Mid June and the Albie assault is in full force. This is quickly becoming the “Year of the Beast”, with the average sized albie coming over the side right around twelve to fourteen pounds. Sixteen to eighteen pound fish are a daily event, as are phrases like “Man, these are tough”, “I need a break” and “I’m done”. The weather has been great with calm winds and flat seas, and nicely the sharks have not proven to be too much of a problem as of yet,( unlike last year when they were a serious PITA, absconding with two out of every five fish hooked) with only the odd fish being taken here and there. With a minimum of six more weeks to go in the season, (too much to hope for that they’ll remain into September as in the past two years), there is still plenty of time and openings in my schedule to get in on the action.
Blackfin tuna have been putting in appearances this week, we’ve managed some of the smaller ones, but the twenty to thirty pound and up fish have eluded capture so far.
There was a spectacular king mackerel bite going on right up until the most recent full moon. Some of the most consistent fishing for some of the largest kings I’ve seen in quite a few years. The speed at which a thirty pound plus king first hits the fly and then dumps several hundred yards of backing off the reel is truly shocking. Short of a sailfish or wahoo, they are the fastest thing we get to play with. The action of the kings is projected to heat back up around the end of this month according to those that fish for them on a more regular basis than I.
Beach fishing has also been darn good. The big schools of big tarpon are migrating north, the bait schools along the beaches have snook and jacks patrolling them, cobia following common southern and manta rays have been in good supply, and yellowtail and mutton snappers have been eating flies drifted deep over area reefs.
There seems to be a shortage of dolphin the past couple of weeks, not sure why. And the Skip jack tuna that we enjoyed most of the winter has also tapered off. We’ve been catching a few of both species, just not as many as I’d like to see.
This should all continue for the near future, with the only addition being the big schools of snook showing up at the inlets sometime in July.