Dec. 5, 2013:
For the few anglers around the fishing has been good if the weather has been favorable. We have had some very windy days where most people would not go out fishing, whether offshore or back country fishing. However, there are still a few cards to play even if the wind is blowing hard. The key is to seek shelter. That could be on the patch reefs offshore or in the protection of the mangroves on the shorelines or the creeks. Getting there is the fun part, or not that fun. But getting a little spray in the face is no great problem, more of part of the experience. You might not be able to target the fish you want, but if it’s your only time to fish you can still get out there and bend a rod.
Check out my monthly forecast to see what is happening this time of year. With ideal conditions most everything is available. With tough conditions that restricts one to fewer species.
Oct. 2, 2013:
Fishing has been great, and I wish I could have gotten to this report sooner. I hope to get a “blog post” going soon so that I can make weekly posts easily and also get it tied to a Face Book page so all you great clients of mine can put up your pictures and comments. I’m thinking of having that “Face Book” to be a “free for all” for all my clients to tell your stories and even poke fun at me, harass me, challenge me and others (just go easy me please, and keep it good clean fun for all ages)! I cannot wait to get it up, I think it could be good fun.
I’m going to just write up a few highlights of the fishing, with no photos because they are so time consuming to edit, name, load, and then upload.
FLATS FISHING: We have caught some big permit up to 35 lbs. I got to get these photos up. The redfish fishing has been on fire with numerous fish per day and big redfish over the slot limit, 28″ – 30.” Snook has been good too, and there are plenty of small tarpon out around the creeks and shore lines. A few big tarpon have been around, but I have not connected with them yet. The bonefish are slowly making a come back, but they are not as numerous as they were before the big freeze we had a few years ago.
OFFSHORE FISHING: The black fin tuna fishing has been very good. We have caught as many as 20 tunas up to 15 lb. and lost just as many. There have been some dolphin around, but it has been sporadic. It will get better as the cold fronts start coming down pushing the dolphin (mahi mahi) back south. Big muttons and groupers are around the reefs and the wrecks now. Also the sailfish are starting to show up, we lost a nice one while slow trolling livies on the reef for cero mackerel and as I told my clients how we hook sailfish doing this all the time, not 30 seconds later a sailfish eats the left rigger and we hook it up. It makes 2 nice jumps then spits the hook – how exciting though, shame we did not get that sailfish.
While we are tuna fishing on the humps, the sharks can also be targeted. A week ago we fought a 350 to 450 pound MAKO SHARK for about an hour, after it ate a tuna on #20 test spin. It stripped the spinning reel till the last 30 turns on the spool then we cranked down the drag which amazingly stopped the mako shark. Ed Hinkle, long time client, fought it back up to about 60′ down where I could just make out that it was a long dark fish not a short fat fish (i.e. yellow fin tuna), so I thought it was a billfish because if it was a shark it should have cut us off. It then started to make a slow run again, which we had backed the drag off a little expecting another run. It was not super fast, but a solid run. Then it jumped! About 120 yards out this big mako shark, easily 350 – 400 lbs., shot 10′ straight out of the sea; and broke the #50 test leader at the surgeons loop where the feather is attached to the snap swivel. WOW! Spectacular! I cannot believe it did not bite us off, and that we stopped it with #20 and worked it back to almost a release. Wow!
Three days later I was fishing with David Langemo and his wife, Mickey, for tunas (I’ll post photos soon). They caught a lot of tunas and lost a few to sharks, so we fished a live skipjack on a #50 test with wire. There could have been another MAKO out there that day, because one of the sharks really exploded across the surface chasing a tuna we had on. That shark had some extreme speed, and much different than most shark bites out there. Most sharks on the hump wait till the tuna or jack is dead tired and close to the boat for an easy meal, or they get them down deep after the fish’s first hard run after it stops and is dead tired and can’t run again. But this shark blitzed across the surface just underneath ripping it up with an incredible speed I have not witnessed by a shark.
We fished the live skipjack tuna for about 20 minutes until we got “the bite.” We hooked a nice shark, a hard run – not slow) but broke it off on the strike because I accidentally put the drag lever up to tight initially for the strike. I was pissed. I had forgotten how tight the Penn 50’s get past strike position, which I had changed about 5 years ago trying to eliminate the free-spool tendency Penns have (halfway back) when you start backing off the drags if a big fish starts to dump a reel. That’s what you need to do when the line is half way out or more, start progressively backing the drag off due to the excessive amount of line in the water and the increased drag on the line at the fish’s end. It is good to have a good progressive backing off of the drag all the way down to the free-spool button. If not, you can accidentally get into free-spool by barely moving the lever down – lot of times just 1/3 the way to free-spool. However the inverse can be disastrous too, like what happened on that shark. I found out that I should have not gone further that past the strike button on that particular reel, where I went half way to full drag instead and broke the shark off. That one I’ll remember, check each reel before you use it to remember how each performs. Also the drag could have some water or grease on the drag washer and it’s not performing like it regularly does.
July 3, 2013: Yeah Buddy! We catch a 425 lbs. BLUE MARLIN on #30 test Stand-Up Rod!
BLUE MARLIN FISHING: (All my trolling rods are set up to catch blue marlin when we are fishing for dolphin fish (Mahi Mahi), tuna, wahoo, sailfish, white marlin, and blue marlin while trolling offshore.)
Last week on 6/25/13 we fought this 425 lbs. BLUE MARLIN for 3.5 hours and it was an epic battle, one of the best blue marlins I’ve every matched up against out of the 106 Atlantic Blue Marlin I’ve guided clients to as a captain, mate, and even catching 6 personally as angler since 1978. It is the 114th big marlin I’ve caught including Pacific Blue Marlin, Black Marlin, and one 200 lbs. Stripe Marlin.
They did not expect a trip of a lifetime, but “just wanted to catch some fish” according to Eddy Perez fishing with his 14 year old son, Vinny, from Lowell IN when they booked their first private charter fishing trip with me. After 2 disappointing trips on “head boats” (boats with many anglers) over the last four years because they got pushed out of the better spots of those boats, so they decided to book my boat for themselves for the better chance to catch fish. It was a slow day as far as finding keeper size dolphin fish (Mahi Mahi). Each school we found were under the size limit, so we’d move to the next school of dolphin. There were loads of bonita, or actually skip jack tuna from 500′ out to 20 miles offshore. We finally caught a small keeper dolphin, but it was part of a small school traveling to the East and the birds lost them after the we missed a couple other dolphin. We turned around and continued trolling down sea. Just as I described how I go about trolling offshore for dolphin and marlin.
At around 12:30 pm I saw the Blue Marlin “crash” the right rigger lure. It came out of the prop wash from below, smashing the lure sideways making a huge explosion. “Huge fish!” I screamed. I saw the side of the fish as it hit the bait, but I never saw its head, bill or tail. In 2 seconds and 120 yards out the big Blue Marlin jumped completely out of the water, showing its big head and beefy side. “That’s got to be 350 – 400 pounds!” I blurted out. The rest of it was covered in white water from it’s tail kicking. Both Eddy and Vinny saw the fish and were shocked. I gave the rod to Eddy, “keep the line tight – no slack!” I yelled. “Vinny reel in those lures!” I screamed and pointed to the rods as I reeled in my side of rods and kept the boat in forward. I had to punch the boat forward a couple times to help Eddy keep a tight line as the Blue Marlin changed direction. By the time Vinny and I cleared the deck the blue was deep in the Micron backing, 450 – 500 yards out and down sea. I started backing down on it with Eddy sitting on the bait well. I wanted to keep the stern to it in case I had to punch it forward if the Blue Marlin charged the boat, and that was exactly what I had to do a few times. That is common at first hook up, and it is tough for a novice offshore angler to reel extremely fast and for a duration of time. Eddy did great for his first time with heavier tackle on a big Blue Marlin, his fish of a lifetime. When your adrenalin is pumping and your heart is pounding, things are not going to go smoothly – but Eddy did great! The fish settled down, so I moved Eddy to the front of the boat fighting the fish off my strapped down cooler which is a great fighting chair. This is the best place to fight a fish from in a center console boat. There is no obstruction from the engine, the boat maneuvers easily port to starboard, and you can chase down a fish faster loosing less line. But if the Blue Marlin charges the boat, you got limited reverse speed. If it charges the boat hard, you got turn the boat to run away from it which is a tricky maneuver and a good chance at creating slack. Eddy fought the Blue Marlin for 45 minutes until he was whopped. He insisted on giving it to me, so we traded spots.
Remember the “Epic Battle” I said. As I took over I started to increase the drag as I got closer to the fish (using the lever drag reel I explain at the end). In about 30 minutes of fighting the fish I touched the leader with the rod tip for the official release, then 2 minutes later I got the wind on leader deep into the reel. I grabbed onto it momentarily with my hand as the fish passed the bow heading the other way putting a lot more pressure on the Blue Marlin, but with its tail at me I knew I had to let go (that I’ll explain later too, because I have leadered over 80 Blue Marlin). The fish took off on it’s second big run, another 400 – 500 yard. I backed the drag off to “strike” again and even less as it continued out. When the Blue Marlin slowed again, I put the drag up to “strike” then “full drag” once again. I fought the Blue Marlin back to about the last 100 yards of line which is a bright yellow mono “top shot” of 250 yards. Suddenly the Blue Marlin took a hard right smoking it down sea, pulling the line through the water at a right angle and hissing as it went by. I backed the drag off again. It took its third 400 – 500 yard run down sea, and I got Eddy to chase it quite fast almost on plane, so it could have actually made a 600 plus yard run because it was well into the 600 yards of backing. That reel holds 800 – 900 yards of line, depending how much top shot of mono I have on it due to cutting it back as line gets used. I fought it back to the first half of the top shot, and I had been fighting it for over an hour now.
I asked Eddy if he’s feeling better, and he was. So we traded spots and he fought the Blue Marlin for 20 minutes. During that time the fish made another 500 yard (4th big run), not as fast as the other runs but a good pace. When it settled down and Eddy started recovering line, it was also taking line. Eddy started to struggle once again, it was rougher and the rod would come out of the fighting belt occasionally. I went up to check on him and the spool had maybe 150 yards of line left – oh crap! We traded spots again, and I put it up to “full drag” to start recovering line. The fish charged the boat again. Reeling fast as I could, I got Eddy to put it in fast reverse, almost hard reverse but not cavitating.
I fought the Blue Marlin for another 1:15 hours before I finally got it up to leader it by hand 3 times. The first two times I had to let go of the fish and fight it a little more. The second time the leader got into the prop. I saw it was possible so I got Eddy to put it in neutral. When it got into the prop, I let go of the leader and grabbed the rod out of the rod holder and used the rod to get it out of the prop. The third time I wired the Blue Marlin its head was down, and its pectoral fins were out and still lit blue: a powerful posture. I decided to go ahead and leader the fish up to the surface, but as it came up its head got under the boat. I tried to pull its head out from under the boat, but it just pulled harder and instead went down. I had to let go. I really wanted to get that fish up to the boat not just for photos, but to measure the fork length and girth to get a more accurate estimate of its size.
Now a very large and active lightning storm was closing in on us and it was less than 5 miles away. When the Blue Marlin eased off this time, I not only had it on “full drag” but I started to turn the preset drag knob to increase the “full drag” much more. I turned it maybe 1 to 2 full turns, until the line was really cracking when it took line and the rod was at a severe bend more than I had ever put on a fish with this rod. I fought it another 10 minutes and noticed it had gotten tail wrapped as it past the boat a couple times. I had extreme pressure on the fish and the lightning was popping every 20 seconds out in the distance. The storm filled the whole horizon to the SE. The next little power run the Blue Marlin took, I stood firm on that “new full drag setting” and the knot finally failed. Damn, but it had to be done. When I measured the drag setting at the dock it was 18 – 20 lbs. drag at full drag, way more than should be set for #30 test.
Thank God Vinny got that video. The shots under the water as it was going down shows the full fish and a perspective of the size. Vinny also got two good videos while I was fighting the fish. First one while I was recovering line after one of the runs I did a little narration of what we had been through up till that point. The next one is when I take over the second time and the spool is very low with line, then the fish charges the boat and I have to reel very fast and Eddy has to put the boat in fast reverse. I hope to finally learn how to edit my videos on my camera so I can post new videos this year.
GRABBING THE LEADER: If I was in the cockpit of one of the boats I worked on in St. Thomas, I would have taken a double wrap on the leader with heavy gloves and dug my knees in under the covering board to stop that Blue Marlin, then launch him sky high and flip them backwards. That’s what Blue Marlin do when they are still green and heading away from you when you grab the leader and stop them from going forward. That is what we lived for as mates. One memorable 525 lbs. Blue Marlin I leadered on the “Fish Hunter” with Capt. Casey Shea did just that. I got three jumps out of him before I broke #15 wire on it. First jump was straight up and down, second jump I flipped it backwards, so the fish turned around with the slack and made a greyhound jump away from the boat in full force. I was ready: locked in under the gunwale with my knees, double wrapped with one hand and the other hand in front supporting it with hardest grip I got, close to the covering board if not on it, and my elbows cocked back tight to my sides – text book form! As that fish came tight at full force jumping away from me the #15 wire popped.
WORKING LEVER DRAG REELS: Using the the lever drag appropriately like I was during the whole fight is one of the great advantages to “Conventional Lever Drag Reels” over star drag reels and spinning reels. All serious big game reel makers use this system. Initially you set the drag so that when the lever is up against the “strike button,” which is about 2/3 up to “full drag,” you have your conservative fighting drag which is set at 20% – 25% of the line’s breaking strength. That is around 6 – 8 pounds of drag for #30 test. The “full drag” can be different on many different reel makers. My reel is around 10 – 12 pounds of drag, perfect, I do not want more than 50%. If you want more drag you can thumb the spool when pulling up on the fish. When the fish first hits, the drag is set at “strike.” If the fish runs a lot of line out like 300 plus yards, you should start to back off on the drag, because the drag is increasing as more line comes off the reel. First, the diameter of the spool of remaining line is smaller (say 1/3 smaller), and it takes more force to pull that line off. A simple fulcrum principle. Second, the more line in the water that the fish is pulling increases the water resistance on the fish’s side of the line, which we call “water drag.” Third, and even worse, is if the fish makes a turn and a run creating a belly in that line, that is even more “water drag” on the fish’s side of the mono. As these factors compound the drag at the fish, it is imperative to back the drag off so the fish does not break off. The drag could be 1/2 of even 1/4 to “strike.” When the fish stops running, you can put it back up to “strike” to gain line easier. As you get closer to the fish, say within 300 – 400 yards of line, you can start to increase the drag past “strike.” As you get closer you can push it up to full drag, especially if it is dogging you. But as soon as it takes off on a run you should start to back off the drag. That all depends on how fast the run is and how much line is out. So with all this changing of drag settings the one critical advantage is that you always know what “strike drag” is and what “full drag” is. With the star drag and spinning drag you do not know actually know where you are in the setting once you start moving it around. Those lever drag settings are not an absolute though. The drag can start to tighten up after a couple successive hard runs and fast line gains, overheating of the drag system. A fatigued angler might not notice the change, that is why it is important to remember the bend of the rod with your typical settings. The rod is like a dial on a gauge. If it is bending more, the drag has tightened. Inversely, the drag can also loosen by wearing down the drag material. The drag works as a drag washer being clamped between two drag plates. The spool on one side and the gear on the other, the drag washer is the clutch pad. If the washer wears down, there is less clamping force. This is unusual but it can happen. Also, most drag washers are used dry with no grease, so if water or grease gets on the drag it will start to stick and slip, just like when your car brakes get wet they slip and take a lot of pedal force to slow down then they can stick making one hydroplane. A bucking rod tip when the fish is taking line indicates that problem. If it’s water it might burn off in a long fight, if it’s grease you got to clean the washer and plates. Either way you should service it, because saltwater may have gotten in there.
OFFSHORE FISHING:
Dennis Zuck and family get a couple shots at tailing sailfish. He casts to and catches this +30 lbs. cobia tailing down sea, and they catch a few nice mutton snapper and lane snapper. My sister Beth and nephew, Bennett come down for 3 half days fishing. They catch these nice mutton snapper. Bennett catches his first sailfish and a nice kingfish. I have a lot more photos of others, but no time to resize them and upload them.
Fathers and kids go out for some fast action half day trips catching dolphin fish, we let a lot go and keep what is good for eating.
What could be better, what a variety of fish we have here in Islamorada, FL Keys: Blue Marlin, sailfish, cobia, dolphin fish (Mahi Mahi), big snapper, big amber jacks, big mackerels etc.
TARPON FISHING:
Todd Aronson and friends catch 5 big tarpon and half dozen these mangrove snappers one night.
We lost a big (7 – 10 lbs.) mangrove snapper right at the boat as we hooked up a tarpon
Wow, we have caught some large tarpon in the last two weeks, like half a dozen in the 180 pound range and numerous others in the 130 pound range. Last week we were able to measure three tarpon to get good weight estimates: 189 lbs. (44″ x 78″), 180 lbs. (44″ x 75″), 175 lbs. (42″ x 79″), and 120 lbs. (36″ x 75″). These are just the big ones that we got to the boat for a photo and measurement. Other big tarpon in the same size range we released, getting the technical release (leader to the rod tip). But anytime after the release before we can get it up to the boat, either the hook can pull free or the tarpon wears through the leader. This can happen even while trying to grab hold of the tarpon for a picture after an hour or two hour fight. This happens a bit, but you have to understand: you have fought the fish for the best part of the fight. We are just fighting the fish to the end so we can safely handle the fish at the boat. If we try to land it to soon, it would go nuts slamming its head against the side of the boat essentially knocking itself silly and jeopardizing its recovery after a few photos. We must responsibly handle these great sport fish. I’d say +95% time the all the fish I release are revived so well they briskly swim off. That is our obligation as sport fishermen, as good captains and anglers.
Measuring any fish will give you the estimated weight accurately within (+/-) 5%. Take the girth length and square it, then multiply it by the fork length, and then divide it by 800 which equals the estimated weight: [(girth2) x length] / 800 = weight. We will take measurements 2 and 3 times to confirm the lengths. For me the measuring takes some of the doubt out of my visual estimate, but most of the time I am within 5% of the formula. However, this is measuring a big fish in the water, and it is not definitive like weighing it on the dock. My friend, noted retired guide, Lee Baker laughs about how the tarpon are much bigger now in the fly tournaments since they are now measuring the tarpon instead of killing them. Before the largest tarpon for decades was 160 lbs., but now tarpon larger than that are winning the tournaments most years. I do not keep up with the tournament results, it’s not my thing. But I think Lee has a very valid point when claiming the size of a tarpon. Only a scale will tell you the weight, but we certainly are not going to kill sport fish just to weigh them for our ego. Thank God that is over.
We’ve had some great action too. Joe Conroy and his buddy Andy released 4 tarpon their last day, but they had 10 tarpon hooked up and on – WOW! They had over 15 tarpon smashing their baits, now that is action. Todd Aronson, his hilarious co-worker “Bundy,” their client Greg, and Greg’s step son put a hurting on the tarpon. They caught that 189 pounder and another tarpon in 180 pound range that pulled the hook after 1:20 min. of fighting the same night accounting for close to 3 hours of tarpon fighting. We still caught another 2 fish that night. Another one that was in the 130 pound range we fought for 30 min. or so until he was dogging it under the boat, so we released it with no photo by leadering it up and cutting the leader close. That way we could go
Catching twice as many tarpon!
If we could catch these fish faster, skipping the “photo finish” as I call it, we would release twice as many tarpon. A couple my friends do that, but I know most of the clients want to get a beautiful photo of them with the tarpon stretched out along side of the boat. So anytime they want a picture, I do everything possible to get that photo for them. Plus, when you think about it, that fish is truly caught when you beat him to the end where it is laying across the surface in total submission. That can be “back breaking – fish fighting” a big stubborn tarpon digging and dogging you under the boat for an additional 30 to 45 min., which is truly a big part of besting a tarpon. So by doing an intentional quick release, you really are skipping over half of the battle and respect of these great sport fish. Most people are shocked at the strength and stamina of these great tarpon. So if you are fishing with someone other than me, and they like the quick release, ask them if you can fight one to the end to see the difference.
BACK COUNTRY AND FLATS FISHING:
The redfish fishing has been very good. Lots of redfish up on the flats and along the shorelines too. Gary Gomer and his wife, Kimberly, caught 10 big redfish all sight casting lures in very shallow water. Most of them were over 28 inches. They had a hard time getting 2 in the slot so they could take some fish home to eat. They were so shallow their backs were out of water, and it was hard for me to pole the boat. We caught them all sight casting with artificial lures, which makes for a challenging feat. Once Gary got dialed in to when to strike after the bite he was on to it. They even caught a double header where I had to net both fish in the same net at the same time. Later they missed a couple snook at a point, but we could not get to where I wanted to snook fish that day due to some bad weather. So we focused on the redfish that morning.
Anthony Rascoti from CT and his son have a banner 3 day trip. The last day the son catches these 2 tailing permit on the flats, a great feat. They caught a number of big tarpon the first night, and the second day went back into the backcountry looking for snook. They caught a few but absolutely tore up the big sea trout. It was like every cast.
Snook fish has been good to great depending on the day and conditions. The bonefish are showing up better every year after the freeze, but it still in not like it was before the big fish kill by the freeze we had 3 years ago. The permit are showing back up on the flats after their spawn offshore.
How about this 1 eyed snook! ——–>
March 8, 2013: Here we go again. Getting ramped up for another Epic Season in Islamorada! Yeah Buddy!!!!
Just got back from our annual surf trip to Costa Rica – just what the doctor ordered, thank the Lord we can still pull it off! Surfing and camping was great for Elena and I. I shot some great eating fish and focused on finding “ostiones profundos” as the locals call them which translates as “deep water oysters,” but they look more like a local abalone. They are very hard to see as they are attached to the rocks, and blend in perfectly. I got a cool video showing how hard it is to find them. I showed my buddy, Frank Poorman, two different shells and he still could not see them. I taught him the basics of spear fishing a couple of years ago, and he has really started to get good at spear fishing. It is great to see someone start to excel and enjoy something you teach them. I met him a few years ago through my friend Steve Pace that I’ve known since 1990 and lives in the hills and surfs every day before working. Often after surfing, Frank and I will go shooting fish after lunch, then we’ll have a big feast at Frank’s cabina (he made himself) with Steve and other friends. I’ll post some photos soon. Just what vacation should be: surfing, spear fishing, eating, and drinking with friends. I miss all you guys back there. I’ll post some photos soon I hope.
FISHING LAST COUPLE WEEKS:
We got back just in time for the first real cold front, because it was real mild till mid-Feb this year. Well that shook everything up, but we still managed to catch some snook, redfish, trout, jacks, snapper, ladyfish, and sharks in the backcountry and Everglades National Park. It was so nice to get back there once again, and out on my old flats boat that I rebuilt 16 years ago. What a great skiff that can pole in shallow, ride through a nice chop, and can handle 4 people.
I got out for a couple half days on the 23′ Sea Craft during some tough weather after the brutal cold front. We lost couple nice fish on one of the local wrecks, and caught some other patch fish: cero mackerel, porgies, snapper, grouper, and even got into some “sennets” all of which were some good rod benders on light tackle. I’m looking forward to fishing for sailfish and big amber jacks in the next couple weeks before the tarpon fishing gets ramped up with the warmer temperatures. The last week and half of these successive cold fronts have pushed the temps down. But this drives the bait down the reef and the sailfish fishing should be good.
Before the offshore trips, I madly attacked painting my covering board which I was not planning for. My buddy Chris convinced me to do it on the few days I was not fishing. He came over to help me again thank God, but he was supposed to do it for me while I was away on vacation. He swore he was going to and I was going to pay him and I even called him twice, but “out of sight – out of mind” and it never got done which was a bummer when I got home. But I cannot bitch to much because he helped me last fall to paint the deck on short notice before we went on vacation. He was a life savior then as I realized I was running out of time to do it solo before leaving for Costa Rica. He dropped everything to come help me knock it out just days before we left.
I was literally pulling tape off till midday the day before we left, and by the time I went to bed the next day in Costa Rica I had been up for 38 hours packing and prepping boats and house and then traveling, all on coffee. Of course when I got there I could not just go to bed. I had to have a few long awaited Pilsen beers and visit with Elena’s sisters, brothers, nephews, and nieces. I finally crashed at the dinner table though, with my head back against the wall, but they still just kept on yucking it up. I did not mind hearing them in the background of my dream state drifting in and out of sleep, I was home with family (2nd home and family) with dreams of fast barreling waves, shooting tasty fish, and throwing back tequila shots with old friends.
Until my next fishing report, Chao or “Pura Vida” as they say in Costa Rica.
