Category Archives: Vertical Jigging

YANKEE CAPTS 6-14- TO 6-16-2012 Great fun and nice fishing

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YANKEE CAPTS 6-14- TO 6-16-2012 Great fun and nice fishing

Since the Yankee Capts had to make the decision to stay year round in the Keys there was an opportunity to get on a limited load private charter, unfortunately some people couldn’t get the days off to go fishing and it was canceled but they have another private charter scheduled to leave on the 25th of June. Good luck Capt. Bill and others going on that Yankee Capts private charter that week. The fish are chewing and the current on these moon phases are usually favorable.

Well the private charter was canceled so I decided to jump on this weekend’s 2 day Tortugas marathon. The trip was great for many as some nice fish showed up and we had a nice spectacle with Wahoo, nice Blackfins, and Sailfish showing up.

For me it all started as it always does, getting bait at the nameless bridge in the keys passing by Pizza Works afterwards for my 2 slices of delicious cheese pizza and some Key lime pie slices for the trip.


We went into the sunset to get to the fishing ground by around 1:00am. In the meantime we got to watch the Basketball Game. Sorry guys but I have to say it “GO HEAT!”

The morning started slowly for me, one pink muffing and since I saw Bobby hooked on an AJ I took out my toys to do some jigging and had some fun with a 50 pounder AJ that was released. What a pain they are to fight but I love it.

The second stop was very slow and the third stop was on fire so I was able to pick up 6 more muffins on that one. A few stops came through with slowly pickings so many took advantage and did the right move “got fresh bait” kingfish were plentiful and bonitas had a good showing. I was stubborn and lost a few vertical jigs and when I used a butter knife jig and then the right and normal kingfish jig the bite died off. Later in the morning we had some more AJ and Almaco fun on jigs as well as playing with some peanut dolphins and a popper. It was nice to see them going for a popper that was half their size. If these dolphins were in the 10 to 15 pound range I have no doubt they would have hit the popper veraciously. Some ended catching a few on cut baits and so did I.    We saw a small craft out there fishing the same grounds we were. That was odd for me to see. The boat was smaller than 25 feet I would say.

A few stops after produced some mutton in the 20 pound range. I lost my opportunity as my drag was locked and had to figure out how to work around it and it was a major pain the rest of the trip. Here is a pic of quiet Brandon (I think that his name?)with his nice mutton from that stop.  As the day went on it was slowly pickings for me until I figured that my lever was faulting on my reel, it went to full while on strike. I took some time and fixed the issue. The cap on my tension settings had fallen off so water must have had gotten in it so I applied a bit of oil and I was able to set it correctly right on time to get this Black Grouper out of his hole.

The day went on and we hit 300 feet of water with no current problems 6 and 8 ounces was all that we needed to get the bait down. A few nice ARS came up, mines was only a keeper but I got to get one of the ones caught. Here is Eduardo with his nice fish and me with my keeper ARS.    The deep water was holding some of the 20 pounders caught.  Some were caught but not by me this time.

Here is a look at one of the first two boxes to fill before they put the ice on the top layer.

As the day finished Mike on fire (we nicked named him that during the trip) got a nice 30 pounder blackfin, a party that came celebrating a graduation got one as well just to be knocked down from the pool by a nice surprise on tiny bait. Don’t know how much it weighed but it was a very nice size wahoo. This stop was pretty much exiting since Little Monster (another regular on the boat) hooked up a nice night time sail fish that took him around the boat 4 times until he decided to just let go and popped off.    On the way back we saw a nice water spout forming and touching down.

Overall I have to say it was another great trip, and a great job by the Captains Greg and Linden and mates. By the way the food was great! High hooks were the norms, Jarvis and Bobby with Mike on fire tailing close. I can humbly say I only ended with 10 muttons, an ARS, some yellow tails, a yellow eye, 4 peanut dolphins for the tacos, a delicious scamp, a black grouper, and more experience on these trips. As always it was great fun fishing with great people. There were a total of 18 totes filled if I am not mistaken.

Reward Won Bait and Vertical Jigging 2-24-2012

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THE FISHING TRIP: February 24TH, 2012
Aboard the “REWARD WON” with Captain Wayne
The Spot :Offshore Key Biscayne, FloridaSunset from the Reward Won
Weather: sunny, 5 to 10 knot winds then to 15 knots later in the afternoon
Seas: Calm in the morning and around 2 to 4 in the afternoon
Water: Clear in the morning and less visibility in the afternoon
Fish catches: Small Amberjack, small Almaco Jack, Mutton snapper, trigger fish, a kingfish, and bonitos in the mix
Biggest size : Type : Amberjack around 7 lbs
Technique: Jigging and fishing with live and chunk white bait and speedos
Jigs :100-300 gram; pink worked the most on this trip.

This trip was a last minute one for me as the weather cleared up for Saturday fishing. The weather has been crazy around South Florida lately. Weak cold fronts and then as hot as summer time. This seems to have shut down most of the fishing. We had the VHF running all along the trip and heard other boat’s catches and most were the same “Pretty slow day today”. Then the wind picked up just a tad bit and a report of a Blue Marling and a couple of Sailfish with some AJ’s on the mix were heard. We started jigging with only bumps and missed fish, looks like the fish wanted slower jigging this day. A small AJ was caught on jigs, then on bait a small snowy came up and was released followed by a double hitter of muttons, and a trigger fish. As the day went on a tilefish, another mutton, and a king mackerel were landed. I did not see who caught them since I was loading up on spedoos for a coming trip. The mate put out a kite to see if would change our odds but unfortunately there was nothing interested on those live baits. On the last try we hit about 4 wrecks with jig quick no catch move fast to another and had no luck. Maybe next time. The captain tried hard again for us and were back at the dock at 4:30 in the afternoon.

Her are a few pics that I took:

DSC02960-small DSC02957-small

DSC02956-small   DSC02961-small

Reward Won with Captain Wayne 2-18-2012 “El Cuchillo”

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Jiggin’ Miami Video report 2-18-2012

THE FISHING TRIP: February 18TH, 2012
Aboard the “REWARD WON” with Captain Wayne
The Spot: Offshore Miami and Biscayne, Florida
Weather: sunny, 5 to 10 knot winds
Seas: Calm!
Water: Clear all day
Fish catches: Amberjack, Almaco Jacks, small Blackfin Tuna, a kingfish, and bonitos in the mix
Biggest size : Type : Amberjacks around 15 to 25 lbs
Technique: Jigging
Jigs :100-300 gram, blue, and yellow with glow worked the most.

The day started normal with high expectations, we got to the dock on time but others did not but it was ok since the Captain told us that he was in no hurry and was going to stay longer out there and so he did we back to the dock around 4:30 pm or so. The captain worked hard to get us on the fish since they refused to bite from stop to stop. The first dew fish came up on board were lizard fish, a snake kingfish, and a barracuda. Little by little we started picking up one fish a drift and we got some. Sue, a reporter from the Miami Herald was on board and caught a nice size amberjack on bait. It was nice talking to her and many others and hearing all the places she and Justin have fished. As always when the boat moves from spot to spot the fun conversations start, it’s always fun to go on these trips. There were those that tried bait and got on some nice porgies, the rest continued jigging hardcore to the end with some results.

I did not take so many pics but did take a few videos every now and then so here it is, hope you enjoy.

 

Here is another video my friend Nilson made. it is in regards to my home made knife vertical jigs

Reward Won Vertical Jigging Trip- Last Trip of 2011

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THE FISHING TRIP: DECEMBER 17TH, 2011
Aboard the “REWARD WON” with Captain Wayne
The Spot : Offshore Miami and Biscayne, Florida
weather : cloudy, no wind

Reward Won Boat

On the way out

Seas: Flat Calm!
Water: Clear all day
Fish catches : Amberjack, ALmaco Jacks, Groupers, small Blackfin Tuna, with bonitos in the mix
Biggest size : Type : Almacojacks around 15 to 20 lbs, Red Grouper around 10lbs, small scamp and snowy
Technique : Jigging
Jigs :100-300 gram, Hammered Diamond jigs. red/white, blue, silver, pink, green, and glow worked the most.

I got to the docks a little late as the boat engine was on I though “Oh NOOOOOOO, they are leaving without me!” But they were just warming up the boat. The trip starded slowly as we were in the shallower water, the fish were not there but the captain as always found the fish , this time in over 300 feet of water. We saw some beginners today turn good jiggers and birthday boy Peter’s first offshore catch was priceless. And now, the rest of the story:

Blackfin Tuna Red Grouper

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In between moves Pat Hooked up

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Sehoon Almaco Blackfin Tuna

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On Tipped Jig Troy's Scamp on Vertical JIg

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First Blackfin Tuna on vertical jig Small Blackfin Tuna

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Little Tunny AKA "Bonito" Small blackfin tuna

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Reward Won with Captain Wayne 12-10-2011

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THE FISHING TRIP: DECEMBER 10TH, 2011
Aboard the “REWARD WON” with Captain Wayne

The Spot : Offshore Miami and Biscayne, Florida

weather : cloudy, winds of 18 to 21 knots

Seas: 3 to 5

Water: Clear in the morning and cloudy with sand mix noticeable later in the afternoon

Fish catches : Amberjack, ALmaco Jacks, Mutton Snapper, Gag Groupers, small Blackfin Tunas, with bonitos and blue runners in the mix

Biggest size : Type : Amberjacks around 18 to 25 lbs, Mutton around 8 lbs, Gag Grouper around 18lbs, Almaco Jacks around 10 to 15 pounds

Technique : Jigging

Jigs :100-300 gram, Diamond jigs 100 gram… red/white, silver, pink, and green worked the most.

We had a group of people interested in jigging and planned a trip to just go out and jig with artificials with Captain Wayne of the Reward Fleet. It took almost a whole moth of waiting for the weather to give us a chance to go out and fish. It was worth the wait. The trip was a success! So we decided that we have to do this again. I had tons of fun and the fish were a plus. There were not extreme amounts caught but we managed some quality fish. I tried doing some popping got some followers but no takers.  Popping for inshore fish is no problem, but offshore here in Miami you hardly see anyone doing it. So I will keep on (gotten some bonitos popping but those don’t count in my book). Here are some pictures and a video. Hope you enjoy.

   Reward Won Boat     DSC02659

     Herbert Hans Muller Almaco Jack Miami   Total catch kept

Jamal and his grouper     Nilson and his amber jack

    Greg and his amberjack   Adam and his Mutton Snapper

Jorge and his Almaco Jack     Ricky on a bendo shot


http://youtu.be/Bv_jVcOl4OM

DRY TORTUGAS OCTOBER 21ST TO OCTOBER 23RD 2011

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Here is part of the report and story as I remember it.

Since it was constant fishing, short resting periods, lots of rigging, plenty bait cutting, etc… the order of the events may have changed in my mind. I also tried to see what everyone in this trip was experiencing but focused a lot more on my fishing.

THE FISHING TRIP: OCTOBER 21ST TO OCTOBER 23RD 2011

Aboard the “Lauren Jeanne” with Captain Yuri Vakselis

The Spot : Dry Tortugas, Florida

Weather : cloudy, winds of 10 to 15 knots

Water: Cloudy sand mix noticeable

Fish catches : Amberjack, Jack Crevalles, Mutton Snappers, Yellow Tail, Snappers, Many kinds of Groupers, King Mackerels, Cero Mackerels, 1 small Blackfin Tuna. Horse Eye Jack, Bonita, and football sized Blue Runners

Biggest size Type : Amberjacks weight : around 50 to 60lbs… Muttons 16.2 lbs … Yellow Tail Snapper 5 lbs, Red Grouper around 16lbs…Kingfish mackerel around 28lbs

Techniques : Jigging, dead and live bait

Jigs : Knife Jigs 100-250 gram, Diamond jigs 100 gram, Red hawks jgs…Pink, red/white, silver, and blue worked the most.

THE PLANNING: After many emails and PM’s a year ago we decided to take one of those famous Tortugas fishing trips with Captain Yuri. It took many emails throughout the year to get in accord as to what gear we were all going to bring and some got together to order lead and vertical jigs so we could get discounts. Rods were made, reels were bought, and many lists came and went. We picked a moon that would not create so much pull and would result in weaker currents. We hit the jackpot as the current was minimal.

CLOSE CALL TO A NO GO: As many know that week almost got thrashed by a developing low pressure system that canceled many other trips on different boats, but fortunately for us a mild cold slowed down the low down and in the words of Captain Greg “it stabilized itself”. I think we almost became mini meteorologists, and oceanographers, LOL…. The good thing is that the bad weather created a nice environment for a feeding frenzy (so we think). The ocean was a bit dirty from the previous low pressure system and passing weak cold front. What a great time to fish!

Getting ready and loaded to the max.

THE BAIT: It was known that it is imperative that we take all kinds of oily baits to the Dry Tortugas but it was pretty hard to gather bait before the trip, at times we all tried to go out at some point and got drenched in water doing so. We collected a few runners, macks, and jacks. We decided to stop trying and to catch bait on the day of the trip. On the way up we did the norm, stopped at Jacks and got some fresh ballyhoos and some threadfins (in case we went to a wreck), we then passed by the Yellow Bait house in hopes for some frozen gogs but they had none, we passes by Atlantic fisheries and loaded on fish dip and slab of frozen gogs (BINGO! They had them!). We tried for cudas and other baits at channel 2 but these were on the other side of the driving bridge so we moved on, we passed by 7 mile bridge and found nothing there. We then went to get some pins that “SOMEONE” though was useless but I insisted and they caved in. After Rory netted the pins and Ricky, Nelson, and myself got a few of the bigger ones (Rob was the vigilante taking care of our gear), Rory got some sardines that were in the mix and Rory said “why not throw another cast?”. And so he did and got some more. We took the white bait just in case. We were more confident and went to the boat and met Jorge, kewl guy. Nice to meet you and fish with you man.

Bait gathering

THE FIRST DAY, FRIDAY:

THE RIDE OUT: Since on Thursday the weather was a little strong the plans were to go to the Fort and start fishing in the morning but we got to the boat early and Yuri decided we had a good window to go out right away so we left about an hour early and started fishing just before midnight. The ride was a little rough when we hit Rebecca’s Shoal and the waves according to the captain were about 5 to 7 feet. To me it felt like much more as I saw some higher waves that surpassed my head level (maybe it was the motion sickness that started to kick in due to my age, LOL)…

FISHING STARTED: All we needed was 3 ounces to get to the bottom but I chose 5 ounces for my mutton rod and 8 ounces for my grouper rods to be used with large baits ( I did target them on every stop). Others chose 6 ounces and even 8 ounces to get to the bottom quicker. Since the water was murky I stuck with 50lb leader most of the time and when the bite slowed down or the fish got bigger and the sun was out I switched to 50 pound fluorocarbon at times switching to 40 pound leader. After the water was chummed up the muttons started chewing within an hour of us being there. The bite was great from the get go. Two of the crew went to bed while the rest continued fishing. The first night was all about the muttons while a few sharks came by and collected their Tortugas tax. We started with a variety of baits pinfish, cut blue runners, and George had fresh gogs that he used and kindly shared some with us. We caught some muffins and some decent pinks but the bite slowed down. I then took out my little spinner with a 60 gram vertical jig and got a blue runner so George and I cut it and got more decent size pinkies with the strips we cut. So we kept every blue runner we caught after that. Other baits were used and just about everything that hit the water got chewed on. Also I think Rob tried the Lucanos and Jorge tried the Aki jig for a bit. The yellow tails were very aggressive and so we got many of them most were over 20 inches. I got one that was 26 inches (5 pounds), so I kept it.

THE VERTICAL JIGGING GOT STARTED: Early morning. I started jigging and got a football sized blackfin tuna, then came a couple of jack crevalles, and I had a nice fight on the Saltist 4500 I tighten the drag all the way and the hook pulled. Jorge started jigging as well and ended with another nice jack crevalle that was released. (We only kept one for bait). I then tried again with the looser drag (about 18 pounds), and then the trouble maker got hooked, SEA DONKEY! Rory and I were on. I spent quiet a while to pull mines in and Rory pulled his sea donkey in a bit easier since he had that huge 18K. We did not want to waste space in the cooler because we saw that the bite was kind of hot on the muttons. And each of those donkeys filled a 150 quart cooler with no problem. After the donkeys the bite slowed down and we moved to another spot. Rob got hooked on the Lucanos a few time the aki jig did not. The rest of the day was red groupers on live and butterflied “PINFISH” and we also got some nice flag yellow tails. I believe that Rob and Rory were using the white bait for those. We looked for the box of squid but could not find it, then realized we left it in one of the trucks. Jorge, Rob, Rory, and Ricky jigged the most. They pick a few nice and some short muttons and groupers. I only jigged when the bite slowed down.

THE SECOND DAY, SATURDAY:

It went by as we continued to try the jigging and baiting until we figured that we need to drop the jigs first before any bait and that was the ticket to some nice groupers and muttons. I got one of the biggest muttons of the trip on a vertical jig while Jorge got another two and Rory got a nice one as well. We were taking the pics when Nelson got hit on bait and pulled the other biggest mutton, both were 16.2 pounds on a digital scale. Rob kept on trying the Lucanos with Rick and both got nice red groupers and short ones as well. Rob got a real nice hit but his tiny Lucanos jig hook broke. Rory and Jorge continued with other muttons on the jig while I was using bait. We spent the entire day moving from stop to stop and we picked at the fish with the jigs on every first few drops. We would run to be the first ones to drop the jigs or bait, we had a small competition to see who got the most muttons and the biggest mutton, LOL….Ricky got creative and found a new secret bait, ended with a nice size pinky and I tried it as well with a much smaller cut bait and it worked. Then Nelson got creative and used a second hand bait that a red grouper had spit and BANG! He got hit on it but it was a short red grouper. The day went by and Ricky got a nice hit when all of a sudden his line felt like he was pulling dead weight, his nice size black got cut in half by a shark ?

This night we had the famous Yuri fish dinner and let me tell you it was all that people talk abound and then some. It was some great fish. I understand now how Robert started eating fish.

Jorge and Rob kept picking at the pinkies while we all slept I between naps. They got some live gogs and played with the kings for a bit. We ended with 3. Jorge had a massive hit that he could not stop. I went to be after that.

THE THIRD DAY SUNDAY:

It was the shark and kingfish saga! Every mutton or yellow tail would turn into a toothy critter (well it happened all trip long but it was more often as on this day). Nelson was the only one awake all night and he caught up with catching muttons I had a nice black grouper that cost me three tries to get it out of the whole when I felt my line vibrate, a king cut my sinker off when I had the fish a good 20 feet from the surface. Lesson learned: Spray paint my shiny leads in the future… We kept on fishing for yellow tails to see if we got some flags we ended catching some in the 24 inch range. Nelson, Jorge, and Rob kept on picking at the muttons while most of us were trying for more groupers and then they joined us as well. The morning slowed down and was time to go so we had to rearrange all coolers and drink all drinks since we had run out of fish space. The smorgasbord followed with Ricky eating his first Hot pocket ever, LMAO!!! He kept hearing hot pocket this hot pocket that until finally he had one.

BACK ON LAND! We unloaded and carpeted the floor with our catch, started to get ready to load all our stuff when we went to check the truck I opened it and Rory and I got hit by a MASSIVE! Nasty smell of the squid that was left on my cast net in the truck bed (the net still dipped in fabric freshener! LOL Well my truck stinks a mile away, I have to park in the far corner of the lot, LOL…Some got their fish cleane for 30 bucks an hour. I regret not doing so! I just finished cleaning mines a few hours ago and what a mess I have in my back yard. My neighbors are going to love the smell tomorrow afternoon, LMAO!!!!

Well that’s the end of some of the stories/report here are some more pics for those that skipped all the mumbo jumbo I wrote, LOL!

On our way to  No Name Key for more bait gathering we spotted an endangered Key Deer. They are very small deer  due to the small size of the islands and are losing their habitat.

At the temporary dock

Me

Rory

Ricky

Robert

Nilson

Jorge

The rest of the story in pictures

The final tally as given by the 6 fishermen was:

Nilson :

  • 11 muttons… (biggest at 16.2 lbs)
  • 3 reds
  • 1 scamp
  • 2 tails in the 18in range
  • 1 cero mackerel

Jorge:

  • Limit on muttons…(biggest at over 15 lbs)
  • 6 red grouper, plus one released
  • 2 big kings
  • 1 big jack crevalle
  • And countless yellow tails released

Rory :

  • 16 muttons…(biggest at over 15 lbs)
  • 2 red grouper
  • 1 gag grouper
  • 2 king fish
  • 1 big Amber jack
  • 1 cero mackarel
  • And countless Tails released, kept two 24 inchers

Robert :

  • Limit on muttons….(biggest at over 12 lbs)
  • 1 Big Mangrove snapper
  • 4 big porgies
  • 2 kings
  • 3 red Groupers
  • Over 10 yellow tail flags and countless more released

Ricky:

  • 16 muttons (biggest at 15 lbs 15 oz)
  • 6 groupers + 1 devoured by sharks,1 gag grouper,1/2 black grouper (had to pay the mafia in grey suit….)  ,1 strawberry,1 rock hind, red groupers
  • 1 porgy
  • 2 kings
  • 4 tails over 20″ (biggest at 24″)
  • 1 5′ lemon
  • 1 spotted moray eel
  • countless smaller tails and smaller sharks

Herbert (Cudaman):

  • Limit on muttons, over 4 released (biggest at 16.2 lbs)
  • Over 15 yellow tails released one at 26″ kept, one at 24″ kept
  • 2 black groupers
  • 4 red groupers, plus about 4 red groupers released
  • 1 football size blackfin tuna
  • 1 big amberjack….several small ones
  • 2 kings
  • 3 cero mackerel
  • 2 jack crevales over 12 pounds, kept one for bait because of gaft on head
  • 1 small Almaco jack released
  • 1 horse eye jack released

A variety of other groupers were caught and released by just about all the anglers on board. A total of about 160 fish kept and many, many released.

The biggest muttons caught were at 16.2 pounds by Herbert (cudaman) and one of same weight by Nilson (rare).

The most muttons caught by Herbert (Cudaman) and by Robert (WhoDey)

Jigging worked best at first drop

Dead bait worked better by switching to different baits as often as the bite slowed down.