Monday, May 5, 2008
We woke up early today to go trolling hoping for some tuna or mahi, the seas were very rough. Noaa had said 2-4ft, but it was more like 4-6 in the morning. We loaded up the live well and went out and trolled and trolled for hours from 100ft out to 1200 feet, not even a single bite. Finally we decided to head in to do some bottom fishing. We went to good ole #44 on my gps and set up in about 35 ft of water. We didn’t have any chum or anything, just pilchards and some old ballyhoo for cut bait.
Things started off ok, I caught a red grouper off the bottom who wasn’t quite bit enough, then a African pompano on the flat lined pilchard. Krystle and my dad were having fun catching yellowtails and other snapper.
After a while the bite had shut down so I tried dropping down a butterflied piece of ballyhoo and ended up catching a small grunt. While reeling the grunt in I noticed something was chasing it, immediately I thought it was a nurse shark. I gave the rod to Krystle so she could have some fun with it. She jigged the grunt a few times and opened the bail while the “shark” ate the grunt. We let him have for a minute or so and then closed the bail and proceeded to fight him up. Shes fighting a nice sized “shark” on my light weight ugly stick rated for 10-15lb line. Luckily its spooled with 30lb braid. Anyways shes having a hell of a time fighting this fish in with him making several runs down deep. No one on the boat thought much of it as we though it was a shark and we’re just having some fun, Krystle even stopped to pose for pictures while reeling him in. Everyone was laughing and having a good time. Then once she got the fish to the surface we noticed this was no shark…. it was a cobia! Boy everyone got excited then, I immediately called for the gaf and stuck the fish good bringing him in the boat on the first shot.
Cobia ended up being 40 inches to the fork and just about 20 pounds.
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Saturday, April 19, 2008
I went out today with my dad in search of some mahi-mahi. We caught one decent sized cow and had a few more strikes from some smaller dolphins. After getting several hits on the yellow & green skirts I added a light green / dark green sailure to the mix. Not more than 5 minutes later I hear the rod scream from a hit, then I look back and see the bill coming out of the water and after the bait again. I dropped the drag as low as it would go to let him eat it and then after he took off, i increased the drag and set the hook. This baby was hot, he must have jumped completely out of the water atleast 6 or 7 times, while my dad cleared all the trolling lines, and kept the boat straight, I fought this monster the best I could praying I wouldn’t run out of line. Finally after increasing the drag I got him turned around and coming towards the boat. After a great battle he was landed, we brought him in the boat to take a picture since it was my first sail, of course then we realized we forgot the camera at home and had to use my iphone. The pics aren’t the best but the memories will be great forever.
For those wondering, the fish was revived and swam off freely.
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Saturday, April 12, 2008
I went out with my buddy Stephen trolling in search of some mahi, no luck there but we did manage to pick up this blackfin tuna on a pink and white billy baits super smoker. Man it was really some good eats. We had a few pieces raw and seared the rest.. rare of course!
I went out again the next day with my dad and caught another black fin tuna similar in size to make it a great weekend! This one I caught using a billy bait smoke, rattle and troll. These billy baits really paid off this weekend maybe I’ll have to get me some more
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Sunday, March 30, 2008
Today me and Krystle hit up the reefs on our own and caught a nice variety of fish. Cero Mackerel, another small Mutton Snapper and a nice amount of yellowtails filled up the fish box. All caught on live shrimp. The reef was so beautiful you could easily see 30ft down. I love coming to fish Cudjoe Key just for that reason alone.
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Saturday, March 29, 2008
We went out today on Captain Scott’s boat the FishMonster out of Cudjoe Gardens Marina We had the best time using live pilchards on the weed lines catching schoolie dolphins. We tried for a few triple tails but they wouldn’t bite. We also hooked up with a sail but he got off pretty quick. Not bad for a day of fishing! Captain Scott never fails to disappoint he always seems to know just where to find the fish.
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Friday, March 28, 2008
Day 2 of our Keys adventure, we caught a small grouper a just legal mutton snapper and a bunch of yellowtail snapper. We only kept a few of the snapper but had a great time on the water.
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Thursday, March 27, 2008
Me and the wife went down to Cudjoe Key for our first wedding anniversary. The idea was to fish everyday for a week, and mission accomplished we had the best time. The weather was a little windy but with the help of our good friend Captain Scott Hopp we were able to find places to get our fish on every day! Here are some pics from day one.. Mostly real nice sized mangrove snapper and a few yellow tails in the mix
Plus a shot of Krystle as a guest on Scott’s Reelin In the Keys fishing radio show
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Sunday, March 16, 2008
I went out today with an old friend I used to go pier fishing with. We went out of Haulover marina bright and early and headed offshore to search for dolphin (mahi-mahi). After venturing out about 6 or 7 miles and not seeing any weedlines, slick lines or birds we decided to just fish the reef.
We must have made the right call because the reef was on fire. We caught several yellow tail snappers and then we’re surprised by a huge mutton snapper! This was exciting as it was the first mutton on my boat and the first for my friend. That mutton was followed by an even bigger mutton and we were pumped. We fished that reef the entire day. We ended up with a couple yellow tail snappers (one of them was a real nice flag), some spanish mackerels and two big fat mutton snappers.
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Friday, March 14, 2008
Me and Krystle went out with our buddy Ceaser and his friend Raul on his boat down to Fowey Rocks in Miami. What a nice place, I had never been there before but immediately it reminded me of the keys. The water was so clear and the reefs were so alive!
The conditions were perfect for a night of yellow tailin’ the seas were around 1 ft, the moon was hidden and barely a touch of rain. We were loaded with 8 boxes of chum, a ton of squid and some fresh mullet that Raul had caught in his cast net earlier in the day. After a slow start full of grunts, we started pulling in the tails. I was pleasantly surprised almost everything we caught was atleast 12 - 14 inches, with some much bigger.
We ended up the night with more fish than we cared to count. Our take was full of yellow tail snappers, mangrove snappers, a few red snapper, one or two strawberry groupers and a few grunts.
What a great time we had, I hope to go down there again soon.
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Sunday, February 24, 2008
We tried to get out early in the morning, but of course left the keys at home so we got a late start. The ocean was looking nice and flat, a little too flat, but the spread was looking good. We trolled from Haulover to Port Everglades without even a bite. We hit the Lauderdale Marina and loaded up on some nice live shrimp then headed back south. Damn dive boats where all over the reefs so it was tough to find a spot. Evenutally after trying a few spots we landed just south of Haulover Cut.
We’re fishing for snapper or some bottom fish with light tackle, basically just free lining out the shrimp and then all of a sudden bam I get hit with a smoker king. He was alot of fun on my little ugly stick, thank god I had just spooled it with 30lb braid otherwise there is no way I could have brought these kings in.
Ended the day, I caught two kings about 3ft each and my buddy Paul caught one.
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Friday, February 1, 2008
We ran down to the keys for a quick trip with Captain Scott on the fish monster. We headed out at 6am and got an early start catching bait on the reef (blue runners, yellow tails and some grunt) the plan was to fish a deep wreck and catch a monster.
This was only our second time fishing a deep wreck and boy did the fish make us work. I’ve never battled so hard, pulling up those fish from 200ft was extremely tough and quite a challenge. But one we gladly accepted and won!
The bite started early on the reef, we quickly caught a livewell full of bait, some cero mackerels and some keeper snapper. Then we anchored up on the wreck. As soon as we dropped our baits we were getting nailed, I mean absolutely clobbered by some big fish. After a few tries Krystle pulls up the first one, an amberjack. Then one after another our baits got crushed, finally I hooked up with something huge, we thought the line was caught, no way could something be so heavy. After about 30 minutes of pulling and reeling I finally came up with a real nice sized Goliath grouper. My first.
The rest of the afternoon we spent pulling up one snapper after another, then we slow trolled some live blue runners over the reef and picked up the shark.
It was another great day in paradise. Really I can’t think of anything better than spending the day in Cudjoe Key fishing the reef on the fish monster. Everytime we go down there we catch such great fish.
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Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Me & Krystle, hit the reef in our boat down in Cudjoe Key. We fished the afternoon and caught these nice sized mangrove snappers. The water was so flat and smooth you could see 30ft deep. We actually watched the snapper eating our shrimp it was a beautiful sight.
This cool turtle swam by too, the picture sucks but it was really cool.
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