We continue to have great Reef action
on the local waters. We have been fishing the reef hard most days for two reasons. There is a lot of live ballyhoo baitfish around and that usually means there are a lot of other fish there to feed on them. This has been the case. The second reason is that offshore has been pretty slow. Only an occasional Sailfish and a few Mahi are being caught. Not a lot of bites for the time people are spending out there. Most of the boats will end their trips up on the reef trying to get bites so I have just been spending almost all my time there getting bites and putting a catch together. I’ll take great reef action over slow offshore fishing most days
We have seen Bait showers
on the reef and this is usually an indication that there are offshore predators coming in to feed. Usually, it is Sailfish and Tuna. But I keep running to the bait showers but I can’t honestly say I have seen either a Sailfish or Black Fin Tuna feeding. The bait is running for their lives, but I can’t see what is chasing them. It may be small bonitos or jacks. Regardless, “running and gunning” from bait shower to bait shower has not been productive. Sooner or later it will produce a good fish, but in the meantime, we will keep catching reef fish and having fun with the great reef action
The action was very good again today.
We caught 4 keeper Snappers, Two very large Yellow Jacks, and a nice mess of Yellow Tail Snapper. We had a “Keeper” Black Grouper on, but the “Tax Man”, otherwise known as a shark, took the better part of that. The cero mackerel were not bitting as well as in recent weeks, but we put 5 in the boat.
Cuban Chug
We also saw a small fishing boat pass nearby headed for Key West. I am not sure, but I think it was a group of Cuban Refugees. The boats are called Cuban Chugs. I don’t know if they made it to land or if they were stopped by the authorities. While I am not for open borders, I did not have the heart to report them to the Coast Guard. They had made it 85 miles of the 90-mile journey in a boat I would not take out to open water.
Suspected Cuban Chug