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The past few weeks I have been on the road traveling with work and family and of course fishing where I can. I was lucky enough to spend three days in Islamorada with other agents from Farm Bureau on a "work" trip but honestly it was nothing more than a great fishing trip in the Florida Keys. Most of the guys ventured offshore for dolphin but we stayed in the back country and near shore since my Shearwater Flats boat isn't quite made for the deep waters the dolphin are in. We targeted both yellowtail and mangrove snapper using live and cut bait. The fishing was excellent with my boat easily bringing in limits of snapper every day. The yellowtail were caught on several reefs out of Islamorada in 60-100 ft. I had never had the Shearwater in water that deep but I was pleasantly surprised how well it handled the water and seas. Although most fish were caught on live bait, I was able to catch a few nice mangrove snapper like the one above using a Zman ShrimpZ. We even had a nice barracuda steal one of our snapper and it put up a good fight for the few seconds it was on before the line was cut. It doesn't take long for those big cudda to snap mono line. All in all, it was a great trip with many fish caught and another relaxing time in the Keys. Looking forward to heading back down there in July and maybe catching a bonefish or permit this time.
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After getting back from the Keys and working a few days I traveled to Williamsburg, VA to visit family. It was a short trip but I did squeeze in a little bass fishing on the Chickahominy River. The boat was left in Florida so I was fishing out of a kayak this time. Kayak fishing is not something I do a lot of but it does eoffer a much different perspective on the water. My baits of choice for the weekend were the Zman ZinkerZ in the PB&J and Junebug colors and the bass were liking what they saw. I caught several nice largemouth bass fishing the creeks off the main river channel and did have a 4+ pounder throw the hook right at the yak. There is something exciting about hooking into a bass only to have him drag you around in the water. It was a lot of fun catching bass in a new area and I look forward to the next Virginia bass fishing trip.
