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Weekly Florida Keys Fishing Update from Capt. Dave Schugar and Sweet E'Nuf Charters
Posts Tagged ‘yellowtail snapper fishing’
Friday, July 23rd, 2010
MARATHON, Florida Keys — This has been interesting fishing these past weeks! With the wind blowing from 15-25 knots, I have stayed close to shore. We fished the reef, which yielded nice yellowtail from 1-3 pounds and a few goliath groupers from 20-60 pounds. The current was slow but enough which allowed the chum to trickle down the reef. We also fished the thunderbolt and got mugged by sharks one day and the other day we were invaded by blue runners. Blue runners and small bonita have been swarming all month.
While fishing for grouper on my yellowtail spots we also got a few nassau groupers, which are protected and we released them unharmed to fight another day. When you got your yellowtail spot all chummed up it is always good to drop down some small baits like half of a ballyhoo or small pinfish for some great mangrove action.
Speaking of mangroves, the bite has been great at night. Don’t rush out there, because the bite hasn’t started ’til late. If you leave around 9:00PM you will be able to fish for a few hours to get your limit. Fishing out in Federal waters you are allowed to keep ten mangroves, but if you fish close to shore in state waters you may only keep five mangroves. Make sure you know where you are fishing so as to not accidentally go over your legal limit.
The bait has been abundant so you really don’t need to bring a lot out with you. Pilchards and gogs are swarming, and all you need to catch them is a few sabiki rigs or a cast net if you know how to throw one. I prefer to drift back large baits for the bigger mangroves. The small ones can peck at it until the big one comes and steals it from them. My rig is usually 40-pound leader with a small slip sinker like 1/16th –1/8th oz. I slowly drift back the bait until I get a taker and I feed the bait for about 6-10 feet before a set the hook. You don’t get every one, but if it is a big fish he will have that bait down his throat and you should hook almost all of them. You don’t need lots chum, just enough to keep the bait around the boat, which keeps the snappers there.
Towards the end of this week we fished for muttons and amberjacks. Since this is the last moon of the spawn we took advantage of it. We didn’t set the world on fire but we managed 3-6 muttons each day with lots of other action such as amberjacks, jack crevales, and kingfish. There has been an abundant amount of kingfish this week, which is a little unusual. We have kings all year round, but during the summer months they are few and far in between. We even got one that pushed 40 pounds but most of them are 10-15 pounds. They aren’t the best eating, but if you smoke them they are out of this world.
The dolphin picked up this past week, with fish from 6-30 pounds. I haven’t been out there, but my friends have shot out there a couple of times this week and have come back with some impressive catches. On Thursday, Big Time Bait and Tackle put on a tournament with Maui Jims Sunglass Co. I was one of the lucky individuals who took out one representative and writers from all of the major fishing magazines for a day of fishing. It was supposed to be a dolphin tournament, but since it was blowing 20-25 knots, we all weren’t going offshore…so they changed the rules to heaviest weighable fish.
I ended up winning with a 39-pound amberjack. It was just a friendly tournament, but the writer who caught the biggest fish won a trip to Hawaii. This whole trip was set up to let these writers experience the Maui Jim’s sunglasses. I got to try on a bunch of them and I am hooked. I really saw the difference between my Costa’s and the Maui Jims; I am a Maui Jim guy now. We also caught three large muttons around 18 pounds a piece.
Just to let everyone know, there is no oil down here and hotels are starting to drop their prices so come on down and enjoy the Keys like the rest of us are!
Tags: amberjack fishing, big time bait and tackle, bp oil spill, jack crevale fishing, king fish fishing, kingfish fishing, mangrove snapper fishing, maui jim's sunglasses, mutton snapper fishing, reef fishing, tournament fishing, yellowtail snapper fishing
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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
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Monday, May 3rd, 2010
MARATHON, Florida Keys — Grouper season is officially open; get them while they are still congregating on the reef! I wasn’t booked on May first when the season opened, but my buddy Capt. Blaine Lemm and I went out to get our take. We didn’t leave the dock until 2:00 in the afternoon, but we had some great late afternoon action. Instead of weeding through the small ones we targeted large grouper with half pound to one-pound baits. We ended up hooking nine fish and only getting one 30 pounder to the boat. We got a few heads, before we were able to get a whole one to the boat. In the process we each caught a goliath grouper in excess of a hundred pounds.
If you’re heading offshore, the dolphin aren’t thick by any means…but if you put your time in you can make a pretty good day of it. Most of the fish have been from 12 miles out to the edge of the continental shelf. Almost all the fish have been under birds, with a few exceptions of some extraordinary floaters. My buddy John Foster found a boat with two motors floating, but half sunk with a school of wahoo on it. The only problem was that the wahoos weren’t the top predator in this little floating ecosystem. They were only able to get three whole 20 pounders and four halves. There must have been a shark or two lingering around. The tuna bite picked back up after its short break. Using live bait seems to be the key now…the tunas are not hitting the jigs as well as they have been, but you still are able to get a few. Using live bait, the tunas were averaging 20-25 pounds with your occasional smaller ones too.
The deep dropping has been phenomenal! From snowys to queen snappers, to tiles and barrelfish, the current has been perfect for this fishing. We need some current, but too much or you can’t hold bottom. Right now, its perfect with a knot and half drift slightly northeast. A few people that I have talked with tell me that that the deep dropping has been as good as it gets. With the new laws you need to be careful of what you catch because you can only have three groupers on the boat now. This would include tilefish in your aggregate limits. So that would mean two snowys and only tilefish, but we can live with a decrease bag limit. From what I heard coming down the coconut telegraph, they intend to shut it all down…so get what you can while it is still legal.
The reef is on fire! The yellow brick road has formed behind many boats, and many people are reporting the start of a great yellowtail season. We do catch yellowtails all year round, but it really is in the summer when the yellowtails school in great numbers. Since they’re competing for the food, they become very aggressive and easier to catch. We caught a few this week in the 5-pound range, which is an absolute monster when it comes to yellowtail. There have been a few muttons around, but now that grouper is in season, we have been concentrating on them instead. Remember, elephants eat peanuts…but to weed out small fish you must use larger baits.
Good luck and I will see you out there!
Tags: barrel fish fishing, Capt. Dave Schugar, Captain Blaine Lemm, deep drop fishing, dolphin fishing, Florida Keys Fishing, florida keys fishing charter, goliath grouper fishing, grouper fishing, live bait fishing, Marathon fishing, offshore fishing, queen snapper fishing, snowy grouper fishing, Sweet E'Nuf Charters, tilefish fishing, tuna fishing, wahoo fishing, yellowtail snapper fishing
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Monday, April 26th, 2010
MARATHON, Florida Keys — Wow, what a beautiful week we had out on the water. The weather was almost perfect the entire week. We still didn’t find many dolphin but while were searching we came across an unusual floater.
We found half of a large swordfish floating, with a mako shark circling. The swordfish was cut in half, with it’s cobolt blue color still intact. I cut a chunk off of the swordfish and tried to bait up the mako but he wasn’t interested. I guess after eating 100 pounds of swordfish he was full. I t would be just a matter of time before he got hungry again, and I was hoping it would be soon. I tried to remove the swordfish from the water but the mako just left when we did that. So I tied the swordfish to the boat and dumped it back in the water.
It took only a few minutes for the mako to come back. I kept the chunk of bait right behind the carcass, and we just watched this magnificent shark swim around the boat for over a half an hour. The shark kept swimming circles around the boat and with every minute passing I got more and more frustrated. I finally took off the bait and pulled in the swordfish. I took the hook and stuck in the meat of the carcass where the mako had bitten him in half. I proceeded to let the swordfish out on a dock line.
After ten minutes the mako came up to investigate his prize. Shortly after that he took a bite out of the swordfish and it was so amazing to see how effortlessly he cut through it. I noticed that my line was moving away from the swordfish and I set the hook. I stuck him good, thumbing the drag and repetitively set the hook until the fish thrashed a bit. He didn’t go anywhere; he just swam around the boat like there was nothing wrong. Knowing what a mako is capable off I powered the boat away from the fish and then he realized that there was something wrong and he sounded peeling 400 feet of line in seconds. We fought the fish for about an hour when he finally came up for some jumps and shortly after that we lost him. He must have gotten wrapped up in the leader and it parted in the middle of a forty-foot leader. Even though we didn’t land him it was an epic adventure.
The dolphins haven’t shown up yet, but there are a few fish out there. I have found some schoolies in close and a few scattered big fish anywhere from 12-30 miles offshore. The tunas have slowed down at the hump, but if you get there early or stay out late you can manage a decent catch. Trolling around really has been a waste of time; if you run and gun you will find more fish under the birds.
The deep dropping was awesome this week. We found lots of snowys, a few queen snappers, tilefish, rosefish, and barrelfish. One of the spots we limited out on snowys on the first drop. We dropped two rods and got a double and a single. You are only allowed to have one snowy per person, so don’t do another drop in the same place because you are liable to catch another one. Usually we only catch one or two snowys in one spot but they seem to be on every spot I drop on. We had to stop deep dropping so we didn’t go over our limit. I do have spots where snowys won’t be. We went out to 1,100 feet of water and got some rosefish, and a barrelfish. This is the time of the year where I do very well catching snowys.
If the reef is more your style, it has been great. We caught lots of yellowtail and groupers. I found that the bite is starting to turn on in the deep water. You will find larger yellowtails in 75-100 feet of water. Using oats and lots of chum you can get the big boys up in the water column, where your odds of landing the big ones increase. We did get a few large mangroves on one spot; most of them were from 2-4 pounds, which is decent. I was fishing in 88 feet of water with a jig tipped with a small pinfish. This is also how we caught all those grouper. If you are looking to gear up for this weeks fishing stop in at Big Time Bait and Tackle, it’s where I go to get everything I need.
Once this wind lets down, get offshore and drop while you still can. And don’t forget to check all of your safety equipment…you never know when you might need it.
Tags: barrel fish fishing, big time bait and tackle, Capt. Dave Schugar, deep drop fishing, florida humps fishing, Florida Keys Fishing, florida keys fishing charter, grouper fishing, mako shark, Marathon fishing, pinfish fishing, queen snapper fishing, rosefish fishing, snowy grouper fishing, Sweet E'Nuf Charters, swordfish, tilefish fishing, yellowtail snapper fishing
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Monday, April 19th, 2010
MARATHON, Florida Keys — Cloudy skies, windy, rain in the distance, looks like a great day to fish.
Well when you only have one day to fish, sometimes you take what you can get. This week was no exception. Even though the conditions were lousy, we still crushed them this week. For us locals, when we are given a day which might be windy or maybe the forecast is predicting rain, we can always fish another day, but when someone only gets one or two weeks out of the year for vacation, they seem to grin and bare it, and usually they get rewarded with a cooler full of fish, too.
Well at least this is what happened with my clients this week. We fished the hump and the tunas were eating everything we threw at them. Doubles and triples all day and our biggest tuna was 20 pounds. Most of the fish were around ten pounds, but some bigger and some smaller were flying over the rails the entire trip. After we had enough for my clients to take home, we played a little game called “catch and release.” Some people just have never heard of that one before. Only take what you can use or eat…this will ensure that we have more bigger tuna next year. Just because there is no size limit and limit of how many you are allowed to keep, think about the future and how much fun you’re going to have when those fish double in size the following year.
We caught all of them on butterfly jigs, where as last week we were able to troll up some lunkers on a ballyhoo-Islander combo. As a matter of fact we caught all of big ones this way. We would drift over the hump and catch fish and then we would troll back to the spot were we would start our next drift and catch some tuna. Deep dropping wasn’t on fire but we produced some quality fish. Earlier in the week we pulled up some barrelfish, and tiles which could have been the next all-tackle record except for the fact that were using too many hooks and the IGFA seems to frown upon the electric reel. But it doesn’t matter, its all about the meat elevator.
People ask me if I feel guilty about using the electric reel, and I ask them “Do you feel guilty about driving to the store and picking out a steak at the meat market?” To me it isn’t any different…it is all about “what’s for dinner.”
Later in the week we did a few drops and caught a nice snowy grouper and big 15-pound queen snapper. I guess there are still a few of them still around too. My clients seemed to be avid anglers and extreme sportsman…well they would have to be to go out there in ten-foot seas! Yup, it was big out there but the fish are chewing.
Towards the end of the week I did a little yellow tailing in the afternoon and it was a steady pick of two-pound fish. The first spot I went to was great except for the fact that they didn’t want to eat. I had 3- to 5-pound yellowtails eating almost out of the bag but they were very line shy and tuned away from the bait every time except twice. We only caught two at that spot but it was so cool to see so many dinosaurs that close to the boat. They looked as big as schoolie dolphin.
The second spot was a complete bust, but as we drove off after fishing for only a half hour, I marked a tremendous school of fish holding close to the bottom. Maybe we didn’t wait long enough, but I needed to put fish in the box and yellowtail can be some of the most challenging fish to catch sometimes.
Our third spot was the ticket, almost all the fish were two pounds or close to it. No sharks like the first spot, and we picked fish till we hit our quota which is ten fish apiece.
Good luck! And if any of you need a shove in the right direction, don’t hesitate to call. I also can guide your boat so you can learn with your own equipment. You can read all you want, but when it comes down to it, hands-on training seems to work much better for most people. Be safe out there, and be courteous to your fellow anglers.
Tags: butterfly jig, Capt. Dave Schugar, florida humps fishing, Florida Keys Fishing, florida keys fishing charter, Marathon fishing, queen snapper fishing, Sweet E'Nuf Charters, tuna fishing, yellowtail snapper fishing
Posted in Offshore Fishing Report | 1 Comment »
Sunday, April 11th, 2010
MARATHON, Florida Keys — Spring is here, thank God. It seems that our cold days are in our past. The water temperature has been warming and soon we will be in full swing with lots of dolphin. The Gulf Stream has moved in and out this week, this has caused the shallower water to warm as well as the heat from the sun too. Keep you eyes and ears open because it isn’t going to be long before the dolphin come pouring through.
I have been all over the pace this week. I fished the deep, the shallow and all the places in between. In the beginning of the week we went out for tunas at the hump and did very well. Most of the tunas were perfect size, not too small to eat and not too big where the meat gets really red. I prefer the 10-20 pounders…they have pinkish meat and I believe it is the best tasting. We filled the cooler with all the tuna my clients could eat and then we took a short ride to the west to fish for queen snapper. We caught tilefish, and queen snappers — good size to them as well. The fish have been averaging 12 pounds, but we have been getting a few close to 20 pounds.
The next charter this past week was a guide trip. A guide trip is when I jump on my clients boat and I give hands on training of the rigs, bait, and the area. If anyone is interested in this please give me a call…I would love to help you out! My client Dave wanted to learn about the reef so we went yellow tailing. It took a while for the yellowtails to pop up, but once they did we caught a few before they got spooked off buy the numerous kings and mackerel…or maybe it was the current (or lack of). We tried every trick in the book and they still wouldn’t bite. So I move to another spot out in 88 feet of water.
We marked a nice school, but I hadn’t been in this spot for quite some time now, so who knew that we would get into some great mangrove action? Most of them were 3-4 pounds, but none smaller than 2 pounds. After the bite died off, we switched to a jig, and whipped-jigged kings and mackerel on 8-pound test line. What a blast that was! All throughout the day we were catching grouper on the bottom with a small 1’4 oz jig tipped with a small pinfish. We were targeting muttons, but only caught groupers and mangroves. We probably caught 20 groupers (gags, reds, and blacks) and half of them were keepers, which we released unharmed to get a little bigger. I can’t wait till the grouper season opens, it’s killing me to release such quality fish, but the law is the law.
My next charter was another guide trip and we did our tuna thing for while when we finally caught some small ones, which we bridled up on two Tiagra 50 wides with 80-pound test. My client wanted to troll live tuna around the hump, so we did. We didn’t get any strikes but the anticipation of what might eat our baits really got our blood flowing. One of these days we will get a big marlin or maybe a mako. While we trolled around trying to get the smaller tunas we picked up one dolphin, which was a bonus. After a few hours with no strikes we went deep dropping and we caught a 60-pound wreckfish, rosefish, and a barrelfish. Unfortunately we were unable to keep the wreckfish due to its “no take” status. They are commercially taken but recreational anglers are not allowed to posses this fish.
On Sunday we headed out o look for yellowfin tuna, but we couldn’t find any. It was a desert out there, no dolphin and no yellowfins. We did manage to catch a sailfish on a squid spreader bar. We looked all over for birds but to no avail. I was using an open array radar to search for the birds, but we only found a few and they were just flying.
Good luck and keep it safe.
Tags: barrel fish fishing, black grouper fishing, Capt. Dave Schugar, dolphin fishing, Florida Keys Fishing, florida keys fishing charter, grouper fishing, guide fishing, Gulf Stream, king fish fishing, kingfish fishing, mackerel fishing, mangrove snapper fishing, Marathon fishing, queen snapper fishing, red grouper fishing, reef fishing, rosefish fishing, sailfish fishing, Sweet E'Nuf Charters, tilefish fishing, tuna fishing, wreckfish fishing, yellowfin tuna fishing, yellowtail snapper fishing
Posted in Offshore Fishing Report | 1 Comment »
Sunday, April 4th, 2010
MARATHON, Florida Keys — What an enjoyable week compared to the frigid winter we have had! I have been booked all week and there is a lot of fish to be had almost everywhere out there.
Thanks to the East wind, the sails were piling down the pipeline and boats with upper stations had a ball sight fishing for those acrobatic speedsters. Even though they were being finicky, there were many sailfish to be had. With the ballyhoo hard to find, the choice of bait here in Marathon has been pilchards, which really is a better bait for sight fishing. I like to hook the bait in the belly to force the pilchard down which usually entices the sailfish to strike.
There has been an incredible color edge off of Marathon all week with lots of sailfish action on it. The bite had been better the further West you went. Some boats fished all the way down to American shoals (what a hike!), but in order to put up big numbers of fish that’s where you needed to be. Along with the sails, cobia and dolphin are also being caught along that edge.
The deeper edge further offshore that had the dolphin last week dried right up as if it was never there. I would keep looking for dolphin just beyond the color change and out as far as 400 feet just in case there is another push of fish this week.
The wrecks have been hit hard for the past few weeks and the fishing pressure has made a definite impact on the bite, which was out of this world. The wrecks are still producing amberjacks, muttons, and beautiful grouper, which we have been releasing. I caught a small genuine red snapper, which is not common in these parts except for a few deeper wrecks during certain times of the year.
The bait of choice on the mutton snapper bite has been live pinfish and any small grunts, which I was able to catch. The tomtates, my favorite bait has been hard to come by, but pinfish seem to be doing the job just fine.
Kingfish have been on most of the deeper wrecks from 130-200 feet of water. I was mainly catching them with deep-trolled ballyhoo. I heard that the reef also had kingfish prowling behind the yellowtails. When fishing for yellow tails, the kings will be hanging back waiting for the right time to strike.
The hump has been red hot. The tunas have been biting better in the afternoon verses the morning, but that may be due to the full moon we have had and the tunas must be feasting on the squid all night long. Jigging for the tunas has resulted in more and bigger fish, but when it becomes overcast the larger tunas will hit the trolled baits too.
The live baiter out there have been harassed by all the boat traffic out there, so if you see a boat using live bait, give him some room and respect that he can’t catch his fish when boats come barreling up behind them. While we were out offshore we did a little deep dropping and yielded some quality queen snappers. Most of the queens were up in the 12-18 pound class, which is some quality fish. Snowys and tilefish are abundant right now too in the 800-700 foot range.
I had a charter which took me out in the bay. I normally don’t fish out here but when the weather gets rough and my clients can’t take the big seas we head out there for some action packed fishing. They wanted to catch some goliaths and the bay didn’t let us down. We caught a couple in the 30 pound class and two big ones one was about 100 pounds and the other had to 350 pounds if it wasn’t 400 pounds. Most of the mackerel have left the bay but we did manage to get a dozen or so.
The bluefish on the other hand have been ransacking our baits in packs of 20-50 fish strong. It is pretty cool to se 20 or so fish following the one you have hooked. When this happens I like to throw some cut chunks right behind the hooked fish to get them really fired up before I pitch a spoon or a jig with a ballyhoo on it to get multiple hookups. We had out a shark bait for most of the day but we only had a couple of small ones short strike the bait.
Have a great week and I will see you out there. For those of you who haven’t signed the petition please sign it, we need everyone in on this one. Lets take back our rights to fish here come sign this petition!
Tags: amberjack fishing, American shoals fishing, ballyhoo fishing, bay fishing, bluefish fishing, Capt. Dave Schugar, cobia fishing, dolphin fishing, florida humps fishing, Florida Keys Fishing, florida keys fishing charter, genuine red snapper, goliath grouper fishing, grouper fishing, grunt fishing, king fish fishing, kingfish fishing, live bait fishing, Marathon fishing, mutton snapper fishing, pilchards, pinfish fishing, red snapper fishing, sail fish fishing, sailfish fishing, shark fishing, snowy grouper fishing, Sweet E'Nuf Charters, tilefish fishing, tomtates, tuna fishing, wreck fishing, yellowtail snapper fishing
Posted in Offshore Fishing Report | 2 Comments »
Sunday, March 21st, 2010
MARATHON, Florida Keys — It sure has been a while since I had a day off, but you wont hear me complain. Many people who usually come down to the Keys may not make it this year, but since there has been trouble in Mexico, the people who got a few bucks for a good time came down here. Some of my clients this week told me that they were going to go to Cancun but changed their plans due to the problems and threats that heard on the news. Last year it was a swine flu epidemic that caused people to stay in the country.
This week I spent a lot of time offshore, which was very productive as long as you fished the humps and deep dropped on ledges. The humps from Islamorada to Marathon have been packed with boats. The tuna and amberjack bite has been red hot. There have been much bigger amberjacks on the Islamorada Hump but still plenty of them on the Marathon hump to put any tackle you have to the test. The tunas have been smoking hot and their size has been good with many fish from 10 pounds and up. I only caught small ones when we pulled feathers. I only did that to get small ones for bait, the amberjacks love small tunas. You can fish them live or dead, but if you fish them live make sure you use enough lead to take them down three hundred feet to where the amberjacks are holding. It is better to have more lead than less, the tunas are hard swimmers and three pounds may seem like a lot but it will get the tuna down to the amberjacks. Using larger baits will ensure that you can get some of the largest fish out of this gigantic biomass of amberjacks that inhabit the hump.
The dolphin have been almost nonexistent, but there have been a few caught inside of 200 feet and some caught around floating debris out in the 600’s. With the water temperature in the low 70’s the dolphin will not be found in any numbers. I don’t know if it is just me but I can’t wait for the temps to rise, I am looking for the first push of dolphin. It probably won’t happen until the end of April but we can only hope.
The shallow wrecks have been over run with large amberjacks, and the word got out, the well-known wrecks looked like a parking lot. Everyone has been jockeying for the best position on the wrecks. Being in the right area of the wreck makes a whole lot of difference between catching and watching the boat next to you catching.
Reef fishing hasn’t changed much, it is still kind of slow for the most part, but the patches to the west of the seven mile bridge are producing a bounty of groupers and snappers. Most of the snappers are small muttons, and yellowtails with a few big mangrove snappers thrown in the mix.
The bay is full of mackerel, snappers, and groupers. Fishing the large deepwater grass beds near banks have produced for me very well. It doesn’t matter where you are, the mackerel will find you with a good chum slick. The best areas are about 7-10 miles strait out in front of the Seven Mile Bridge. Spoons and jig-n-shrimp combo works well too.
Get out there and fish and if you enjoy fishing please sign the petition to ensure that our favorite past time is still here to pass on to our kids. The web site for the petition is here.
Tags: amberjack fishing, Capt. Dave Schugar, dolphin fishing, florida humps fishing, Florida Keys Fishing, florida keys fishing charter, grouper fishing, Islamorada fishing, mackerel fishing, mangrove snapper fishing, Marathon fishing, mutton snapper fishing, reef fishing, snapper fishing, Sweet E'Nuf Charters, tuna fishing, wreck fishing, yellowtail snapper fishing
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Sunday, February 28th, 2010
MARATHON, Florida Keys – It is starting to look like spring, as this week’s tides have been extremely low. The temperature has been a little cooler than normal, which hasn’t been good for our tourist population. This week’s full moon made the fishing a little interesting.
The yellowtails on the reef are still sluggish, but the mangroves that have been on the patches have been day savers. Speaking of day savers the kingfish which are most often overlooked can give your light tackle a good run for it’s money. Drag screaming off of a reel gets every fisherman’s blood flowing. These toothy critters love this weather and as the water cleared up the bite was really on. Kingfish rely on their great eyesight to eat. They have very large eyes for their size. Kingfish have a torpedo shaped body, which allows them to have incredible acceleration to surprise its prey. One of the many reasons I love to fish for kings is their ability to launch themselves out of the water and land directly on your bait. Sometimes kingfish can jump twenty feet in the air when they attack bait on the surface. These supersonic jet –like predators can eat very large baits, as they will cut larger baits down to size as they shred apiece off on every pass. You can target these fish on deeper wrecks from 125-180 feet of water. If there are barracudas around the wreck the kings will stay further off the wreck so not to be eaten themselves. You can troll for them with live or dead bait along the edge of the reef or anchor up and chunk for them as well. When you’re anchored up try the kite with a large bait and some flatlines with live baits for the best results. They will readily eat a spoon or jig retrieved very fast. These fish are triggered to attack by fast moving action.
Sail fishing has been a little on the boring side. The current still hasn’t been all that great and this eddy of no current was shortly interrupted for a few days as we did experience some current this week. The bite for sails has been slow all the way up to Miami. When we get some current we will see the action pick back up. There were a few dolphin caught along the reef this week, nothing of any size or numbers but a few is better than none. I heard from one of my friends that a large school of schoolies cam by their boat, but they were too small to keep. If I had to go offshore this upcoming week I would venture out to the humps where the action has been with tuna and amberjacks. The super large jacks have held up residence on the hump and so has many large sharks too. The jacks out there have been averaging 65-80 pounds with some 100 pounders being caught too.
For the up coming week, it looks like we are going to experience cooler waters only in front of Marathon and as far out as 30 miles, but later in the week it will be pushed out by the warm water eddy and the warm water looks like it will push almost to the reef. When we loose the cooler water the Upper Keys will get it for a few days until it pushes around the corner to Miami. Look for warm water East or West till Thursday and then we should have some current and warm water for a few days until a new eddy of cold water will plague us once again. All of this cooler water is being pushed by the warm water out of the Gulf of Mexico and creating a Ying and a Yang mixture of cold and warm water along the Keys. This warm water is swirling the cold water up the coast and this is why we will be experiencing these changes of water temperatures.
I am counting the days till the dolphin run, but I am predicting that it won’t be until the end of April or the beginning of May before we see any major runs, but I hope I am wrong. This was the trend last year, and the only way that we will see the dolphin return early is if we experience some global warming, hahahaha, just kidding, but seriously, we need the warm water for the dolphin to show up early. And everyone hated El Nino, but I think that’s why we had loads of dolphin from March to October. I had amazing Octobers in the past when the water stayed warm late in the season. Keep your eyes peeled for birds working anywhere near the warm water for dolphin. Good luck out there.
Tags: amberjack fishing, Capt. Dave Schugar, dolphin fishing, florida humps fishing, Florida Keys Fishing, florida keys fishing charter, king fish fishing, kingfish fishing, Marathon fishing, sail fish fishing, sailfish fishing, sharks, Sweet E'Nuf Charters, tuna fishing, yellowtail snapper fishing
Posted in Offshore Fishing Report | 1 Comment »
Sunday, February 21st, 2010
MARATHON, Florida Keys — Cold and blusterous, seems to be a theme this year. There has been cold water plaguing us here in Marathon. This was caused by the Gulf Stream shooting into the Gulf of Mexico and forcing out cold water, which inevitably was forced along the Keys and it was the reason why the Gulf Stream or warmer water was so far out this week. If you think of a bucket that has been filled to the top with cold water, then add a hose with warm water; the water leaving the bucket first will be cold and then a mix of warm and cold water. This is what we are going to experience this coming week. There will be very large spikes of warm water all along the Keys. By heading either East or West you will find the warm water when heading out offshore. Listening to the weather report by NOAA you will be able to find out if your homeport is in the vicinity of the Gulf Stream. If it isn’t, you will either travel far offshore or up and down the road where the current and warmer water comes closer to shore. Fishing in these cold water is a waste of time and money. Find the warm water and you find the fish.
Offshore has been awfully bleak. There has been a few dolphin around the edge of the warm and cold water. Off of Marathon this week it was 30 miles out and further. There is warm water heading our way for the rest of the week. The Gulf Steam aught to be no more than ten miles from shore if not closer. This warm water will only be here for two to five days before another body of cold water from the Gulf of Mexico is pushed around Key West and then up the Straits of Florida. Most people think we are fishing the Atlantic Ocean, but in fact we are not in the Atlantic but the Florida Straits.
The reef has been fair with some yellowtail biting even though there hasn’t been any current in three weeks. The water has been dirty green and cold, not a great combo for a normally warm water-loving, cold blooded animal. The yellowtails are there and schooling in the chum, but they are not motivated to eat. I fished for yellowtails once this week and we got our limit but it took a while. The grouper action is hot just about everywhere. From 20 feet of water to 160 feet the blacks have been on a rampage, eating most baits. It is too bad we can’t even keep one a day. A few muttons have been taken on the reef from what my friend have told me, we didn’t see any though. The kingfish are pretty much all over the place; they seem to be digging the cold water. Cobias have been spotted in great number on the ocean side following rays and turtles. I wish I were out there to see it, I was told it was pretty impressive, with many fish in the 50-pound class and bigger.
Sail fishing was a bit bleak in Marathon, but if you traveled twenty miles East or West the bite was decent. There has been cleaner and warmer water in these areas, which have been teeming with sails and dolphin. Set up on the edge of the reef from 80-130 feet for the sails. Many multiple hook ups are possible and don’t forget about the wahoo, they are still around. My buddy John Foster got a fifty pounder this week. By using a little wire on your sailfish rig you can capture some of the toothy critters, which are in the same areas as the sails. Six inches of number Four or Five wire will work just fine and the sailfish won’t even know it was there, especially if you’re using ballyhoo.
Check the weather reports and fish in areas that look fishy don’t just choose an area out of a hat, and be precise with your rigging. By using all the tools and information available today the fisherman can be very productive these days, but when you fish blind sometime you get lucky and sometimes fall down. So use everything at your disposal from the Internet to the electronics on your boat, and be safe and good luck.
Tags: Capt. Dave Schugar, cobia fishing, dolphin fishing, Florida Keys Fishing, florida keys fishing charter, Florida Straits fishing, grouper fishing, king fish fishing, kingfish fishing, Marathon fishing, mutton snapper fishing, sail fish fishing, sailfish fishing, Sweet E'Nuf Charters, yellowtail snapper fishing
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