cletus9000
08-20-2011, 09:22 PM
I just got back from a week long trip in Key Largo with the family. I rented a 23-ft center console for the the week, and had some fun learning how to fish the area. We tried offshore twice with decent success by my admittedly low standards. We also hit the back bays when the weather was less cooperative with less success, but still fish for dinner every day. Here are some of the highlights.
Sunday the winds were slick calm, so we decided to head offshore to try for mahi mahi. The plan was to look for debris and weedlines. Almost as soon as we were over the reef into the deep water we found large beds of sargassum. The first few patches did not hold much life so we headed to deeper water. While plainly in the gulf stream in deeper water, we found another patch of weeds with more life and managed a handful of mahi bites and 3 fish (2 keepers) to the boat. One lesson I learned was to have a number of pitch rods ready. We hit a large school of small fish that we could have kept near the boat by keeping one hooked fish in the water and throwing out a little bit of cut squid to chum them up. Pretty sure we could have caught our fill had we wanted to, but weren't able to hold their attention this time around because I didn't have my act together enough. We'll be better prepared next year for that.
51346513475134851349
Monday we got rained out twice in the morning and afternoon, and went snorkeling during the day. Tuesday, we hit up some back bays closer to the house since there were a number of thunderstorms threatening. Chum and live shrimp was the ticket. Caught tons of mangrove snappers, one blowtoad, one needlefish, and one nurse shark. I could have done without the nurse shark (kinda like a stingray in my opinion), but my niece's boyfriend was intent on catching one that we spotted, so I rigged up a rod with cut bait.
51351513525135051353
Wednesday gave us another shot offshore, although it was a tad rougher than Sunday in the rented boat (all that pounding made me appreciate my Grady even more). While on Sunday we had no problems finding weeds, we had no luck on Wednesday. We headed even farther out, zigging and zagging all over the place. We finally decided to pull the lines and run and gun. 10 minutes into that plan we came across a boat working some feeding birds and breaking fish. While passing by, we noticed both anglers hooked up on the boat. Game on. I put my girlfriend on the wheel while I set out the lines She headed straight for the birds and almost as soon as I had the first line in the water and rod in the holder it went off. I made short work of a pretty blackfin tuna that went into the box and we circled back. Second pass, I got two lines in before the same rod went off again. She got the blackfin this time. By then the fish had dispersed so we looked around for more activity. Finally found a few birds working again and a perky false albacore nailed the rigger line. We were hoping for mahi, but were pleasantly surprised by the tuna, which we promptly turned into sushi back at the dock.
51354513555135651357
We're already looking forward to the next trip. Last week was mostly a learning experience with some fish thrown in. Given that I was a total newbie to Keys fishing, all I have to say is that those Florida boys have it easy. Next time around we'll be better prepared.
Sunday the winds were slick calm, so we decided to head offshore to try for mahi mahi. The plan was to look for debris and weedlines. Almost as soon as we were over the reef into the deep water we found large beds of sargassum. The first few patches did not hold much life so we headed to deeper water. While plainly in the gulf stream in deeper water, we found another patch of weeds with more life and managed a handful of mahi bites and 3 fish (2 keepers) to the boat. One lesson I learned was to have a number of pitch rods ready. We hit a large school of small fish that we could have kept near the boat by keeping one hooked fish in the water and throwing out a little bit of cut squid to chum them up. Pretty sure we could have caught our fill had we wanted to, but weren't able to hold their attention this time around because I didn't have my act together enough. We'll be better prepared next year for that.
51346513475134851349
Monday we got rained out twice in the morning and afternoon, and went snorkeling during the day. Tuesday, we hit up some back bays closer to the house since there were a number of thunderstorms threatening. Chum and live shrimp was the ticket. Caught tons of mangrove snappers, one blowtoad, one needlefish, and one nurse shark. I could have done without the nurse shark (kinda like a stingray in my opinion), but my niece's boyfriend was intent on catching one that we spotted, so I rigged up a rod with cut bait.
51351513525135051353
Wednesday gave us another shot offshore, although it was a tad rougher than Sunday in the rented boat (all that pounding made me appreciate my Grady even more). While on Sunday we had no problems finding weeds, we had no luck on Wednesday. We headed even farther out, zigging and zagging all over the place. We finally decided to pull the lines and run and gun. 10 minutes into that plan we came across a boat working some feeding birds and breaking fish. While passing by, we noticed both anglers hooked up on the boat. Game on. I put my girlfriend on the wheel while I set out the lines She headed straight for the birds and almost as soon as I had the first line in the water and rod in the holder it went off. I made short work of a pretty blackfin tuna that went into the box and we circled back. Second pass, I got two lines in before the same rod went off again. She got the blackfin this time. By then the fish had dispersed so we looked around for more activity. Finally found a few birds working again and a perky false albacore nailed the rigger line. We were hoping for mahi, but were pleasantly surprised by the tuna, which we promptly turned into sushi back at the dock.
51354513555135651357
We're already looking forward to the next trip. Last week was mostly a learning experience with some fish thrown in. Given that I was a total newbie to Keys fishing, all I have to say is that those Florida boys have it easy. Next time around we'll be better prepared.