Summer Is Right Around The Corner

Report Date: May 27, 2016

Fishing for the most part can be pretty predictable. As we are entering June, the fishing on the edge is starting to slow down, but all that means is we are now entering the time where we are targeting mahis offshore in the Gulfstream. This is probably the most popular type of fishing in South Florida and anyone can do it. You go offshore, and it’s almost always calm this time of year, and you look for birds and debris. Debris can be anything from pieces of floating wood to large mats of Sargasso weed. You can also look for diving birds. Once you locate that then you can either troll, pitch live baits, cast artificials, fish dead baits etc. The point is there are a lot of ways to catch these fish. Usually when you find structure or birds there will be a school of mahis there. Mahis are voracious eaters and are one of the fastest growing fish in the ocean, which means they need to eat a lot. Usually as soon as you toss out a bait the entire school shows up and it’s game on. What makes this so appealing is everyone from the seasoned angler to the complete novice has fun catching these fish. For starters they are colorful, plentiful, jump when hooked, can vary from a few pounds up to 50 pounds and are great eating fish. This is a great outing for the family, as you have never seen kids so excited when a school of colorful mahis show up and swim all around the boat. June through August are usually the prime months.

Besides mahis offshore, there is always the possibility of catching a few wahoo especially if you come across some floating wood or debris. The wahoo may be down deep so often trolling a planer or downrigger works well. Although not as common, but it does happen, an occasional blue marlin can be caught while trolling for mahis. Last year we were fishing a school of mahis and there was a big blue marlin trying to eat the mahis we were catching. We eventually rigged a mahi for bait and caught that blue marlin!

Another option in the summer is deep dropping for swordfish. Sometime you can actually do a combo trip where you catch mahis as well as dropping for swords. The swords really vary in size anywhere from 50 pounds up to true gladiators of 400 or more pounds.

Last but not least are the multi day trips to the Bahamas. Here we can target a bunch of different species from yellowfin tuna, blue marlin to yellowtail snappers. These trips are always a blast and usually very productive.

On that note, I am leaving to the Bahamas early next week. I will be taking a 39 SeaVee (the same one I have taken the past few years) to San Salvador Bahamas and will be strictly targeting blue marlin. Last year we had a great year catching quite a few blues as well as some white marlin. From the reports I am getting the marlin fishing is extremely good right now in the Bahamas so I am hopeful we are going to have a very successful trip. Wish us luck!

Ill be back mid June and have trips available towards the end of June. Get your plans ready and look at your dates and lets book some summer trips!

Tight Lines,
Capt. Dean Panos

Back to Main Fishing Report Page