Nov. 26, 2014: Photos are on Instagram and Facebook

My most current “fish reports” are going to be on my Face Book page which the link is up towards the top of this home page, just under the first 4 pictures, left hand column. I will still be posting periodic or seasonal reports most likely too, which might focus on “highlights” of great catches and spectacular stories.

BIG, BIG, NEWS !!!!!  I will be redesigning my whole website very soon! I have been wrestling with which way to go: 1) a custom Word Press site, or 2) learning a new program to design my own HTML 4 – 5 website. I played around with it quite a bit, wow! Mind blowing program, very hard, and complex just to do basic things. But I was following a Utube instructor, and he was like writing script in the program instead of using the utilities. That I discovered after getting to the “dropdown menus.” So I might restart that program. But the Word Press according to my good friend’s friend, who specializes in Net Marketing, says the way to go is Word Press for easy of editing and I can still get into the scripts and optimize my site. That is what I’m afraid of, is loosing my integral Page Ranking that my site has acquired over the years.

Aug 25, 2014: Photos are on Instagram and Facebook

Sorry about the radio silence. I had to visit my wife’s family down in Costa Rica. Elena’s father was very sick and he ended up passing away while I was there. Elena stayed back for the nine days of prayers and a few days longer, and I took care of business and the house back here. Been fishing a few days a week offshore and inshore on the flats and the backcountry. We have caught some nice fish in the last month and a half, just last weekend we caught dolphin up to +30 pounds (mahi mahi), permit and bonefish are on the flats, and the snook and redfish are in the backcountry. The big blackfin tunas will be showing up soon and this is a great time of year to catch blue marlin and swordfish. It is my favorite time of year to be fishing and spearfishing.

What a great man Elena’s father, William, was. I posted a short, classic video on FB of him playing the guitar at 79 last Dec, 2013. He was very gracious to me since I first met him in 1988. He visited us many times, caught many fish, even ran the boat while we scuba dove, and helped a lot around our house. “Thanks William for all the good times together!” I cannot say enough about him.

Offshore: Well the wind picked up to 15, and what an epic dble header “Slammer Mahi” on #20 test. The first set of birds 24 miles offshore we catch +30lbs bull and 25lbs cow after 45 min epic battles. It was tricky running boat and gaffing these fish. Good going Tom and Jake Sawyer. It’s hard see the size because Tom is a Big Boy. The day before the mahi were tough to find keeper size fish when it’s very calm, but we finally found them. We threw a lot back, and kept just what we wanted. We caught a few nice gaffers and schoolies, Tom Sawyer and his kids, Jake and Katie.

Flats and Back Country: First day back from CR, we spent a few hours chasing permit on the flats and came across about 40 permit: three schools of about dozen each, couple of singles and doubles, and a triple. Had a few good shots, but never connected. Then we went into the backcountry and saw 25 to 30 snook in super clear water and the snapper kept beating the snook to the baits. We lost one nice snook and caught our limit of nice keeper mangrove snapper for the backcountry. Then I had a couple of nights Tarpon fishing with some pretty good action for this mid late July. First day we had seven bites, three Tarpon hooked up, and got one to the boat, about 35 pounds. Last night we only had four bites, but three fish hooked up. One was about 65 to 75 pounds. Sadly they all jumped off.

Spear Fishing and Diving: Jesse Roduer spears a nice 25.5″ black grouper, and his brother, Jackson, gets a 14″ hogfish and a multitude of yellow jacks. They saw at least 6 other shooter grouper they could not get close to, all in 25′ and less. Mini-season was good, we got our limit of lobster, 60, with my old friend Gail Porter and his family. Gail’s son, Griffin, shot his first keeper black grouper. We also shot some hog fish and some sizable lionfish. 
 

May 9, 2014: Photos are on Instagram and Facebook

Islamorada tarpon fishing has been hot! Offshore & flats fishing has been good too! We had at least 15 tarpon busting on our live baits the last day within 20 feet from the boat – wow, gotta love that!!!

Reid Schermner and his buddy from Holland, Bas Buchwaldt, caught 3 tarpon out of 6 on for all those tarpon crashing the baits. Two of the tarpon took about an hour each to catch, so we could get some photos along side of the boat. They were in the 105 – 110 pound range, the other was about 70 lb. This was Bas’s first tarpon!

Another memorable day was Joe Conroy and his wife, Carrie, caught 3 tarpon for 3 tarpon on, and had at least 6 or 8 tarpon hitting or flashing on the baits. It was Carrie’s first tarpon, which she caught two I think in the 80lb. class.

April 22, 2014: Photos are on Instagram and Facebook1)Tony Murray came back again from Twin Cities Minnesota with his college buddy Frank Koch. Frank found out what epic tarpon battles are all about! Tarpon fishing is starting to turn on with the warm weather. Frank got a nice big tarpon the other night just after dark, like usual. It was a big one: 80.5 inch fork length by 36.5 inch girth which comes out to only 135 pounds, but it was a long and skinny fish and including the tail could’ve been over 86 inches long. It was one hell of fish. It fought for two hours, and was really a stinker at the end of the battle even at the boat just an extremely strong, wiry fish. Frank posted it on my Facebook page

2) Rich Badis and his son, Greg, came down for a couple days fishing. They had a great day in the backcountry catching a lot of fish including two big redfish over the slot: one was 28.5″ and 31″ (about 12 to 15 pounds). They caught more than their limit of big Seatrout (but kept the limit), a few nice mangrove snappers, and a bonus sheepshead sight casting on the flats. We have never caught a Seatrout without any spots! But check out the last picture of the fish that Rich & Greg Badis caught in the previous post.

The first day we mixed it up doing a little reef fishing and wrapping it up Tarpon fishing. They caught nice mess of lane snappers, vermillion Snapper, porgies, and a nice grey trigger for the fish box. Then we ran down and fished a few spots for tarpon. We jumped one nice tarpon off after dark and missed a couple other bites. We caught a couple nice spinner sharks on live mullet. It was slow before dark, but after dark they turned on but we were fishing a short evening trip so we had to pull the plug around 10pm.

3) Scott Long and his son, Michael, came out for a few days of fishing offshore, backcountry, and Tarpon fishing; and once again had a great trip all around. They caught a lot of fish and started it off with Michael catching his first sailfish on the first day after patch fishing all day on another windy April day. They caught their limit of mangrove snapper and a few nice grouper we had to throw back. This is great action for young boys and their fathers. The last hour of the day we ran out to the edge of the reef after the wind laid down a little bit. We started trolling live baits and within 30 minutes hooked and caught this sailfish.

Backcountry fishing, they caught their limit of nice big Seatrout, a number of other fish: jacks, snapper, etc. But I don’t know if we caught a snook that day? And then Michael lost a nice big shark on 12 pound spin after a big run and getting cut off in the mangroves.

The Tarpon fishing was a little slow during the day I think we had two or three or four strikes. I know one big strike, tarpon out of the water eating the mullet and line came tight, but Michael just couldn’t get the hook in him right away. I think we had a couple other strikes if not three I know they had a big boil, couple flashes, but they just weren’t biting very well in the daytime trip. So we wrapped it up shark fishing and Michael caught a handful of nice sporty 30 to 40 pound spinner sharks and had a ball fighting them. Scott said it was the first thing he talked about when he got home, forgetting all about the trophy sailfish he caught. Kids love sharks, that’s for sure

4) Helene Lara, her sister Michelle, her mother Margarita, and her sister’s sons: Christian, Justin, and Ryan for a day of fun fishing off the reef and take something home to eat. It was a little slow, it was a little rough, but we pick away at the fish and got a nice bag of fish. And they got to do a little snorkeling on the reef too which the boys really enjoyed. That’s a big gray trigger fish, and a nice cero mackerel that Christian caught. Justin caught the nice mangrove snapper and other nice lane snappers.

5) Gary Sawor and Jason Michaels came down for three great days offshore fishing and back country fishing. They caught sailfish, 15 pound snook, other snook, redfish, nice amberjack, groupers, snappers, deep water red porgies, and a seatrout.

These photos are from the last day of fishing. It was blowing 25 kn plus out of the East. We went fishing the patches all day and caught their limit of mangrove snapper plus numerous other mutton snapper, groupers, etc. Then we went out offshore for the last hour and caught this sailfish.

Gary Sawyer and Jason Michaels caught these red porgies and nice amberjack on a half-day off shore after arriving from Pittsburgh at mid day. The next day Gary and Jason caught this 15 pound snook (34.5 inches), couple redfish, a limit of big seatrout, other snook, jacks, and snapper. They had a great rod bending day in the backcountry of the Everglades.

March 28, 2014:    Photos are on Instagram and Facebook

OFFSHORE: The last couple weeks we have had a great variety of fish.

We’ve been catching some nice red porgies (3 – 5lbs.) and snowy grouper (10 – 15 lbs.) out in the deep water.

The humps have been on and off with the tunas and amberjacks, but we have caught black fin tunas up to 15 lbs. and amber jacks up to 65 lbs.

Just 2 days ago we caught a “sailfish” on the edge of the reef in just fishing 20 min at the end of the day after fishing all day on the patch reefs in 25 – 30 knots of wind. We saw no other fishing boat that day, and we caught our limit of nice mangrove snapper up to 4 lbs. Then we ran out to the edge for sailfish for the last hour of fishing and caught that one 20 minutes into live bait trolling plus a nice big bonito.

The patch reefs have been on fire with snapper (mangroves snapper 2 – 4 lbs, lane snapper 1 – 2 lbs., and small muttons under 16″ – which were biting as fast as you can put a bait on the bottom, and great fun on #10 test spin). We’ve been catching 35 to 50 fish while fishing the patches. Some of the grouper are small keeper size (6 – 8 lb.), but we got to throw them back due closed season. Great fun though, and the snapper make for great eating and fun fishing too.

BACKCOUNTRY and FLATS FISHING:

The snook (and big snook), big trout, nice mangrove snapper, and redfish have been biting quite well in the backcountry.

The big tarpon are here and my friends have been catch a few when the weather is good for them. We had one sunset trip, and jumped 3 nice ones off, the guys just were not quick enough bowing to them and they would throw the hook. This was good action that afternoon, because I only saw one other fish caught and another hooked up between 3 other boats. So we had more shots than the other guys. After this last cold front I think the tarpon fishing will be full on from now on! Most of my trips have been scheduled offshore or backcountry trips.

Adam Blumenthal (friend of Troy Mainzer), his dad, Adam’s friend, and his dad came down for one day of fishing and they caught those nice snowy grouper, 10 and 15 pounds, and a nice group of red porgies.

Steve Sangle from New Jersey came down with his grandson to fish offshore, but the wind was blowing hard so we fish the patches for the better part of the day and caught about 50 small mutton snappers and small groupers. And by the end of the day we had a nice bag of fish for everyone.

Fritz Royer, from Costa Rica and Montana, came down with his brother to do a couple days Flats fishing, and they caught some nice snook, trout, and Snapper in the backcountry. Fritze’s brother caught a 4 pound, 22 inch sea trout! This is the largest one I have caught in 10 years or 15.

Jay Sandler, Philadelphia, and his buddy Pat from New Jersey; came down for three days fishing and caught a bunch of nice fish. They caught couple 15 lbs. blackfin tunas, amberjacks up to 65 lb., red porgies, snowy grouper, snappers, and even jumped off three nice tarpon on a sunset trip after they arrive early afternoon from the frigid north.

March 5, 2014:

Photos are on Instagram and Facebook

Bob Siek and his lady, Debbie, came down for a couple days fishing. They caught a few snappers offshore, but the backcountry was on fire the half day they went. Here’s a little bit of the fish they caught we kept for a meal: pompano, big sea trout, sheepshead, snapper, and bluefish. It was every cast for a while, and they kept a few to eat. They caught so many fish even the captain had a couple of meals.

Jay Sandler from outside of Philadelphia says he had snapper coming out of his ears and had fun catching cero mackerel crashing live baits on the surface. Those snapper are the most tasty “lane snapper,” and they are of good size.

Elena’s cousin comes to town with his family and catch their first fish, some tasty lane snapper that we take to our local restaurant Dillan’s to get all fried up.

Jan. 22, 2014:

Patrick Pierre and his wife had came down for a half day fishing in the backcountry close to Islamorada. I had a good day fishing – a lot of action! They caught a baby tarpon, snook, nice sheepshead, numerous trout, keeper size snapper, & lot of jacks! It was like every cast! They took a nice bag of fish with them too for a good meal at one of our local restaurants and enough for lunch the next day. Patrick’s wife, Pat, saw a baby crocodile in the mangrove branches at the waterline as we were leaving – not an alligator! I got a nice picture that I need to crop before I post. In almost 20 years of fishing back there I have never seen a baby crocodile! Most crocs are 4 feet to 10 feet at the largest, but this one was less than 1.5 feet long – that takes some sharp eyes Pat!!!!! Good going guys! It was nice fishing again with you Patrick and nice meeting your wife, Pat. I look forward to fishing with you again next time.

December 30 had a half a day fishing, running my buddy Jim’s boat. John and his son Sean and daughter Mora had a good trip. First we saw a sailfish chasing bait across the surface but was unable to raise it back into our baits. Then Sean hooked a big fish over a wreck. Sean, John, and I had to fight the fish for over an hour on 80 pound test standup tackle. It was a 350 pound dusky shark which we released. We dropped again and Sean hooked another nice fish which he fought for about five minutes before another shark ate it right off the hook. We had about a half an hour left of fishing so I ran into the edge to slow troll live baits for Mora and Sean possibly to catch a sailfish or mackerel at the end of the day. Mora caught a keeper red grouper, and Sean caught an undersized black grouper right after we boated the red grouper.

Joe catches a nice African pompano while he was with his brother JP and Nick. we were out offshore fishing and caught dolphin, king fish, rainbow runners, amberjack, but no sailfish that day.