Papa's Pilar Rum Fishing Report (10/8/21)

The fishes meat was a pumpkin sword which as you can see from the picture is bright orange. Only about 5% of the fish we catch have orange meat like this. The reason the meat is so orange is because of the diet of the swordfish. These orange colored fish have a rich diet of ruby red shrimp that live down near the bottom of the ocean in really deep water. The meat is a delicacy as it is rich with fat which gives it a much better taste than the regular white swordfish meat. Halloween sure came early for this charter from Okeechobee. The sword fish bite has been red hot offshore with several fish in the 300 pound range landed this week.

Father near shore the mahi-mahi bite was hit or miss. Several boats caught fish up to 15 pounds while others got skunked. If you were going looking for mahi-mahi I would suggest running and gunning. This means thought you should run until you see something floating or a good area to troll. Don’t just put in your lines and start fishing. It seems as if most mahi-mahi caught this week we’re on floating objects. Don’t waste your time trolling slow right now. 

Even farther inshore the kingfish bite was basically nonexistent but there were a few sailfish caught. The sailfish and wahoo season is creeping up on us and we are in a transitional period right now. Near shore fishing should pick up in a few weeks with the arrival of wind and cold fronts. Give the swordfish and mahi-mahi a try this weekend.

• RJ Boyle

The fishing has been good with nice dolphin in 800 to 1000 ft. with scattered grass floating debris and bird activity. On the edge there's been lots of ballyhoo with some small kingfish. in closer there have been mutton snapper eating ballyhoo on the patchreefs and finger channels.

The mullet are still coming down the beach with Tarpon snook and jacks chasing them. also heard the night snook fishing around the bridges and inlets has been on fire with mostly over slot fish.

• Captain Rick Thomas | Thomas Flyer; Miami