Kayak Fishing by Morningside Park, Miami

I went out kayak fishing yesterday out of Morningside park.  It is about a 25 minute ride from my house (Broward county) and got there when the sun was coming up.  I prepped all my gear and headed to the water.  I know that the Spanish Mackerel have been running in this time of year, especially because there is a little cold front going through. So I paddle out to the south where I know there is an artificial reef and it gets up to 30 feet deep.  I anchor up and get my rods ready.

I put one line down on the bottom with a one ounce weight and a 3 foot fluorocarbon leader and another line with a small jig-head hook and fluoro leader, using live shrimp on both.  I'm working the jighead, just free lining with the current, and within 2 minutes I catch a small jack.  It was a lively little guy and gave a pretty good fight.  I rig the bait back up and throw it out.  I lost a couple baits from the smaller fish thieves and then finally I hear the line start screaming.  I reach back to the flush mount rod holder and grab the pole, it was in live bait mode on the real so it is still letting out.. zinging!  I set the hook and start the fight.  As I reel it in closer I see that it is what i set out to catch... the spanish mack!!  I flip it on board between my feet on the kayak.  It was a 20 inch beauty.   Straight to the cooler!! 

The next spot I paddle to is in the flats on the other side of Morningside Picnic Island.  I use the live shrimp on a bobber and the other pole I'm casting out a grub-tail   Tons of small bites and I land a few under size sea trout.  I drift closer to the main channel and that's where I caught some bigger ones.  I dropped the anchor and it was about 3-5 feet.  I landed a few slot speckled sea trout at about 17 inches.  The bite was on and I figured out they were in a little bit deeper water near the channel.  I was still using the bobber and they were killing up the shrimp.  One after another...   After a little bit I ran out of live bait.  I was kicking myself that I didn't get another dozen at the bait shop.   

Start to paddle around the islands casting lures but nothing really exciting, a few lizard fish and big pin fish.  I was taking a little break before the paddle back to the launch area and a manatee came out of nowhere and bumped my kayak.  I looked down and here this thing is right below and next to me the size of my boat!  It was eating some weeds that had got stuck on the yak from when I was in the flats.  Pretty awesome day out on the kayak if you ask me...