Reef Raider Adventures: Fishing on the Off LimitsWith Capt. Mike Murias

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Fisherman:

Mike Murias, Captain of the 29’ See Vee and owner of Off limits Charters.

Alfonso (sorry I didn’t get his last name) He’s new to fishing; spear fishing was his thing until he hooked up with Mike, but is now becoming an avid fisherman or so he told me.

And Myself of course.

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It had been nearly three weeks since I had gone fishing, and though this trip would not involve the Reef Raider it was still good to be back out on the water.

Bad weather, bad luck, bad timing, and bad Jiu Jiu had kept me landlocked, but I finally got out yesterday with my Friend Mike the Capt of Off Limits charters. I keep telling you guys he’s the man but it seems only the pictures or a trip on his boat make believers; plain and simple the guy can fish, there is no one out there with their own fishing show or otherwise that does it any better than this guys.

The plan was to head out around 9:00AM because Mike had to take care of some business early in the morning before he could go out. He is the owner of Migdalia’s awards, they service many of Dade County Public Schools with their trophies, plaques, medals, and other types of awards, he does this pretty damn well also, so if you need to order awards, give him a call and get hooked up with some top quality stuff.

Anyway, back to the fishing… Due to a meeting that ran a little longer than expected and some technical difficulties with the trailer lights we didn’t actually get in the water until about 12:30 PM, from there we made a run to get Diesel, which took some time, then finally we were off.

The Oceans were much rougher than expected, the Marine Weather Service was calling for winds out of the South East at 10 to 15 and Sea’s 2 to 4 feet, but the only thing they got right was the winds out of the South East. It was actually sustained 20 with gusts of 25 to 30 I would say, and the Sea’s were definitely 4 to 6 with some 7’s mixed in.

We went off to look for some live Bait but they were not at Mike’s secret patch, not at 2:00 PM anyway; luckily a friend of Mike’s that catches bait for a living had provided us with about 7 dozen Pilchards, so it was not a big deal that we did not find more bait and we headed off for our targeted location. It was about 13 miles from where we were and with the seas at 4 to 6 it would not be a short trip.

We got to the spot circled a bit to gather our bearings and find a spot Mike liked. He anchored once and realized that the wind and the current were at odds so we pulled up and tried it again. He was finally satisfied with our position, and by the time we got our lines in the water it was nearly 4:00 PM.

Mike had brought along some Live Crabs because it was his intent to target Permit at this spot we were headed for. Alfonso had dove at this wreck recently and knew that it held schools of Permit. We tried just crab for a while but the Permit (if they were there) were not interested. So we changed the game plan and put out some Pilchards, 2 rods out flat (one with Crab the other with a Pilchard, 2 rods at mid water, and of course two rods to the bottom.

Alfons also had stated that the wreck held many Black grouper and also a couple of Goliath, so we knew it would be a challenge to get the Blacks up from the deep wreck, but also to keep the Goliath from devouring it.

Sure enough, not long after the Pilchards made it down… BANG the rod bent over, mike reeled down and whatever it was made a run for the wreck, it made it there and locked itself down, after several attempts to free the fish from the wreck, the line broke off. Then BANG! My rod bent over, I actually got whatever it was up about a third of the way up before something bigger grabbed it and head down like a locomotive.

Mike surmised it was the Goliath and made the comment that any efforts to get fish to the boat from that bottom would likely be futile, but we did not give up. One of the flat lines screamed and we felt some excitement that we might get some top water action, mike worked the rod pretty easily, at the end of it was just a schoolie Dolphin, we left it in the water a few minutes to see if he could bring some company, but he was rogue and no other Dolphin appeared. Not long after we released it alive to go do some growing so we can run into him again another day.

We had experienced a few more runs on the bottom only to be cut off time and again, and then things got quiet for around 20 minutes, then all of a sudden BANG! And not a minute later BANG again! My rod screamed out, and my new Finore Offshore was about to be tested. Whatever it was made a run to the surface which meant it was not a Groper but a pelagic, good news because likely it would not be bothered by the Goliath. While I was fighting this beast, Mikes rod with a crab on flat line took off as well.

We both fought nice fish around the boat, and he got his in first, it turned out to be a nice Cobia. Some minutes later my fish was finally nearing the surface as well, it was a big African Pompano. Alfonso made quick work of both fish with the Gaff and all of a sudden the empty fish box contained two nice prizes.

Things settled down for some time; there was the eventual run and cut off on the bottom rods, but nothing else on the top. Then at nearly 7:00 PM with the sun going down, BANG! This time it was Alfonso’s rod, he was free lining a crab, so it was either another Cobia or our first Permit. About five seconds into its run Mike proclaimed it was in fact a Permit, it took about two thirds of the spool on a Bait Runner 6500B before Alfonso turned it for home, nearly 20 minutes later it was boat side and Mike gaffed a rather large Permit into the boat. We fished only another 20 minutes or so after that, knowing we had a long run in, and satisfied that we had boated three very nice fish.

All in all another great day of fishing aboard the Off Limits. Next week I will be in Tavernier in the Florida Keys for a week and I plan to fish as much as I can so hopefully I will have some good stories.

Till Then...

Mike with his Cobia

(no action shot, I was fighting the Pompano)

Here is my African Pompano