Hurricane of the Kelley Fleet in Haulover Beach, FL 4-23-11

April 23, 2011 by cudamanadventures

THE FISHING TRIP: April 23rd, 2011
Aboard the “Hurricane” with Captain
The Spot :Offshore Haulover, Florida
Weather: sunny, it was blowing hard
Seas: 5 to 7 foot seas
Water: mixed
Fish catches: Kingfish, amber jacks, bonitos
Biggest size : Type : King Fish, take a guess
Technique: Jigging and fishing kingfish jigs and whole fresh ballyhoo
Jigs :100-150 gram butter knife jig (home made); chartrusse was the color for bonitas

Had the itch to fish this morning so I decided to go to Haulover and check for any open spots on any of the boats, I needed room since I was going to jig. The Huricane had a nice spot available so I took it. I had the whole bow to my self since the seas were about 5 to 7 foot and all the tourist started a puking contest and were basically just hanging over the side were you cannot fish since the day time trips are all drift fishing.

In the way out someone caught a fish trolling, I thought it may be a dolphin so I got my bait chunk rod and headed to the stern with a ballyhoo plug. Nothing jumped, ended being a big bone head so I headed back to the bow. A few stops and jigging didn’t yield anything but a bonita. About 10 minutes before leaving time Mr. Smokie pass by saying hi to me and sang a nice song zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzznnnnnnnn So I said Aha! Nice song come on over I want to invite you to dinner, but Mr. Smokie refused and decided to sing again and again, but this time at a slower beat zzzznnnnnnnn…Well it got tired of making music and accepted my invitation to dinner. It wasn’t a super duper Smoker but Smokie was good.

The total catch for the boat was minimal. There were 2 small amberjacks, 3 bonitas, and 3 kings (I think no more than that). I got a bonita on a knife jig and a king on a red and white jig/ballyhoo combo. On the other boats they had some nice size AJ’s since they drifted closer to the wrecks and also some nice kings. They did catch more than us, but we were only about 6 to 8 people actually fishing. Here are some pics for you all to enjoy.

That’s all folks…till next time.

Yankee Capts 4-8 to 4-10-2011- A Wreck Trip

April 8, 2011 by cudamanadventures

THE FISHING TRIP: April 8TH through April 10th, 2011
Aboard the “Yankee Capts” with Captain Greg
The Spot : Offshore West Coasto, Florida into the Gulf Of Mexico
Weather: sunny, 5 to 10 knot winds
Seas: Calm
Water: Clear in the morning and less visibility in the afternoon
Fish catches: Amberjack, Almaco Jacks, Yellow Tail Snapper, Mangrove Snapper, Mutton snapper, Cubera Snapper, American Red Snapper, Red Grouper, African Pompano, kingfish, and bonitos in the mix
Biggest size : Type : Cubera Snapper 37 pounds
Technique: Jigging and fishing with live and chunk white bait and speedos
Jigs :100-300 gram; pink worked the most on this trip.

Prolog:
Hi all, it’s been a while since I’ve written a fishing report but here I am giving it a try. I apologize in advance if the story line is not in the order in which the events took place. I went to fish and not to document the catches. So here it goes:
I was supposed to go fishing to the Bahamas in May but changes in my schedule forced me to cancel, but I had the itch for some jigging fun and catching something that could bring some pain to my shoulders, arms or my back. Well, I guess I am trying to say I needed some stress release so I booked a newly opened trip on the Yankee Capts “A WRECKS TRIP” OH boy, this sounded great for the stress release situation. A chance to really work some flutter and vertical jigs on some AJ’s and hopefully some grouper or snappers to gain some “PAIN” and get the stress out of my mind!

Chapter 1

CRAP! We ain’t fishing in the Tugas? Somebody brought bananas?

OOOPS! I guess I did not read on the trip well enough. We were to fish wrecks in the gulf, wayyyyyyy up from the Tugas! When I found out I re read In my mind I thought “hmmmmmmm, king fish, cudas, lots of groupers, AJ’s, maybe some cobes, and a chance for permit in the wrecks”. Again I have a busy schedule so I had a very short window to really prepare since my rule to fish from a boat is “as much fresh bait as possible” and by that I mean the bait cannot be caught more than 3 days before the trip and the countdown first day starts at night. I started checking my goggle eye spot sources and those did not look promising, but then I thought I am looking for pain so I need to gather bait for the bait to target bait to catch pain species (In case you did not understand what I meant is that I was looking for bait to get legal size bait to catch big fish with shoulder and back wrecking strength). OK, so that meant bait like pilchards, threadfin herrings, small pin fish, blue runners, etc…. Well things started bad as planning had to go down the drain since we weren’t going to the Tugas, and to top it off someone (cough, cough) brought bananas in the boat?

Chapter 2
Preparation.
I am used to fishing by myself or a few friends form bridges, jetties, or beaches “I’m a BOATLESS individual” so I pack HEAVY! We have lots of space to run for the rod that gets the hit, this did not make it difficult to choose the basic needs to get the basic pain I wanted.
1- A spinning rod to jig with guts to get something away from the wrecks, a reel with enough drag and line to pull anything that could inflict pain
2- A spinning rod for bait that could be possibly used to get a 30 pound king fish in the boat
3- A conventional rod and reel to get nice legal size baits ( in the pound range)
4- A conventional rod and reel to get the big pain givers at sunrise and sunset
5- A conventional rod that could be used as a back up for 3 and 4 above
The above is my own list for a limited fishing trip (limited amount of fisher men or women on a single long range trip)

Chapter 3

The bait gathering

On the 7th of April It all started bad, I was supposed to go to a bridge that holds cigar minnows, small goggle eyes, (especially since I had to be at the dock in Stockton Island before 10 pm on Thursday). I started the day with the OHHHH boy I ain’t got bait in my coolers! I am lucky enough that I live close to the keys so I went straight to the Yellow bait house in Key Largo and haggled on some goggle eyes ( I know I said I may not need them but you never know what bait is the preferred bait of the day so I got them), and got some live shrimp (did not keep live, just placed in bag in the cooler). I went to the first bridge to get herrings and whatever else I could, I saw Jarvis and his friends said high to them as they left and I continued getting bait. I jumped to a second bridge to cast net some ballyhoos after a few one by one tries I went to the third bridge where most of the people fishing in the trip where there. Got the pins and separated them by size in zipper bags, small medium, large, and mixed bag (different baits).

Chapter 4

Fishing:

On the 8th of April after a loooooooong ride to the first wreck right before sunrise we all tried for some groupers and then did the switch to other baits and styles of fishing. You could see knocker rigs, fish finder rigs, free lining, heavy bottom weights, and light weights. My observation was that all in all everybody was trying something different and everybody was watching each other to see what worked at the moment as if we were on a pier where someone gets a fish to bite and all of a sudden you see 10 other fishermen in the same spot. Them not knowing that the fish are all over but it’s up to them to get them to bite where they are.
I and a few people got what we wanted, nice fish. And I definitely got what I wanted, PAIN! I started jigging and got on to some AJ’s while everyone else tried hard to get other fish. After my Aj’s a few African Pompanos came up, we got a few very rare Red Americans( cough, cough) and that was promising. As always the captains and crew worked hard and moved from spot to spot trying to make sure that all got into some “QUALITY FISH”. Yes, this trip was not meant to be about numbers or just Muttons, but about quality in size of fish that inhabit the wrecks.
I kept saying I am going to battle with the AJ’s, and so I did. I got 12 out of about 20. My shoulders were hurting, my back was in pain, my arms had a great work out, ended up got bruises all over, and ended up keeping the smaller ones to eat. The night came and so we started targeting snappers and groupers, to our surprise a ballyhoo going down produced a nice black fin (sorry I am bad with remembering names)…. So I tried jigging at night with no success, I went back to bottom fishing.
On the 9th (or my birthday) fishing was going very slow so I decided to break my rules and target the yellow tails using a guppy rig ( chicken rig) I know it sounds bad but I did it and I said it “aint no shame in this game, fish don’t know the difference! I went with the smorgasbord buffet special baits, LOL…A big mixed bait on the top, a smaller mixed bait on the middle, and a tiny single bait on the bottom… I dropped it and then POW!!! Rod tip bent, tangle with 3 people is on, I kept on reeling in, captain Greg ran to the bow to help, and Jarvis started s creaming don’t pull he’s got a big tail on… A nice tail comes up I say it’s a flag but Mr. Caesar says “NO!, is not a flag, IT’S A BANNER!”….Thanks goes to Jarvis and Capt Greg for the help on landing the nice y-tail. It was 26.5” total length as the picture shows it and may be even more if I had pinched the tail some more…. Instead of shrinking this thing grew from 24.5” inches to a nice 26.5”. After that a nice 15 or so pound red was landed and a real NICE 24 pounder mutton was landed as well. The day kept going with the moving from spot to spot. Others were having fun with jigging and on the same day Roberto was able to sneak the jig in between all the Aj’s and got a nice 25 pound or so black fin. After that a nice surprise came in the form of a cubera snapper, the Yankee fan was able to pull the pool winner 37 pounder, which rumors had it was around 50 pounds but that later was confirmed to be 37 pounds on the scale. A one of a kind for many, but just smaller one for the person that caught it ( he got a bigger one in Panama), but HEY!, this one was in Florida during our trip!
On the 1oth, things kept going slow with blue fish and lanes in the mix and finally Capt Matt decided to make a last minute move to arrive at sunrise city where we prepared for groupers and got hit hard, rods bent all over and a few Goliaths came over the rail but no reds or blacks, then all of a sudden the nice size mangrove snapper started to show until Mr. Sharky showed up and capt Greg gave us the last call for the trip.

Conclusion:

The bananas in the boat had to be eaten before we all started catching some fish. All in all fishing was slow for those that did not want to fish, we got nice quality fish, and we had a great time. The Captains did their job so did the mates and it was up to us to get the fish. We all did what we could and some of us landed something very nice. Numbers didn’t matter, quality did. The trip was fun and smelly because (cough, cough)” middle bunks situation” with someone bringing bait in their clothes and leaving it somewhere in there. I ended up taking lots of bait but ended using mostly artificials, (it’s what I asked for, “PAIN”). I did not fish for cudas as it was just to easy to do so, they were all over and a tube lure would have been just too easy.

Bridge Fishing in the Florida Keys 7-8-2010

July 8, 2010 by cudamanadventures

The boys from the boatlessfishing.com forum decided to go permit and snapper fishing during the weekend but my schedule did not allow for an overnight bridge fishing get together so I was to meet them Saturday morning. As I was approaching them on Long Key Bridge I decided to play a little joke and screamed FISH ON! I startled as they hurried up to get their fishing rods wa wa wa sorry guys didn’t mean to scare you all, LOL… Well, I setup my rods and dropped the bait then as soon as I started to walk away from it and was talking to the guys RRRRRRRRRR! zzzzzznnnnnnn znnnnnnnnnn I ran to my rod and picked it up, flipped the lever to engage, got a permit hit going on! OK!!! I have to go under, I am going towards you all, please move the rods, I am under this line, I am over that one! I kept the tension and the fight was over all mayhem slowed down as they were bringing the permit on a bridge net when RRRRRRRRRR! zzzzzznnnnnnn znnnnnnnnnn, CRAP MY SECOND ROD! and so I run and I screamed I GOT THIS! Picked up the rod, flip the lever, start reeling in and the over under mayhem starts again! Wow! nice runs from these fish. I was finally able to land the second which was released after a photo opt. After that Rory caught a nurse shark with 3 hooks hanging from it’s mouth, he was nice enough to remove them and released it. The day went on but I had to leave. Conditions would have been even better if the water color held up, but that’s how it is. I would have gone to another bridge and continue hoping until I found one that had better looking conditions but instead I decided to head home.

2 permits caught, one was released

Bridge Fishing- Super Moon Permits 3-19-2010

March 19, 2010 by cudamanadventures

We have all heard of the super moons and the blue moons, so this one was it. We just had to fish during a moon that brings in rough tides and lots of bait trying to swim through it. What a perfect hunting ground it is for fish in those bridges, they have the cover to hunt and so we were thinking it may be a good opportunity to go. We started fishing in Channel 5 at night and had some fun with Tarpons as we sometimes do, manytimes we do not intend to catch them but since they are so plentiful in those bridges is almost inevitable to not catch one. Here is Nilson’s account for one of those times as it happened on this night.

“Plenty of poons at night. As soon as it hit water I put the rod down & it bended twice. I thought I had a nice Grover- it hit hoo plug. Then I see this poons jumping up in the air & I’m still fight him. He then heads under the bridge & I am thinking game over. I tip the rod down on the 7 ft rod as much as I can. He then does a U turn & come out the other side of the hole. So he wraps me around & now is in front of me jumping. I got him back in & was till fight when he took one final jump & the 1x wire hook came off. The poon was about 50+ Rory & the guys said it had to be more. It was damn fun with 15lb line & wimpy rod.”

We appreciated the awesomeness of the moon and as we were doing so a bird decided to stop by and watch it with us. Then it left and came back to steal some of our bait but this time it got tangled in our lines. We took our time getting it out and let it fly away unharmed.

The morning time came and the first permit hit Nilsons bait, after fighting it for a bit the permit won by wraping Nilson around a pylon. The second bite was on Rory’s bait and after another nice fight Rory also lost his battle to the pylons. Up next it was me I did the same o’l same o’l the left to right in between pylons dance. The permit move to the right I went left the permit went left I went right always trying to keep the line in between the pylons or as far away from them as possible. I have lost so many of them as well but not this time. Ricky was up next as if we were on a line for permit hits, Ricky did the dance as well, he put pressure on and was also able to land his permit. Nilson kept trying but for some reason he lost all the battles.

Then Rory got another turn at it, he ran like hell to his rod not giving the permit a chance to the pylons and got in the fight on a good crazy positions being able to win a nice price, an invitation to eating permit for dinner for weeks to come. Here is Rory’s account on what happened:

“Was a great time with the crew, lots of laughs, that little permit fought harder then any bigger one I’ve caught, got him on an Accurate 870 w/ 30 lb mono so couldn’t horse him too much with the light line, he took off under the tunnel so I had to lie down on the ground and stick half my body out of the hole in the wall of the bridge, and hold the rod straight down and fight him lying on my stomach…thank goodness I was using a 10 ft rod, anything shorter and I would have lost him for sure.” Nilson added “Rory fighting that permit was epic! I was setup on Rory side with the bridge net & Herb on the other side with the net since the permit went under tunnel. We weren’t going to lose that permit.” Sometimes teamwork is what counts.

As Ricky says, there always someone with a bad juju, last time it was me at Sebastian Jetty with loosing redfish after redfish and this time it happened to be Nilson and the permits. So in one of the bridges we decided to get a group picture commemorating this day.

From left to right is Ricky, Nilson, Rory, and Herbert

We hit a few more bridges afterwards as we did fish for 2 days straight. Below is a picture of an endengred Key Deer we saw as we were on our way to anotherone of the bridges.

Having brought sleeping bags kept us warmed up from the chilled nights. On this night we definitely had to thank John and his wife for an awesome coffee and breakfast. As always it was great pleasure fishing with John and his mellow sound. He retired in the keys and he’s loving fishing with a passion. John landed some short groupers and had his fun with the Tarpons on swimbaits.The rest of the days came with plenty mangrove snappers in the 11” to 12” inch range, the tarpons kept on harassing our baits, a few Spanish macks were caught, and saw some eagle rays jump up in mid air as they many times do. On the last nigh of fishing we ended sacrificing a permit for an awesome ceviche made right on the bridge, I must say it a perfect fish for it. Ricky took his time filleting it and let me tell you not a morsel was wasted.

Ceviche Recipe

Below are pics of the delicious Permit Ceviche. Ricky cut the fish in small cubes mixed it with onions, bell peppers, and cilantro then added lime juice and a bit of white vinegar. Let it marinate for one hour in the cooler and then served it with crackers.

You can see the original report and everyone’s individual account on boatlessfishing.com

Beach Shark Fishing Fort Pierce, FL 7-11-2009

July 12, 2009 by cudamanadventures

THE FISHING TRIP: Beach Shark Fishing 2009

The Spot : Fort Pierce Florida

Weather : cloudy, winds of 10 to 15 knots

Water: Calm at first then cloudy with sand mix noticeable

Fish catches: Sharks, sting rays

Biggest size Type : Shark
Techniques : cut bait, and live bait

After not getting a single bite the first time I went out, we tried it again and we put the baits out right at the reef line, we got one hit and one hit only but it produced a nice lemon. As you can see on the pics she had been mating, she did not fight much at hook up so I thought it was a nurse shark, but then as she got close to the sand bar she peeled some line and I felt her power, but on the 14/0 it was just crank, crank until she felt the sand and all hell broke loose. My drag was hammered to the max and having no one behind me to hold me down, she took a surprisingly fast run back to deeper water and pulled me in the air making me fall forward and making me eat some sand, LOL. This has happened to me on a short rod as well, goes to teach us to always be aware of what the shark’s power is like ( I am 250 lbs and was lifted like I was 10 pounds). All in all it was a lot of fun until the noseeums came out in full cloud forces. Thanks Mark, family, and friends, it was great fun fishing next to you.

All was ok

I thought she was under control and then,ZZZZZZZZZZZZZMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM BAAAAAMMM! I eat the sand, look at the line in the sand, that’s from my rod, and behind me my foot marks as I was taken into the air by the pull, look at he picture above and you can see below where I landed, LOL

Brad and Mark helping with the landing

Tagging the Lemon Shark

The tag

The overall length of the shark, it was 8’6″ but a very chunky one. If I would have gone over the hump and lowered her tail maybe a few inches more.

Brad and I pulling her back in the water to release her (notice the tag we placed on her top side)

Brad finished the job reviving her, very carefully he helped her regaining her strength, great job dude…

Beach Shark Fishing April 2009

April 18, 2009 by cudamanadventures

While fishing a Land Based Catch and release shark tournament with my team mates Luis, Brad, Alex , and my son Seth we had been going out fishing but had very bad luck in the first two weeks of April. I started by catching some cudas and some in my group did an excellent job on collecting big baits from other sources such as charter boats. In this post we were fishing from the Florida Keys to Martin County, Florida.

The pic on the left is the pic of a nice 30 pounder barracuda caught on a plug a month before. (Unfortunately that bait did not produce). The other is of a 25 to 27 pounder

This is the kind of bait I like the most. It did yield one blacktip from a bridge by Luis “picua”. A kingfish carcass yielded another blacktip from a bridge, and a dolphin fish carcass yielded a nurse shark. I got a decent lemon also, and then another blacktip on a jack crevale fish belly (10 lbs chunk).

On the first trip (first week of April) the goal was to catch a big shark so we used whole bonitos and big chuncks of Jack crevale fish, big enough to not allow smaller sharks to take the whole thing. Since we were using big baits we lost 3 sharks that day as we were getting prepared to leave I decided to leave the rods for last and pack the kayak first and then the coolers. On the 12th hour of waiting for something I was putting the stuff inside the truck and getting eaten alive by the noseeums I then heard a bunch of screams, THE ROD, THE ROOOD!!!!! It was on, had a bit on my rod. I rushed to it and inmediately set the hook, I spiked the rod in the sand, and sat behind it to fight the shark, it was a big 8’10” male lemon that hit my bait. I rigged using a 20’ homemade 250 lbs test red line wind-on leader, a 950 lbs American Tackle swivel and 4 to 5 feet of #19 single strand wire with an 11/0 hook. As you will see the red balloon that popped is what I use to keep the bait at mid (it is just slightly inflated and at the end of the wind-on leader) then I tie a rock with about 10 feet of string.

Here are some pics:

Alex looking over the rods