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Post by tropicbird on Feb 8, 2024 19:29:57 GMT -5
Late in 1985 fishing got really slow off here. To add to the challenge, my dad was diagnosed with emphysema and couldn't fish so I was on my own. I focused on hitting some strategic spots with my well full of pilchards and managed to scrape together some mediocre catches. Here's a photo of one such catch. This is what a slow, tough, work for every fish catch off Miami was like in 1985. 2 grouper, 7 muttons, a big mangrove, one mackerel, a big AP, and some runners. Today charter boats would brag about what a great catch they made. How times have changed.  |
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Post by Captj on Feb 9, 2024 5:51:19 GMT -5
I don't tell people how fishing was back in the 60's - 80's as it sounds like fish stories. But it was true.
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Post by lemaymiami on Feb 9, 2024 11:44:40 GMT -5
When I first got interested in bonefishing (and flats fishing in general... it was early seventies - and the average bonefish in Biscayne Bay was 8lbs... In the mid-seventies I took up fly fishing and it was an average day to release a half dozen - any day you tried... Yep, lots of changes - and one of the reasons I long ago retreated back into Everglades National Park where no commercial fishing is allowed (no jet skis either...). Miles and miles of creeks, rivers, bays - and mangrove jungle shorelines everywhere. Get off the beaten path a bit and you might not see another boat in a 70 mile round trip... Yep, I'm spoiled... My normal area to operate in the interior is 20 miles east to west and forty miles north to south... and that's just out of Flamingo- out of Chokoloskee the runs are shorter - but the possibilities are endless. Just nothing like the 'glades...
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Post by tankered on Feb 9, 2024 13:02:21 GMT -5
Those are blue runners?
I thought they were yellow jacks.
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Post by conchydong on Feb 10, 2024 18:04:19 GMT -5
Growing up in Key West if you wanted to eat fish, conch, or crawfish for dinner you could just jump in your skiff and harvest whatever you wanted to eat for dinner within a few hours. Times sure have changed.
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Post by Zif on Feb 10, 2024 18:25:39 GMT -5
Growing up in Key West if you wanted to eat fish, conch, or crawfish for dinner you could just jump in your skiff and harvest whatever you wanted to eat for dinner within a few hours. Times sure have changed. You still can, but you just might go to jail in the process. |
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Post by tropicbird on Feb 10, 2024 21:53:36 GMT -5
There may have been a couple yellow jacks in there. Photo quality is bad because I didn't have a good camera back then.
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Post by catseye on Feb 11, 2024 1:59:31 GMT -5
Back in the late 70’s I launched my 24 ft. cabin boat from Key Biscayne on a calm winter night with my wife and 8 yo daughter. When i got in the ship channel near the Sea Buoy in 120 feet depth I turned on my Ross paper depth finder and the paper turned black from top to bottom. I was not an experienced fisherman so I thought something was wrong with the machine so I turned it off to save ink. Then I put out a ballyhoo jig combo on a 12 lb spinner, but before I could get a second rod out it got hit and after a very short run it was cut off. Same thing happened with my second rod and another jig and ballyhoo. While I was rigging the two rods I turned on the depth finder once more and the paper was still getting inked from top to bottom. Then it started to dawn on me that maybe the kings were so thick that nothing was wrong with the depth finder.
I only had to place a bait just inches under the surface right next to my drifting boat and it would get nailed immediately. If the fish was able to make a run it would get cut off in seconds. Finally I resorted to dabbling a bait next to the boat and jerking a kingfish into the boat or gaffing it before it could turn and make a run. If the fish was larger then say about 8 lbs I had little chance landing it since it would easily run off the 12 lb line and would get cut off in short order. My wife and daughter were sound asleep in the cabin and were oblivious to this spectacle. Being inexperienced it never occurred to me to move to the edge of this massive school of fish that apparently were thick from the surface all the way down was to the bottom. I managed to box 22 kings before I ran out of jigs and hooks. I shared my catch with several friends and relatives so nothing went to waste.
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Post by tropicbird on Feb 11, 2024 9:49:41 GMT -5
As someone who first fished off Miami in 1972, I totally believe this. Party boats coming in with 200-300 kings in a morning was a common occurrence.
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Post by catseye on Feb 12, 2024 5:41:26 GMT -5
I was part of that kingfish mayhem on party boats when i was a junior in Coral Gables High School. (I was actually from a low income one parent home after my dad died). I would get driven down to Islamorada in the early 1960’s by a fishing buddy who had his own vehicle. We paid twenty bucks to fish on the Trade Winds drift boat during the winter kingfish run. At first we were criticized for using only 8 lb test and bare jigs. We had to explain that we were primarily interested in trying to win a citation award for a kingfish in the MET Tournament’s Spin Division that only allowed bare artificials cast out on 8 lb test. We never achieved it on that vessel since we never could land a large enough fish with out getting smoked or getting cut off by the heavier lines used by the rest of the fisherman. However we out fished everyone in sheer numbers during several trips. Once there were so many fish lying on the deck that you could barely walk with out stepping on them. The count was estimated at 400 fish. I did not enjoy the slaughter but the pure mayhem was a spectacle I have never forgotten. I would sell my fish in South Beach from my mother’s car until the police arrived and ran me off. This money allowed me to afford another trip down to Islamorada. .
After one of these trips my young arm became so swollen I could not write Monday morning with my right hand in school. When I told a teacher why I could not write with a pen or pencil she accused me of making up a ridiculous story and sent me down to the dean. The dean only wanted to hear about my fishing exploits which I expounded on to his delight. LOL
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