Put boats in the water around 3:00 in the afternoon as we could not get into our fancy rental house until 3:30 in the afternoon. Not many good ramps on Summerland Key so it took some effort to get the Sailfish 19 ft Bay boat and my 20LT Hewes floating. Drove the boat to our new rental hourse and was impressed with the dock and surrounding facilities. Man was this place nice. Spent the next two hours unloading all our gear, food, clothes, coolers, etc...! Hit the pool around 5:00 and realizied we were in heaven. Cold BW in one hand and one of the kids noodle keeping me afloat and comfortable! Arround 6:30 the Knapps made a great meal of steak and chicken on the grill accompanied by some mixed vegies in Pita Wraps! Man, did I eat tooo much. Later around 7:30, Joe and I went out looking for a Cuda to chum with, as we were going to do a little shark fishing from the dock that evening. It was overcast and visability was poor, so I hit a flat and cranked up the trolling motor and we went to casting. I immediatly hooked a fair Baracuda on a Yo-Zuri plug that we kept for bait. Needless to say the fish did not cooperate and we went back to the dock tired from our long day driving, swimming, and fishing. When we pulled into the dock, our friends Kurt and Leigh boats was missing. I know that was not a good sign as it was almost dark! I got on my radio and they answered me quickly. Seems he ran a-gound on a grass flat and need help. Joe and I found him 30min later and with some effort we freed his boat from the shallow water and we all went home dead tired!!!
Sunday-June 3, 2007
Woke up to a perfect day with little wind and no clouds. Seems the Keys has been pounded for the last 3 months with high winds making all fishing difficult! So no wind was a very big luxury! We had discussed that morning about going to the Marquesas but that required putting the boat back on the trailer and I was all for just hanging around the house and getting to know our new location. Around 10:00 Dad, Joe and I went fishing/exploring on some good locations on the Hot Spot map of our area. First decent flat we poled, there was alot of fish/ray activity. I immediatedly hooked a large cuda on my Yo-Zuri plug that stripped off alot of line. We evently got the fish around the boat some 10 minutes later and got some good pictures. Man do these fish fight hard in shallow water and can get some serious air time. Next flat we hit, again we saw alot of activity. Joe immediately noticed a tailing permit. Closer we got, the more permit we saw. Got in position for a cast and they spooked. Man are they spooky fish in flat shallow water. Headed home around 3:30 and spent the rest of the day in the pool and at the Tiki Bar. Curt and Leigh made an awesome Cuban dinner for everyone in the house and we all went to bed with the fat bellies.
Monday June 4, 2007
I got up early and decided to make Pancakes for everyone. Word got out and we had campers lining up for there fresh pancakes all over the kitchen. Weather forcast look real good for the rest of the week so we again postponed our Marquesas trip until tomorrow. I ended up taking the girls (Lauren and Sarah) who are both 16, fishing and I knew I could put them on a shark pretty fast. We hit a little no-name key and caught some nice cuda's to use for bait and they had fun in the process. Afterwards I set up in a channel area with good current and we started chumming with 2 of the cuda's we had just caught. Right away we get hit and the drag starts screaming. Lauren sets the hook and up comes this Spinner Shark. Wow did he put on an arial display. Jumped three times and broke us off. Later we had a very, very, big cuda (5ft++) come into our chum stream and almost take our chum tied to the boat. Lauren drops back a cuda strip and he eats it! Wow did he get air born fast! 100 yeads of line is gone in mear seconds. Unluckly the fish somehow gets off and the girls look like they just lost all there best friend. A few hours later we see quite a few tarpon with no more takers and we head home. More good quality time in the pool along with boat rides for everyone!! More good Tike Bar fun and we get bad news!!! Curt and Leight have family problems in Ft. Lauderdale and must leave tomorrow and take there boat. Wow were they unhappy campers! We get Curts boat loaded up and packed. They left as soon as possible. The rest of us we went to dinner at NO-Name Pub. Great Pizza, drinks and food. Everyone has to go to NO-name Pub and get the necessary T-shirts and coozies!
Tuesday June 5, 2007
Everyone got up early (5:00am) as Joe, Lauren, and I were headed to the Marquesas to fish. Put in at the city ramp and paid the $11.00 to launch. $5.00 to lauch and $6.00 to leave you truck and tailer all day. Got a dozen permit and tarpon crabs and headed out of the harbor. There were two cruise ships we passed that must me 80/100 ft to the first deck. Wow what a big boat compaired to my little flats boat. We headed west and got in behind an awsome 30 ft + Yellowfin with triple 250 Verado's. We kept up with him in the smooth water around Key West islands, but when we hit the Boca Grand Pass, they put the hammer down and disapperaed over the horizon. Wow what a fast boat and they were headed to the Dry Tortugas. Took us about 35/40 min to travel the 26 miles as most was in very slick water. We had to slow to make the 6/7 mile Boca Grand pass over to the Marquesas. I hit the North section of the Marquesas as the tide was doing little and did not want to mess with my good spots. Immediatly we were on Permit, but my fishermen need casting help. They were not very accurate and kept casting the crab on top of th permit causing them to spook. After about 1 hours of little action the tide was still doing little and I had promissed some good snapper action. We hit one of my favorite passes/channels that works it way through the Marquesas that has produced in the past. We took 1/4 jigs tipped with Gulp and really had a hard time finding the bigger Mangrove Snapper to start with. You know when you have hit the honey hole when you reel up a 2 lb snapper and there are about 30 right behind that fish. Throw the anchor please! Feed them a snack (shrimp or squid) once in a while and they will stay around the boat. After we picked up 15 nice snapper (5 per person) we headed to my favorite Tarpon flat that is on the Souther side of the Marquesas. Most of the location I fish were found by watching the guides or learned from my buddy who took be there for the first time. Last year we were thick into the Tarpon at the entrance of one of the many channels that run through the Marquesas and they did not dissappoint me this year. Joe pitched his crab 10/12 times at passing Tarpon and just could not get the distance right or mainly kept throwing his crab on top of the big fish. I told him to lead the Tarpon and keep his rod tip high and drop the crab in front of the moving fish. He did not believe me and I got off the poling platform and took the rod. Immediatly there were tarpon in front of the boat and I cast. Dropped the crab in front of the lead fish and she ate and jumped quicly, but I missed the hook set. New Crab on hook and Joe was now a believer. Later this big fish looks like he bumps into the boat and is headed away from us. I told him not to cast as it did not looke like a happy fish to me. He cast anyway and the big 120/130lb fish eats the fresh crab. The Tarpon peels off 120 yards of 30lb Power Pro like it was nothing. We cranked the motor and gave chase. 40 min later Joe looks like he has gone 10 rounds with heavy weight boxer and he is ready for this to be over. I had my hands on the leader twice but fish was still somewhat lively. Next time in close, I use a little more force on the leader and she parts making Joe a happy camper
. It is 4:00 and everybody has had a great day. We head home and made a stop by a huge coral/shell/sand bar for some much needed rest and swimming. While there we make some new friends who provide us with a few cold beers and soft drinks for my daughter and provide some funny fishing stories. Needless to say, we had so much fun that we are planning on returning to the Marquesas tomorrow.
Wednesday June 6, 2007
Woke up to high winds and rain! No Marquesas today!! In fact the rest of the weeks weather forcast sucks. Rested all day and did next to nothing which can be a good thing!! Slept, ate to much, and did have a few beers.
Thursday June 7, 2007
Again the winds were high and rain still present in the early morning. We made a big breakfast and waited for the weather to break so we could go outside and play. After lunch the weather improved but the winds were tooo high to think about going off shore and fishing for Yellowtail snapper. That made us change our plan to the backcountry. Joe went and purchased some much needed chum as we were going to fish the back country cuts for snapper and what ever else wanted to play. The old story he who has the most chum wins allways holds true and I told Joe to get a least 5 blocks of chum and a bag of Silversides. Spent 3 hours chumming and got hour limit of snapper pretty easily along with some other fun fish. I never gave the Spinner Shark its due but it is a fine adversary and can jump with any Tarpon. Took some more of our fiends on boat rides through the Keys and enjoyed the weather.
Went to Key West for dinner and had a fine meal. Got rained on walking back to our truck. Nothing like being wet while riding home with a 10 month old child!! She loved it and we did not!!!!
Friday June 8, 2007
Weather forcast was for high winds so we put off our last chance to go to the Marquesas. Spent the day around the house, pool, and did a little snorkling. Our new addition to the family (Grace) loved the pool and is a big water hound. She cried eveytime we pulled her out of the pool.
We later did some more chumming in the back country for snapper as we need fresh fish for dinner. Ended up with 10 nice fish and we fried them for dinner. Best meal we had all week. Did not want to go home as the Ole man in the Sea feels his best here for some reason. Last picture is of me at my favorite place, the Marquesas!!!
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