sailfishing on a backcountry skiff

Dr. Hugh Dennis of North Carolina and Islamorada suggested to me ."Since it is so calm is there a chance we could try for sailfish." I put on 3 heavier spinning rods and off we went. Found a school of big razorbelly pilchards and filled the livewell and then we headed for the outer reefs 5 miles offshore. The wind was 10mph out of the north. Perfect conditions. We ended up catching and releasing 2 sailfish. one was 40lbs and the other about 15lbs. we also caught 4 king mackerel,3 cero mackerel, yellow jack, mutton snapper,yellowtail snapper and red grouper. on the way home in 20' of water we found a stingray with a school of cobia following. Hugh finished the day with a 27lb cobia which we had for dinner at Lazy Days restaurant. Thanks Hugh for getting me offshore for my bluewater fix. Lots of fun from an eighteen foot skiff.

Five days of fishing the Keys

Wendy and Tom Sims of Miami Shores spent 5 days fishing with Capt. Skip Nielsen last week. Every day we fished different areas and fished different species. Day 1 we fished the cape sable area catching snook,redfish,tarpon. Big sharks were a problem. They ate a couple redfish and a snook. We kept a redfish that was sharkbit and a nice snook for dinner. Day 2 we fished the Flamingo area catching lots of trout,jack crevalle, and 12 snook including some keepers up to 31". Day 3 we travelled to northeast Floriday Bay and fished Terrapin Bay,Crocodile Dragover and McCormick Creek. Lots of juvy snook and big crevalle jacks and mangrove snapper. also a redfish and jumped a tarpon.Day 4 we netted live pilchards and headed out to Oxfoot Bank on the western edge of Fl. Bay. Chumming and freelining pilchards the spanish mackerel found us. This is an early run but we caught big ones for 3 hours on the incoming tide. Also in the same spot released 12 trout, 20 ladyfish, 5 cero mackerel, kept 10 fat mangrove snapper for dinner as well. As the tide slacked so did the bite so we cruised over by Sandy Key and chummed up a bunch of pinfish and headed for a secret spot. There Tom fought a huge sawfish for over an hour. Also Wendy caught a 200 lb bullshark and a goliath grouper. Wendy also caught a big snook and a cobia. Tom ended the day with a 50 tarpon on 12lb spin tackle. Day 5 dawned slick calm so we decided to fish the gulf wrecks. By 12 noon we had released 7 goliath grouper with Tom bringing a 300 pounder boatside. The crevalle jacks were swarming. It was hard work and as it was slick calm hot! We finished the day by running from the gulf in to the cape sable beaches. Bait was everywhere so with a quick cast of the net we reloaded the livewell with pilchards and released some snook,spanish macks and more jacks. Wendy and Tom had a blast and a great 5 days of fishing. Thanks guys!

backcountry fishing

had Dr. Hugh Dennis out yesterday. Weather was fine. slick calm and hot. We moved around a lot to create some air conditiong. First off Hugh caught and released a bunch of big redfish to 11 lbs. 15 in all. Then poling around some potholes caught and released a snook. Then fishing a channel managed an 85lb. tarpon to complete his backcountry grand slam. nice day Hugh. but not finished yet moved to another spot and caught 5 goliath grouper and a large bull shark. and to finish up on the way home stopped at a spot near 9 mile bank and limited out on fat mangrove snappers.

tarpon update

Tuesday August 5. Father and son from Austria released 7 tarpon to 120lbs. also released was a 20lb snook,12lb snook, 2 goliath grouper and a 6' hammerhead shark. bookings are slow but fishing is the best.

Redfish reef action 7/25/08

Capt. Merv Finch fished the reef using live cigar minnows, which produced a limit of King Mackeral (kingfish) up to 30 lbs.  They also caught 8 mutton snappers up to 14 lbs.  The seas were calm and they fished south of Alligator Lighthouse.  This was Lisa & Darrell Myers family, with mate Dan Flynn.  Nice going!