Deep Sea Fishing in Miami—Not Just for Tourists


Deep sea fishing is an adventure everyone should experience. Explore our guide for deep sea fishing in Miami.

First things first, deep sea fishing is NOT just for men, as my wife claimed the entire way to Miami. Not only did we both have the time of our lives, but she caught the biggest fish out of the two of us. If you’re planning on bringing your wife, girlfriend, or anyone who is hesitant and likes to complain, its probably in your best interest not to mention its only about 40 degrees outside in the morning (or at least was when we went in the spring), but the company we went with had a cabin equipped with heat and AC.

We caught our own bait on our way out to deep water—unexpected but great experience. I thought it really helped ease my wife into the experience overall and help her feel more comfortable. Apparently the fish we were catching for bait—they called them little tunny—are kind of considered to be ‘trash fish’, and really best for bait, they sure were fun to catch though.

The first mate was constantly fixing and baiting our reels—especially to my wife’s relief. I really wanted my wife to get a fish and we each hoped for at least one each. We shot that goal out of the water when at the end of the day we caught 6 Mahi a Golden Tile and a Snapper.

After a few hours my wife wouldn’t stop talking about how she was going to catch a shark, a total turnaround from the beginning of the day. The Captain told us that on his last tour one of the people caught a 7 ft Mako Shark. Apparently it took over a half hour to reel the beast in.

Although I have fished before, this was my first time deep sea fishing and the Captain and Mate clearly knew what they were doing. They took us out to 1000ft deep water and explained when we saw birds overhead, that was generally a sign of fish. They were right! We saw an entire school of fish and literally, every time we put our line in the water we hooked another fish. That’s how we caught so many Mahi. The first mate helped us reel in the fish, and was especially great with my wife, showing her what to do and how to adjust her strategy.

We learned we had (inadvertently) picked the best time to go and that the optimal times are really just March, April and May although you can book a trip at pretty much any time.

Apparently there are hundreds of shipwrecks off the Miami coast and fish like to hide and live in those areas. Although we also tried things like trolling and kite fishing we caught the majority of our fish from the Mahi school and from the shipwrecks.

By the end of our trip both my wife and I had sore fingers, hands and arms, but neither of us were complaining. It was hands down on the of best experiences of our life.

The crazy thing is, we have been living in Miami for a little while now and had kind of assumed trips like this were just for the tourists, that is absolutely not the case. One of the highlights was actually the fact that at the end of the trip we were given a number of our fish to take home with us, and they were already cleaned. We fried up the snapper—it was incredible.

About the Author

Derek Holaday works with Miles Car Rental Miami to help fund his weekend adventures and enjoys doing freelance work in his free time.