You gotta check out this website

Hey Reefraider fans,

Unfortunately the Reefraider is on hiatus as my Depth Finder is having problems with the software so I sent it in for warranty repair.

Anyway, a good friend of mine Omar Chavez turned me on to this site http://teens4oceans.org/webcam/ggrp/camer1.html (copy the address and paste it onto your address bar and press enter). You will be able to view two underwater cameras with live streaming video, one from Bahia Honda, and the other from Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas. It is really mesmerizing, I have been able to catalog at least 20 different species of fish, not the least of which are the 10 or so individual Goliath grouper that hang out in front of the camera leisurely swimming against the current at the Bahia Honda site. There are also many Permit, Snook, tons of Tarpon, schools of Yellow Tail and Mangrove snapper, as well as several different varieties of Shark. At the Fort Jefferson site, Snook and Tarpon are also common, but in the mornings you can also see thousands of schooling pilchards and other fish.

I hope you enjoy this site as much as I have, and if you have the means please order a Tee-Shirt or send a donation to the Teens4Oceans team to help fund their research.

I have added a link just above he most recent post for easier navigation, just click where it says TEEN 4 OCEANS and you will be directed to the website.

Till next time...

A Marathon in Marathon

So I had this big trip to Marathon planned this past week and it did not shape up to be anything like what I had hoped. Like the saying goes, if it were easy they'd call it catching not fishing.

Here are the facts, Full Moon in August (the Mangrove Snapper are spawning), in one of the best places in the world to fish for snapper, with one of the most successful and knowledgeable captains in South Florida (Mike Murias) and his 29 SeeVee, accompanied by two experienced snapper fisherman (Myself and Alex Cazañas) and one rookie (Mike Castro), fresh bait, 4 dozen live Pin Fish, and some of the best tackle that money can buy.

I had a two bedroom suite at the Hammocks in Marathon for two days of what I thought was going to be killer fishing. So we set out early Thursday morning, conditions weren't great by any means, with a stiff 15 to 20 knot wind, sea's 3 to 5 with a 6 here and there, and thunderstorms harassing us most of the day. Mike's SeeVee handles like a champ even in rough weather, and I've been with him in some really bad stuff so this was not a really big deal other than it made get situated difficult.

We headed out for the first target and when we got there Mike glumly stated. GREEN WATER, and no current to boot. Now come on, really a full moon and no current, not a good sign starting out. So we didn't even waste any time there, we ran to another spot and needless to say it was more of the same. We ran around for a few hours and didn't do much fishing, much less catching save for a Bonita. We ran back in to pull the pin fish trap for the night target of Mangroves, when Alex came up with the best suggestion of the weekend, "Lets get a Burger before we head out. So we found this place near the Sombrero bridge Marina called Burdines and I must say the food was delicious.

SO with full stomachs, some improvement in the weather to 10 knots and some renewed optimism we set out again. This time Mike suggested that we run North to see if we could find some better water and some current. We pulled up and there was some good news, BLUE WATER, however, there was still little to no current.

Lines went in the water and it was not long before we had a few tails in the boat. THe night fell and the Mangroves turned on, the short of it is we caught some 12 Mangs and 8 or 9 Tails, no the slaughter we (I) had anticipated, but at least we did not get skunked. It was nearly 11:00 PM and we had worked hard to get what we had and we were all pretty much exhausted. We headed home and by the time we took the boat out, unloaded the equipment, showered, and hit the bed it was nearly 4:00 AM. That's right, we put in about 17 hours on the water of hard core fishing.

So on Friday we slept in, the plan was to fish the afternoon anyway, the weather was much improved and optimism once again was ours. We headed out about 4:00 PM and ran south once again, we pulled up at the same spot as the day before and still the water was green, and the current was non-existent. No big deal, we were planning on heading further south anyway. We ran the 30 mile to our target and Mike and I immediately started Jigging. Immediately we both had bent rods, and things looked awesome. What ever fish I had on was big enough that it made it back to the wreck we were over, and I was cut off. Mike had a similar experience expect whatever cut him off had teeth. We ran back to the wreck and tried it again and again we had fish hooked, this time Alex and I were both on with fish, but the result was the same, some bigger and with teeth was taking our bounty. We must have drifted over the wreck some 6 or 8 times and had big fish on every time only to be bested but some larger predator. on one of our last drifts I managed to get a Bonito boat side just 10 feet from the boat when a large Shark (Lemon said Mike, in the 250lb class) came in like a bolt of lightning and ran off with my fish. Not a big deal, he can have the Bonito, but I would have liked to get back my Butterfly Jig so I handed Mike (Castro) the rod so he could experience a real fight and hopefully get my jig back. after about 20 min the shark was visible, but with one last thrash and a frayed line it took my Butterfly Jig and the Bonito and headed back to his Lair.

So we left the wreck with nothing, we decided to try for some snapper but what we found was the where the water was Blue and the current was Ripping and impossible to get the chum or the bait down to our target, when we found less current we were in Green water, and the fish bite was so off that we could not even get grunts to bite on the bottom with Squid for bait, really, that is unheard of.

Anyway, we finally gave up and ran home empty handed, but as always, we had one last ditch effort to save the trip. I advised Mike of a secret location that I have where the Lobster love to hang out, and though it was now 3:00 AM, we went for it anyway. Mike and Mike suited up and in less than an hour they had managed to pull out 14 nice Lobster, not to mention the 30 or so we released because they were a hair under legal and we did not want to keep anything even close.

I know I have probably said this before, it seems to be a common enough theme, especially when things don't go as planned; but the worst day of fishing is better than the best day of working. In the end we had spent some great hours talking, Ribbing each other as good friends tend to do, and battling the fish and the elements. Fishing is awesome, fishing with friends is priceless, and some of the best stories ever told come from the worst trips.

Till next time Reef Raider fans...

Enjoy the Pics.

OK Mikie here's a Shark, handle it (LOL!!!)

The Shark makes his run

Still Running

"DAMN!"

"WOW! I'm hurting"

"H Town Baby"

"ENTONCE!"

"I got this Mikie"

"Suerte Principal"

Still Running

Turned around and Realin Down

"It's almost over Mikie"

Three of the best people I know

The boys are hurtin

Check out the room and the equipment

The bugs that saved the day

Lobster on ice is always a pretty site

Last Tuesday

I know teachers complain a lot about our crappy pay, but this summers off thing is a perk that to me is priceless; it allows me a couple months to kick back and do the things I really love to do, like Fish.

Anyway, I was supposed to play poker Tuesday night with some friends, but a late afternoon call from some good friends to do some snapper fishing meant "The Hell With Poker, I'm Going Fishing." I was told to bring a long a friend if I wanted; so who do I know that loves fishing and can say yes at the drop of a hat without worrying about work, wife, or any other barrier? My Assistant coach Mike Castro of course; so I called Mikie and a little over an hour later we were on our way to Tavernier to Jorge and Bob's house.

We set out and picked up a pin fish trap that had been set out a little earlier, and as always with these traps I turned all my friends on to, it was loaded.

We headed out and found 85 feet of water, the Sounder was marking big schools of fish so we anchored up, put out the Chum Bag, and on his first drift "BANG" Bob was on the first tail of the night. The rest of the night was a steady mix of Yellowtails and Mangrove Snappers.

Of course as is the custom with Bob and Jorge, they spent a good part of the evening busting balls, and me with a slow start it just added fuel to the fire. Mikie spent most of the night cracking up, and even got in on the ribbing. Eventually my rod did heat up and I got my share of the limit, I even managed a nice size Mang at the end of the evening with a live pinny I drifted back to close out our limit and call for the pulling of the anchor.

Jorge spent most of the night teaching Mikie a thing or two about Snapper fishing, and handed Mikie his rod numerous times with a fish already on it. Mikie could not have asked for a better tutor really, as both Jorge and Bob are well seasoned and highly experienced snapper slayers.

I also included a few pictures of a fishing trip that Jorge and Bob took earlier in the week, notice the suicidal Black Grouper the either threw itself on Jorge's hook, or possibly swallowed a small tail the size that Jorge usually catches and ended up on the boat. It was a nice catch any way you slice it, a 17 pound grouper on a 12 pound snapper rig says it all. I guess it was a depressingly bad day for fish because Jorge also managed a suicidal and rare catch of a Hog Snapper on fishing line, everyone knows if you want Hog Snapper you best get down and dirty with a Spear Gun.

Anyway, enjoy the pictures.

The Anglers

Mangs on the top line, Tails and a nice school Master on Bottom

The Take Home

A Suicidal Black Grouper (LOL!!!)

On Ice

Daddy caught this??? NO WAY!

Nice mix bag, check out the suicidal Hog Snapper, 4th left to right on the top row

Fillets! Whole Friers! And a Grouper that's going to need a big oven for Baking

Check out the hurtin my cousins put on the Grouper out west

Freddy and Hector you already know from the Reef Raider logs, now meet my younger cousins Kyle and Tyler and my friend Hector's daughter Kristy.

Apparently fishing skills run in the blood because these three youngsters managed to boat more than a dozen grouper in just couple of hours on a wreck about 25 miles west of Ft. Myers.

I don't have all the details because I was not part of the trip but here is what I do know from a telephone report. They left the Dock sometime after 7 AM; the plan was to drop a pin fish trap for a few and get some live bait but it was not necessary after my cuz Freddy spotted some Sardines, and being pretty adept at throwing the cast net they managed to load up on livies and head out sooner than expected.

They made the Run to the wreck offshore with nice weather, anchored up, and put out some lines. Kyle had his heart set on catching a Goliath grouper, and like Babe Ruth calling his shot this is what he boated.

Tyler, Freddy, and Kyle the Goliath slayer

(This Goliath Grouper was safely released after the Photo Opp)

Thereafter these youngsters managed to catch another 8 Keeper groupers, a Lane Snapper, and Mangrove Snapper to bring home for the fish fry. All in all a Great job by this next generation of anglers with some valuable tutelage from Freddy and Hector.

I was promised more pics and if they come I will post those as well, but this is what I have for now.

6 Reds, 2 Gags, 1 Lane, and 1 Mang

Kyle, Tyler, Kristy, Freddy and Hector

Correction / Retraction ;-)

Not long after my most recent post I got this note back from Jorge. Don't read anything into his tone, he is just busting balls, LOL!

"How dare you insult Bobby by calling that fish a Reef Donkey or an Amberjack. Anybody can catch an Amberjack that size; however, a Jack Crevalle, which is what Bobby caught, rarely are seen that big. We have never seen one that size in 30+ years of fishing. See id pics below. Bobby says to edit your blog or he will come after you with Internet crime charges."

j

My apologies to Bob for my misnomer calling his catch of a Giant Jack Crevalle a "Reef Donkey" otherwise know as the AmberJack. Truly a huge Cravalle, I too had never seen one that size, understandable that his Jorge would come to his defense.

Amberjack

Jack Crevalle

My Friends Can Fish Too

Check these out, two good friends of the Reef Raider, Bob and Jorge Interian and their weekend catch. I don't have all the details, so I will let the impressive pictures speak for themselves.

Bob Smiles as he hugs his Reef Donkey

Another View

Jorge wants credit for the catch cause he baited the hook for Bob

"You all know who really caught this baby"

38 Tails, 2 Mutton, 1 King Fish, and 1 Amber Jack,

not bad for just a couple hours of fishing

Another View with another Angler,

check out the tail in the lower left,

that's what we call a "FLAG"

Bob shows off a Bull

Two nice Dorado As Bod decides to let a friends and his

Brother hold some fish while he holds his daughter

Miles To Go Before I Fish

I'm back Reef Raider fans and have I got a story for you.

The Hammocks At Marathon

I reserved two days at my time share in Marathon for fathers day weekend, great little place just this side of the 7 mile bridge on the Gulf side. I invited two good friends to go along with me, the first is a guy you've heard me talk about before if you read this blog, Mike Murias of Migdalia's Awards ( http://www.migawards.com/ ) and more importantly (to me) the captain of Off Limits charters, ( http://www.offlimitscharters.com/ ). Like I told you many times before, the guy straight up knows his stuff like no one else I know.

The second guy is a life long friend, Alexis Cazañas, Principal of Coral Gables Adult Education Center. He's not a charter captain, but has logged enough hours on the ocean with a rod in his hands to be one.

With two straight up fishing machines on board I could not help but feel confident about our chances, and in Marathon which is a hot bed of fishing action, it all added up to a recipe for a full cooler, and we did not disappoint.

Mike and Alex arrived early, a little after 7:00 AM, I was already in the water waiting for them, we unloaded the few things they brought with them and headed out to catch some bait. I didn't find any really great spots for my awesome pin fish traps so I only put one out that I left overnight, we picked that up and it only had 10 or so small pins and a couple of crabs. A charter captain at the dock where I was staying told me there was a nice spot to bang up the Pins on the other side of the 7 mile bridge so we took off for that to see if we could improve on our live bait.

I had run around a little the night before when I got to Marathon in the early evening so I suggested that we top off the gas tank just to be safe (that would turn out to be a prudent move on my part as you'll find out). We put out another trap and anchored up to catch some pins, we worked them hard for about 45 min and we finally felt we had enough so off we went.

Mike has a great little ledge in about 95 feet of water that is loaded with Tails and other predators, and where I caught a 30lb black grouper with him the Summer before last, so that was our target. The only negative was that the spot was about 13 miles South West of where we started so it would be a little bit of a run but that a small price to pay for a hot spot.

40 minutes later we were there, but Mike had said more that once already on the way that he did no like the color of the water, “GREEN WATER” he kept saying, “THIS SUCKS”. On top of that there was little to no current, and a charter boat camped right on the spot we were aiming for to boot. We cruised around pondering what to do for about 20 min. Alex and I put it on Mike to decide what to do; he said he had a spot a little further South, and said we needed to run and find some Blue Water and some current if we planned on making a day of it. He did not exactly tell me how far it was or I might have objected, my boat after all only has a 30 gallon tank.

We get to the spot Mike had picked out and wouldn't you know it, BLUE WATER, and a 3.5 knot current, a little stiff on the current, but workable. Mike pulled out a Deep water high speed jig so I followed suit and tied one on myself. We both dropped down and on the first drift Back there goes my Rod. O! O! Bonito says Mike... SUM BEAC! How could he know that? Sure enough, a few minutes later the ugly sister in the Tuna family gets a Gaff in the tide to be used as bait later. We pull up the lines ran back the the near ¾ mile that the hard current had taken us and set up to do it again.

Yellow Tail Bait

We dropped jigs again, and Boom, I'm on again with my nice little Laser Eye jig. “Bonito again” I said “nah” said Mike but probably a Reef Donkey (Amber Jack). SHEEESH! Not exactly though, it was a decent size Almaco Jack, so we put that one in the Cooler for Benny (Mike's buddy who likes Almaco) and the Skunk was off the boat.

Almaco

We picked up and made another pass at the wreck and Alex had rigged a long leader with a pin fish on it and he let it down on the front end of the wreck. As we approached the tail end of the wreck... Bang! His rod rips out and he's got a fish on, all sign point to something nice. “COLOR BABY I got Color here” he starts bragging, and sure enough, he brings in this nice 12 to 14 pound Mutton.

Color Baby! Str8 up H Town Mutton Killa

We worked that wreck for a while and managed another couple Donkeys and had a few lines cut off. We lost a couple jigs and then also the bigger lead we had for that depth so fishing the wreck was quickly becoming a lesser option. In the distance we could see three boats with close proximity to each other and we decided to head over and investigate. As we got a little closer, Mike recognized that they were Commercial Tailers, and he was a little excited as the prospect.

We circled and Mike said the Sounder looked hot, he figured out the drift and told Alex to drop the anchor. The Chum bag went in and we started to pound the tails right away; Smaller ones really but with plenty of size to get in the cooler. We recognized that the big ball of Tails was feeding hard behind the commercial guys, but we managed to get some over to us. Mike dropped some bait down while Alex and I hit the tails and he picked up a nice Yellow Jack, and a little later this nice size Mango Snapper.

I took a break to look on the Chart Plotter, and the closest spot I had marked near us was EYEGLASS just out side Key West. WHAT??? EYEGLASS! Holly crap just 11 miles from Key West, you do the math; we started out at Mile Marker 48 in Marathon and were now just 11 from Key West. I got to admit I was a little freaked out, we were under a Half tank of gas used and we were now 37 miles away from where we started.

There was also a tight line of summer squals just to our west and I told Mike we should probably go. He told me not to sweat it which made me feel a little better but I still felt starting the run back was our best option, and Mike agreed so the 37 mile trek back to port was on; I couldn't help but to have one eye on the fuel gage as we traveled, and I made mention of it once or twice. Mike told me that when the needle says empty you should still have 5 gallons or so in the tank; a little mental math, some calculations as to how much fuel we were burning and I felt better, but not exactly confident. Well that is why I have Boat US unlimited towing, if we do run out so be it, call it in and get hauled in by some help is the worst that could happen.

On the run back we went over the spot we started out for earlier in the day and so a break in our run back to see if we could manage to entice some tails was the order. There was now a little current but the water was still Green. A few minutes later we were catching tails, none of significant scale, most went back in the atlantic, but we did put a few in the cooler. I put a Pin down but nothing seemed interested in it. Mike rigged up a Side Winder plug and boated a couple of nice Kings. By now the evening was approaching, and we called it a day, still with a 13 mile run and the needle about half way between the ¼ tank mark and the Empty line.

We made it on what I would have sworn were fumes, but when I filled the tank Sunday morning I pumped exactly 25 gallons, so we still had another 5 Gallons to get us home. I had never pushed my little boat like that, but I'm glad I did because now I know it's range. Actually pretty damn efficient, Mike estimates that all in all we traveled around 100 miles, and we never cut the engine off except while anchored up for the tails. So figure we were getting around 4 miles to the Gallon, which is pretty damn good, especially with the cost of fuel now a days. Mike was pretty impressed with my little boat as most people tend to be, and I was once again gratified that my boat performed to the call of duty.

Enjoy the picture, and as always if you have a few seconds, visit some of my sponsors, they pay me pennies if you click on their link and take a look at their stuff, and I'll get a check from them when I break the $100 dollar mark, I've accumulated almost $40, so maybe by this time next year I'll get a check from Goggle. Thanks again for reading my blog, and please feel free to post your impressions down there in the comments section.

Till next time...

Abusador Coño! LOL!

Full Cooler

Gutted

Another Angle after the cleaning

Line'em up nice for a Pic

Another angle

My Friends Can Catch Too

Well Reef Raider fans the weather and my schedule has kept me off the water, but I have some pictures here of the catch that some of my good friends put on this weekend.  I will dispense with the long winded play by play since I did not make this trip and I don't have all the details; but suffice it to say these guys braved storms, semi rough seas,  and a slow start to an early morning.  Still, in the end they caught their targeted species, and still had time to anchor up over some nice fresh bottom to pull in a few almost requisite Tails.  Enjoy the Pics. 

Here's Danny with his catch and the prize of the day

Same fish back on land (can't count Danny's ribs in this shot, LOL!)

"Hey it looks bigger like this right?"

The Captain is all smiles, after all he did put the boys on the fish

They caught'em but I found'em

Mundi shows them off

Check out the Tails on the left, the Captains favorite 

Here are the Totals, I see at least 4 Dolphin and 3 or more Tails, not too bad

Nice Job guys!