Miami Beach Wreck Fishing & Deep Dropping

Wreck fishing has many variations. I will cover a few basics but all aspects of this type of fishing can be covered here. By wreck fishing, I refer to fishing areas of rough bottom, artificial reefs and shipwrecks. My descriptions relate to fishing along the Miami Beach coast. Some of this material relates to structure fishing overall and some are common to the local area.

Finding structure to fish is the most difficult and time consuming part of this type of fishing. The first step is to research potential areas to fish. This can take years or decades in many cases. A little history review will explain this concept better. Most of the local wrecks here in Miami beach are either the result of marine disaster, the W.W.II submarine attacks or intentional sinkings by the various artificial reef authorities.

Many of the near forgotten wrecks along the coast of Miami were located by commercial fishermen who usually found them by tangling their gear in the wrecks. This was very costly and most commercial fishermen, kept records of their "snags" so as to avoid them. These lists got passed on, sold or stolen and ended up in the hands of commercial hook and liners, divers, charter boat captains and eventually the recreational fishermen. The raw list was only a starting point. Perhaps 10% of the numbers were useable, and of these, each good number still required extensive searching to relocate a wreck and actually produce fish.

Years ago, there were no GPS receivers. Large commercial boats employed a vary primitive tool called Loran-A. Later the technology evolved and Loran-C became available. In the late eighties, the price of Loran-C equipment plummeted. Shortly thereafter, GPS receivers came on the market and soon they were cheap as well. The quality and features of the Loran's, GPS units and fish finders mushroomed overnight. These events influenced the rapid influx of anglers into the wreck fishing culture.

Prior to becoming a sportfishing captain, I worked as a mate on many commercial fishing vessels. In my many years of experience I have accumulated a great number of undocumented bottom structures of the coast of Miami Beach. We are constantly using this local knowledge to put you on quality fish.

Capt. Rafael Mayans
305-773-2282 or 305-965-8155
[email protected]

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