Reef Raider Adventures: May 2010

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Big Hoo Catches Big Mutton

OK so next Thursday I am going fishing in Key West with a few close friends; one of them you are already very familiar with if you read my blog, Juan Estevez Captain of the "Why Knot", the others you will hear more about in my next entry after the trip.

I did want to let you know however that Juan took his boat down to Key West this weekend because he is spending a weeks vacation there next week and dragging the boat along with everything else required to vacation in Key West for a week would have been a much greater burden than taking the boat down a week early; besides, he leaves his boat down there for the month anyway, so...

Juan decided to test the water today (saturday 5/22) just to gauge how the fish was biting and what we could expect next Thursday and Friday. His report was encouraging, 7 Mutton (the largest you see pictured, estimated at 18lbs). 4 good size King Fish, 1 Flag Yellowtail (22") and a couple good size Bonito which will make excellent bait next week.

Juan does not take as many pictures as I do, but they did manage to take this one good shot of Big Julio with his Monster Mutton, and another picture of Juan with his Flag Yellowtail.

Enjoy the Picture and I hope I can have a lot more for you next weekend when I get back from Key West.

Till then...

-The Reef Raider

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Rough Seas

This past weekend my Friend Juan Estevez (Capt. of "Why Knot" charters) invited me to go fishing with him next week in Key West for the Mutton run. Of course I accepted, and as part of that deal I was to go with him this past weekend to catch some bait for that occasion.

The Seas were very rough as the winds were sustained at around 22 knots, and gusting to more than 25, but since the plan was just to catch some Ballyhoo, I decided to bring my son along for the ride.

We first went to government cut but the Ballyhoo weren't there, so we headed for Marker 21 and it was more of the same; there was nothing to do but head for Bug Light and see if we could find'em. The Waters at Bug light were rough, and there were no Ballyhoo there either but plenty of Pilchards; so Juan asked me if I wanted to go off shore for a bit and I can never say no to fishing so we loaded up on Pilchards and headed offshore.

It was not smooth going, the oceans were in the 5 to 7 range with some 8 mixed in for good measure. We trotted along slowly until we found a depth we liked and put out the Kite. The action was slow, and we saw many boats heading south, but for us it was going to happen here or not happen at all.

A big Loggerhead happened by and it brought with it a Remora who decided the Pilchard we had swimming top water would make a tasty snack. Not exactly the fish you want to catch, but my son had a good time reeling it in. The action was pretty slow, but a bit later we had another fish on the line, nothing to mention though, a large needle fish had taken another Pilchard and once again my boy reeled it to the boat.

We were getting a little banged up from the seas, and were considering calling it quits when Juan saw the Bill of a Sail Fish come up and take the bait. The Fish made a hard run south with the current, then made his first jump to try to pitch the hook; it didn't work and he started running hard again. Soon after the big fish made another jump, this time high in the air and in a rolling motion that managed to get the line wrapped around it's body. Then the fish Spread his sail against the hard north current and headed for the depths. Eventually he broke us off, but not before my son had some fun reeling down on him and I was able to take some nice video.

Anyway, like I've always said on here, the crappiest day fishing is still better than the best day working. I found out a couple of important things too, first of all my son is not afraid of rough seas, he never complained, never seemed scared, or looked apprehensive; on the contrary, he was having a blast. Secondly, and most importantly I found out that my son does not get sea sick; if those rough seas didn't bother him, I think he should never have a problem, because even the seasoned Captain of the vessel got a little green while tieing some knots.

If you want to see some cool fishing video go to YouTube and search "Why Knot" and you can find a few fishing videos I've made.

Enjoy the Pictures.

Till next time...

Monday, May 3, 2010

Target: Mutton Snapper

Welcome back Reef Raider fans...

My Friend Juan Estevez called me in the middle of the week with an idea to Target the Mutton Snapper because of the full moon and in hopes of catching some early spawners.

We put in out of Homestead Bayfront and anchored up just outside the markers to catch some Pin Fish for bait. I put my Pin Fish trap in the water but Juan was a little hasty about where to put it cause he doesn't think it works all that well. I did not have the numbers where I always nail the pins so we chose a random spot and dropped the cage. It did not go well and further managed to shake Juan's confidence in the trap. Luckily we Anchored up some distance away at another spot and managed quite a few Pins on Sabiki. I'll just have to show him the video of how it works the next time I loaded up on that Mutton candy.

We had over 30 pins in the bait well, some decent ones but mostly small ones; in any case we decided to get going, we had a long run south of Carysfort Light for our bounty, and the seas were a little rough. We ran for nearly 25 miles before we found the hole Juan was targeting and soon we were anchored and lines were in the water.

I missed a strike early and while I stopped to re-rig Juan was on with a fish, He landed the first Mutton, a nice size and a good sign. Juan sent down a big strip of Bonito on a troll right and he was on a fish, he caught a nice Margate, they are good eating and always welcomed into the cooler. I got my bait back in the water and after some time I finally got a repeat strike on my rod. I pulled in a nice Mutton and the skunk was off me.

Juan hooked a large fish that ran him too hard to be a Mutton, at first we though it might be a big Black, but soon realized that was not the species either. After a hard battle Juan brought up a very nice Yellow Jack; he says Yellow Jack is some of the best eating fish there is, but since I don’t eat fish I will just have to take his word for it.

We moved from that spot and anchored up again some distance north and BANG! Right away the rod bent over furiously, we were on a wreck so it’s almost a logical conclusion that when that happens, you are likely in for a hard battle with an AJ. Juan worked the big Donk to the boat, and we boated it for some video while Juan took a few minutes to catch his breath. We released the AJ in good shape, and not long after I was on another Donk myself; near the boat a big shadow came up from the depth and bit my AJ about two thirds of the way up his tail, leaving mostly head for me to real in. After a couple of AJ’s and two exhausted anglers we decided to find another spot.

It was late in the day now and Juan decided to do a few drifts; we set up our tackle, found our bearing and made the first pass. Almost immediately I had a nice strike, a great sign that the spot was hot. I caught another nice Mutton, and soon after Juan’s rod was bent over as well. He caught another Mutton and noticed that on the pass there was what appeared to be a nice ball of bait on the Depth Finders screen. Juan decided that it would be a good idea to anchor up, but it didn’t work out and we had caught our last Mutton. We headed home with a nice mixed bag; 4 Mutton, 1 Margate, 1 Yellow Jack, and we released a big AJ and sent another down for the sharks to finish. OH Yeah, and a couple of Trigger Fish; my wife loves trigger fish, but they are a mission to filet.