Baker's Haulover circa 2000.

Let me take you on a tour through a small Atlantic inlet with great fishing and an even greater helping of personality.

Bakers Haulover, that’s the inlet, is a moody little run. It’s the northernmost ocean access in Miami-Dade County. With a freshening east wind and outgoing tide, a few hundred yards of ocean go from pavement-smooth to Class 5 whitewater in less time than it takes a Bal Harbour cop to write a parking ticket.

The landward scenery can be every bit as rough as the inlet.

South of the Collins/A1A bridge, in the glitzy Bal Harbour district, yapping dogs lead octogenarian plastic surgery nightmares through condo canyons. On the north side, there’s a splendid family beach park, but let the kids stray too far north and they enter the only large public, clothing-optional beach in Florida.

Hanging over the region is the commingled odor of sunscreen, automotive exhaust, strong coffee and crumpled dollar bills.

Charterboat row, just around the corner from the inlet, is like a friendly museum of fishing anachronisms. It’s a place where you can still see tourists ogle at sharks and sailfish drying in the sun. You can charter a big sportfisher and reel in barracudas. Hop on a headboat to jig up grunts.

Peel back the gritty veneer, however, and what you’re looking at is still one of the best places for a fisherman to get a quick taste of South Florida bluewater angling. Haulover is about as close to the Gulf Stream as Florida gets; you’re in 100 feet of water about two miles offshore. For someone driving over from the Gulf Coast—either to launch their own boat or charter—Haulover would be an ideal place to catch an Atlantic sailfish, especially from January through March. The county marina, on Collins Avenue just south of Northeast 163rd Street, is a good one. The charterboats, a little farther south on Collins, are a mixed-bag, but if you ask the right questions (can we keep a baby sailfish? will we catch a great white?) you’ll figure out who to fish with.

Bailing dolphin offshore.

Basically, to enjoy the Haulover experience, you steer around the funk the same way you steer to the corners of the jetties to escape the standing waves. That or you steer right into it and let it wash over you.

For one very memorable year my wife and I lived right in the middle of all this, in the old Harbour House condominium overlooking the inlet. We kept a 17-foot boat at Keystone Point Marina, just across the bay. Not long after we moved, our condo was dynamited into history because of a terminal mold infestation. Miami Beach real estate abhors a vacuum, and I am happy to see that a spanking new edifice is being erected in its place.

I am visiting with Capt. Dennis Forgione on his 32-foot charterboat Free Spool. Forgione, 41, is a Haulover legacy. His father, Frank, ran the headboat Tiki out of the same dock where Dennis keeps his boat.

Today Forgione has a local charter, Ray Convery, a contractor from Hollywood, Florida. Ray is a fishing nut. “I work seven days a week, then take a day off to go fishing,” he said. Ray pops the first of at least a dozen cans of concentrated caffeine he will drink. I check my mental calendar and decide that in South Florida, an eight-day week is just about right.

Jumping a tarpon at night.

A typical day for Forgione and the local fleet involves running out Haulover Inlet (which despite the reputation is usually pretty calm), then south to Government Cut, 10 miles away. The Cut is the entrance to the Port of Miami, a big inlet, wide and deep, with lots of structure attracting herrings, pilchards and other baitfish.

Many days you can load the livewell along the beach within shouting distance of sunbathers. Number 6 Hayabusa Sabiki (green bead, fish skin skirt) or similar works fine. Be on the lookout for ocean-swimming triathletes and boaters of questionable discretion. Drifting near a bait school, I once was almost broad-sided by a speedboat piloted by a man wearing no pants. This only happens in Miami.