Friends of the Reef Raider

I like posting pictures of my friends and their catches on my Blog; check out these pictures of my Friend Marcel Moreno and his boys tearing it up inside Government Cut.

In his own words...

"All were on drifts in government cut. Live shrimp during shrimp run. During the cold nights, the fish were feeding in the cut because the water was three to 4 degrees warmer. Snook and snapper were a bit deeper than the tarpon and were caught on 1/4 to 1/2 inch troll right jigs with shrimp hooked thru the horn. It's been some of the best fishing I've experienced. Most nights, we hook up on over 12 tarpon. I went 6/7 on tarpon with the biggest being about 50 lbs. Also fought a 130 lber for about 45 min before 50 lb leader gave out on one of my smaller rods. We also caught many snapper over 18 inches with several over 20 inches. The cubera was also caught in the cut. I also added a cooling canal tarpon picture, Fish was well over 100 lbs."

The Reef Raider is back again

Hi there Reef Raider fans.

Well wrestling season is over and thus my fishing season begins. I had the good fortune this past weekend to go fishing with my good friend Juan Estevez, captain of the Why Knot (29 ft Sea Vee) and sole proprietor of Why Knot Charters.

The day started off great; we set out from Matheson Hammock and headed directly toward Bug Light to catch some live bait. The boats were thick out there as everyone that hit the water out of Miami that day seemed to have the same intentions. We found a bait ball and Juan expertly tossed his 12ft cast net and it came up big. With a loaded bait well we started a run south towards Pacific Reef with Snapper in mind.

The wind was blowing a little and the seas were choppy so Juan to an inside route closer to shore to avoid the bigger swells. 45 minutes or so later we were at the spot Juan had chosen to try first. We anchored just south of the Whistle Buoy, rigged a few rods and dropped the Chum bag in the water. We were targeting Yellowtail, but Juan also put out a line on the bottom in case any stray Mutton Snapper or Grouper happened by. We managed a few Tails on slow action, and then the bottom rod ripped away and Juan attacked the stick to bring in a Nice Mutton.

After several hours we had managed 9 Yellowtail and a Mutton Snapper so Juan decided to pick up and find some deeper water so we could drift a few productive ledges that he knows in the area.

We set up for the first drift and right away we were battling another Mutton Snapper. We picked up the lines and ran back to do the same drift once again. As it turns out we hooked fish on every pass through that area managing 5 more Mutton, 1 more big Yellowtail that ate a large Pilchard, and a Dolphin. I failed to land a rather large Sail Fish that ran off half the spool on a Baitrunner 6500B, and we failed to land a Slammer Dolphin at boat side for lack of a Gaff.

I must say that we had a great time not to mention a great day of fishing especially considering the chatter we were hearing on the radio. Reports from other boats on the day were mostly of people maxing out on Barracuda and Bonito but not much else. By comparison our catch was a windfall with a snapper aggregate of 16 and a Dolphin for good measure.

I did not take too many picture because I was trying out a new video camera and in fact made a nice video that is posted on YouTube, here is the link so you can check it out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuH5vsiKGT0 .

I do have a few pictures of already cleaned fish so enjoy those and check back now and then for my new additions to the blog.

Filet of Dolphin (Mahi)

Mutton Snapper

Bigger Mutton Snapper