavy rain and numerous lightning strikeshad us cancelling the tarpon portion of the trip and heading back to TNT MarineCenter.

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Conditions: wind from NNW/SSE @ 1- 7 knots. Blue water edge starting in 650 feet.

Michael Richmond and 3 friends wanted some dolphinaction. We ran offshore and soon foundseveral weed lines and large patches. After working several lines, we finally found a few keeper and throwback dolphin. We kept working and founda few more. After 12 miles, the oceanbecame very clean and at 15 miles we turned back. I got a call from a friend who was alsolooking for dolphin. He was workingthree frigate birds and picking at a few dolphin. We ran to that area and started chasing thebirds. Each time they came down we wouldpick up a few dolphin. At the trips end,we had caught 13 dolphin and kept 10.

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Conditions: ESE/SSE @ 7 – 11 knots. North current and good blue water edge.

Steve Schuman, Steve Drazin, and Mark Alpert fished a lateafternoon half day trip. This was Mark’sfirst trip offshore and he was the angler when the rod went off. It took some work, however, we found what wewere looking for. Mark was hooked up andthe fish was fighting deep and hard. Asit came into view, we saw what we were hoping for. The blackfin tuna weighed in at 23 poundsback at TNT Marine Center on the scale.

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Conditions: NW/N @ 1 – 4 knots. No current and green water inside of 240feet.

Steve Shuman, Steve Drazin, and Mark Alpert were back foranother half day. The blue water edge in240 feet produced nothing. I moved intothe green water and set up a drift that was moving slightly offshore. In 190 feet I marked a fish on therecorder. About a minute later, thebottom rod doubled over and Mark was into a tough fight with what turned out tobe a 60 pound amberjack. The baits wentout and with no further action, I decided to make a move. As I was bringing in the mid-depth rod, itgot hit and we caught and released a small blackfin tuna. At our final location of the morning, theconditions were still the same with no current and pea green water. With some heavy live bait chumming, we got abite from a sailfish on one of the flatlines. Mark fought the fish in one of the wildest fights I seen in a very longtime. The sailfish spent almost as muchtime above the water as it did below the water. It ran from one end of the boat to the other, then turned around and ranback again while tail walking and greyhounding. It ran out and then charged the boat. Some more jumps and head shakes and then more jumps. In the end, Mark released the fish and it wasa great close to the trip.

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Conditions: ESE/SSE @ 9 – 10 knots. Tide coming in and going out during the trip.

Brad Coren, Brad Kiassman, and John Seiverd had one thing inmind. Catch Brad Kiassman his firsttarpon. On the first drift, the rod infront of John took off with a tarpon. Hetook the rod and the battle was on. Thefish took us into the deep water and in to the fishing pier before beingreleased. Two drifts later and this timeBrad Kiassman was hooked up. His fishstayed in the shallower water and after a 20 minute fight it posed for apicture or two beside the boat before being released. A couple of drifts later and Brad Coren washooked up. His fish was a stubborn one,however, Brad was more stubborn and he made quick work of getting the fish tothe boat for a release. Final score forthe evening was 3 for 3.

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Conditions: ESE/S @ 14 – 21 knots. Tide incoming and outgoing during the trip.

Mike Harris and Andrew Martini experienced some blusteryconditions during their evening tarpon trip. The final score for the evening was 1 for 2 and Andrew hung in there aslong as he could while experiencing the syndromes of motion sickness.

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Conditions: N/NE @ 10 – 17 knots. Tide was last of outgoing and first ofincoming.

Britt Broadhurst and Bill Mulleax also experienced someblustery conditions. We hid from thewind as much as possible on the south side. Final score for the evening was 1 for 1.

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Conditions: NE/E @ 5 – 10 knots. Blue water edge starting in 600 feet. North current well offshore and none inshore.

Mike Berla, Mike Ready, Brett Cardinal, and Scott Swicklefish a ¾ day trip mostly offshore for dolphin with a little time outside of thereef. We found weed lines and workedseveral of them before we found two keepers and a throw back. More weed lines and no action had us decidingto run inshore to finish the trip. Onthe way in, we found a pallet that held 5 dolphin. We caught them and continued on in. On our second drift, we got a chop off on amono leader. I added a wire leader andput a bait back out. That rod got hitand we added a decent size kingfish to the fish box. Final score was 8 dolphin caught, keep 7, and1 kingfish.

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Conditions: SE/SSE @ 2 – 16 knots. Blue water edge in 650 feet. North currentwell offshore.

Nancy Thomas, Bill Scott, Joe Heldleston, and Pati Pistellifished a ¾ day offshore trip for dolphin. Like all the previous dolphin trips, we found plenty of weed lines andlarge patches. We worked line and patchafter line and patch before finally finding a lone dolphin to break theice. We continued to push offshore andcome across more weed lines and large patches 16 miles out. After working several of these lines andpatches we got a fair size school of dolphin up to the boat. With a few in the box, we threw out anotherbait and this time a much larger fish ate. Pati started with the fish along with help from Joe. When the fish made a huge run, Joe took overand 10 minutes later, we had a 24 pound bull in the fish box. We continued to work more lines and had a fewmore fish eat our baits. We caught someand released some. Final count was 8dolphin caught and 5 kept along with the larger dolphin. We had to work hard and cover a lot of groundto make the day a success.

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Conditions: SSE/S @ 5 – 13 knots. Tide going out and coming in during the trip.

Ross, Eric, and Mike Machiela, along with Chad Wolters gottheir first experience with Government Cut tarpon. Chad hooked up first with a very feisty 40pound tarpon. Next it was Eric with a 70pound fish. Ross followed that with a100 pound tarpon. Mike had his shotalso, however, the tarpon wore through the leader and released itself before wecould get the catch. Final score for theevening was 3 for 5.

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There you have it. I’m caught up again with the action aboard Knot Nancy. June will continue to be a good month to fishfor the variety of fish that the Miami area is known for. Hope to hear from you so we can get out andenjoy some fun fishing together.

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Captain Dave Kostyo<o:p></o:p>

Knot Nancy Fishing Charters,Inc<o:p></o:p>

305-965-9454<o:p></o:p>

www.knotnancy.com<o:p></o:p>

nkostyo@bellsouth.net