winter fishing is almost in full swing and should be all out war after these next couple of cold fronts blast through our area. The same weather systems that have and soon will bring the horrendous weather to the northern parts of the country are exactly what we really need to push the schools of mackerel, jacks, bluefish and baitfish south, running away from colder water and they basically keep running until they end up right here off Palm Beach where the Gulf Stream keeps the water temps closer to what all those species prefer.

Jacks, Spanish Mackerel, Bluefish, Ladyfish, a few Pompano and Cobia have all moved into the inshore waters, both along the beach and inside the inlets. King Mackerel, assorted runners, jacks, snappers and some exotics like Coronetfish are starting to pile up around offshore structure. A few dolphin and blackfin tunas have been out beyond the reef and numbers of sailfish increase with the passage of every cold front.

I hope to get more time in on the Sailfish thing this winter,(one of the few types of fishing that still gets my knees knocking…teasing a sailfish up to the transom and throwing flies will send your heart rate into triple time), than in the past couple of years. The majority of the hot sailfish bites came very quickly and was done. If you weren’t there when it was happening, you were out of luck. Here’s hoping for good weather, good numbers of sailfish and a good long time to go get them.

For those of you looking for the Spinner Sharks, I expect to be seeing them very soon, as in the next two weeks. And they may well be here now, but several weeks of fairly windy weather has prevented me from fishing along the beaches. I can only hope for a similar performance to last winter when they finally do move into the area….which was, quite frankly, as good as it gets with tons of action of a world class nature. For those of you wanting to be here for them, they usually move out of the area in late March or early April.

I guess we are skipping spring fishing this year and moving directly into summer stuff. Thank our extremely warm weather over the winter for that I guess. I will also blame the enormous lack of cooperation from the spinner sharks this winter on the weather, mainly because I do not know what else to blame it on. Lots of sharks…very few interested in playing the fly game. Very similar to tarpon fishing actually…lots of looking, seeing, casting. Hooking, not so much….
But everything else was fairly par for the course as winter fare goes. Ravenous bluefish, Spanish mackerel, ladyfish. Pompano and Cobia numbers were down, just not enough cold weather to push them down from the northern waters. In recent weeks, schools of big,(and I mean big,”not sure I want to hook that thing”big) Jack Crevalle have been both on the beach in good numbers periodically, and very consistent out on the deep water wrecks. Sinking lines, big flies and Hang On!
The Cobia have made a strong showing in recent weeks following the station wagon sized Bull sharks around the reef edge. The Bulls are feeding on the early False Albacore arrivals, as well as Huge schools of Lessor Amber-jacks. Unfortunately, hooking a Cobia will get the attention of the Bulls, and if you not lucky enough to get said Cobia back to the boat in short order, you get a real feel for the “agony of defeat”…
There were small numbers of dolphin,(and Albies for that matter) around all winter, whereas in a typical winter, they all but disappear until right about now. So the early waves of dolphin, and albies and King mackerel are just reinforcing what was already here. I think,(speculate, hope, forecast, whatever…) a good long season will be had on all the aforementioned critters.

Seems like the winter fishing is off to a nice, early start. Everything from Sailfish to Ladyfish. Bluefish, Spanish and King Mackerel, Jack Crevalle, Pompano and even a few Spinner Sharks. Dolphin are still around, as well as the small Blackfin Tuna, Skipjack Tuna and False albacore. Full dance card, I’d say.
I haven’t been fishing much between a huge amount of work to done around the house, a typical lack of clients for this time of year,( especially maddening considering the damn good fishing) and kinda crummy weather. Fun fishing for myself isn’t really enjoyed when I know all the things that need doing back at the house. But I did get a couple of “restocking the freezer” trips in, Dolphin and Tripletail filet’s will be nice for the next couple of months. I met a bull Dolphin that must have been raised by Tuna, judging from the way he fought. After a smoking run and a couple beautiful jumps, he spent the next forty minutes on his side, fifty feet straight down. Smart old bull, he got broadside and fought for every inch. Very tough fight.  An unused to, but well enjoyed, butt kicking.
Hope you’re all looking forward to the winter season as much as I am.

Wow, I have been a baaaad boy. I am very sorry, it has been way too long between fishing reports. I was shocked to see I hadn’t posted a report since the beginning of the year. The reason,(not an excuse mind you), is being delightfully busy with charters, and as always, sitting at the computer will always have to take a back seat to preparing for and doing charters.
Lets see if I can remember way back to the winter and spring fishing. The spanish mackerel, bluefish, jack crevalle, king mackerel, ladyfish were pretty typical with lots of very cooperative fish. We made attempts at sailfish a few days, but weather conditions made it difficult at best. The days that the sails were active had waves so big you were looking up at the tops of them. And the sails were just not in the mood during more favorable conditions. The spinner sharks were as thick as I have ever seen them, and we had spectacular action with them, though they left a little too early around the first of April. That is the one thing about the spinners; they leave en mass, without warning. All 50,000 of them evacuate in the space of about twenty-four to forty-eight hours. It’s like sudden withdrawal, you can have a great time with them one day, and the next day they are gone, not to be seen for nine months. Very annoying.
We had probably one of the best winters on cobia I can remember. Lots of big fish creating all kinds of chaos. Big fish for my boat was right around sixty pounds, but that was about an average sized fish this winter! Biggest one I heard of was right around one hundred pounds!
We did not see the repeat of the skipjack tuna fishing that we had in 2010. We did have a considerable amount of windy weather through the winter when they may have been out there, but just couldn’t ,(or didn’t want to) get to them. Also sadly absent were barracuda,( the most underrated fly rod fish in Fl., hard to fool with fly, sizzling fast and great jumps) over fishing and a commercial market now in place for them are to blame I am sure.
Spring fishing was a little weird. The false albacore showed up early, as they have for the past several years, with catches of them were reported as early as late March. The big schools of monster jack crevalle,(fish in the twenty to forty pound range) were very late, arriving in early May instead of late March. Dolphin fishing was also late, instead of getting started in April, did not really get going until late May. And there were some dandy fish in the forty pound range landed and some bigger ones lost. And we are still catching them, last Friday we had non-stop action on dolphin in the five to fifteen pound plus range for several hours. There was some really good king mackerel fishing in April and May, but there was an honest flotilla of boats parked on top of the king schools 24/7, and since I’m not a big fan of “combat fishing”, I never took part in that action.
The tarpon fishing this year has been abysmal, and will go down as the worst year anyone in the area can remember unless something changes. And it very well may, I am still hearing of lots of tarpon to our south. The juvenile fish in the inland waters are there, but the big schools of migratory adults have been absent thus far.
Currently we have more False Albacore than you can shake a fly rod at, blackfin tuna of various sizes showing themselves occasionally, snook in the inlets and on the beaches around bait schools, hordes of blue and rainbow runners, plenty of big sharks of various flavors eating everything you don’t get reeled back to the boat in short order, and enough sailfish to make dragging teasers, if only briefly, a good idea. Oh yeah, there has been a significant number of blue marlin in the area due to the large food supply. But since they all start at about three hundred pounds, they are probably not a viable fly rod target.
I currently have plenty of time available on the calender for anyone in need of a really good fishing fix.

Temperatures are in the thirties here this morning, so much for global warming. Nothing quite as bad as what I see happening in other parts of the nation, but pretty bad for us. Looks like we will be repeating last winters weather, hopefully with a repeat of the spectacular fishing. This cool-cold weather,(yes, I know other parts of the country are much colder, but thirties in South Florida are like below zero temps anywhere else) started a month ago, just about the time the first schools of bluefish, Spanish and king mackerel, pompano and spinner sharks started showing themselves. I find myself totally unprepared in the terms of fly supply, (something I plan on taking care of shortly) and cold tolerance,(something I can do nothing about). All of these species arrived about six weeks early, (as did hummingbirds in my yard) another indicator as to the type of winter we are in store for.
The last two months had some very good fishing for dolphin, king mackerel, jacks and assorted deep species such as amberjacks, snappers, runners and tuna. Alas, customers were few and far between, so most of the fun was enjoyed by myself and a few fishing buddies.
Sailfish have also arrived early and I plan on spending as much time as weather will allow fishing for them over the next two months. Honestly, the sailfish gig is one of the few things that still get my knees knocking and the heart racing. There is nothing quite like throwing a fly at a six foot plus fish that is only fifteen feet away. And not even a Porsche has the off-the-line speed of a sailfish…I vow to have sailfish on fly pictures up by Christmas. Now I just need someone to come help me get it done.
Happy Holidays to All…

The past two months have flown by in amazingly short time. Great fishing, great customers, but alas, not such great weather. The consensus among my guide buddies is that this was easily the windiest summer any of us can remember. For the most part, it wasn’t windy enough to shut down the fishing offshore completely, but there were a substantial number of days where common sense dictated that fishing inside the ICW would be favorable to getting beat up out in the sloppy and rough ocean. And that was OK, because for the most part, the inshore fishing was pretty entertaining with Snook of all sizes, juvenile Tarpon, Jacks and Barracuda putting on a good show.
The Albies this year were serious studs, with the average size before the fourth of July being twelve to fourteen pounds. I heard the phrases “These pull to hard”, “Are there any weaker fish we could fish for?”, and “Thats it, I’m done” more times than I can count. After 7/4/10, a flood of biblical proportions of “small” (5-8lbs) Albies moved into the area, and with them monstrous Blue Runners up to seven and eight pounds. It’s a good thing Blue Runners don’t grow to twenty or thirty pounds as I believe they would out fight everything out there. As it was, anyone willing to step up to the plate with a six or eight weight fly rod was in for a whooping.
Most of August had King Mackerel action that was world class. Kings in the ten to thirty pound range were chumming to the surface just like Albies, skyrocketing on baits and putting on aerial displays that were oh, so cool, to watch. Several occasions, they would hit surface poppers with gusto, taking the fly fifteen feet,(and higher), into the air. Try as I might, I was unable to get any of that action on video.
The middle of the summer had disappointing Dolphin action, with only a small handful being caught between mid June and Mid August. but in the past couple of weeks, they have started reappearing and hopefully the fall action will be a repeat of last year when we got tired of eating them.
Blackfin tuna have been here through out the summer, though getting past the Albies to the bigger fish (15-30+lbs) was difficult at best. Many of the smaller footballs, (5-10lbs) have come home for dinner and to date, we haven’t tired of eating them. Maybe now with the Albies thinning out, we can boat some of the big guys.
Despite the large fish kill during the extremely cold weather last winter, our Snook supply seems to be in very good shape. Areas like Flamingo and Everglades National Park, the Indian River to our north and west coast Snook hot spots had huge numbers of dead Snook,( and Tarpon among other species) so much so that it is uncertain the FWC will open a season on Snook this year. But catch and release fishing for them in this area is un-affected and action remains strong along the beaches and at the inlets.
The next several months of fishing look like this: Dolphin and tuna,(Skipjack and Blackfin) offshore, possible Wahoo around offshore debris, a smattering of Kings and Albies on the reefs, assorted Snappers, occasional Grouper, juvenile Ambrejacks around the wrecks,reefs and ledges, and beach action in the form of the mullet run/ bait migration including Snook, Tarpon, Jacks, Mackerel,(both kinds) and Spinner Sharks.
I’ve got too much time open on my calender and it’s a shame to let all this great fishing go to waste….C’mon down and fish!!!

OK, I know it has been a long while between reports. No good excuses for the hiatus other than really good fishing keeping me away from the keyboard. That and some truly grueling fly tying sessions. This getting up at 4:30 AM to tie flies because the supply was exhausted from the day before is getting a little old. Can thank the largest number of bull sharks I may have ever seen in the area for the large number of lost flies. Some days they just won’t let us get very many fish to the boat. Though I must admit, everyone gets a big kick out of a half dozen ten foot sharks all converging on one hapless Albie on the end of their line. At least the first couple of times, then that gets old too. When the sharks get really out of control, a little looking around usually will produce Albie’s off by them selves with far fewer sharks
I know I called last years Albie season the “Season of the Beast” because of the average size the fish were running. I’m not sure just what to call this year, because, if anything, the Albie’s are running even larger and in greater numbers. Twelve to fourteen lbs is about normal with very few fish under ten pounds. And trophy sized sixteen pound and up fish,(largest to date was just a hair over twenty pounds!) are coming over the side regularly.
There have been quite a few Blackfin tuna in the mix, though deliberately picking one out of the rampaging mass of Albie’s is a knack most have not mastered. A few small ones in the five to ten pound range have visited the ice box,(Blackfins are truly great table fare), but the magnum sized twenty to thirty pound plus fish have eluded capture to date. A smattering of snook, tarpon, king mackerel, dolphin and deep water work around wrecks and reefs have rounded out the current action. A good number of sailfish have been moving into the area, a hint that last years action,(Sailfish were Everywhere in July and August) has a good likelihood of repeating. Now if I can just keep the Albie’s from running interference while trying to get a sailfish hooked up, life will be grand.
There is still plenty of time open in my calender and this type of action stayed at a break-neck pace well into late August last year if anyone had a mind to get in on this years season. And for those of you looking for a fall getaway, dolphin fishing last fall was epic,( my wife told me to stop bringing home dolphin because she just couldn’t eat anymore). The Skipjack tuna, snook and tarpon also put on a great show last fall.

The winter season is flying by and I have learned several things in the past couple of months. First, I still hate the cold. I learned to hate it while living in Maine twenty five years ago and my abhorrence of it has not abated in the least. Several mornings in January there were icicles hanging off my boat until noon. Thats cold for here in Palm Beach. I mean seriously…icicles??? I prefer sweating over shivering any day. And we’ve been consistently cold throughout the season, with temps in the low forties just a few days ago. Second thing I learned is that even though my clients had just come from northern states with far colder temperatures than we had,( though not by much ) getting salt water spray on you at forty five degrees pretty much levels the field and Everyone thought it was cold, uncomfortable and pretty horrid.
The only saving grace was what the horrid, cold weather did to the fishing. The non-stop action on every one of our typical winter targets has been so fast and furious that my research into becoming a Costa Rican resident is on hold, although if we see temperatures like this again, my research may resume. That and the constant fly tying to replace wrecked flies is what I’m blaming my lack of reports on anyhow…
Our winter visitors,( the fish, not the snowbirds ) arrive in December and generally begin to leave around early April, so this action continues as of this writing and I hope to see another month of it. I’m sure it is too much to hope for the Spinner Sharks to leave around the 25th of April as they did last year, ten days later than ever before.
The Jack Crevalle number in the thousands, the Spanish Mackerel number in the millions,( I kid you not, one school of Spanish mackerel was over five miles long), Pompano fishing this winter is as good as it gets, and though it all, the Spinner Sharks have been there day in and day out. Bluefish, Ladyfish, Barracuda, and some of the very best Cobia fishing ever. So many fish, so little time.
We haven’t had much in the way of calmish weather for offshore forays, but the few I’ve managed in the past several weeks have produced Skipjack Tuna every time. I heard today of some nice dolphin being caught, and yesterday we managed a false albacore of about ten pounds. Both of those fish herald a early spring season on both of those species. I’m also going to take it as a sign that warmer weather is on the way. Which is really good because my wife wouldn’t have moved to Costa Rica anyhow.

The weather has finally turned here in S. Fl. Thank God, September and October was about as hot in temps as I’ve ever seen or care to see again. It was easier to take the hot temperatures because the fishing was just as hot. Snook and Tarpon fishing were off the hook. The mullet run/bait migration started in August and is still going on as of this writing. All the winter visitors, Jacks, Ladyfish, Bluefish, King Mackerel, Pompano and even a few early Spinner Sharks are all showing up. This most recent cold front that came through has pushed sailfish and dolphin into the area and the boats that have been getting out are reporting good catches of both. I have several reports of the Skipjack tuna being spotted offshore. It is shaping up to be a very entertaining winter.

Summer is winding down finally, and what a great summer of fishing it was. Albies put on a beautiful show, and here it is the
beginning of September. and they are still in the area! For most of the season, the average size was big, twelve to fourteen pounds
and not much at all in the way of smaller fish. And world record class sixteen to eighteen pound fish being landed every day.

Then about the beginning of July, the smaller six to ten pound fish flooded intothe area. I did not keep an accurate count of
albie releases this summer like I usually do, but somewhere north of three thousand sounds about right.
We had encounters with blackfin tuna of all sizes throughout this period, and while we did boat quite a few of the
smaller five to eight pound fish, the twenty five to thirty pound + blackfins stayed elusive.  
July also had alot of sailfish in the area. In the process of trying to get one of the big blackfins in the icebox for dinner, I released three sails solo one afternoon.

I should have spent more time dragging teasers for them with clients, I’m sure it would have been worth it.
Since the beginning of August, the king mackerel have been spectacular and as good as I’ve ever seen them. Chumming them
right to the suface, kings in the ten to twenty five pound range lauching out of the water like silver missles. Some of these fish
were reaching twenty feet in the air. In the middle of one melee’, I heard a thump and a slash that I couldn’t really identify. After
looking around to make sure that both my anglers were still holding their rods, and a quick inspection of the boat to see if
something important hadn’t gone swimming, I went back to work and forgot about the unidentified sound. Then,standing on the
front deck while hosing the boat off at the end of the day, I could see the long streak of kingfish slime and scales where one
of the high jumpers had come down on the t-top canvas before falling back in the water. Mystery solved.
In addition to the king mackerel fishing, snook in the inlets and around bait schools close to the beach have been very good.
Wreck and reef fishing with the sinking lines has also been darn entertaining with jack crevalle, amberjack, almaco jacks,
assorted snapper and a few grouper as well.

Dolphin fishing has been a disappointment this summer, I don’t think we’ve caught a keeper sized dolphin since early June.
But in the past week or so, a number of fish have been reported, so I’m hoping for a repeat of last fall when we just got tired of
catching them. The skip jack tuna should also be around for the fall.
The mullet run/fall bait migration is right around the corner, and all the madnees that involes. With mullet schools being
hammered by everything that swims from sharks and tarpon to jacks and bluefish. I’ve even seen sailfish in ten feet of water
chasing bait around on a regular  basis. We should get a little flurry of action with the spinner sharks too this fall if history repeats itself.