Yankee Capts 6/30 to 7/1 quality pickings and great fun

THE FISHING TRIP:
Aboard the “Yankee Capts” with Captain Greg
The Spot : Dry Tortugas
Weather : Clear skies, hot day and night
Water: Clear
Fish catches: Mutton Snapper, Yellow Tail Snappers, King Fish, Amber Jack, Almaco Jacks, Bonitos
Biggest size Type : 18 lb Mutton Snapper
Techniques : Vertical Jigging, cut bait, and live bait
Jigs : 100-250 gram, butterfly jigs, speed jigs, silver, green, and blue colors worked the most.

At the last minute I decided to jump on the 2 day Yankee Capts trip. I did not have much time to go out and catch bait on my own but I did look for Gogs but couldn’t find them so I loaded with white bait, small runners, and dork jacks. Nilson (rare) one of my fishing buddies gave me some more bait including some pinfish and so I went on my way to the Keys.

The boat left at 10pm on a hot night and to hot days to follow. We started fishing about an hour or more before sunrise. First day was slow pickings but some quality fish in 120 feet or so of water showed up which was a great start for some. The current in shallow water was great but as the captain moved to 200 and up it was insane. We were close to the edge of the Gulf Stream I tried up to 18 ounces and would not hold. The Captain did a few attempts on water close to this depth but the current was too much. We had to fish shallow and even in the shallow water the current picked up.

You all know what happens when you are that shallow in the summer, YELLOW TAIL ATTACK! Many switched to catching Flag Yellow Tails, but to those that kept pursuing the muttons and groupers it paid off. Some nice Red Goupers, Black Goupers, and one Scamp were caught. I did ok, I got 11 Muttons 4 of which were 5 to 8 pounds the rest were in the double digits one was 18 pounds and another was 16 pounds which made me glad. I know Jarvis, Dom, and Daniel (regulars on that boat) got some 20 pounders as well as 2 or 3 other people. Vertical jigging I got 2 kings a keeper AJ and an Almaco that was used for bait. I finished my snapper limit with yellow Tails from 18 to 22 inches.

I tried to get some more pics but you all know what happens when you catch a fish, you just want to continue catching. Went to the back with Daniel to take a pic with his nice mutton but it was already iced up. On future trips it would be nice if some people stop for a few second and snap a few shots too. Pictures look great when a fish has just been caught. Here are some of the pics for your enjoyment:

My 18 pounder

My 16 pounder

I lost two big fish because of hook failure; word to the wise if a deal on the flea market looks too good to be true it might as well be too good to be true. I paid 2 dollars for 200 hooks. These two cause me 2 quality fish lost.

This boat came so close trolling one rod and it was only a couple of feet above the anchor line; I guess he wanted the GPS location.

When the sunset came the Black Fins started to show and were all caught on bait, none came in with artificial. Also a Wahoo had shown up we threw everything at it but it was not interested.

Here is the NOAA field biologist doing his research.

Preparing to recieve the catch