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Weekly Florida Keys Fishing Update from Capt. Dave Schugar and Sweet E'Nuf Charters
Posts Tagged ‘yellowtail snapper fishing’
Monday, February 8th, 2010
MARATHON, Florida Keys — As the North enters an ice age, we in the south can sit back and enjoy the slightly cooler weather while enjoying the phenomenal Keys fishing. We had a windy week with a couple of days where the wind died down, but unfortunately I was off for the nice days. I fished the wrecks all week and was able to produce a nice cooler of fish each of those days.
The wrecks have been hit or miss, but when you do find one that is producing, stick with it. That was the case this week, as I hit six to seven different wrecks to finally find one that was producing. Most of what we caught was large to medium amberjacks from 30-50 pounds. On a spinner with 50 pound braid the fight is unforgettable for my clients. Whether you call them bulldogs of the deep or reef donkeys, amberjacks are a formidable opponent on light gear. Using only 40-pound leader the drag on my rods are set fairly light to allow the fish to run, and that’s why I love to fish this way. Anyone can drop down heavy tackle on a conventional reel, but what most people love about catching big fish is to watch the line scream off the reel. I do lose fish because my tackle is lighter than most, but that’s fishing, you can’t catch them all, and if we did, fishing would be too predictable and maybe become a little boring. In between the jack attacks we took our fair share of some nice size muttons in the 12-15 pound range. A few mystery fish which we couldn’t stop, which I thought they might have been big grouper, because they went strait for the wreck and stopped running once they got there.
The reef has been hot, where most people are catching some pretty large mangroves, yellowtail, and muttons. I talked to my buddy Johnny who is an avid free diver and said the groupers are all over the place. John proceeded to tell me an astounding story about his latest dive. After shooting a couple of muttons, he shot another only to have it pull free from his spear when out of nowhere four groupers of all sizes came in to maul the wounded mutton. They watched in awe to the aggressive behavior these groupers were exhibiting. He told me it reminded him of a pride of lions attacking a gazelle on the African plains. To bad he didn’t have his video camera to document these obviously hungry groupers. Johnny had said that his whole group saw a hundred grouper though out the day which would mean that maybe the spawn is on. I am upset we can’t enjoy this fishery, mainly I can understand why they want to close the season, but completely shutting down the season is a little much. It would have been handled better if we had a restriction on how many we can keep during the spawn, but the total shut down is outrageous.
Sail fishing was pretty normal this week with many fish caught and released. The ballyhoo had disappeared due to the dirty water. Finding them on the ocean side was real a challenge, but when this happens venture out to the bay and chum along some of the banks, three miles out and or in front of the Seven Mile Bridge. Be careful back there, there are many banks and you don’t want to end up on the bank or destroying the grass growing on them either. The bite was sporadic throughout the day but the bite is determined by the time and the amount of bait in the area. So look for bait, and find a nice drop off and get yourself a sail today.
Offshore there have been some reports of dolphin and wahoo, so go back to the basics and pull some high speeders. Finding dolphin this time of year can be challenging, but you won’t have to go far, look for weed lines and rips inside of ten miles. I am sure the deep dropping was good, but I didn’t talk to anyone who went out in these conditions to test their boat and their sea legs. I can’t wait till I can get back out there, dinner is much better with queen snapper on the table verses mutton snapper, but mutton will do when there is no queen snapper to be had.
Get out when you can, but make sure you are to date on all the new fishing regulations, and make sure your boat is equipped with all the required safety equipment too, the Coast Guard will appreciate that. Till next week, happy hunting.
Tags: amberjack fishing, ballyhoo fishing, Capt. Dave Schugar, dolphin fishing, Florida Keys Fishing, grouper fishing, Marathon fishing, mutton snapper fishing, sail fish fishing, Sweet E'Nuf Charters, wahoo fishing, yellowtail snapper fishing
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Monday, January 25th, 2010
MARATHON, Florida Keys — It is feeling more and more like the Keys with temperatures up in the 80’s, just where we like it. The warmer weather has warmed up the shallows, which can be essential for finding our bait for the day. Pilchards are showing back up and as well as the pinfish, so get out there and get your bait for some hot offshore fishing. The ocean side has bee red hot no matter which of the numerous species you like to target.
Sail fishing has been as hot as it can get from the showers in the shallows to the packs of sails tailing down sea off the edge of the reef. I haven’t been sail fishing this week but, from what I gathered from my friends and other charter captains, it is good out there, really good. Using live bait will generally always be better than trolling dead bait, but one of my friend got three sails on dead bait, along with some dolphin and blackfin tuna. There are many different ways to fish for sails down here, so pick the best way you know how and go get some. When the wind blows you shouldn’t let it get you down, you can always anchor up on the reef.
The reef has been producing some quality yellowtails from 45-60 feet of water. While your fishing for your yellowtails, put out a kite with a blue runner or a yellowtail for a chance of a smoker king or wahoo. When your chumming and you have a big school of fish behind your boat, there will be some other predatory fish lurking back there for an easy meal. If your chum is going the same direction as the wind, add a couple of big split shots your kite. This will allow your kite to veer to one side or the other. You don’t want your kite bait back in your yellowtail school for two reasons. The first reason is that it might scare your school of yellowtail, and by placing it amongst all the other fish it may get lost amongst the school of yellowtails. So if you get your kite to skirt to the outside of the school it will be an easy target by the predators. Most predators will attack a bait that gets separated from its school first. I also would recommend that you make your kite go to the side closer to the deeper water. When we have North winds you may not even need any split shots if the current is strong enough. Try out this method, it really works. If you never have used a kite and feel intimidated with it, hire me to run your boat for the day, I will teach you how to work the kite and many other methods, which all of us captains use down here.
Wreck fishing has been really good; many different species are being caught in the deeper water. Amberjacks seem to be on all the wrecks, but if you are persistent you might get yourself some nice muttons that have been in the 10-18 pound range. Groupers have been biting well, but unfortunately we will have to release all of them due to the new grouper regulations. The bait has been easier to catch as the warm water returns to the shallows.
Deep dropping is on fire, from snowy grouper to queen snappers. Some tilefish are being caught and of course the barrels have been biting as well. I like to use cut bait and squid when I am deep dropping, it gives them a choice, even fish like a choice. Swords are biting but if you are as unlucky like we were this last trip you can fight a sword for a couple hours only to have a shark eat it before you can get it in. I swear that it was a jumbo because he fought really hard the whole time, and usually when they fight hard on the bottom, it’s a big one. Large swordfish do one of two things when you hook one. They will fight hard and stay down for many hours or fire up to surface faster than you can reel in the line. We had numerous bites and hook ups, but the fish were just coming unglued on this trip. Well I guess that’s why they call it fishing and not catching. The more frustrating thing was that my friend Capt Will Wagner fishing right next to me landed two fish. My mother told me there would be days like this.
Have a great week, and catch some fish!
Tags: amberjack fishing, blackfin tuna fishing, Capt. Dave Schugar, dolphin fishing, Florida Keys Fishing, grouper fishing, Marathon fishing, pilchards, Sweet E'Nuf Charters, swordfish fishing, tilefish fishing, yellowtail snapper fishing
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Monday, December 28th, 2009
MARATHON, Florida Keys — Flags flying from both sets of riggers is always a good sign. That’s right lots and lots of sailfish this week. I talked with a few buddies from up the road with multiple days of double digits. I was able to get out there and get 2-11 one day and 8-11 another day. I had a lot of miss-haps the first day but we got it together on the second day. Sometimes, clients who have never fished for sails before can be a little frustrating, but hey, if they have fun that’s the goal. You have to let the fish eat and sometimes letting the line fly off of the reel is the last thing inexperienced anglers will let happen. We lost a few fish this way and the others we had just came unglued after a while. All in all we had a great time and these people will never forget the constant action of sailfish action.
I had better luck late in the afternoon with the sailfish. It just might have been the fact that it wasn’t till the afternoon when we ended up ten miles down the road where we had all of our sailfish bites. The bite was absolutely off the chain from 12:00 to 4:00 out in front of Bahia Honda. 90 feet of water was the zone, if you ventured out past 100 feet I had no bites and if you got inside of 90 feet you got ate up by the mackerel. I had a great drift because I never put the engines in gear, I just pointed the boat down sea and turned on the autopilot and away we went for an eight-hour trip. I could have turned the engines off, but I like to have at least one running to keep up the juice to my batteries from the bait-well running. We caught a few kings while we were trolling, nothing huge but decent fish from 10-18 pounds.
The reef took a nosedive later this week but no worries it will return soon. Early in the week the yellowtails were hot along with a few grouper and plenty of cero mackerel if you wanted to catch them. Some muttons have being caught on the bottom and flat-lining while you’re anchored up. If your not getting any bites while you’re yellow tailing, try and drop down in leader to produce some muttons and shy bottom fish.
Looking to get out and catch a broadbill, then get out there while the bite is still hot. Many reports are coming in about how great the fishing has been for them. Picking the right weather is essential for success for sword fishing in the daytime. Many people are a little intimidated with this style of fishing, but it really isn’t that hard. Just get out there and do it. Big Time Bait and Tackle and Cudjoe Sales are very knowledgeable and are glad to get you set up with all the equipment and terminal tack required to fish for these tasty fish. While you’re out there the tunas have been biting at the humps, but watch out for the sharks, they have been bad on some of the days. Jigging and live baiting have been the only way to get the bigger fish, but if you troll, there are some smaller ones readily available to engulf one of your feathers or all of them.
Good luck and happy New Year. For those of you that want to learn or just want to catch fish please call soon, my calendar has been filling up fast for the next two months.
Tags: Bahia Honda fishing, broadbill fishing, Capt. Dave Schugar, Florida Keys Fishing, jigging, kingfish fishing, live bait fishing, mackerel fishing, Marathon fishing, mutton snapper fishing, reef fishing, sailfish fishing, Sweet E'Nuf Charters, sword fish fishing, swordfish fishing, yellowtail snapper fishing
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Monday, December 14th, 2009
MARATHON, Florida Keys — Hogfish, it’s what’s for dinner. Hogfish has to be one of the best fish we have down here in the Keys and they are all over the place right now. I have been taking my friends out to the patches and we have been shooting our dinner. Hogfish have to be the easiest fish to shoot; they turn sideways to make it easier to shoot them when confronted. Not very smart for as fish go, but it sure is nice of them. You can find hogfish on reefs, and grass beds. I usually will find them on the outskirts of the patches. These fish can change colors in an instant to blend into the bottom. It is really neat to see these fish change colors and they really do blend in amazingly. Most of the hogfish you will find in shallow water, but if you dive in the deeper reefs they can be abundant out there too. I will usually find bigger ones out in the deeper water, some up to five pounds or better. I donated the fish to the Monkey for a fish fry this week. My buddy Bobby Butler made some fried hogfish poorboys that were out of this world. He took the fillets and marinated them for a couple of hours in Coco Lopez, which is sweetened, condensed coconut milk. Then he breaded them with rice krispies and put coleslaw on a sub roll and man it was amazing. Thanks Bobby.
The sailfish action was a little slow this week but there was some great wahoo fishing. High speed trolling has been working well from 150-250 feet of water. Most people were using drails and plastics, but I talked to one of my friends up the road a bit and they were having some great luck with live speedos. They caught lots of kingfish and five wahoo from 20-40 pounds. One of my friends caught a few wahoo this week using ballyhoo with cone lures in front. The sailfish action was slow but a couple of days they turned on pretty good in the shallows. Following the bait sprays was the key this week. Finding the frigates diving was also a good indication of some action too. Live bait has been pretty easy to come by right now. There are lots of cigars here in Marathon, which is unusual, and plenty of pilchards on the flats from 79th street up to Valhalla. The ballyhoo can be found just about everywhere, but if you want the green backs they are back in the bay and they are all over the place as well.
The reef is still on fire with yellowtail, jacks, kings, muttons and groupers. Anchoring up can be so much fun this time of year. You can do all sorts of fishing while you’re anchored up on your yellowtail spot. I like to yellowtail fish first and while we are catching yellowtails I put down a couple of bottom rods with one large bait for grouper and a small bait for muttons. After we have enough yellowtails I will switch over and king fish either from a kite or just flat lining from the back of the boat. Big kings will circle your yellowtails and putting one up in the kite off the side of the boat will usually yield some big smoker kings. Most people don’t like to eat kingfish, but I will tell you from my own personal experience, they make great smoked fish dip. Besides, they really are a great sport fish, which is usually overlooked because of their poor food quality. I have caught many kingfish over 50 pounds and they are like fighting a large wahoo. They will make blistering runs and my favorite part is when they strike the bait on the surface, either exploding on the bait or coming fifteen feet out of the water with the bait in their mouth. Wintertime fishing is one of my favorite times of the year because you just never know what you’re going to get. You could catch dolphin, sailfish, wahoo, tuna, white marlin, grouper, muttons, yellowtail and other assorted snappers. There are sharks, and barracudas, and numerous kinds of jacks, which will test your will and your tackle.
Way out has been a virtually barren except for some sword fishing off the shelf and lots of big tuna at the humps. The tunas have been thick but so are the sharks. You just never know when the sharks will be bad, but most days this time of the year they seem to swarm the humps and the reefs. We dove the other day and the first three spots had a big bull shark swimming on them. We only stayed in those areas for a short time, because they bull sharks were starting to investigate us, so not to tempt fate we moved. The jigs and live bait were the only way to get the big tunas to bite. If you trolled you only caught bait size tunas. Fishing further in front of the hump can help keep the sharks from getting your tuna, but you really are at their mercy.
Good luck, it looks like the rain missed us this week, and I looking forward to the next front, hopefully it will spark up the sailfish bite.
Tags: amberjack fishing, ballyhoo fishing, barracuda fishing, Capt. Dave Schugar, dolphin fishing, florida humps fishing, Florida Keys Fishing, fried hogfish poorboy, grouper fishing, hogfish cooking tips, hogfish fishing, king fish fishing, kingfish fishing, Marathon fishing, mutton snapper fishing, sailfish fishing, sharks, snapper fishing, spearfishing, Sweet E'Nuf Charters, tuna fishing, wahoo fishing, white marlin fishing, yellowtail snapper fishing
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Monday, December 7th, 2009
MARATHON, Florida Keys — Rain, rain, go away, come back some other day. Our lawns have been taken care of this week with all the rain we have been having. It has made it very soggy out on the water. Even with all the rain it hasn’t seemed to effected the fishing though.
Sailfish have been pouring down the reef with some pretty good dolphin action too. This really has been the first time I have seen any dolphin in quite some time now. We got a pair of slammers earlier in the week. We found the dolphin right on the color change where there happened to be a really nice rip. You could hear the difference as the Gulf Stream was rushing by. The change was anything but subtle. The color change plus the weed line and the rip all were telling me there were fish there. The inside edge was the cleaner of the two and that’s where we found the dolphin in 150 feet of water. There were some schoolies mixed in as well. There has been plenty of sailfish action most of the days. Only a couple of days this week were the sails hard to come by. Slow trolling was pretty productive for me, but flying the kite might have been tough with all the rain, but I am sure someone was, somewhere. The depths where most of the fish were located at were from 130 feet to 165 feet. The boats with towers did well in with the sails, sight fishing in 20 to 40 feet of water. The cobias are picking up on the ocean side as well. If you have a tower, I would start looking for the rays around noon while sun is high. The overcast conditions, makes it a little more challenging to spot those rays.
The yellow tailing is really good right now with most of the fish from 1-2 pounds. I haven’t hit some of my deeper spots, which have bigger fish because the bite has been so good from the 65-40 foot area. You will find, as the water gets colder, the concentrations of fish in the shallower water will be the ticket. I didn’t hit the patches this week but I was told by many different captains that the bite had turned off. I am sure they are biting somewhere; you just might have to look around a bit. We have been hitting the patches hard so maybe we caught them all, ha-ha, not a chance. Most likely they have turned off because they were feeding at night on the full moon. When we get a full moon the light, which is generated out there is just dumbfounding. It really lights it up and many times you don’t even have to turn on the overhead florescent. Using shrimp on the patches can greatly increase you hogfish catch. I like drifting in the shallows where there isn’t as much rock but mixed with grass patches. I generally use a small jig witch you can drag on the bottom. I like to drag it a bit then I let it stay on the bottom by letting out a little line as we drift slowly. Now this technique can only be done when the wind isn’t honking.
When the wind was down, many boats went out for swords, catching lots. A few 200+ pounders and a bunch of 100-150 pounders were caught this week during the small window we had. I am itching to get a swordfish charter; I just can’t wait to get out there. Well, when I venture out that far it is deep drop time too. I got the itch for some snowys and tiles. It seems like forever since I dropped for them. I really miss my plate full of some deepwater fried fish.
I hope they don’t shut our entire deep dropping down. They are talking about shutting all bottom fishing down from 270 feet of water and out. Say goodbye to all of the deep dropping and all of those tasty critters. If they do that, the tackle shops are going to be stuck with thousands of dollars of merchandise, which will become useless. They wont be able to sell any more electric reels and all the tackle that goes with it. I don’t know if the Government really understands the severity of our problems when they completely shut down a type of fishing. A total shut down is what they are scheming behind closed doors with the tree hugging lobbyists. These people are absolutely off their rocker.
A few months back we went to a meeting about how they want to shut down permit fishing so that you cannot even target the species. And this is a fish where 99% of the fish caught are released unharmed back to fight another day. They openly admit that their data is wrong and incomplete. They showed us a graph, which was showing landings and one year they had 600,000 pounds landed. Right next to the number there was a symbol. This symbol stated, ‘this number was generated by one fisherman landing one permit.’ So they took the liberty to multiply this one mans catch by 100,000 to come up with a number so that they could show this 600,000 pound number, in order to have a reason to shut down the fishery. This is the same thing the scientist, have been doing with the global warming controversy. I believe that there needs to be some sort of system to keep the scientist honest. It seems that they don’t mind fudging the data as long as the grant money keeps flowing in. Now, that I got that off of my chest, have a great week out there, it’s going to be rainy, but you might as well make the most of it while we still can.
Tags: Capt. Dave Schugar, cobia fishing, deep drop fishing, dolphin fishing, Florida Keys Fishing, florida keys fishing charter, hogfish fishing, Marathon fishing, rays, sailfish fishing, shrimp, snowy grouper fishing, Sweet E'Nuf Charters, swordfish charter, swordfish fishing, tilefish fishing, yellowtail snapper fishing
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Monday, November 23rd, 2009
MARATHON, Florida Keys — Brrrrrrrrrr, it’s starting to get cold, but the fishing is hot. The only type of fishing which is slow has been the dolphin. The sail fishing has been great, with lots of opportunities to get those beautiful acrobats of the winter. Heading out we witnessed many showers of ballyhoo being chased by mackerel and sailfish. Hundreds and sometimes thousands of baits exiting the water in a mystical ballet of life and death. Frigates birds dropping out of the sky usually is a sure sign of activity, which this time of the year usually means sailfish or dolphin. Since there are not too many dolphin around most likely all the frigates that I have seen are sailfish.
Whichever method of fishing you prefer has been productive this week. I talked to my buddy John Foster and he got sails and wahoo trolling dead baits along and outside the reef’s edge. But to get the numbers live baiting has been the key. Most bait will work but the bigger pilchards, threadfin, and ballyhoo seem to be the best baits. Yeah, nothing really has changed about the baits we use down here, but sometimes we do better on some days with certain baits. When fishing the sprays it is better to use baits, which will move franticly after it has be tossed toward a spray. Cigar minnows, pilchards, and threadfins are perfect for this tactic. If you are new at this or you don’t feel like running all over the place I recommend to use ballyhoo and slow troll from 130-160 feet. This seems to be the best area still. I did get a few fish in 100 feet, but most of the fish I caught trolling was in these depths which I stated above.
The snapper fishing is still awesome, and you don’t even need to go further than patches. This time of the year you will find that your deeper spots will not do as well as they did during the long summer months. If you come into a situation where your fish have moved off of your deeper spots, try finding your fish just up on top of the reef inside your original numbers. These fish are moving in closer this time of the year and you may not think of reef fish to be migratory, but they are, they will move a considerable distance because of food and temperature. I did very well this week with big mangroves and yellowtails on the patches, it seems with the clients that I had it was the best thing going for six people on a boat that wants lots of action. Fishing families is one of my favorite things to do because I can still remember long a go when my father used to take me fishing on charters. I also think that teaching kids to fish is also ensuring our future and showing kids what a beautiful place the ocean is.
If cobia is your game, we got a really nice one inside the reef, and it also seems that they are starting to show up on the rays in the 20-40 foot sandy patches from Tennessee Reef up to Caloosa Cove. If you are going the other direction, look for the rays from the west end of the 7-Mile Bridge to Bahia Honda Bridge. These patches seem to hold rays holding cobia. What you’re looking for are patches with plenty of sand around them. The gulf and bay are slap full of cobia if you don’t mind the run. I found some cobia only12 miles out from shore and the schools are getting bigger.
Good luck and be courteous to your fellow fisherman out there.
Tags: 7-mile bridge fishing, Bahia Honda fishing, ballyhoo fishing, caloosa cove fishing, Capt. Dave Schugar, cobia fishing, dead bait fishing, dolphin fishing, fishing with children, Florida Keys Fishing, florida keys fishing charter, live bait fishing, mackerel fishing, Marathon fishing, pichards, sail fish fishing, sailfish fishing, snapper fishing, Sweet E'Nuf Charters, tennessee reef fishing, wahoo fishing, yellowtail snapper fishing
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Monday, November 16th, 2009
MARATHON, Florida Keys — It sure is good to be writing for the Weekly Fisherman again. This paper has been loved by all; it is back, thank you Elizabeth and Jessica.
The sailfish bite is hot now. Earlier in the week the bite was good, but not as good as it is now. We just went 5 for 8 on Wednesday, and caught a few each day earlier in the week. There has been some bait showers along the edge of the reef and up inside of 40 feet of water. I found packs of sails in 130-165 feet of water. I mainly have been slow trolling ballyhoo since there aren’t too many birds giving up the sailfish’s locations. I prefer to troll with four baits and sometime with one down for muttons and kings. Using enough weight to keep close to the bottom. If the current is too strong I will keep the down rod about 60 feet down for some king action. Using large blue runners or speedos, you can get some really big ones. You can also get lucky sometimes and catch a nice wahoo.
The reef has been red hot with plenty of yellowtail to be had. The really big yellowtails have been chewing, but the sharks have been just down right scary. I watched two sharks bite each other as they were fighting over a yellowtail. While your fishing on the reef the cero mackerel are showing up good as well. I have been doing a lot of diving lately and I have been seeing plenty of black grouper. I see as many as 10 small ones from 20 inches or so. It’s really tough to get an exact size on them while your down but I never shoot them unless they look really big. This free diving is a hoot, I just started and I am addicted. On the patches I have been shooting some hogfish and mangroves, and an occasional large grouper. So if your looking to have some fun on rough days, the patches have been loaded with fish. With the temps dropping the fish are on the move, and they have been moving to the reef and inside as well.
The sword fishing from what I hear has been good, with some really exceptional catches. I head today that there was a 500+ pounder caught on the Key Colony dock by one of the private boats. Don’t quote me; it’s just what I heard. The guys up the road who have been doing a lot of swording tell me there have been lots of action, but most of the fish from 100-150 pounds. The deep dropping has been a little slow, but the barrel fish are always biting it seems. The queen snapper never showed up this year. I only heard of the a few caught on different occasions. My buddy John Foster destroyed them over in the Bahamas but he only went over there once.
Just for you guys who fish the bay the cobia have been biting and showing up in small schools. We limited out the other day and also got our share of some nice mangroves too. The mackerel have showed up, but they are not really thick yet. If you work hard you can limit out with them too. Just remember to only take fish which you can use; let’s not waste our resources. Have a great week and I will see you out there.
Tags: ballyhoo fishing, barrel fish fishing, black grouper fishing, Capt. Dave Schugar, cobia fishing, deep drop fishing, Florida Keys Fishing, florida keys fishing charter, grouper fishing, hogfish fishing, Key Colony fishing, kingfish fishing, mackerel fishing, Marathon fishing, mutton snapper fishing, reef fishing, sail fish fishing, sailfish fishing, sharks, spearfishing, Sweet E'Nuf Charters, sword fish fishing, swordfish fishing, wahoo fishing, yellowtail snapper fishing
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Monday, November 9th, 2009
MARATHON, Florida Keys — Windy days have kept just about everyone at the dock. Just before the wind started the sailfish bit really well, with multiple hook ups and as many as ten fish being released in a day. The sailfish have been just off the edge of the reef from 100-150 feet of water. While live baiting we have caught kingfish and a few cobia to my surprise. The cobia started to migrate through but most of them are being caught on the gulf wrecks. The bait has been easy to get from ballyhoo to pilchards. The bottom fishing has slowed down a bit but I am sure we will get them to push down as the water up north starts to cool down.
The reef has been hot, and yellowtails are chewing really well. The conditions have been close to perfect, with a nice current to the east and when the wind was light it had no effect on the boat in the current. Now we will start having stronger north and southeast winds which, will make us have to bridle the boat so that our chum flows out the back of the boat for optimal performance. When you have a cross wind from the current the boat will swing a lot and the yellowtails will chase the boat back and forth. This will separate the school a bit and cause them to be a little picky. So we want to make sure we bridle the boat and not only does this help to keep the chum flowing back behind the boat, but it also acts like a stabilizer to keep the boat from swinging. Sometimes there is just no stopping the boat from swinging on anchor.
The sword fishing has been good when we are able to get out there, but the deep dropping has slowed down a bit, only a few snowys and tilefish. When I do get out far the barrel fish are still biting, but they slowed down too. This is the time of the year when the swords have migrated south from the northern parts of the east coast and are spreading out all throughout the Caribbean.
To beat the wind a lot of us run out into the bay for some great mangrove snapper fishing. The gags, goliaths, and red are out in full force on those small wrecks in the bay too. Soon the mackerel will show up in full force to make mince meat of whatever you throw at them. Most guys use live pilchards, but shrimp, and most cut bait will work. Even small spoons can be deadly for those toothy critters.
Tags: ballyhoo fishing, barrel fish fishing, Capt. Dave Schugar, cobia fishing, deep drop fishing, Florida Keys Fishing, florida keys fishing charter, king fish fishing, kingfish fishing, mackerel fishing, mangrove snapper fishing, Marathon fishing, pichards, sail fish fishing, sailfish fishing, shrimp, snapper fishing, Sweet E'Nuf Charters, sword fish fishing, swordfish charter, swordfish fishing, yellowtail snapper fishing
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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 21st, 2009
MARATHON, Florida Keys — The season has been slow lately, but I did get out a couple of times this week. One day we went offshore for tuna and dolphin. The tuna fishing was so good we only fished for two hours and got ten fish from 20-30 pounds. Live baiting was the key, with only a couple of other boats out there the fish seemed to never go down. The current was only about one knot, which meant we could have some long drifts. Watching the tunas busting and sky rocketing on the freebies was absolutely awesome, it reminded me of a Guy Harvey T-shirt. Fresh sashimi was on my mind once we hit the dock.
After the tuna frenzy on the hump we shot out to the edge of the wall looking for some dolphin, and it didn’t take long to find the first of many schools of dolphin. They weren’t too picky. I have caught lots of sardines lately and they scarfed them up like Scooby snacks. There were lots of fish from 3-8 pounds and we did manage to get a few in the twenties too. There was scattered grass all over out there, just enough to keep an eye on the baits while we were trolling so that we weren’t dragging grass skirts on our naked ballyhoos.
A few days later we went sword fishing and on the first drop we landed a 150-pound pumpkin. We made three other drifts only to get our baits all beat up, but since we got one on the first drop we were satisfied with what we got. The fish were a little shallower than usual, we kept getting bites around 1500 feet. Usually we get bites as soon as we get down there at 1890 to 1780 feet. The new rig I am using has two hooks on it like a chicken rig with long leaders. It seems to be working well for all the captains who are using it. When we got back to the dock we took some photos and when I cut into it, there were two dozen freshly eaten squids in it’s stomach. The squids were in such great shape we bagged them up for later use. Once I cut into the fish we realized that this fish was a pumpkin. What we mean “pumpkin” is that the meat has an orangeish color and it is far superior to the ones, which have white meat. I believe it is the result of lots of food and the fish have been fattening up. Fish don’t really have fat around their bodies like we do, they have a fat sack in their gut which will swell as they store energy as fat for their long trips up and down the east coast of North and South America. They also store fat in the form of oil in their meat as well. This high concentration of oil in the meat will cause the meat to turn orange in color. Thus, someone named it after a pumpkin’s color.
From what I here the reef has been very productive, many guys who did get out didn’t have any trouble catching, yellowtail, mutton, AJ’s, and a few grouper. There has been some great current and it has caused the big yellowtails to turn on. One of my friends got his limit of four to five pound fish, which if you didn’t know, that is absolutely as good as yellow tailing can get. We really don’t get fish in any numbers bigger than that, so excellent job Don.
So if you are looking to visit during the next couple of months, take advantage of the fishing as you are with the hotel rates for this time of year. You will almost cut your hotel accommodations in half during this time of the year. Click on over to the helpful links page and get hooked up with some of the best facilities down here for the money. You can stay at one of our big resorts and get pampered as well, but it will cost you a bunch more, and in these troubled times I am sure everyone could use a discount. Good luck and if you don’t charter me out, I will see you out there.
Tags: amberjack fishing, Capt. Dave Schugar, dolphin fishing, Florida Keys Fishing, florida keys fishing charter, grouper fishing, live bait fishing, Marathon fishing, mutton snapper fishing, reef fishing, sardine fishing, sashimi, squid, Sweet E'Nuf Charters, sword fish fishing, swordfish charter, swordfish fishing, tuna fishing, yellowtail snapper fishing
Posted in Offshore Fishing Report | No Comments »
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