Southbound
Key West, Florida
Catch of the Day
Picture Archive
May 2016
May 31st, 2016
May 30th, 2016
May 29th, 2016
Fished The Reef Today!
Nice Barracuda action!
Red Grouper for dinner!
May 27th, 2016
Got a few Dolphin Today!
May 26th, 2016
Some Dolphin Today!
May 24th, 2016
Good Barracuda Action Today!!
May 23rd, 2016
Nice Wahoo!
May 21st, 2016
May 20th, 2016
May 19th, 2016
May 18th, 2016
May 17th, 2016
May 15th, 2016
May 14th, 2016
May 13th, 2016
May 12th, 2016
May 10th, 2016
Only 1 dolphin offshore, but we came in to the
reef and got a couple nice bottom fish
May 6th, 2016
2 Half Days Today
Morning
Afternoon
May 5th, 2016
May 4th, 2016
6 hr trip Today
Started well with 1 out of 2 dolphin, but then we didn’t do much until we got to the reef.
Got a couple delicious Mutton Snapper, a nice Black Grouper and released some other fish.
May 9th, 2016
2 Trips again Today and I don’t have any pictures
In the morning, but we released some bonitos.
Decent action for a half day.
In the afternoon, the family that chartered the boat had some concerns about the sea conditions. Most were not worried, however the Mom had some reservations. As fishing had not been “red hot” on the Atlantic side that morning or the previous days and the wind was South East about 20 kts, I opted to take them in the Gulf. Being on the North side of the island with a SE wind, I figured it would be much calmer and the last few trips I had in the gulf, (See April 6th afternoon), were at least as productive as that morning had been in the Atlantic.
Very simply, I was wrong.
It was not really rough in the gulf, 2-3 ft, although I really expected it to be no more than 1ft. The real issue was the fishing- it really, really Sucked! I covered A LOT of ground. We trolled the Mallory Rocks and Smith Shoal, then ran to Ebban Lowe shoal, then ran to the Rock piles of the NW channel and finished up fishing the East Jetty in the NW channel. I came in almost an hour late and we still caught nothing – nada- goose egg – Skunked!
As a charter Capt. this is always dreaded. It is no fun. Not for the customers, not for the Mate and not for me. Unfortunately, occasionally it happens when you fish as much as we do. It’s been 5 or 6 yrs as best as I can remember, but I’m sure that doesn’t make it any better for the folks I had on board. They were very gracious. No harsh words, no complaints and always polite. They tipped my mate Ben, who did his job, but I know they were disappointed and I thank them for the way they handled it. I hope, even though the fishing was lacking, they don’t think the effort was. I truly wish there was something else I could do. Sometimes, you just gotta’ admit defeat, tuck your tail and go home.
I’m posting this because I’ve always tried to be honest with my website. In fact, the reason I started posting the pictures daily was because I got tired of some of the BS some boats were putting on the web. Sometimes the truth hurts.
This one is on me.
May 6th, 2016
2 Trips Today
Fished the Reef both trips
Morning
The morning trip was a bit “sporty”
But we got some Barracudas and Mackerels
Afternoon
Seas were calmer in the afternoon
but Fishing was a little slower
May 5th, 2016
Shark Fishing Today
Trying to hide from the wind. Released one and lost another
May 4th, 2016
Grouper season is finally open