# Offshore or Inshore, The Fishing Is Good In Miami, Florida **URL:** https://forum.bigfishtackle.com/t/offshore-or-inshore-the-fishing-is-good-in-miami-florida/30978 **Category:** Florida Fishing General **Created:** [January 22, 2004, 12:32am UTC](https://forum.bigfishtackle.com/t/offshore-or-inshore-the-fishing-is-good-in-miami-florida/30978 "2004-01-22T00:32:10Z") **Posts on this page:** 1 **Page:** 1
### Author: ![KnotNancy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/838e76/32.png) [@KnotNancy](https://forum.bigfishtackle.com/u/KnotNancy) #### Post date: [January 22, 2004, 12:32am UTC](https://forum.bigfishtackle.com/t/offshore-or-inshore-the-fishing-is-good-in-miami-florida/30978/1 "2004-01-22T00:32:10Z")
For most of the week, there has been a lack of north current in the Government Cut to Haulover Inlet area. This has presented a challenge to put together a good offshore catch. One bright spot was the good kingfishing in the Cuban Hole area. Meanwhile the tarpon fishing in the Haulover area finally turned. Prior to Wednesday, two shots per evening was the average. That changed Wednesday evening when we got five shots. Here’s the day by day break down. Wednesday evening (1/14) - wind from the West @ 11-20 mph. The evening started slow, however, we were seeing lots of rolling fish. It was just a matter of time before they would turn on. Up until our last two drifts, we had our usual two shots. Drifting in front of the south jetty with an incoming tide gave us another 3 shots on two drifts. Live shrimp was the bait of choice. Thursday (1/15) was big boat day. We left the dock at 11:00 am and fished with wind from the SSW/NNW @ 0-16 mph. At 1:05 pm, we released a sailfish just north of the Twins that hit a sardine fished in the riggers in 103’. That turned out to be the highlight of the day as we got no other strikes. We were not looking for kingfish, however, the word was that they were solid at the Cuban Hole during the morning. Friday morning (1/16) - wind from the WNW/NNW @ 7-15 mph. We quickly caught several dozen herring at Government and ran out to the Cuban Hole to catch kingfish. Slow trolling produced 1 strike on the downrigger. We got to see the fish before it made a strong surge at the boat and pulled the hook. More slow trolling produced nothing, so I set up a drift starting in 75’. Every drift produced 1 kingfish in the 90-110 foot range. Friday afternoon (1/16) - wind started from the West and switched to the NE @ 0-3 mph. We refortified our bait with pilchards and herring and went back out front. We quickly got 1 kingfish and then it got tough. Moving south to the hotels off Key Biscayne, we watched loads of skipjack tuna busting on bait. High speed trolling with small Billy Baits produced 1 tuna that was released. Back out front of Government Cut, the downrigger produced a beautiful 20# yellow jack that was caught on 12# Red Cajun line. As we were pulling in our baits at the end of the trip, we watched a sailfish chasing the chummers I had thrown out. We stayed for a while longer, but the sail never found our baits. Saturday (1/17) Anthony Cisneros and his wife Jennifer from Salida, California flew in a day early to get in a fishing trip prior to going on a cruise. Jennifer got the hang of catching pilchards with a sabiki rig very quickly and was out fishing her husband. We moved to another area of the Cut and added a couple dozen herring. We started slow trolling out front with no strikes. A drift through the area produced a bait chopped in half behind the hook when we reeled in the downrigger rod. Moving out to 300’ and north to the Sea Buoy, we put out our flatlines, downrigger, and kite baits. In 140’, the downrigger popped but failed to hook up. In 85’, we caught a dolphin on the kite. Next drift, we started in 400’. At 146’ another dolphin ate a kite bait. In 103’, the bow flatline, stern flat line, and downrigger all hooked up. Anthony had a fish on that was running hard and while we moved toward it, Jennifer reeled in the other two fish that turned out to be very larger triggerfish. Then a school of about 15 dolphin swam out from under the boat. Jennifer caught one. The short kite bait had another on. Anthony was doing laps around the boat while I cleared other lines, released Jennifer’s dolphin, and pulled in the kite. What had been a very slow day had suddenly turned into lots of commotion. Anthony worked his fish closer to the boat and we soon saw that it was a sailfish. The fish pulled hard and make great runs, however, it never jumped once. We released it after taking some great photos. That’s the way the 3/4 day trip ended. Every fish we caught was a first for two great anglers. And, Jennifer is ready to go bait fishing again. Sunday (1/18) evening tarpon fishing at Haulover Inlet. Stephen Mras and April Wakeman from Fullerton, California were hoping to be able to catch a break in the weather so they could get out and do some swordfishing. Their back up plan was to go tarpon fishing. With the wind from the W/SW @ 15-23 mph, they opted for the tarpon trip. Minutes after putting out the live shrimp on 12# outfits, we saw several fish roll in the area and we got a solid hook up. April fought a very stubborn 75# tarpon for about an hour before it was released. The next fish was a 30 pounder that Stephen made quick work of. The third fish of the evening was a 60# fish that gave Stephen more of a work out. In between tarpon, we also caught and released 2 ladyfish. Tuesday (1/20) evening, the shrimp ran at Haulover Inlet and the tarpon turned on the feed bag. Jim Lefevre from Stuart, Florida picked on the most stubborn 100# tarpon that I’ve seen in a very long time. We fought the fish up and down the beach for 1 1/2 hours. During this time, the closest we came to getting a catch was to see the double line knot break the surface of the water next to the boat for a moment. The strain of the fight finally took its toll on the light line and it broke. During the entire fight, we watch loads of shrimp pass by the boat in the spotlight. Resetting our drift had us hooked up again with in minutes. This time we released the fish after getting a catch. And so it went the entire evening. Our last couple of fish were caught up at the Inlet and we finished the evening hooking 5 fish and landing 4. The tarpon have moved into the Haulover Inlet area solid. We can expect good action every evening for the next several weeks. Give me a call and book your date so you can experience this great action with the mighty Silver King. Captain Dave Kostyo Knot Nancy Fishing Charters 305 620-5896 Charter 305 732-2628 Beeper [www.knotnancy.com](http://www.knotnancy.com) [nkostyo@bellsouth.net](mailto:nkostyo@bellsouth.net)