Keys trip (part 2)

Two trips to the keys in one summer...I definitely could get used to that lifestyle down there. We just got back from a week staying in Marathon where we rented a house on a canal off the ocean. The place was great and the weather was perfect other than it being 100+ degrees every day. Unfortunately, this made the inshore and near shore reef fishing a little slow but we still were able to find some fish. The highlight of the trip was the 40"+ barracuda my sis caught while reeling up a nice yellowtail. She was really pumped and I was amazed we were able to land that fish with only 14lb. test line and a 30lb. mono leader. Most of the yellowtail and mangrove snappers we caught were on the small side but we did manage to find a few keeper fish. I had some fun the last afternoon catching several nice barracudas and snapper on a Blue Glimmer MinnowZ. The Elaztech in the Zman baits is really some awesome stuff because I was able to use the same bait for all of the fish and it never tore. The snorkeling out of Marathon was unbelievable on the Sombrero Reef and the whole group had a blast seeing all the fish. Of course they don't let you fish on that reef but we enjoyed it anyways.

The most surprising part of our trip was when we were anchored off the 7 Mile bridge and the local Monroe County Sheriff's deputy pulled up to us in his boat. My initial thought was of course he is going to check all of us for licenses and I am going to have to pull out all my safety gear, but this encounter was different. The deputy yelled out to asking if we could do a favor for him. I said sure whatever you need us to do. Not only did he not ask us for any licenses or safety gear, he was actually coming to give us some advice on a better place to fish. We followed him into the bay where he put us on several nice rock piles where we caught many grunt and snapper. I guess you just never know what to expect.

Quick afternoon trip

I had some work in Dunnellon Wednesday afternoon, so after I was finished, I met up with my dad to hit the water for an afternoon trip. Little did we know that this day would be full of big fish. We left out of Yankeetown around 4:30, and as we were running out the barge canal, we ran into a huge school of tarpon feeding on schools of bait. There must have been 50+ tarpon in there with most of them being 5ft+. I was even splashed by one after he struck at some bait right beside the boat. Unfortunately, watching them was the only thing we were able to do as they would not hit anything we were offering. We then ran out to fish around the islands to see if we could find some redfish. The first place we stopped didn't produce any reds but dad did lose his Mirrodine to a huge Cobia. This fish must have been between 40"-50" and was too much for his light tackle rod to handle. We finished the day searching for reds as the tide began to fall. As we approached an island that has always produced fish, dad noticed a huge fish tailing on a mud bank. I threw a Rootbeer/Gold Scented ShrimpZ just to the left of him and the fight was on. About fifteen minutes later, I landed the biggest Black Drum I had ever caught. This fish must have been over 30 pounds. It wasn't my red I was looking for but who can complain about a big fish like that. It was about 8:00 now and just as we were fixing to leave, we noticed several nice reds tailing in the shallows. We were able to spot five reds tailing and dad got one to take his Booyah spinnerbait. Seeing reds tailing in shallow water is sure an awesome sight.

We had a great time and were sure lucky to come across that many big fish in such a short time. With trips like that, I might have to make it apart of my weekly work schedule.

July 4th Scalloping

We decided to hit the water early Saturday morning hoping to get a little fishing in before the sun got up and the mass of boats scalloping took over. Well, so much for this idea. We were met at the entrance to the ramp by Citrus County deputies routing all boats to one ramp because they had the Ft. Island Beach ramp shut down due to a bike race. After waiting in line for almost a half hour, we loaded the boat in and headed for the flats. It was an extremely strong outgoing tide in the morning which prohibited us from getting too far in the backcountry like I had hoped. I was able to catch one decent trout on a Smoky Shad MinnowZ. We then headed out to the scalloping "circus" off St. Martin's Key and did pretty well for just two people scalloping. Moved around a couple of times and found decent size scallops in both places. I wish I had taken a picture of the horizon around us but there must have been at least 500 boats in our view to the north and south. After scalloping, we decided to call it a day and head in to beat the crowds and the good ole Florida heat. All and all, it was a very nice day but I think I will wait to go fishing again until this holiday weekend traffic is gone.