Gettin back in the swing of things i headed down to long key with my two buddies Lui and Julio for a day of fishing.We picked up live shrimp and were on the bridge by 7:30 am Gus (baitwetter) was leaving when we got there and gave us some fresh shark bait- some bluefish he caught during the night...thanks Gus.Right away i hooked a goliath on my 4/0 between the two bridges(incoming tide)but he was too big to even try to turn-PING.The fishing was a bit slow at first no yellow jacks around few mangroves so we put out our shark rods a 16/0,14/0 one 12 and 2 9/0s with Gus's bluefish for bait.No shark hits on the incoming only some undersized muttons,blacks and small mangroves ,the macks were not cooperating either.Lui being the hard core long key veteran knows all the tricks and was soon walking a live runner back and forth between the bridges and hooked a cuda about 25lbs as i ran to gaff it and take some action shots with the camera the cuda spit the hook.It was a beautiful day to be alive and fishing with old friends again,blue skies and crisp winter weather.Lui tries for the herring with the sabikis nothing ;then tries bottom with gold hooks and squid catches a small grunt cuts the tail off and wings it out on his surf rod !bang a nice mangrove,then Julio hooks up with a nice black ,then i with another black released- too short .Put out all the big guns on outgoing but it was'nt to be no shark hits the entire day;a half blackfin tuna ,a half bonito ,a whole jack crevalle,and the bluefish and not a single hit,,,,,,,,patience young grasshopper the time will soon be here. Put out some live blue runners on balloons past the light poles and nothingJigged around the pilings for jacks but only one yellow jack on live shrimp.Although we caught mangroves thru out the day the highlight of the trip was the fat little jewfish that Lui fought on some flimsy ass rod and a Penn squidder-that rod don,t have much backbone but he managed to catch and release after a short fight.
Early morning assault -Lui,Will,Julio
Small mutton on the incoming.
More shorties .
Julio with his grouper.
Shotty grouper.
Fat mangrove snapper.
Lui with his Goliath-released
SOUTH FLORIDA SHARK CLUB -President SFSC-Founding Member est 1983 SFSC-Website Administrator BIG HAMMER SHARK TOURNAMENT -Founder Rene Memorial Sharkathon -Founder NMFS Shark Tagger
that looks like a bahamas mixed bag lol nice for the bridge fellas!!! did lui have his aqariumwith 9000 shrimps?
SFSC -East Coast Events Coordinator
Looks like a good of fishing to me.I have been wanting to make a trip to the keys agian.