Captain Dennis Forgione finds the dolphin for charter Ray Convery, back.

Ray had gamely chartered Forgione right after Hurricane Wilma swept through the area. We saw few boats on our midweek trip. The bait was likewise scattered. Hunting around, we loaded up on pinfish—great for groupers—on a grassflat north of MacArthur Causeway. The pins come quickly to a block of chum thawing in a meshbag tied off at the stern. As the tide topped out, herring schools got thick at a range marker on the outside, south of the ship channel, and we nabbed a few dozen of the glittering green baits.

Forgione remains one of only a handful of charter captains in this area who take the time to anchor precisely on a reef. The bottom fishing in this hard-fished area is understandably thin, but the reefs make up for it with with bluewater species that would make a Gulf grouper-digger drool. Drifting the reefs, or simply holding on top under power, is a good way to prospect for bottom fish, but anchoring gives you the ability to attract fish by chumming.

Dennis and Ray gear up for bottom and surface action. They send a pair of live pinfish to the bottom on 8-ounce sliding sinker rigs and 50-pound braided line, then a pair of dorsal-hooked threadfin herring on flatlines in the current. We’re in 120 feet of water, where Dennis has the anchor set with a scant 200 feet of rode. Thirty-five feet of chain—a heckuva lot for a small fishing boat—helps the anchor bite, and the steep scope holds the boat close to the fishing spot. Forgione keeps an orange poly anchor ball with a stainless ring; when he runs around upcurrent to pull the anchor, he clips the ball to the line and it slides down and floats the anchor and the heavy chain to the surface.

I don’t ask Dennis the names of the wrecks we’re fishing, because I already know, and he already knows that I know. And he also knows that I won’t tell you, not just because I’m polite, but because the fact is, you can find them—and more like them—on a public chart. What I will reveal is that in days past I saw a 45-pound wahoo caught off one, and numerous sailfish caught off the other. That’s on top of amberjack, mutton snapper, groupers and more kingfish than you’d have space to enter in a logbook. Today they’re pretty quiet, anyway, producing a few cutoffs, likely sharks.

The wrecks off Miami get picked over through the year, but a patient, savvy fisherman like Dennis nabs enough bottom fish to make anchoring in the strong current worthwhile. Once you get in 100 feet or so, you normally begin feeling the effects of the northbound Gulf Stream. When it gets ripping, upward of 4 knots, anchoring becomes a real adventure. It can be worth it, though, particularly in January, when there seems to be a migration of gag grouper onto these wrecks.

Closer to shore, in 15 to 60 feet, abundant natural ledges and a few wrecks (including one tugboat I used to enjoy fishing off Haulover) hold mangrove snappers, small red grouper, mackerel, cobia, eating-size blue runners and lots of little sharks.

Today, the water is green, the current slow, the fishing tough.

Captain Bouncer Smith, who like Dennis got started working on a Haulover partyboat, is running a charter on his 33-foot Bouncer’s Dusky. He’s a few miles south, off Key Biscayne.

“We’re out in 880, 890 feet of water,” Smith says over the VHF. That’s approximately 8 miles offshore. “We’ve got blue water and a little bit of current. We just released a sail, we’ve caught a couple of big dolphin and a few sharks.”

Bouncer's Dusky makes a bait stop at a marker south of Government Cut.

“Thanks for the report, Bouncer,” Dennis replies. On a weekday like this, with few other boats in the area, charter captains are happy to help one another. Sportfishers on their own boats frequently tune in to the VHF, listening to the same banter—channel 8 out of Haulover, 80 out of Government Cut. On a busy Saturday, the talk changes to code: “We’re out on that south number,” someone will say. “Go to the other one,” will be the answer—referring not to a spot, but another VHF channel.