Middle Keys Fishing Reports

[jvor24]

That's why I didn't mind moving out here not too far to go to fish

[rshields]

jvor24... Thanks for the report, nice haul

[PhishingPhanatic]

Nice job. What kind of bait were they crashing on?

[permitchaser]

well done, love catching macks .

[jvor24]

Nice job. What kind of bait were they crashing on?

They were all over the pilchards

[ricky9]

i have better luck on channel 2 catching bait. Im guessing they should be there along with mullets cruising ? you should probably see if they hit with jigs also.

however, the secret to mackerel fishing is hooking a nice piece of "lechon asado" and free lining it out

[jvor24]

Nice job. What kind of bait were they crashing on?

They were all over the pilchards

are there a lot of pilches out there? planning to make a trip out there tomorrow.

Yea there was alot out there

[PhishingPhanatic]

Went down Friday through Sunday with Ron, Ricky and Herbert...I knew it was going to be a tough trip due to the cold front but I had taken Friday off from work more then a month ago and this trip had been planned, so we said screw the weather, lets go fishing. Bite was slow, a handful of small keeper mangroves, a couple ceros, too many stingrays to count (they seemed to have replaced nurse sharks), a little ~20 lb jewfish and a bunch of little blacktips Friday afternoon. I was fighting one of the tips on a 20 lb setup, and a big bull followed it and ate it in front of me. Herbert got nailed on his 14/0 later that night and after about an hour fight we walked a HUGE bull to the seawall, clipped the wire (I don't blame him for not wanting to put his hand near the mouth while that shark was in the water, you could have fit a human torso into its mouth no problem) and watched it swim away. We estimated it at close to 9 ft.

FWC was out in force, since it was too windy for them to be out in the boats. We got checked at 5 AM and then again at 1 AM the next day. The second time they started giving me a hard time because they saw our shark reels and thought we were out to kill sharks, but once I talked with them for a while and told them how we released everything they settled down. They said they lost count of how many tickets they gave to people for fishing without licenses over the weekend.

Ron has some pics of the bull.

[Jordan]

Went down Friday through Sunday with Ron, Ricky and Herbert...I knew it was going to be a tough trip due to the cold front but I had taken Friday off from work more then a month ago and this trip had been planned, so we said screw the weather, lets go fishing. Bite was slow, a handful of small keeper mangroves, a couple ceros, too many stingrays to count (they seemed to have replaced nurse sharks), a little ~20 lb jewfish and a bunch of little blacktips Friday afternoon. I was fighting one of the tips on a 20 lb setup, and a big bull followed it and ate it in front of me. Herbert got nailed on his 14/0 later that night and after about an hour fight we walked a HUGE bull to the seawall, clipped the wire (I don't blame him for not wanting to put his hand near the mouth while that shark was in the water, you could have fit a human torso into its mouth no problem) and watched it swim away. We estimated it at close to 9 ft.

FWC was out in force, since it was too windy for them to be out in the boats. We got checked at 5 AM and then again at 1 AM the next day. The second time they started giving me a hard time because they saw our shark reels and thought we were out to kill sharks, but once I talked with them for a while and told them how we released everything they settled down. They said they lost count of how many tickets they gave to people for fishing without licenses over the weekend.

Ron has some pics of the bull.

Awesome to see a bull eat a tip like that..

[cudaman]

It was fun to fish with you guys (even though Ricky slept most of the time, LOL). It was good to see Ron's first rod that he ever made and him fight a very big ray with it (took two of us to lift it). Fishing was slow at times but I can say we had fun pulling the entire bag of trash fish, LOL...And thank goodness there were no nurse sharks, the stingrays are a lot more fun than lazy nurse sharks, especially when they are in the 50 to 100 pound range and the current is ripping. I didn't stay long enough to try that ceviche, I can imagine it was very tasty. I stopped at a few bridges in the way home and it was basically the same. Stingrays and eels with a few 12" mangroves in between. Channel 2 was packed from side to side and people were catching some fish. It was the best bridge that day (if you could find a spot on it) and I got to say it was clean! I have to say that after almost a year of no real fishing it's been tough getting the beat back on. That bull really got the best of me. Once it found the electric pole pylon I had to hammer the drag but it just kept going and going rubbing against the pylon. Here is were a little patience helped until it finally made a turn away from the pylons I was able to make a move and position my self in the middle of the pylons until I had control over it. Man that was fun and this one made my other bulls look like it's kids. I hope the pictures will tell the story as we saw it happen and the videos will show how nicely and strong it swam away. And yes while the shark is in the water I would never put my hand to close to it, they can turn 360 degrees on you and I did not have a de-hooker so I did not want to become another part of shark bite statistics. So I left it with a foot of wire and a pre-rusted hook so it can shake it off later on.

[PhishingPhanatic]

(even though Ricky slept most of the time, LOL)

Lol, Ricky got more sleep this trip then I usually get during a full work week. He also slept from about 10 PM until sunrise this morning

[PhishingPhanatic]

I brought Italian sausages and marinated peppers/onions to put on the grill, but we made some ceviche, and once we ate that followed by Ricky's strong espresso, we were all pretty full. So I cooked them up for lunch when I got home today

Dinner tonight is good...picked up 3 lbs of stone crabs on the way home, with some fresh cero mac ceviche, salad and garlic bread...

[cudaman]

Man that's a lot of sleeping, LOL....Hey Nelson congrats on the baby man...

[cudaman]

OK, lets see if this works. A few pics and small pieces of video that Ron took. The distance from the camera took away from the shark's actual size, you had to be there to really appreciate it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnhtR0FH9pU

[cudaman]

Thanks man.......And sorry for that SHIP word at the end people.

[Alex07]

Nice vid and pics. Nice catch Herbert way to go there bubba

[PhishingPhanatic]

Nice job on the video