Stuart FL, Fishing Reports

Had the pleasure of fishing with a good friend of mine Joe Bravo, his dad George and their friend Mike from Eatontown, NJ. Joe has won many riding titles in his career,and will be riding at Gulfstream Park this winter.   Our game plan was to fish off Miami Beach , where Joe is in his glory, talking about stories from South Beach.     Our first drift started out in 230' and  we steadily headed in with the east wind.  We lost a mystery fish on the kite while the down rod and flat lines went untouched.  Set up a bit to the north on our second drift which was uneventful do to the lack of surface current.  It got better on our next drift as the bottom rod bows over and Joe jumps in, and fought a nice mutton to a tee.  Minutes later, down goes the bottom rod again, and Joe is up again, making quick work of the barely non legal mutton.  He was vented and quickly released.  We also caught up with a feisty  and testy shark.  Minutes later, we released a big triggerfish.   I decided since the sails we not showing themselves today, to try for some light tackle action on Spanish Mackeral.  Joe again was the first to land one while the others were looking to get on the board.  We ended up keeping 5 Macks in the 24 to 26'' range and released many more.  Overall  a great day on the water!!