2013 Life Detox Entry 3

The World's Biggest Goldfish

Today we were back out on the blue water with Captain Platt and No Slack Sport Fishing. The weather prediction was that it would get very windy around noon so we planned to head out to the Humps (27 miles away), catch a lot of tuna and head back before the weather turned bad. So we set out at 7:20 AM and after 50 minutes we were at our destination. We started trolling with various lures and almost immediately hooked up. For your (and our) amusement below is a sequence of today's events:

7:20 AM We leave the marina

8:10 AM First splashes (soaked my foot)

8:20 Water over the bow - nice soaking for Eric and me

8:30 Triple header - 3 fish on at once

8:40 Quadruple header - 4 fish on at once

8:30 - 10:30 Catch tuna, catch tuna, catch tuna

9:50 Dad is fighting a tuna when the boat bounces hard on a wave and Dad falls down

9:51 Still on the deck he says "Catch the fish I'm fine"

9:53 Dad is back up, reclaims his fishing rod and catches the tuna himself

11:38ish Dad starts working on a fish which is about 300 feet down

12 Noon Dad hands the fishing rod over to me

12:20 I bring up the world's largest goldfish - also known as a 65 pound Amber jack. Total time to catch the fish was  about 40 minutes.

3:30 PM We return to the docks as the wind is finally rising - only an hour to get back from the humps. We also spotted several turtles and a pod of porpoises.

Our tally for the day was 25 blackfin tuna and skipjack tuna as well as the 65 pound amber jack. Not bad at all!

We went to dinner at Annette's Lobster & Steak House and had our tuna sesame seared (mostly uncooked) and amber jack prepared lemon caper style. We polished off the evening with a shared slice of key lime pie and headed home. Tomorrow is another day on the flats - sadly our last fishing day in the Keys this year so hopefully we have tales to tell tomorrow night.

P.S. Since the tourists were taking pictures with our golldfish Eric got one too. As he was providing moral support for the 40 minute effort it is only fair that he gets his picture included in today's report.

2013 Life Detox Entry 2

One fish, two fish, redfish, bluefish



Today we fished the flats with Captain Jeff Malone. We began the day catching Pompano, which is a beautiful fish that also made a beautiful dinner. We got two of them and quite enjoyed catching and eating them. 

BEFORE



AFTER



We caught some mangrove and mutton snapper as well as several bluefish, then moved along to a beautiful flat over in the Everglades National Park. We caught a bonnet-head shark, a speckled trout and a really beautiful redfish. In honor of our two pompanos and the the others (and with a shout out to Dr. Suess) we have the following picture and caption.




One fish, two fish, Redfish, Bluefish

  After the flat we tried for some jacks and finally gave up as the long day in the sun was wearing us out.  Home for a shower and then out to dinner where we had some amazing sunset moments as well as a great meal.

Tomorrow we start early and will be heading out to the Humps in hopes of catching blackfin tuna and getting back again before the high winds kick in. The Humps are a really very interesting area - basically mountains in the sea swarming with tuna. http://www.theonlinefisherman.com/how-to-all/209-find-/681-the-humps-of-the-florida-keys 

2013 Life Detox Entry 1

Life Detox Entry 1 - 2013



The first two days in the Florida Keys were cold by Florida Keys standards - in the 60s with the wind 10-15 mph as we started the day.On Monday Dad, Eric and myself went out on the Ocean side with Capt. James Platt of  No Slack Sport Fishing.  The most amusing thing about weather in the Keys is that when you talk to Florida natives when the weather is in the 60s they are usually in sweatshirts and sweatpants and shivering. One captain asked me where I was I from so I told him in Illinois it was 18 degrees and snowing - then he understood why I was so comfortable in the 60 degree weather.

We went out with jackets, wind pants, hats, hoods, gloves, fishing masks (see the pictures) and sunglasses and still felt quite chilly for the first few hours. We started the day very slowly, but then Eric caught a grunt (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haemulidae) and then a nice sized Mutton Snapper (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutton_snapper) which we eventually had for dinner. We then caught an 8 pound King Mackerel and a Spanish Mackerel. Both fish sell for $15-18 per pound in the stores but we are tired of them and gave them to the crew. After that things got quiet for a few hours. Just about the time we thought we might call it an early day the captain got a phone call and hit the gas. We hurried over to where two other ships were casting at a ray swimming nearby. On the back of that ray were 30-50 cobias (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobia). We caught 5 but 3were too small - the other two were 35 pounds and 20 pounds.

The 1st mate then put on his snorkel gear and took his spearfish gig and went overboard. He wound up spearing 2 cobias - one 20 and one 15 pounds. We settled back into some bait fishing hoping to catch a sailfish but instead caught 3 bonitas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonito) and one of them was struck near the boat by a wahoo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wahoo). We fished after the wahoo or a sailfish for another 30 minutes then we gave up and came in.

We ended up with about 30 pounds of cobia and ate the snapper for dinner tonight - blackened, fried and lemon caper. Hopefully the cobia will be coming home with us. Tomorrow is our first flats days so the sky is the limit. We have previously caught bonefish, tarpon, permit, jacks, sharks . . . it is always a good fishing day on the flats with Captain Jeff Malone (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAecbKKlVMA). Here's hoping there are some exciting fish in our future tomorrow.

Life Detox Week - Day 6

(Today I steal excerpts from my father's journal entry and paraphrase others) Friday, March 05, 2010, 6:00 PM:

We were scheduled for a full day with Captain Jesse Barnett. It was really rough on the run out with very high winds and 5-7 foot waves so that even when we were anchored up it was a struggle to keep your footing. Given the conditions we decided to go with a half-day of fishing. Suprisingly, the day was very productive.

We met our captain at 7:30AM and set out. Eric and I took the front seats, sitting on a padded cooler, and were thoroughly drenched by the time we got there.

We anchored up in about 40 feet of water over the reef, and Captain Jesse put out his chum bag while we geared up with 1/2-ounce jigs tipped with whole, live shrimp. Almost immediately we began hooking up with Blue Runners and good sized Mangrove Snappers. In the end we caught a dozen Blue Runners and 20 very good sized 3-5 pound Mangroves. We also took 6 Mutton Snapper, none of which was big enough to keep, though one of them went into the pond at the Marina. The catch included 3 King Mackerel, the largest being a 20-pounder caught by Eric,


and the other two weighing in at 15 and 10 pounds, respectively. Two Cero Mackerel were taken as well, and one Spanish Mackerel, rounded out the Mackerel catch. We kept the Mangroves (I will be taking them home with me on the plane tomorrow, along with the ones he has already frozen from yesterday).

Our last fish of the day was caught with a pin fish on the bottom - and this one was a 150-pound Nurse Shark! It was a painfully long and difficult fight, and Dad's arms and shoulders are still sore some hours later. In the end we cut the line and sent him on his way.


So our last day—half-day, really—brought us 45 fish: 20 Mangroves, 6 Muttons, 12 Blue Runners, 3 Kings, 2 Ceros, 1 Spanish, and a Nurse Shark. Not a bad way to end the 10th annual Boys’ Week.

As a fun addition to the day we met Breck the Irish Setter - the official guard dog of the Captain Hook Marina in Marathon. He was very playful but most importantly we was wonderful at running off pelicans that tried to take our fish as they were being cleaned.


So no more fishing blogs until next year. Sigh. Back to real life tommorrow including frustrating airports, travel annoyances and eventually job stresses all over again. On the UP side - a beautiful wife, 2 fabulous kids, and at leat the temperature is over 40 degrees so I will be happy for the little things.

Life Detox Week - Day 5

No post yesterday as we took a day off due to the high winds. We certainly made up for it today. Total catch was around 60 fish: 33 mangrove snapper, 7 yellow tail snapper, 4 redfish, 8 grouper (black, red and gag), 1 squirrel fish with poisonous fins,


1 bluerunner, 1 30 pound king mackerel, 2 cero mackerel and 2 Spanish mackerel.


The "almost" catch of the day was an 8 foot hammerhead shark.



Our guides today were Cody and Bucko and these two guys are amazing. They can find fish anywhere and catch anything. They saw the hammerhead swimming and stopped the boat, then took a mackerel we had already caught and put it on a huge hook. Then they tossed that near the huge shark, who promptly ate it. Dad took the first shift on fighting this monster, and I took the second shift. We had him on the line for about 15 minutes before he cut the line with his tail. Imagine pulling on a rope attached to a building - that was what it felt like trying to make this shark come towards the boat. He pulled off about 500 feet of line from the rod before he broke the line. It was definitely an amazing (if brief) battle.

We finished the day with a quick trip to Sister's Creek - a small channel with residences on one side and mangroves on the other. We fished much as you would bass fish - toss the bait as close to the shore as possible and you will likely catch something. We were there 30 minutes and caught 4 redfish (first time catching those for both Eric and myself) and another 5-6 mangrove snappers. A very nice way to finish a day of great fishing.

We took the redfish and yellowtail to a new restaurant and had an amazing meal. We were also treated to a beautiful sunset from our waterside table. All in all a wonderful day and while we are really tired we are ready for tomorrow's fishing. One final note - I have a gallon freezer bag full of mangrove snapper to bring home. Yum!

Life Detox Week - Day 3

We were pretty sure there would be no fishing today, as the big storm was supposed to be coming and the winds were predicted at 25-30MPH. Well the storm never really happened and we were able to fish until noon before the winds made the seas too rough to stay out. On the way back in we got very wet but had a good time regardless.

Today's catch was around 40 fish: 25+ Spanish mackerel, 5 or so bluefish, and about 8 ladyfish. Eric caught a Spanish mackerel that was over 7 pounds which is huge for that species - the Florida record is 12 pounds. Keep in mind these fish have a lot of teeth. Not only can they cut thru wire line, but they will gladly cut your hands as well. Our guide took a few nicks to the hands and we lost about 10 rigs (meaning leader, line and hook) to the sharper toothed fish we hooked up today.

It was an interesting day on the Florida Bay. The waves were were about 2-3 feet high and we were anchored to a rock in the middle of the bay. Having your boat sit still and hitting it with waves for 4 hours can be a challenging fishing experience. We did well anyway, but on the ride back the wind picked-up to 25MPH and we were hitting big waves and getting nice and soaked in the process. Eric has mastered his turtle look. Picture him wearing his gortex jacket and pants, then cranking down this hood till only a small circle of his face is visible. It's not pretty but it helps him stay dry.



We postponed tomorrow's charter until Friday because the wind will be blowing even harder so we decided to take a day off. If the dry land events are noteworthy I will blog them tomorrow. Thursday and Friday we will be bluewater fishing and hopefully have a lot of great pictures and beautiful fish to show you.

Life Detox Week - Day 2

We drove up to Hawk's Cay and met up with our favorite guide Jeff Malone. We started out in some sheltered areas because the wind was blowing hard, but after catching a few mangrove snapper we headed out to Florida Bay where we fished at 7-8 wrecks and reefs. In the process we had a wildlife tour and caught around 100 fish.

We saw a little blue heron, white ibises, double-crested cormorants, seagulls, terns and pelicans. We spotted 2 sea turtles, one of which was a green turtle and the other we couldn't see well enough to tell. We then proceeded to catch blue runners, jack crevalles, bluefish, mangrove snappers, black grouper, red grouper, gag grouper, and Spanish mackerel. We kept 9 of the biggest mangrove snapper and had some of them for dinner. They were prepared blackened, fried and lemon caper. Very yummy.

Eric and I may have sunburned our faces, but otherwise it has been a great day. Hoping for more of the same tomorrow but the weather gods do not appear to be our friends. More to come tomorrow.