Trip to Key Largo 6-24 and 6-25

[GoodOyster]

Made it down to Key Largo last Thursday evening with my dad and younger brother. Fished with a guide all day Friday, from about 7:30AM to 4:30pm. That included about an hour catching cigar minnows. We were headed out to about 1000' deep to catch tuna, chasing occasional birds looking for mahi, when he got a call from another guide saying he was tearing the fish up about a half hour west of where we were. There was a storm between us and the 1000' area he wanted to fish, so he decided we should try the other spot. We managed to catch a couple of small blackfin (5-6lb) and a skipjack (about 15lbs), and hit one school of mahi on the way over. The mahi were small, and only the first one I caught was big enough to keep, about 22". At one point we had a dozen rods with mahi on, all about 18". We got to the other spot, I think it was called "17 mile hump" or something like that, and there were already several boats in the area, chasing the few birds, trying to troll, etc. At one point my brother hooked something huge and fought it for about 15 minutes. The guide said it fought like a marlin, but it went under the boat and broke the line so we never saw it. After many drops, many fast runs after birds, we finally found another small school of mahi, and landed 3 more keepers about 20-22". We decided to try for some amberjacks, and headed in to about 300' of water and put some live cigar minnows down around 180-200' where we could see fish on his finder. Something hit one of the rigs, a standard boat rod/reel, and I fought it for almost 10 minutes before it pulled loose. I didn't like those boat rigs, preferring spinning outfits, so I put down another bait on a big spinner and soon I was fighting another nice fish. After about 10 minutes I brought in about an 8lb almaco jack. Never caught or seen one before, but the guide said they are better eating than amberjack, almost as good as permit. My dad and brother each took a turn fighting their own almacos, and then they just stopped biting. So we headed in, a little frustrated that we hadn't done better, but judging by the radio traffic we did more than some boats.

Saturday we only had a half-day charter scheduled, and we hit the water at 6am, heading out to the yellowtail snapper spot. Set out the chum and took about 3 or 4 tries to get the hang of "freelining" a small piece of ballyhoo back behind the boat to the snapper. They'd have your bait or ignore it if not done properly. Soon we were onto them and within an hour or so we had 30 in the 1-2 pound class chilling on ice. About the time my brother got the hang of catching the yellowtails, he had something rip the side open on one he was bring ing in. So they took that fish and put it on a heavier rig with steel leader, tossed it out behind the boat, and in about 30 seconds he was fighting a nice fish! Ended up being a 16lb king mack. Nice one for the box. Once we had our limit of snapper, we headed out to try some more AJs or maybe some muttons. Sat over what looked like the mother lode of fish, but nothing would hit. Finally, just about the time the guide said to roll them up, something slammed my brothers rod hard. Before he could get it out of the holder, it hit again and was gone. So we sat another 15-20 minutes, but not another hit. Had to head in with a limit of yellowtails and a king mack.

Had lots of fun being with dad and my brother, ate some good food at the restaurants, and ended up with a cooler full of fillets and mack steaks. Sure could have used a couple of big tuna and some nice mahi, though. Maybe next time!

Pics to follow, got to resize them and load to server.

[Triple Creek Reaper]

All I ask for when I head out is consistent action. It sounds like you had it, glad you got to share it with your family. Those yellow tail are going to taste good!!

[GoodOyster]

I loaded what I have to Flickr, the link below should take you to the pics. Hoping my brother can figure out his video camera and send me some video and other stills. 'Til then, here's what I got!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7752874@N08/5885520673/

[bodysnatcher]

Looks like a good time.

[lamehawk]

sweet