36 Hour Fishing Trip from Fort Lauderdale to Key Largo and Back May 4th to May 5th

May 9, 2013 by cudamanadventures

THE FISHING TRIP: 36 Hour Fishing Trip from Fort Lauderdale to Key Largo and Back May 4^th to May 5^th2013

This Cobia was caught on a vertical jig

Aboard the “Out Of Control IV” with Captain Ralph and Captain Dennis

The Spot : From Port Ever Glades to Key Largo Soldier Key

Weather : Partly Sunny then clear skies

Water: Calm with strong over 3 knot currents at first then cloudy with sand mix noticeable and 2 knot currents

Fish catches (from all in boat): cobia, amber jacks, mutton snapper, yellow tails, black groupers, gag groupers, and king fish

Biggest size Type : Amber jack

Techniques : Vertical Jigging, cut bait, and live bait

Jigs : 100-250 gram, Bullet type bucktail jigs, butterfly jigs, speed jigs, Pink, red/white, silver, and blue worked the most.

The luck still ok, but can get better

A new boat is in town out of Fort Lauderdale and it’s going to be doing long range trips to the Florida Keys and the Bahamas. The out Of Control fleet just expanded with a 75 ft boat and a beam of 21 ft powered by two JohnDeer engines with over 500 hp each and can do 18 knot service speed and capabilities of over 22 knots. I am glad I was able to witness the power of these engines as later on you will read.

Prior to the day of fishing Nilson a friend of a few fishing years and I went on a bait hunting expedition for a couple of hours. We got 21 large size pinfish and kept them alive in a 15 gallon bucket with an aerator and a bit of aquarium ammonia neutralizer, a bottle of frozen water helped to cool down the water and keep the fish calm. One of them did not make the 1.5 hour journey to the docks, but that was expected.

On the day of fishing, we made it to the boat a couple of hours prior departure to find out that the crew already had a bait well with a decent amount of bait (blue runners and spot grunts). We loaded our gear and around 4:20 or so we were well on the way. By sunrise we were in the Miami Port Everglades Channel marker area catching more bait. A chum bucket was deployed and we loaded with 40 or more pins, 30 or so spot grunts and some blue runners. The boat had tinker mackerels, squid, frozen ballyhoo, and about 20 or so bonitos caught the day before. We had all the bait we needed for the trip.

Saturday started with slow fishing around Fowey Rocks lighthouse, and can we say “slow” a few small fish here and there. We had all the live bait and other good baits but we couldn’t quiet get the bait where we needed it, on the bottom. The current was ripping in over 200 feet so we moved shallower. A few fish came up among them a nice gag caught by Robert another fishing friend of mines and I got a mutton snapper as the night fall came.

The flying fish were all over the boat but were running a bit deep as they got close by. I waited patiently until I saw one that bluntly committed suicide by flying into the boat through a small gap and hitting the live well. I ran like a running back going for a Hail Mary 3 seconds left on the 4^th quarter. I got the sucker and saved it for later. Well, it didn’t work out so well for me as I got a big shark instead of the mutton or grouper I was looking for. Later on the boat crew brought out a net and I was able to get 4 more flying fish with it. Got wet like I was under the rain and it didn’t pay off since we could not find a spot with slower currents. A baby African pompano came up on a flyer by Nilson. The plan was to make it to Isla Morada but given the conditions with stronger winds than expected and strong currents needing 16 ounces to bring the weights to the bottom, the captain decided it was better to turn around and find better spots closer to Miami. A few fish did come up, some yellow tails, some groupers, and some jacks.

On Sunday morning we found some wrecks that were holding fish. I lost my attempt at a large amber jack when my line was tangled by someone’s braid line and when they where told not to pull they did the opposite so I lost the fish. You just got to love when that happens. On the way back we hit many wrecks and the captain cranked that engine to make a speed wreck fishing race to the finish line. By Haulover we found a wreck that was holding nice amounts of vermillion snappers (beeliners). That saved the trip for some. Once again the captain cranked the engines even faster and mover over the county line where the fun began. I started as I did on some of the stops with vertical fishing. I was fishing a long 300 gram jig when a 35” cobia hit it. I got it to the boat and off to the cooler it went. That was one of three cobias caught that day. Right after that a nice 31 pound AJ was caught by my friend Ricky another friend of a few fishing years caught it vertical jigging a long jig as well. We all got into the jigging loosing some massive hits to the wreck. I had my reel drag maxed but it just ran like butter as if it was greased so I lost that fish.

Another picture of the cobia caught on a vertical jig slow mechanical technique

In the end the crew and the friends is what made the slow fishing conditions fun and interesting, while in the other hand we had that one guys whom is always complaining of not catching fish but sleeping most of the time while others are catching bait or fishing. I ended with an over 15 pound king fish, the mutton snapper that won the biggest snapper pool, the cobia, and some vermilion snappers. It could have been much much better, but the weather did not get our memo. There is always that next time if it isn’t, I will hear “you should have been here yesterday”. So I have to keep on fishing to be there that one day when all hell breaks loose and fish are eating everything you throw at them including the bottom of the boat.

Rob and his Gag Grouper

Ricky and his AJ

Nilson and his African Pompano (released back into the water)

The Catch from the 2 days, looks very small for 14 people but given the conditions it was great.

Until next time

Reward Won Bait and Vertical Jigging 2-24-2012

February 24, 2012 by cudamanadventures

THE FISHING TRIP: February 24TH, 2012
Aboard the “REWARD WON” with Captain Wayne
The Spot :Offshore Key Biscayne, Florida
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:

Reward Won Vertical Jigging Trip- Last Trip of 2011

December 30, 2011 by cudamanadventures

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

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:

Bridge Fishing the Keys With My Nephews 7-2-2011

July 2, 2011 by cudamanadventures

After a long time of saying I will go fishing with my nephew’s (from my wife’s side) we finally came up with a day to go bridge fishing, Friday July 2^nd, not such a great day since normally the 4^th of July weekend is full of people rushing to the Florida Keys to have fun in the sun and water to celebrate this great country’s independence. Well, they had great expectations of this trip as they have seeing many pictures and heard great fishing stories from the Florida Keys, only one of them had gone fishing with me before and that was to Channel #2 on a Memorial day weekend that was a nightmare to drive to and from the Keys, but was a great day of fishing to catch and release sharks and keep some dinner snappers.

The only fishing experience they had were some previous bass fishing. I set them up with the basic rigs. I decided: Knocker rigs and troll rights with jig loop knots should be the best choice. They were fast learners and had it good after 2 hours of fishing, WOW! That was quick!. I worked hard on getting them on a fish, no matter what it was, but absolutely wanted to get them on at least one quality fish. Expecting many fishermen and fisherwomen to come to the bridge that weekend I thought that it would be best to scheduled our trip to be on the bridge at a time in which most bridges are empty. All bridges in the Florida Keys are good and you can catch many species of fish from them but in this task I had to bring them to a place where they didn’t have to drive so much, walk so much, and catch some keeper snappers for dinner and at least one quality fish to keep them interested.

The time went on and we discovered that we were surrounded by alien looking like creatures that kept on giving us the finger, but as you can imagine they were scared of these creatures, and what is the first thought? Get rid of them or they might bite us! LAND CRABS all over! There were dozens of them at a time. One of the family members I brought was a peanut that had the courage to try and grab one and guess what? OUCH I GOT PINCHED!!! They all panicked and started pushing them back to sea. I had to watch them and constantly tell them they were creatures that were more scared of us than us of them. The crabs were appearing claw less and come to find out there was a group of people hopping bridges looking for their claws, locals that knew what was going on.

Now the fishing report: The weather was great, no rain (which I wanted some) the water was not clear and this was great, the current was not ripping when we got there and almost seemed slack to a point until it changed to incoming which is when all the action started with the clouds gathering and the winds picking up a bit.

Well, the fishing story/ report got too long so let’s go back to the report, this time with pics:

The peanut got his first fish ever and a keeper 12.5” snapper, which he told the story on how he caught it and fought it for the whole night and ride back home, LOL

The oldest nephew got his first fish, one hell of a Hog Snapper!

My nephew’s brother-in-law got a bonnet head that he didn’t want to touch, LOL

I was able to get a nice size permit

One of my nephew’s went home blank so I still owe him another trip. My other nephew also had no luck on this trip but he had come bridge fishing with me before and caught some nice lemon sharks and snappers. All in all it was a successful and very nice bridge fishing trip. I just have to find the time when they all can get off work at the same time again to go fishing with them again.

Bridge Fishing in the Florida Keys 6-12-2011

June 12, 2011 by cudamanadventures

My permit

My friends had met the night before and started fishing, by the time I arrived they had gotten some mutton snappers and mangrove snappers…. I had a lot of plans that did not happen on the weekend because of Mr. weatherman, they never get it completely right, LOL . When I got to the bridge the water color was still a bit cloudy and had just started to clear up which was not too good for my likings but started off good with losing a nice run, possibly a mutton, then I got a 14.5″ mangrove that I kept and threw back 3 keepers that were less than 12 inches. After the permit hit it was over for me and we started getting ready to go back home. It were a good 3 hours of fishing for me. Like always it was great fishing with the crew. Here is a pic of my permit and one of the crew:

Part of the crew

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.