The patches are anywhere from 35-15 feet of water so you won’t need the big rigs, but 10-20 pound gear is what I use.  The patches are a conglomerate of grass and reef all intertwined together.  Since its shallow the grass can grow and the reef flourishes well in this shallow water too.  When hurricanes hit, the shallow reefs do take a beating and I have seen in some areas where entire reefs patches have been destroyed by heavy seas.  There are many baits I like to use on the patches and to have an assortment will improve your catch.  I prefer to have ballyhoo, shrimp, pinfish and pilchards.  I like the knocker rig as well for the patches, since there is rarely too much current to use a knocker rig it is very effective on the patches.  I will use cut ballyhoo, pinfish, shrimp, and pilchards on this rig.  Because we are fishing near or on the patch a leader rig will get hung up too often for my tastes and the knocker rig is designed for keeping your bait close to the bottom, allowing the fish to run with the bait and if you do get hung in the bottom it has a greater chance of freeing itself.  If you get hung in the bottom with a knocker rig don’t pull hard, as you will only drive the hook further into the snag, or wedge the weight in the coral crevice.  But instead, let the line go slack and jerk up violently.  Do this repeatedly until snag comes free.  It’s important to let the line go slack as this will change the direction of the pressure of the line when you jerk up.  Do this for 2-4 minutes and at your last resort break it off. 

                When people think of the patches they think of hogfish, as this is where most of them live.  The grass beds and coral patches contain their favorite food, crustaceans.  Shrimps, little crabs are the diet of the hogfish, but they will eat fish sometimes.  So when targeting these tasty critters you should use shrimp on a 1/8-1/4 oz. jig or the same size knocker rig.  I will tend to choose patches that are close to the grass beds or even grass beds themselves.  I will not put chum out if I am targeting them but I will pop the heads off the shrimp and put them into a chum bag and lower it down to the bottom on some cord with some weight.  This will keep the small yellowtails and blue runners from converging on your chum slick as if you were to use frozen chum.  If you use frozen chum and you toss out shrimp 50-1 you will catch anything but a hog fish as they will generally eat it before it hit the bottom, whereas hogfish are slow eaters and with all the other fish around they only get the scraps.  So try this method without chum just the shrimp heads, if you want you can also just pitch the shrimp heads over the side but I find that keeping them in the bag they will last longer.  Move from patch to patch until you find a good gathering of hogfish or jump in and look around and shoot them with a spear gun.  But using this shrimp chum method really works. 

                Patches are loaded with fish but some are barren, so cruise around and look for schooling fish, this will indicate natural food is present and that there may be great fishing ahead.  After you have chosen your location I like to spiral out with the cum bag in the water spreading out the chum as I said before, there is generally little current on the patches, so use the boat to spread out the chum before you anchor down.  If you find out that there is no current, you may and try another spot.  Fishing in front of the seven mile bridge, there is always water movement here, if there is no current there is always an influx of water from the tides here.  I love mangrove fishing and my favorite bait for them is pilchards with pinfish coming in as a close second.  Using a knocker rig I will hook the pilchards a little different than most.  I hook the pilchard through the anus and come out right before throat.  Just under the pectoral fin.  I use a #3 long shank hook for this method, as it will not work with a short shank hook.  This will not kill the bait if done right, and it will allow the bait to swim up off of the bottom in sight of the large mangroves.  I generally allow the mangrove snappers to   run with the bait for about 3-5 feet, this allows them get the hook in the mouth, as mangroves tend to grab and run with the bait before they take it all the way in their mouth.  So, by allowing them to run with the bait for a few feet will help your hookup ratio, especially if you are using cut ballyhoo or live bait. 

                If the wind is blowing too hard to even get out on the patches, there is another untapped area people overlook.  Here in Marathon there are plenty of along shore fishing areas.  The bridge may not be for everyone, but Sisters Creek has snook, ladyfish, snappers, groupers, tarpon, and even redfish this time of the year.  If you don’t have pilchards then shrimp will be the next best bait to use.  You can chum, which I like to do and get a feeding frenzy going.  Now since you are in a creek or canal there is always water movement so make sure you have sinkers up to 1 ½ oz. and in this area I  like using a short leader rig with a swivel which keeps the bait away from the weight.  Like the bridge, in certain areas the tide will spread out your chum.  You can use pinfish here as well as long as they are really small or cut them in half if you can’t get those candy sized baits.  When I look for places to fish I will look for turns in the creek or heavy over grown mangroves trees.  Fish right up against the trees and if you do have pilchards throw some out as chum.  I even catch mackerel in the creek so you just never know what there will biting that day but there are always mangroves and grouper.  Don’t let your vacation or your day off go to waste, get out and go fishing even when the wind blows.

I moved to Florida in 1996 and attended Johnson & Whales University where I spent most of my spare time out on the head boats 5-7 days a week.  I could never get enough fishing in.  Most people were out drinking where I was addicted to my favorite activity on earth, Fishing.  Going out on the head boats I got involved with a few different clicks of fisherman.  I got to know all the captains and mates on the docks; they gave me special attention as they saw my love for fishing.  I even got involved with a few commercial fishermen, they let me go fishing with them for free, and I thought it was the greatest thing that ever happened to me.  Live baiting for kingfish at anchor or dropping with 4/0 senators for amberjacks, they were getting free labor and I was getting my addiction taken care of.  Throughout the four years of Collage I became great friends with everyone on the dock.  I finished up collage and started to work for Marriott as a banquet chef, in the processI lost the ability to go fishing.  Working 60-70 hours a week I was jones’n to go fishing, but once a week just wasn’t enough.  After a long look at my life I decided to quit being a chef and get into the fishing industry.  I got a job on a charter boat at Haulover Marina where I used to get on the head boats at.  My first job was on the oldest, beat up boat with six mounted chairs in the cockpit.  The Shark was this leviathan’s name and the owner’s dad had built that boat in his backyard back in the ‘60s.  I learned fishing from an old timer Capt. Roger Kohn, looking back , the ways we fish has not changed for 50 years and new ways are always being thought of.  This was the beginning of my epic adventures on the open ocean.  I have learned from some of the greatest captains in South Florida, from Capt. Bouncer Smith to Capt. Dennis Forgione in Miami to Capt. Roy Limback in Islamorada and Capt. Ted D’ Esposito, who was the one who really gave me my Florida Keys foundation.  Since then I have been learning on the job trying new things and also sharing with my other captain friends, as we all tweak our techniques.

This past week I had a captain come down from the West Coast of Florida,  I used to go withthis captain in Miami as a client back in my collage days.  My buddy Kalvin and an old fishing buddy Bravid who used to fish the same boats up in Miami as I used too, came down here to do some bottom fishing.  Now it was up to me to put them on some fish, no pressure, hahaha.  We spent the early morning catching my favorite grouper bait, white grunts.  It wasn’t long before we had 30 or so nice grunts.  I then pulled my pinfish trap which was loaded will all sizes of pinfish.  Now we were ready to take on the groupers.  I started at one of my favorite grouper spots, which is a wreck in 104 feet of water.  I had some really good anglers onboard so I figured we could get our limit pretty quickly.  After ten minutes we had three hooked fish and only got one to the boat.  We were using 80-130# test gear.  We had hooked some really big ones and unfortunately they got in the rocks even with great anglers and stout gear.  After breaking off another two fish the bite turned off, instead of going to another wreck I have learned to shift the boat and re-anchor on a different side of the wreck.  When fish get spooked they usually will not go far, just in another quadrant of the wreck.  Now that we have only moved 200 feet it wasn’t ten minutes before we had a double header, one turned out to be a goliath and the other got back to the wreck.  Then we pulled the hooks on the goliath.  It’s quite easy to tell when you get a goliath; its fight is strong, with slow tail kicks, unlike a black grouper that digs hard and fast.  After losing 19 fish from them getting rocked up or eaten by sharks we left and went to a reef spot where we lost a few more blacks to sharks, but we did manage to get another one around 12 pounds.

It was almost noon by now, so I decided to start hitting the deeper wrecks for some muttons and amberjacks.  First drop we had a double header amberjack and up in the front of the boat my buddy Kalvin and his bosses cousin were jigging diamond jigs and were catching genuine red snappers.  This time of the year we have to release them.  It’s astonishing how we get more regulations each year, even though we are catching more and more fish.  You might think that if the stocks are increasing then we are over regulated.  Just kind of makes sense to me.  If we could get to a point where the stocks stay the same each year then I think the bureaucrats would shut us down completely.  I have learned from biologists that are currently working on the grouper studies in the Gulf, and they say that each year is different because of the population of offspring that survived to grow up and become adults where then they have to run the gauntlet us fisherman put them through.  So some years you will have better stocks than others.  There is no way around that, but for the bureaucrats to not just look at landings, but talk to the fisherman, do interviews, and hire neutral parties to conduct non-bias studies.

After catching another grouper on the wrecks and more amberjacks than they wanted to catch we moved in close to the patches where I have been doing well on large mangrove snapper.  It takes time sometimes to get the fish to gather behind the boat.  Knowing your bottom you can figure out where the fish are going to hang out and where you can get them to come to you by chumming.  When I fish the patches I like to fish on the sandy bottom on the up current,  outside edge of the patch.  I will also take a big circle with the chum bag around the patch to get the chum spread out. So when the current takes chum away from the boat, it starts out as a big cone, narrowing down to the back of your boat.  This time of the year the patches are loaded with fish that are coming from deeper water looking for food (ballyhoo) which is piling up all over the reef.  After cast netting a half of a five gallon bucket we rigged up our rods with jigs and knocker rigs and it wasn’t long before we started catching mangrove snappers.  My Capt. buddy Kalvin and I used to fish 5-7 day a week together almost 12 years ago and it sure was nice getting to fish with him again.  Bravid too, he was always good to fish every weekend or when his work allowed him to during the week.  Getting to fish with old friends really makes fishing much more enjoyable, so catch up with an old friend, invite them out to go fishing and rekindle your old friendships and have a hoot, oh yeah don’t forget, catch some fish.

When preparing their boat for departure, many overlook the condition and the accessibility of their safety gear.  People tend to never check pumps and systems until they need them, and in some cases it could cost you your life.  I hope after reading this article you will become more aware of what kind of condition your boat is really in.  I, like most others, love to go fishing and it don’t matter if it’s flat calm or 10 foot seas; we love the ocean and the glory of catching the big one.  It is the owners or captains responsibility to do a once over of the entire boat before departure and ultimately his or hers duty as a captain to ensure the safety of the people on board.

Physical inspections of your safety gear is a must.  Check the expiration dates on flares, make sure your fire extinguishers are charged, and check the condition of your life jackets…all simple things you can do every month to insure that when the time comes you are prepared.

Uncharged fire extinguishers can be given to your local fire department for disposal and new ones can be picked up at any good boating retailer.  Fire extinguishers should be kept in accessible places and just because the Coast Guard mandates a certain kind and how many it is wise to have one extra or a bigger fire extinguishers than it is required.

Life jackets are always overlooked, stored away and never checked because you put them there yourself a long time ago.  Take time to pull them out, inspect them for tears, mold or some sort of defect, check the lights to be sure they work and replace any that are questionable (not just the ones that are not working).

Many people have flares, but have never used them before.  Take the time to learn how to use them properly.  The coast guard offers a class once a year to explain and show boaters how to use flares and other important safty equipment.   Keep the out-of-date flare with the good ones you never know when you might need to have extra flares.   Everyone onboard needs to know how to use them properly.   When practicing with the flares contact your Coast Guard Station and inform them that you will be firing off the white flare which is the only one you can practice with.  You can also contact the Coast guard for courses on how to use the emergency signaling equipment; usually it will be the Coast Guard Auxiliary who will help you out.

Your boat systems can be the leading cause of why you need to use your emergency equipment.  Before any trip out on the water you should always check your bilge pumps to ensure they are working properly.  Most boats have a manual switch that activates your bilge pumps and is a good way of inspecting your pump, but it does not indicate if your float switch is working properly.  As such, I would recommend that you go into your bilge and lift up on your bilge pump float switch to make sure that it activates the pump as well with the manual switch on your dashboard.  Now that you are in your bilge, look for debris in your bilge that could impede the bilge pump or get caught inside of it where it could cause a failure of this pump down the road.  This is also a good time to check all hose clamps on all hoses to make sure that none are rusted through.  Replace any that are questionable.  Any hoses below the water line should have two hose clamps, giving you a backup just in case one fails.  Any cracked hoses are potential for failure so they should also be repaired before you take your boat out again.  Also look for any wires that have been worn through by the natural vibrations of a boat in use.  Exposed wires can become a fire hazard; fires are by far the worst emergency that you ever could encounter on a boat.

Understanding your boat could save your life.  Every boat has its limits, set by the manufacturer and regulated by the Coast Guard either by weight capacity or the amount of people allowed on the vessel.  Exceeding these limits can be catastrophic.  Never overload your boat and never go out in weather that your boat can’t handle.  Not all boats are created equal; some perform great in heavy seas where others flounder to stay afloat.  Knowing your boats capabilities is incredibly important.  Learning your boat’s sea capability will take time, in some cases years depending how many years you have been a boater or how often you are out on the water.

When tackling big seas, it takes all of your attention to be safe, knowing how to take the waves as they come can the most important lesson learned on a boat, as most boaters we have all gotten caught in a storm where seas were bigger than we would have liked.  But knowing how to tackle big waves in an emergency situation will save you and your boat.  There are plenty of boater safety and boat handling classes out there for you to learn how to operate a boat safely and successfully when the situation arises.  Don’t take unnecessary risks, it’s not just your life you are endangering it could be your whole family.  Play safe and be responsible, know your boat and what your limitations are.  Be safe and enjoy the ocean as it is our pearl.

Earlier in the week we did ok with two doubles on one day, but ended up pulling the hooks on one of the sails on each of the doubles, so 2-4 for a half day.  Not to shabby for a half day charter with my clients Tom Chambers on the Cara Mia.

There has been great dolphin fishing since May, which is a little unusual, but not unheard of.  I kept them busy when we got into the dolphin by keeping up with the baits and getting them up into the riggers.  At times we had triple headers on!  The boys’ arms were a little tired but they managed to keep up with the fish.  It was a little rough in the morning, but it laid down nicely by noon and was one of the most beautiful days this past month.

Tomorrow is looking good as well, as we go bottom fishing for some muttons and amberjacks.

Sailfish, kingfish and wahoo are some of the predators that we will be targeting.  These predators will be hanging close to the reef’s edge where batfish congregate.  The optimal winds will be a north-easterly direction bucking the east bound current and at times this will push the bait off the edge of the reef where the predators are waiting.  It is a small area between the reef and 200 feet of water where the majority of these fish will be roaming for food.

Looking for birds and color changes will be your first tactic in finding these fish.  Finding clean water is the key, with the increasing winds from the cold fronts the water can get stirred up near shore which gets pushed offshore by the wind, so this is where your color changes are going to be found.  Where the dirty inshore water meets the gulfstream or a splinter of it, there will be color change and a current edge.   Most of the time the fish will be in the cleaner water, but not always, so crossing over may be an option too.

Sailfish

Fishing for sailfish, you will want to have nice fresh caught bait, slow-trolled or flown in the kite.  Troll down these edges or set up the kites so that your baits are in the clear or blue side of the edge will generate most of your bites.  When looking down these edges look at your chart, you will notice outcroppings of the reef will push out the color change or current edge; these slight changes in direction of the current will congregate bait and in turn concentrate the sailfish.  Since most of the sailfish are on the move as they head down sea looking for food, they will hold up in these areas where the bait is thick and you will notice that they may even school up as they feed in these places along the reef.

Now, if trolling or flying the kite isn’t your cup of tea you can also chase bait showers, which can be very productive if the fish are actively feeding in the shallows.  Having a tower is a great advantage when doing this but not necessary.  Run up and down the inside of the reef from 20-40 feet of water while looking for diving birds and showering bait.  It’s pretty cut and dry: find the bait showers and cast your bait into the shower or where the shower was.  Free spool your line till something grabs it and get to reeling.  This is really a fast-paced style of fishing and being able to cast is a must.  You may have to cast many times before you get a taker, but once you get one hooked up it can be possible to get a few more hooked up, because generally when the bait showers happen, it’s because of many fish chasing them.

The way you can tell if it’s more than one fish chasing baits is if the showers go into different directions, as a few fish will split the main school into a few bait showers going in different directions.  No matter what you like to do, having fresh caught bait is the key.  Nice, lively baits trigger the bite, so when catching your bait, handle them with care and don’t over crowd your live well as that’s not good either.

Wahooooooooooo!

Yeah baby, wahoo is one of the best fighting fish, and tasty too; a very sought after game fish for its blistering speed and its table quality.  Wahoo like large baits for their size, so fishing with live bait from one to two pounds isn’t out of the question.  Speedos and tinker mackerel are the very best bait for them, but blue runners, goggle eyes, and ballyhoo work well too for a secondary bait if you can’t get the choice bait.

Basically, fishing over deep wrecks and along weedlines and current edges is your best bet to find these elusive critters.  Most people use live bait if they want to be sporty with them, but if you just want to catch some your best bet is high speed trolling at 15 knots.  Yep, 15 knots…it’s fast, but not too fast for these game fish.  Wahoo have been clocked at 65 mph, so 15 kts is like a fast walk for them.  Wahoo, like most of the mackerel family, are sight feeders and react to action.  So fast-moving baits catch their attention and trigger their need to feed.

Since these fish are toothy, you need wire to catch them, but I have caught plenty on mono dolphin rigs and even light 30# mono sailfish rigs too.  It can be done, but to improve your chances, #5 wire is minimal for them on live bait and I like 200# seven strand cable for the high speed lures.  When using the high speed lures, color can make a difference so put out many different colors and find out what they are feeding on and then you can switch to have most lures of the color that caught the first few fish.  Generally, dark colors like red and black, black and purple are always good, but pink and chartreuse can also be deadly.  For your tackle, I suggest at least 50# gear to stand up to the drag of the lure and weight at 15 kts.

Kingfish

Just a trash fish for some, but for most of us, it’s a great game fish and fun fish with their big runs and explosive bites and up to 15 foot leaps in the air.  Kingfish have been under-rated as a great game fish here because they are nucence when we are trying to target other species.  But when you get into an area where you are getting cut off, put some wire on…they are blast to catch, even if they aren’t so great to eat.

There are many ways to catch kings: trolling with lures, live and dead bait, jigging and chumming them up.  All work great, but my favorite way is chumming or chunking them up.  I will usually find them near small shallow wrecks in 150-100 feet of water, as larger wreck usually have barracudas on them and the kings don’t like being stalked by ‘cudas, so they will stay clear of those large wrecks which hold large amounts of barracudas.  Early in the morning, I like to net up 500 pilchards for the live well and then another 500 which I kill and put in my cooler for chunking.  I will anchor up in a good spot for kings and start chunking…but don’t cut too many up as you don’t want to feed them but just spark their interest.  I like to cut two pilchards into 2 or 3 pieces and throw them over every few minutes.

I will belly-hook two baits on the surface and put one down on a short leader rig with a 2 oz. weight to get it down 60 feet or so.  Eventually I will start throwing five live baits at a time with the chunks and it won’t take long for the kings to start busting the live bait up on the surface.  It is a show, little explosions blowing up all around the boat as the poor pilchards run for their life.  Once they start hitting the freebees you should start getting hit on your top and bottom baits.  Once we get them all fired up, I will start casting to the boils and explosions and its only seconds before you get a bite, and it is unmistakeble as they scream line off the reel.  It’s a blast to use 12-15 pound test, but if you do use such light tackle make sure you got some line capacity because some of these bigger kings will strip 100 yards of line off on their first run.  These fish will test your gear and terminal tackle.  I you are getting 20-40 pounders you will need to bump up the wire to #6 from #5 because the bigger kings eat through smaller wire leaders with ease.

With the water cooling off and the weather, be sure to dress appropriately and bring some extra clothes so that you can enjoy this great time of the year to fish.  Lots of layers is the key so as the day goes on you can shed layers as it gets warmer or add more as the sun goes down.  Be comfortable while you fish and enjoy the Keys even if the locals won’t step outside because of the cold.

This is a remarkable time to fish down here, as the winds are calm with scattered showers around, nice warm weather for fishing and diving.  Another great reason to come is it is much cheaper to be here, as we leave our tourist season behind, all the hotels and motels drop their rates to try and compete with the loss of tourists.  So not only is the fishing good, but it costs cheaper to come and play.  It may be hard for some to come as your kids are working hard in school, but for those who have no kids or your kids are grown or in college, this is an amazing time for you.

Hate waiting in lines for dinner, or at the grocer? Or too many people on your fishing spot? Well, this is the time for you.  Coming this time of the year you need to watch the weather, but if you can time it right, and as long as there isn’t a hurricane bearing down on us, the Florida Keys at this time of year can be amazing.

The hurricane season has so much to offer fisherman, from snappers to groupers on the reef, to dolphin, wahoo, and tuna offshore.  Fishing for muttons, amberjacks, and cubera snappers on the wrecks, and deep-dropping for fish such as barrels, and rosefish in 600-1000 feet of water.  As we speak, the ban on the deep-drop fish is being over turned, so we will be able to fish for snowys, tiles and queen snapper, too.  During the fall, the Keys have so much to offer, as we don’t want to forget about diving for lobsters and spearfishing for hogfish, snappers and groupers.

With the water temperature around the mid 80s, there is no better time to enjoy your time down here in the Keys.  Who knows? After a class on how to handle lionfish, you may want to take a stab of spearfishing these invasive species that seem to be over running the reef.  There are lionfish derbies which you might want to get in on for cash and prizes as well.

In October, I will be targeting dolphin as they return from the northern waters as they cool.  This dolphin season has been great — plenty of fish on most days — but in October, the small fish will have grown to ten pounds on their journey up the east coast of the United States, and they will follow the warm water back down here to the Keys and the Caribbean to winter in the cold months.  Dolphin can travel 1000 miles in a week, so it doesn’t take them long to come back when the waters up north start to turn cold.  I really enjoy the October dolphin run; it’s usually close in from 5-15 miles from the beach.  And all through the winter while we live bait for the sailfish we catch dolphin as a by-catch.

I will also be looking for some great wahoo action during this time as well, fishing weed lines and floating debris can be very effective this time of the year as well.  If you want to catch wahoo, finding good water in 200-400 feet of water is a must…tthese toothy critters love fast moving baits and using large natural baits work well too.  Catching large dolphin will be my primary target, but a wahoo will always round out a day especially when they are over 30 pounds, which they are in October.

All of the reef will be back to normal…no more spawning fish.  They have all finished this now, so our normal groupings of yellowtail will be schooling around the ledges and the edge of the reef.  As the water cools a bit, you will start seeing that the trend will be shallower water as these fish move up into  the shallower  reefs.   As the water cools, the groupers will also start moving back up the reef as they will start to gather for their spawn around the first of December.  Fish will gather were the food is present, so when cruising up and down the reef, take note where the schools of yellowtail are, as this will be a beacon for these grouper who are feeding on them.

If you ever had a fish tank, there was always the boss of the group.  On the reef, it’s the big black grouper or goliath.  They will have the prime spot to ambush their food, usually near large coral heads, holes in the reef, or cracks in the reef.  The reef is not the same throughout the Keys; it changes from area to area.  The edge may be in 70 feet or 90 feet in other areas, but as long as there are holes and large relief areas you will find the groupers stalking the smaller fish.  They are not picky, but it best to have an assortment of bait…it can’t hurt, anyway.  If anything, when fishing for black groupers, white grunts — the bigger the better, in most cases — are key, because they come with their own grouper call.  If you ever caught a grunt you know what I mean; when they get distressed, they grunt, and as a result this calls in the groupers.

Come on down, and plan a hurricane season fishing excursion! I promise you won’t regret it if you watch the weather and fish.  If I am busy, I can always hook you up with some of the other great captains we have down here, so no worries.  The only thing you have to worry about is the cooler space that you will need to bring home these excellent tasting fish.

If you haven’t signed up for my E-Book this is an excellent time to do it, it is located on the front page of my website.  The E-Book is a great light read and in the process of signing up for it enters you into the data base where you can be informed about specials and new updates with my business.

The fishing I want to inform you all about is the dolphin bite, because it has been great.  Even with a lack of 30-50 pounders, we have been filling the coolers with 10-15 pounders and of course our masses of schoolies.  The fish are on the move, so you won’t whack 20-30 fish out of a school…they just won’t hang around the boat.  I have been getting a couple here and there pretty much most of the day.  A slow pick of some quality-sized fish.  Fishing them on 15-20 pound spin tackle, my clients have had a ball this past month.  All the fish have been under birds, moving towards the east and not more than seven birds…any more than that and it has been skipjack tuna.  It was a little rough this week, but it didn’t seem to bother the fishing.  We just got a little wet.

If you’re looking to do some bottom fishing, the night-time mangrove bite will be good once this moon gets a little smaller.  The night-time bite seems best during the new moon and a week on either side of it.  Mangrove snappers bite best on the darkest of nights, so plan that when you head out to fish for them.   The grouper action has slowed down a bit during the daytime, but we have been getting a few good sized black grouper from 15-30 pounds.

Have a great weekend, and don’t forget to sign up for my E-Book and get a chance to be informed about some upcoming specials this September and October.

You have many options to choose from, but my favorite is the incredible mangrove snapper bite.  During the summer, mangrove snappers congregate out on the reef to spawn and this triggers the need to feed.  You can break out the light rods for this style of fishing and make it a little more sporting.

When looking for a good area, it is important to find a nice piece of structure, whether it is in 18 feet or 60 feet of water.  What you are also looking for is a nice flat spot where you will park the boat with the current going towards your structure.  When you start fishing you will want to fish the bottom with a knocker rig.  This rig is quite simple; I like to use a piece of 40 pound fluorocarbon leader which I tie to my main line with a double reinforced uni-knot.  The reason I use fluorocarbon leader is not fort its vanishing properties, but for its abrasion resistance.  I will slide enough lead on the leader for the amount of current that you have at that moment.  Then I tie an offset 3/0 long shanked hook.  The offset helps with your hook up ratio, and the long shank makes it easier to remove the hook later.

You don’t need a lot of chum for this style of fishing, just enough to keep a slick going.  As the night progresses, you will start to notice the snappers will come off of the bottom.  When they do this, I will take off the lead and just free-line my bait.  You will also notice that there are plenty of pilchards swimming around the boat so don’t forget to bring your cast net, because you can catch all the bait you need right there.  I always bring enough bait just in case the pilchards aren’t very thick, but they usually are.  Live bait works well, but I find the fresh cut pilchards are the best.  Another good trick is to limit the amount of light emitting from your boat; because the snappers are drawn to the boat by the chum they do not like the light.  This is also why we tend to fish for the snappers at night near the new moon, not the full moon.  If you have no control of the intensity of the light you will want to cast your bait out into the dark beyond the light.

Night fishing can really spice up your vacation!  As I can recall, one night we had lots of snappers already so we started to use live bait on a flat line with wire.  We got into an impressive kingfish bite.  Almost as soon as the bait hit the surface we were hooked up with 10-15 pound kingfish.  On this really light tackle we had some good drag screamers.  When you put chum in the water you never know what can show up.  While out there we caught many small sharks (Atlantic Sharp Nose), moray eels, a few red grouper and what’s really neat is the worm hatch.  If you look in the dark you can see little green luminescent creatures.  Actually the worm doesn’t glow, but it releases a fluid that glows which actually is spewed out to distract predators.  These worms are the food for the pilchards so sometimes when you cut up the pilchards you will see the stomach contents will glow…pretty neat, at least to me it is.

Now remember to only take what you can use and don’t be wasteful with our limited resources.  Fishing with conservation will preserve our excellent fishery for kids and their kids so don’t be greedy and enjoy the fun.

On our way from Harbor Island to San Salvador, we caught a large white marlin around 80 pounds.  Not shabby for only fishing for an hour and a half on one of the pinnacles on our way down to San Salvador.  Once we got to San Sal (as it is known to us fisherman), we got ready for some of the best blue marlin fishing we had ever seen.  To actually get shots at blue marlin every day means that there has to be lots of them around.  I also figured out that even when it’s slow the fishing is still good here and to improve your chances they do seem to prefer bait over lures some days.  The bait we used was horse ballyhoo and mullet rigged to swim.  The ballyhoo we rigged, were  some swimmers and some with little chuggers in front of them to help keep them in the water and producing smoke, it seems that the smoky baits draw  attention and usually are the one who get hit most often.

On the first day we trolled artificials around most of the day with no bites.  It was a little disheartening, but at the buzzer we got a strike on the short bait right behind the squid teaser.  Line was peeling off the reel at an incredible rate.  By the time everyone got all the other baits and teasers in, the fish had nearly taken 300 yards of line.  The fish had never jumped so we still weren’t sure if it was a marlin or not.  With my buddy Andy Payne in the chair, it wasn’t long before we started to gain back some of the line that was taken so fast.  About half of the line that was taken was back on the reel when the fish decided to go on its second run peeling off all the line we gained back plus some.  After a half hour of a fight every fisherman dreams of, we finally got first sight of the fish and it was a marlin.  With the owner of the boat at the helm, I was leader man.  I was able to muscle the fish to the boat with no wraps.  The fish was tired and I decided to get a quick photo of him in the boat.  I lifted him into the boat and Andy and I got a great photo before reviving him and setting him free to fight another day.  We estimated him over 200 pounds.  It was getting close to cocktail hour so we headed for the harbor for some victory drinks.

The next day we headed out around 8:00 in the morning to the north end of the island and we trolled plastics again all morning with no bites.  I suggested we ought to switch over to bait and slow the boat down a bit and it wasn’t ten minutes before we were hooked up to a nice fish around 300 pounds.  It jumped all around for the first ten minutes; he was a true superstar of a fish.  This time the angler was the owner’s father Tom at the age of 85 years old.  What a trooper! He fought this fish for over a half hour before it a shark ate it, but in the Bahamas there are no shortages of large sharks.

We set back up and in about fifteen minutes we had our second fish on for the day.  This one was bit smaller than the last but another superstar, jumping and thrashing back and forth, just absolutely mad as hell.  This fish was very grumpy, but Tom handled it very well for an old timer such as himself.  This was one of the things he said that was on his bucket list, catch a blue marlin.  Well after a long forty five minutes Tom got to check that one from the list…we had released his first blue marlin that was estimated around 250 pounds.

Later that afternoon, we had a third chance to catch another blue marlin.  I was driving the boat when I looked back at the right short bait and it was being beaten up by a huge marlin I estimated it to be 500-600 pounds.  It finally slammed the bait and we were hooked up.  It was smoking our biggest reel, an 80 Penn International.  This fish didn’t jump all that much but he had that reel almost dumped by the time the guys got all the baits and teasers cleared.  I was in full reverse water coming over the gunwales and spray covering the pit.  After driving backwards for fifteen minutes we were able to get some line back on the reel.  I was doing all I could do to keep what line was left on the reel.   The fish sounded and I was able to get a lot of line back but still the fish was 150 yards out, or might I say down.  I don’t know really how far down he went but we were fighting the good fight when the line just went limp.  We thought that this one had got eaten too, but after reeling the line in all the way we noticed that he had just came unglued.  That happens; it just sucks when it does.

The following day we decided to go tuna fishing and we trolled for a half day and caught 10 tunas up to 40 pounds.  Half blackfin tuna and half yellowfin tuna, we did well for just a half day of fishing on the hump to the north of the island.  The very next day we went marlin fishing and caught two nice sized ones off of the north tip of Rum Cay which is about 16 miles to the south west of San Salvador.  This area is called Jurassic Park for the sheer size of the fish taken there.

Another day of tuna fishing and a few more days of marlin fishing and our trip was over, but it will be one I will remember for a long time.  We ended up catching 5 blue marlins, one white marlin, numerous large dolphin up to 50 pounds and plenty of tuna and weighing in at 50 pounds.  Everyone caught one marlin and Andy caught three two blues and a white.   We ate fresh sashimi on the dock most nights with seaweed salad which we brought with us.  Grilled tuna and dolphin and silk snappers were our proteins most nights, but the steaks we brought weren’t bad either.

If you ever get the chance to fish the Bahamas I recommend the San Salvador and don’t forget to ask for Kim’s bread and cheese cake when you go it is unforgettable like the fishing.

After loading the live well with 30 or so grunts we headed out to a wreck and couldn’t get anchored due to the fact that we had a short anchor line and not enough chain on John’s boat.  He said after this day he was going to get the enough chain and anchor line so this never happens again.  Since we couldn’t get anchored there, we headed just inside the wreck on the edge of the reef and set up.  It wasn’t 30 minutes before we had our first bite, and soon after that we had 14 and 16 pounder in the box.  Two very nice black grouper, but not big enough to win the tournament.  So we waited for the boat that was on the wreck to leave, and when he did, we anchored right into the structure to get hooked up.  After a 10 minute wait, we had a big bite and missed it.  But it came back, and we got a solid hook up and John fought the fish for 15 minutes before landing a 21 pound black grouper.

Still not satisfied with the size, we kept fishing.  Shortly after that Shawn hooked a monster which we ended up losing when the line got caught on the dive ladder bracket.  It was getting late but I knew there are some big ones still here so we waited for another bite and it wasn’t long…but about half way up it got eaten by a shark.  Knowing that the sharks are here now, we weren’t going to get anymore to the boat so we left to hit our final spot.

It only took a few minutes at the new spot before we had another 12 pounder in the box.  We got another big bite and fought this fish up but lost it due to unseen circumstances…another fish lost due to the bracket on the boat so it was getting late and the weather conditions were getting worse so we headed in and weighed the fish in.  Knowing that it would be a miracle that we could hold first place, someone upstairs was looking out for us and it held, we took first place with a 21.7 pound black grouper.   If we could have kept the big one on we would have been heroes, because that fish was well over 40 pounds.  Since I have caught black upwards of 60 pounds, I’m guessing what we had on I would defiantly say it was 40+ pounder.  You couldn’t have a fish story if the fish didn’t get away, but knowing that he is still down there I will be back to capture him on a later date.

Come on down, we got room still left in May, It will be my pleasure to show you a great time and catch some of these powerful bottom dwellers.  Book your trip through the web site and act soon to ensure you can get a day of some of the best fishing in Florida.