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.