|
|
Weekly Florida Keys Fishing Update from Capt. Dave Schugar and Sweet E'Nuf Charters
Posts Tagged ‘mangrove snapper fishing’
Monday, October 26th, 2009
MARATHON, Florida Keys — Fall has been falling short of last year’s phenomenal fishing. We really never got a dolphin run this fall like we usually do. This year has definitely changed for the worse. Not only has the economy hit us charter boat captains hard, the fish seem to be on strike as well. Compared to last fall, this fall has fallen short of normal. Water temperatures have been on the cooler side as was the air temperatures as well. The offshore fishing has slowed to a halt.
With the offshore fishing slow, we have been fishing the reef and wrecks to show our clients a fun filled day of catching. The muttons have been biting well, no size to them but plenty of fish from the 6-10 pounds. One day this week we caught over twenty muttons on a half-day charter. It was blowing over twenty kts. So, we stayed close to shore, fishing Hawks Channel and the patches, which have been full of snappers. The yellowtail snapper have been chewing really well, with some large fish being caught. While fishing for yellowtail snapper we have been catching a few muttons on the bottom as well with a grouper here and there. Always bring some live bait while your fishing on the reef to catch some of the bigger fish off of the bottom. Live bait such as ballyhoo, pinfish, grunts, and even small legal lane snappers work great for the groupers and muttons. Remember when fishing for muttons, a lighter leader is best, but if a grouper eats your bait you will most likely loose him. I will try using a heavy leader first to get the groupers, and as the day goes on, I will drop the leader size.
Wreck fishing has been on fire with amberjacks swarming over most of the wrecks. There are a few African pompanos and muttons being caught. I have been using mostly pinfish and small grunts to target all of these fish. I will use a split-tailed ballyhoo also, it will sometimes be the secret bait which most people overlook. When fishing the wrecks for most of the bottom dwellers I prefer to use a 15-20 foot leader from 40-60 pound floro carbon leader. One other important thing you must get down with dropping long leaders to the bottom is that you have to have the boat moving forward while dropping the bait down to the bottom. This will allow the line to scope out a bit and will prevent tangles while dropping down 150-250 feet of water. This past couple of weeks I have caught, cobia, muttons, amberjacks, jack crevales, grouper, African pompano, mangrove snapper, white margates, yellow jacks, and barracudas. I really have been doing well on the deeper wrecks from 180-250 feet of water.
Deep dropping this past week was a little slow with a few tilefish and barrel fish being caught. I have heard a few people got into a few queen snappers but for the most part the deep dropping has been slow except for the tilefish and an occasional snowy. The sword fishing has been great although the weather has been dictating the days, which we are able to fish for them. I went one for three at the beginning of last week. It wasn’t really big one but a keeper never the less. Sword fishing has been taking most of the attention of a lot of people these days, getting a big one can really change your outlook of the offshore fishing. Fall through the winter the sword fishing should be great as the fish from the North East migrate south to warmer waters. We are in a great place down here in the Keys to catch these fish only 30 miles from shore. If you have never though about it, you should, it is some great fishing and can produce a lot of meat for you meat hunters.
Have a great week and hope to see you down here, stay warm until you get down here.
Tags: African pompano fishing, amberjack fishing, ballyhoo fishing, barracuda fishing, barrel fish fishing, Capt. Dave Schugar, cobia fishing, deep drop fishing, Florida Keys Fishing, florida keys fishing charter, grouper fishing, Hawks Channel, live bait fishing, mangrove snapper fishing, Marathon fishing, mutton snapper fishing, queen snapper fishing, reef fishing, snowy grouper fishing, Sweet E'Nuf Charters, sword fish fishing, swordfish charter, swordfish fishing, tilefish fishing, wreck fishing, yellow jack fishing, yellowtail snapper fishing
Posted in Offshore Fishing Report | No Comments »
Monday, September 14th, 2009
MARATHON, Florida Keys — The statement that I hear all the time that confirms the notion that fishing can lead to great enjoyment is, “A bad day fishing is better than a good day at work” Just imagine coming back from a fishing trip with a cooler full of fish. The people who have been fishing have indeed been filling their coolers.
The dolphin bite has been great, with many fish in the 20-pound class and bigger. There haven’t been very many small dolphins, which isn’t a bad thing, but this concerns me though. This time of year we should have seen thousands of schoolies all summer long. From what I have seen and what I have been told by other captains is that this year there has been a shortage of schoolies. You see the problem is that the schoolies that we see this year will become the 20-40 pound slammers that we will catch next dolphin season. It just might be that they may have migrated closer to the other side of the Gulf stream, we will just never know, or maybe if we have a bad dolphin season next year then maybe we have some concerns about our future stock of migratory fish.
This week the dolphin were scattered under birds from 900-1100 feet of water which would put them from 22-30 miles from shore. There were some reports of some dolphin activity inside of 700 feet, but too much. There were very few small fish with some reaching fifty pounds. The tuna bite has been hot when the current was running, but in the middle of the week the current just died to nothing.
With the current slowing down, deep dropping has been really easy with lighter weights being able to hold the bottom. This would be the time to hand crank for a chance to break an IGFA record. The deep dropping has been good. Snowys, tilefish and many more deep species are the common catch out in the deep. While you are out there deep dropping, keep a bait ready to pitch to a dolphin that might just swim right up to your boat.
Sword fishing has been really good with many fish being caught up in the 200-pound class. With the light current, dropping down 2000 feet has not been a challenge. The favorite baits for sword fishing has been fresh tuna and dolphin plugs. Although the universal bait “squid” always works too. The new gimmick has been adding a squid skirt over the bait, and depending who you talk to the color of the squid changes. The most common colors have been, glow-in-the-dark green, and dark colors, such as black and red or purple and pink. Looks like sword fishing has continued to evolve, as this is the one reason why people love to fish. Changing times, fish getting smarter, or it may just all be in the complex mind of all of us fisherman.
The reef has been ok, with yellowtails and a few mangroves thrown into the mix. Muttons have been around as with plenty of AJ’s. The better mutton bite has been in the 145-180 foot wrecks and live bottom. Searching the edge of the reef can lead to a few muttons and as well as some grouper too. Get your grouper now before they shut it down. Well actually, it will not affect recreational fisherman, except for the fact that you will only be able to keep one black or gag grouper and two of any other species. But for us charter boats, we will not be allowed to keep any grouper from January 1st through April. Unfortunately, they have made this new law for all of the states in the southeastern region. This will include South Carolina down to Florida. This new law has a few flaws, because they wanted to protect the grouper spawn, but here in Florida the spawn doesn’t occur until April through all of May and some late bloomers in June.
Come on down, the weather is great, a few showers, but what’s with a shower here or there, got to get the fish blood off of you somehow.
Tags: amberjack fishing, Capt. Dave Schugar, deep drop fishing, dolphin fishing, Florida Keys Fishing, florida keys fishing charter, grouper fishing, mangrove snapper fishing, mutton snapper fishing, reef fishing, snowy grouper fishing, squid, Sweet E'Nuf Charters, sword fish fishing, swordfish charter, swordfish fishing, tilefish fishing, yellowtail snapper fishing
Posted in Offshore Fishing Report | No Comments »
Monday, August 24th, 2009
MARATHON, Florida Keys — Scattered showers has seemed to drive off some of the people off the water, but I have been getting out sporadically. The fishing offshore has been up and down with the dolphin. I have heard some people getting some fish in the weeds in about 600 feet. I sure haven’t seen too much though. The tuna have been biting well all week at the hump. One day the jigs work well, the other day only live bait works. You can always get a few small ones on the troll west of the hump itself.
There has been plenty of AJ action on the hump with some of the fish pushing 80 pounds. We caught a few and then my clients wanted to do something less physical. So we went deep dropping. The snowys are biting ok, but nothing over 20 pounds. The barrel fish bite is like clock work. I think they are one of the best tasting fish that you can get offshore. The trick is to get the small ones, ones that are less than 20 pounds, but for my friends, and me that is a challenge.
My Buddy John Foster has forgot about the way he used to fish, which has gotten him more and bigger dolphin, but he remembered catching more wahoo, and marlin before he started to run and gun. So he planned to blind troll this week and got himself a nice wahoo out off the continental shelf. Hey John, sometimes it is better to just do what comes natural.
The wrecks off of Marathon have been producing some nice muttons and amberjacks mostly, with an occasional African pompano or cobia. Yeah, cobia, it is a little unusual for this time of the year but there have been a few around. The kingfish have been really good in the mornings with deep baits either trolled or drifted, live or dead, it doesn’t seem to matter. I like to use live gogs on a dropper loop rig. They just can’t resist.
If you are unfamiliar with a dropper loop rig I will tell you. I prefer to use a light conventional reel, with at least 40-pound test. I use 50-pound braid, but you don’t have to use braid but it seems to not scope out as much. I attach a 30 foot wind-on leader of 60 pound mono which I tie a dropper loop just after my connection to the braid. I will use a swivel to attach my wire leader, which is #7 wire with a lead hook and a trailer. The lead hook is a 6/0 Mustad ultra point live bait hook and a #1 triple strength treble three inches away. I find that if you try to make your trailer too long you end up foul hooking most of your fish, which can lead to hooks pulling. I place my bait in the water and feed it back until I get to the dropper loop and attach one pound of lead with a snap swivel for easy disconnection. I will try to keep one down about 50 feet and the other all the way at the bottom. Of course I will run some live baits up on the surface. Once you hook a fish you will stop at the dropper loop and because you fish is still 30 feet away you can take off the weight and the fish wont get spooked by the boat and run. Once you get the lead off you will be able to wind the fish strait to the boat. If you have down riggers, well, then you don’t need this rig.
The reef fishing is awesome right now with plenty of yellowtails, mangroves and a few other off the wall species. Day or night the fishing is great, but if your going to fish at night the bite is late, so need to rush out there. There are plenty of gogs, and pilchards on the reef at night so bring some sabikis and a cast net.
Good luck and I will see you out there. If you were wondering about the free cruise to the Caribbean, you have to charter me out to receive the entry form. One lucky couple will get a nice getaway.
Tags: African pompano fishing, amberjack fishing, barrel fish fishing, Capt. Dave Schugar, cobia fishing, dolphin fishing, dropper loop rig, Florida Keys Fishing, florida keys fishing charter, king fish fishing, kingfish fishing, mangrove snapper fishing, Marathon fishing, mutton snapper fishing, reef fishing, snowy grouper fishing, Sweet E'Nuf Charters, tuna fishing, yellowtail snapper fishing
Posted in Offshore Fishing Report | No Comments »
Monday, August 3rd, 2009
MARATHON, Florida Keys — The rainy season has come with higher winds, which seems to have stirred up the dolphin bite. Most of the week the dolphin were not present except for a few sightings on debris. Towards the end of the week the winds have picked up to 15-20 kts and those willing to brave the eight-foot seas have prevailed. Unfortunately, I was not booked when the dolphin bite turned on but heard of some great catches. This time of the year most of us are wanting to go fishing, we just have to find some clients, and in this day and age people are hurting financially so clients have been hard to come by. The dolphin were found pouring through in 800-900 feet of water. Some of the guys got double digits slammers and some gaffers. The wahoo are still out there under weed lines and around large pieces of debris. So if you want big dolphin head on out, hold on it is going to be wild ride.
The muttons have been biting a bit, still a little slow for the moon phase and the time of the year. Marathon has a great mutton fishery but it is usually a month behind the rest of the Keys. I don’t know why, but it seems to be later spawn than the rest of the Keys. While you are mutton fishing you can catch numerous other species such as African Pompano, AJ’s, groupers, Yellow Jacks, Red Snapper, Mangrove Snapper, and even gigantic Yellow tail. The sharks have troubled a lot of us here in Marathon, but not to badly around the other islands. There is no depletion of sharks here in Marathon. As a matter of fact they do save some charters when people want to catch big fish. When the sharks are bad, I will fish for them, but when people want some good eating I will usually head further to the west out in front of Big Pine for some great mutton action.
The yellowtail is still swarming, with varying conditions. Using a bridle for your anchor line can help you catch more yellowtails. Setting up right for free lining for yellowtail can make a world of difference. When the yellowtails start to get finicky, I will limit the amount of lines in the water. Sometimes the yellowtail will dictate on how many lines they will tolerate while they are feeding. These fish can make you pull your hair out sometimes as they eat your chum and when you drift your line back it like Moses parting the Red Sea as your line parts the yellowtail. When this happens you will have to use lighter leader, longer leaders, and less lines in the water. Sometimes, when they are finicky like this, you can use really small baits, just big enough to stay on the tip of the hook. So small that if you try to push the bait passed the barb it will fall off. When yellowtail gets full they will still eat itty-bitty pieces of chum.
Nighttime reef fishing doesn’t get any better. Well, actually it will, as the moon gets smaller. These fish love the darkness as they feed ravenously on the bait found on the reef during the summertime. You can go almost anywhere from 25-45 feet of water and catch your limit. Try to fish away from anyone else. The worst thing you can do is fish next to someone who has already started a chum slick. My suggestion would be to find some good bottom with some fish on it a least a mile away from anyone. Now some nights it is tough to get away from people but the further away from the next fisherman the better because all the fish near your chum slick will be drawn to your boat. If you are close to another boat the fish will be split between the boats.
Good Luck, I will See You Out There!!
Tags: African pompano fishing, amberjack fishing, Capt. Dave Schugar, dolphin fishing, Florida Keys Fishing, florida keys fishing charter, grouper fishing, mangrove snapper fishing, Marathon fishing, mutton snapper fishing, red snapper fishing, reef fishing, sharks, Sweet E'Nuf Charters, wahoo fishing, yellow jack fishing, yellowtail snapper fishing
Posted in Offshore Fishing Report | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 21st, 2009
MARATHON, Florida Keys — As hot as it has been here more and more anglers are fishing at night. There has been lots of action for anglers on the reef for mangrove snapper, yellowtail snapper, muttons and groupers. The bite is great from 10:00PM to 2:00AM as the moon slowly comes up the bite will dwindle the higher the moonrises. When fishing for these snappers you will see that the fish will hold back beyond the light from your boat. Try to keep the light from shining into the water and try to keep the intensity of the light down as well. You should find many other boats out there as well, so use caution while running in the dark and make sure that you can be seen as well. Test all your lights before you get out there and make sure all of your flares and emergency kits are up to date. There has been plenty of bait around, so you don’t need to bring too much with you.
The dolphin bite has been on simmer lately, but all of a sudden Sunday and Monday were phenomenal dolphin days. Many fish reported with some reaching over fifty pounds. We caught a couple of slammers after reef fishing. The dolphin have been far out but there seems to be plenty of them under birds and trolling blind too. The area, which you need to start looking for these beautiful creatures start almost 18 miles out. There really hasn’t been much dolphin inside of this area but there were a few cases where we saw some fish but many. I wouldn’t waste your time running from birds to more birds with only skipjacks and bonitas inside of 18 miles.
The sword fishing and the deep dropping bite are ok, not great but just ok. The current has been really tough to deal with, but what I have heard since I haven’t been lately that the fish have been biting only on a few drifts. Making many drifts for swords can take a toll on your patience. I have been hearing lots of captains having a hard time hooking the fish, not that they are not getting the bites. Sometimes the swordfish will attack a bait and not eat it. Sometimes you think a swordfish has eaten the bait onto have him wrapped up in the leader and then the hook pulling. It’s not an easy way to fish with 2000 feet of line out and getting small bites, which can transform into a 400-pound fish. Sword fishing has been one of my favorite ways to fish because not everyone can do it. It takes talent and experience to recognize what’s going on down there almost 2000 feet down. One day you can do everything right and still you don’t get one, it’s definately the hardest way to fish because it has so many variables and if something can go wrong it will.
Have a great week and I will see you out there.
Tags: Capt. Dave Schugar, dolphin fishing, Florida Keys Fishing, florida keys fishing charter, grouper fishing, mangrove snapper fishing, Marathon fishing, mutton snapper fishing, night fishing, reef fishing, Sweet E'Nuf Charters, sword fish fishing, swordfish charter, swordfish fishing, yellowtail snapper fishing
Posted in Offshore Fishing Report | No Comments »
|
