The first week of May and another cold front has pushed through Miami Beach I headed up to the boat at 6:30 like usual cup of coffee in hand and on my way to the dock Once I arrived at Haulover Park we started rigging up the boat filling up the fish box and coolers with ice Once me and Sheldon filled up The bait box with fresh cut Bonita strips and fresh rig ballyhoo we rig these baits ourselves with 9/0 hooks We make pin rigs on them it’s really easy to rig these Bait using this method Simply pass the hook through the gills make sure that the pin passes Just between the lower part of the eyes And wrap with a rubber band is as simple as that once we had all the bait in all the fishing tackle out and ready go It wasn’t long after that before I met Michael really nice guy from Arizona he told me Ralph I’ve never gone deep-sea fishing in Miami before I am really excited fortunately for Mike the weather was beautiful that day we were able to do a few different types of fishing we started out heading out of Haulover cut the wind was blowing out of the south east at 10 kn. It was just a beautiful springtime day once we headed over the first reef we hooked up a couple of mackerel We quickly reeled those in And they were on ice before they even knew it as we finally got into 120 feet of water there was a smoking North Current which usually means that the fish should be biting there’s a lot of movement in the water and a lot of bait passing through as I got over the last 35 noticed showers of ballyhoo as I pass by the Stink hole Before I knew it I had the planer rod go off Mike soon was on with another nice Kingfish 20 pound class it did not catch me by surprise as I knew the fish we’re going to be showing up soon we have a lot of bait showing up on the beach it’s just a matter of time before the current the wind and the conditions are perfect to produce these quality fish by that time I turned around on the reef and I started to head south against the current picking up a few More fish as a guided the boat and Michael over the many deep wrecks and rock piles that Miami Beach has to offer Man it was such a great action packed Star for a three-quarter day trip I knew the day was going to be good as I was heading south the ocean was calm due to the southeast wind in the north current it actually flattened everything out even more once I got out in front of downtown Miami and started heading towards Key Biscayne I decided to start looking for deeper water so we started headed east once I got to 450 feet I noticed a couple birds about a mile further east of us so I started headed offshore it wasn’t too long before that as soon as I was close to the birds that I got my first strike it was a beautiful mahi-mahi in the 6 to 8 pound range soon after that we got another hit on the plane or this time it was a blackfin tuna really nice fish it ate Bonita strip with a Billy bait Red and black is my favorite color I catch a lot of Wahoos and blackfin tuna’s as these fish like to swim below the surface while using the planer a number eight Carries my bait at least 40 feet under the surface a lot of times when I find floating debris I always bring out the plane rod if I’m not trolling it at the time
It’s very effective I say more than 50% of the time that I find something floating offshore and I run my planer next to it I always pick up a wahoo or two are use a double hook 9/0 rig With an 80 foot 80 pound test mono leader no wire I will catch eight fish out of ten and maybe lose two on a cut off if you put wire on it it just doesn’t swim right and I think they spook the fish so I always fish straight mono it is just the Way to go here in Miami Beach so don’t forget on your next charter fishing adventure take a deep sea fishing trip a board to Seacross with Capt. Ralph then you will have a great time and your own personal adventure deep-sea fishing in Miami changes every day you just never know what you’re going to catch it could be mahi-mahi tuna Baracuda shark wahoo marlin cobia golden tile fish grouper snapper mackerel and never forget the blackfin tuna So now it’s around 12 noon and we’ve had an action packed three-quarter day so far we must’ve been at least 10 miles offshore I decided to start heading towards the reef after about 30 minutes of nothing happening we got close to 700 feet of water I looked at Sheldon he looked at me and we already knew what we wanted to do he went inside and he rigged up the downrod and he made a golden tile rig These fish are really good eating fish they burrow in the mud Between 900 and 600 feet they are super clean as they are in the gulfstream their whole life that water is super clean and constantly flowing through right off the coast of Florida that’s what makes our water is here full of fish and you definitely don’t have to go out too far to get them once I settled the boat down we were at 720 feet I told Sheldon go ahead and drop the line we like using a chicken rig with 3 pounds of lead any fresh bait will do key here is fresh It wasn’t more than 10 minutes that we had the bait down before we got our first strike it was a beautiful golden tilefish and a 10 pound range Michael was reeling like crazy even Sheldon had to jump in and give him a hand that’s over 800 feet of braid after about five minutes of reeling this beautiful fish is on our deck but the action did not stop there as he was reeling in this tilefish I look back and I see a beautiful mahi-mahi ice cream to Sheldon throw a bait back before you know it Sheldon had a beautiful 15 pound bull dolphin on By that time we started headed towards Haulover Park on another action packed three-quarter day deep-sea fishing aboard the Sea Cross
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