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Weekly Florida Keys Fishing Update from Capt. Dave Schugar and Sweet E'Nuf Charters
Posts Tagged ‘misty grouper fishing’
Saturday, July 10th, 2010
 MARATHON, Florida Keys — This past week we fished 40 miles west of Key West for yellowtail and grouper. The bite was on for the yellowtails. We placed a block of chum in the bag and it wasn’t five minutes when we were pulling in our first flag yellowtail. We had blue runners about five pounds swimming around the boat busting on fry which was an incredible site to watch. During the summer the snappers are spawning and fry are all over the place and this brings in other fish that feed upon them. For about three hours we caught jumbo yellowtail and then we finally got a bite one the bottom rod.
The bait was violently hit which then turned into a battle for my client Tom. He fought this fish for nearly 45 minutes and then we caught a glimpse of what it was. We thought it was a shark, but we were close, it was 15-foot sawfish, one of the rarest fish in the ocean. This impressive fish is practically a dinosaur. The saw like bill has one-inch teeth sticking out of it was almost six feet long. The massive body measured four and half feet wide and it was as long as the transom of the boat with is 15 feet. Very cool sighting, most people will never see one in the wild, and this is the second one we have caught in two years.
After sweating out gallon of water we decided to move and try some deep water for muttons and scamp grouper but we never hooked up. We got a few bites but never connected to any of them. There is a ledge out in 250 feet of water out there, and we marked fish all over it, but with no current the fish were not being cooperative. After about two hours of no bites be decided to anchor back up on a yellowtail spot and stay there the night. It was getting late and we caught a few more yellowtails and one large red grouper. As the sun started to go down we started to cook dinner, which consisted of grouper on the grill, grilled asparagus, garlic pasta and some rum. You’ve got to have the rum.
The following day after breakfast we headed to the shallow banks on the inside edge of the Gulf and fished for red grouper. It was like clockwork, dropping down dead gogs, and live grunts we were limited out in a couple of hours. At this time we decided to head back to Key west for a fun filled Fourth of July. Watching the fireworks from the boat while we ate bubba burgers, yellowtail ceviche and garlic pasta with a mozzarella, tomato salad. After the fire works the boat next to us had a cannon, which they fired off and it was deafening.
After the Fourth, we headed to Cay Sal Banks, not getting too close because that would be illegal. You have to check in before you can enter Bahamian waters. There are areas where you can troll and deep drop where you are not actually in Bahamian waters. You have to stay 12 miles outside any land. Unfortunatly, there aren’t any places to check in over here, you would have to go 150 miles to check in, but the Cay Sal Bank is only 50-75 miles away in the opposite direction. While we were over there we caught about fifty barracudas on the troll so we tried deep dropping in 1200 feet of water and caught 10 black snappers and one forty pound misty grouper. After that we headed home which is over three hours from there.
With one day off, I had a guide trip with a great bunch of people — Mike, Jack, Max, Wyatt, and Spencer. We had a goal to yellowtail fish, but with no current it was hard fishing. After about three hours and two spots we decided to go mutton fishing. It was a good thing that we did, because we caught five muttons and lost at least five others. They guys had a great day and some excellent fish for dinner that night. We fished a wreck in 180 feet of water and it was on — we got bites every drop with many double hookups. The bite was on and if you are looking to catch some of these big mutton snappers this is the time to get down here.
Come on down! The weather is hot as the bite. And to all of you who are worried about the oil, don’t be! There is no oil and there isn’t any likelihood of oil in out near future. Listening to the news I found out that they might be able to cap it this weekend, keep your fingers crossed. If the oil does make it to the Gulf Stream it will most likely pass by the Keys out as far as twenty miles, so if it does come this way the reef shouldn’t be harmed. Of course we never know what the weather will do so we still got to keep our fingers crossed that they will be able to contain this spill before a hurricane around the corner scatters it all around. Stay informed about what’s going on down here and keep my web site on your favorites.
Hope to see you down here! Come on down while the fishing is good!
Tags: barracuda fishing, black snapper fishing, bp oil spill, Capt. Dave Schugar, cay sal banks fishing, Florida Keys Fishing, florida keys fishing charter, grilled fish, key west fishing, Marathon fishing, misty grouper fishing, mutton snapper fishing, red grouper fishing, sawfish, Sweet E'Nuf Charters, yellowtail snapper fishing
Posted in Offshore Fishing Report | No Comments »
Monday, December 21st, 2009
MARATHON, Florida Keys — Happy holidays everyone. It is usually pretty quiet down here the week before Christmas and it seems that this year is following normal trends. With a fresh blanket of snow in the northeast we seem to be pretty cozy down here in paradise.
The sailfish action has been steady with 2-4 fish as a daily average. Most of the fish were found tucking up along the edge of the reef. Putting the time in with slow trolling live baits has produced some nice action with kings and dolphin while waiting to be attacked by wolf packs of sails. During the midday the bite has slowed down and I would recommend dropping down on wrecks and the edge of the reef for some mutton and grouper action until later in the day when the sails pick back up again. There have been some sprays from bait showers inside the reef from 20-40 feet of water and using your tower you will see if they are from mackerels or sails. There has been a great push of mackerels in the shallows.
The mackerel fishing has picked up considerably since last week. Hoards of Spanish and cero mackerel have been feasting on the abundant bait from inside of Hawks Channel out to the patches. Trolling spoons or medium size crank baits works really well to help locate a big school. Once you have located a big school you anchor up and chum. While you’re chumming you can use shrimp, which seems to be the best bait for them, small pilchards, chunks and strips to have fun with these guys on light tackle. You can even use your fly rod, which is pretty cool as the mackerel scream line off of your flimsy noodle of a rod. The current allotment is 15 per person, but you can’t freeze this fish, so only keep as many as your going to eat fresh or put in the smoker, because they do make some of the best smoked fish when done right. My buddy Chris Kilmas has probably the best smoke fish I have ever tried. I have been smoking fish for a long time and he blows past me with his smoked fish. He will be smoking some mackerel I gave him this past weekend, I can’t wait till it gets done.
This time of the year we get heavy north winds which tends to keep people from fishing. This isn’t always necessary if you knew about the great fishing we have in Hawks Channel and on the patches. You might have to move around a bit until you find a good spot when you do, man-o-man it can be some exciting fishing, never knowing what will swim by the boat next. Big sharks, cobia, grouper, kingfish, mackerel, all kinds of snappers, and some pretty big, use hawks channel as a super highway. Finding rock piles scattered through the channel the fish use these as feeding stations, kinda like our rest stops on the turnpike. You never want to fish on top of the rock pile but instead anchor along side of it. If you don’t produce anything after a half-hour move to another rock pile until you find one with fish on it. Sometimes the fish will come to you if you chum long enough.
We need everyone to get involved and band together, because we need to get lobbyists to fight for our cause. There is a two-part amendment, which is going to be devastating to our economy if passed. ‘If approved, the closure will affect federal waters in the South Atlantic region from approximately 240 feet deep seaward and prohibit fishing for or possession of speckled hind, and warsaw grouper, as well as snowy grouper, blueline tilefish, yellowedge grouper, misty grouper, queen snapper, and silk snapper. The deepwater closure excludes golden tilefish, a species generally found over mud bottom and not likely to co-occur over the hard bottom habitat preferred by speckled hind and warsaw grouper. The closure is based on the Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee’s recommendation that an Allowable Biological Catch of zero (0) landings be implemented for both speckled hind and warsaw grouper. Currently, fishermen are allowed to keep 1 fish per vessel per trip and sale is prohibited for these two species. The amendment will prohibit all fishing for, possession, and retaining speckled hind and warsaw grouper.’ They are doing this to protect the deep-water reefs not because of over fishing. This is an outrage because they have no idea that there is even a problem, it is just another elaborate scheme that the tree huggers and their lobbyists are trying to do to keep us from making a living from a great renewable resource. Please help us by joining together so we too can get a lobbyist to fight for us. Email me at sweetenufcharter@aol.com and join the fight.
Tags: blueline tilefish fishing, Capt. Dave Schugar, cobia fishing, dolphin fishing, Florida Keys Fishing, golden tilefish fishing, grouper fishing, Hawks Channel, kingfish fishing, mackerel fishing, Marathon fishing, misty grouper fishing, mutton snapper fishing, queen snapper fishing, sail fish fishing, sailfish fishing, sharks, silk snapper fishing, snapper fishing, snowy grouper fishing, speckled hind fishing, Sweet E'Nuf Charters, warsaw grouper fishing, yellowedge grouper fishing
Posted in Offshore Fishing Report | No Comments »
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MARATHON, Florida Keys — This past week we fished 40 miles west of Key West for yellowtail and grouper. The bite was on for the yellowtails. We placed a block of chum in the bag and it wasn’t five minutes when we were pulling in our first flag yellowtail. We had blue runners about five pounds swimming around the boat busting on fry which was an incredible site to watch. During the summer the snappers are spawning and fry are all over the place and this brings in other fish that feed upon them. For about three hours we caught jumbo yellowtail and then we finally got a bite one the bottom rod.
