South Hot Spots

Go fly a kite for south Florida sails.

Late fall in south Florida means sailfish and Spanish mackerel. Fishing for those two species picks up in November and remains strong through the spring. Sailfish swim year-round off south Florida, but the first cold fronts of November send large numbers of fish moving south through local waters. Savvy sailfish anglers head out a day or two after a front passes to score   multiple releases of the acrobatic fish.

South Florida anglers target sailfish by drifting along color changes and edges in 100- to 150-foot depths. They fish live goggle-eyes, herring and pilchards on kite lines and flat lines. They also keep an eye out for free-jumping sailfish. When they see one, they try to get ahead of the fish and cast live baits.

Although sailfish can pop up anywhere along the coast, the majority usually appear north of Hillsboro Inlet, near the Fort Lauderdale Steeple or south of Key Biscayne down to Triumph Reef. Keys anglers kite-fish just outside the reef line or slow-troll with live ballyhoo and pilchards on days when wind isn't strong enough to lift a kite. Keep in mind that sailfish tend to travel together, so if you hook a sail, keep other lines in the water. Another fish or two just might bite.

The same tactics and areas that produce sailfish also produce king mackerel. Kingfish often skyrocket on kite baits, so unless you're fishing a sailfish tournament and using fluorocarbon  leaders, it doesn't hurt to use a short piece of wire to keep a sharp-toothed king from cutting the line. Trolling strip baits and spoons in a zigzag pattern along the reefs or drifting with sardines or ballyhoo on triple-hook rigs or jigs might also    tempt kings.

Although they aren't as plentiful as they are in the spring, dolphin, wahoo, cobia and blackfin tuna might also show up offshore at this time of year. Swordfish anglers head 12 to 20 miles out on calm nights hoping to land a 100-pounder or bigger broadbill.

Abundant throughout south Florida in November, Spanish mackerel migrate south at this time. Look for mackerel just off the beaches and on the reefs in Broward and Miami-Dade counties, in North Biscayne Bay, in the shallows of the Gulf of Mexico in the Keys and along the boundaries of Everglades National Park. Just look for flocks of diving birds or the fish themselves as they blast through baitfish schools. Live pilchards catch mackerel, but so will cut bait, bucktail jigs, shrimp-tipped jigs, plugs, spoons and weighted flies.

Tarpon fishing starts improving around Government Cut and Haulover Inlet this month. Drift at night with live shrimp. Inshore, Keys anglers catch trout and redfish on the grass flats in Florida Bay and around the Ten Thousand Islands.

DOCK TALK
Capt. Bouncer Smith and his crew on Bouncer's Dusky 33 had the south Florida fishing community buzzing after they caught a 545.8-pound swordfish to win the Hydro Glow Summer Swordfish Slam out of Lighthouse Point Marina. The fish smashed the previous tournament record of 337 pounds. The broadbill ate a piece of bonito fillet at 7 p.m. just as the bait dropped near the bottom in 2,000 feet. Smith, his two anglers and two mates needed 5 1/2 hours to land the swordfish using a Penn International 70 two-speed reel with  80-pound braided line on a bent-butt rod.

"It was definitely the marathon of the evening," Bouncer says. "One nice thing about hooking it at 7 o'clock at night was we didn't have to be at the dock until 5 a.m. Everybody took turns fighting it. It was definitely a group effort. There were long periods of time where I would pull the line to the reel with my hand and they would crank in an inch. The last 30 or 40 feet probably took 25 to 30 minutes."

— Mike Miller, Regional Editor