Time For Some Fall Fishing

Report Date: September 27, 2022

Summer is officially over and that is good news for us. We rely heavily on fishing for mahis in the Gulfstream during the summer. It has been a staple in the charter and recreationally summer fishery since I was a kid. We have seen slow years and banner years, but I must say this past summer was the slowest mahi season I have ever seen and by far. The state of Florida announced this year that the daily limit of mahis would be 5 per person down from 10 per person. Although I agree with that cut, we jokingly said, well what do we do with the rest of our day after we have caught our limit of mahis by 10am. I wish that was the case. It was a struggle to catch 10 or 20 fish total in an entire day. Sure, we had a few days where we caught our limit, but those were very far and few in between. To make it even worse, a lot of the mahis were too small to keep, so we had to let them go. It was a tough summer for mahis.

With mahis so slow, there are not many options left in the summer. When the conditions were good, we stayed on the edge and caught kingfish, bonitos and sailfish. I would have to say that the sailfishing was better than the mahi fishing this summer.

  The past few weeks we have seen a huge influx of green water. This green water has pushed from the shore and as far as 15 miles offshore. My only guess is that it must be coming from the Gulf of Mexico since there is still north current in it. What is surprising is that the fish don’t seem to mind. We have caught, wahoo, sailfish, kingfish, and tunas in that green water. It also doesn’t affect the bottom fishing and we did well with big yellowtail snappers yesterday.

  As we are entering fall, this green water will move out and we will start seeing cold fronts and blue water soon. The next few months will be the best time for daytime swordishing in South Florida and wahoo fishing in the Bahamas. We are geared up for both and really look forward to that. We went swordfishing a few times in the past couple of weeks. We had multiple bites one trip and caught one, and our last trip we didn’t get any bites. I am confident though that October through January will produce not only quite a few swordfish but a few real big ones as well. This fall is the time to catch our next 500 pounder also known as a ”nickel”. Sailfish season is also just about to start, and we are ready with brand new reels and tackle.

  Now that fall is upon us, kids are back to school, everyone is getting ready for winter to show up, it’s time to make your fishing plans and get back down to Miami. Time to put up the kites and catch sailfish, hed offshore and battle the purple gladiator, or put out the high-speed lures and chase some wahoo!

Tight Lines,
Capt. Dean Panos

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