Hooked up with Ray and Joe for a day of fishing off Key Largo.Early morning we meet and buy live shrimp ,fresh ballyhoo and frozen chum to make this fishing day a good one,We gas up ,launch the boat and head out to the shallows of Rodriguez key to cast net live pilchards but the water is murky and the bait is nowhere in sight on this windy morning.So we run further out to marker #37 to try and load our livewell with pinfish and small blue runners but the danforth is not catching the grassy bottom and we run even further out to the edge of the reef and finally the chum has attracted live ballyhoo and Ray cast nets about 3 dozen which is more then enough for our full day of fishing.We head offshore in the 5 to 6 foot seas to try a deep drift with live and fresh ballyhoo .We start our first drift in 158 feet and the swells have us back at 100 feet an hour later but no fish in the box yet.We change strategy and decide to troll to a spot we will anchor at and quickly catch a small bonita with a small trolling feather(ah bloody bait for a bigun) .First spot (90 feet)on the anchor was a dud ,,,a handful of small bottom fish but not what we're looking for.We pick up and pull big diving plugs over to our next spot but that did not produce a bite so I decide it's time to change strategy again --this time we will drop baits on a 320 foot sunken ship "the Duane".With a heading northeast as we approach the the wreck I can see some outstanding reef formations and mark some big fish on a reef in 54 feet of water which has crystaline blueish water.We decide against the the Duane because the anchor bouys are all taken by boats that got there first.So I decide to motor back to the reef at 54 feet.
The rest of the story and pics later
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
here go some of the pics
i caught my personal best muton at 27 inches it came in at 10 lbs on the scale i got home joe also got his personal best witha 28 inch groupper didnt know weight cause we released it... one of the best days ive ever had on a boat thanks to captain will
DIRTY SOUTH SHARK HUNTERS
2012 1st place BLACKTIP CHALLENGE
2011 NO LIMIT TOURNAMENT CHAMPION 2nd year in a row
2010 BHC biggest hammerhead shark on 80 lb test
2010 NO LIMIT TOURNAMENT CHAMPION
2010 BHC 3rd and 5th place biggest shark
2010 april sharker of the month
2009-2010 Rookie of the year
glad thath you and youre buddies ]RAY RAY ]HAD A GOOD DAY OF FISHING OF YOURE BEAUTIFUL BOAT MAYBE RAY RAY CAN FIND THE TIME TO GIVE ME A CALL THATH WAS A NICE SNNAPER AND GROUPER MAY BE I WILL BE ABLE TO GO WIYH YOU NEXT WEEK OR WHEN EVER WE CAN GO OK WILL SAID HI TO RAY RAY FOR ME ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, 
Will nice pics and butitful fish. Nice catch. 
Looks like a great day. Nice going fellas.
nice 
congrats Joe, Ray and Cuz good job on those fine catches, You seem to have a good team there Will, now take them to the ledges at night, and catch one of the many Mollases reef monsters that hang around, again congrats
To make a long story short we had the right bait on the right spot late in the day.We dropped the chum bag over and started crushing the fish using live shrimp,freshly cast netted ballyhoo and we chunked with pilchard by catch and ballyhoo chunks .The livewell loaded with goodies did the trick on this clumpy reef we caught a wide selection of bottom fish.The sea was slightly choppy and Portugese man of wars were everywhere but it was another beautiful day in the Florida keys.The current was not too strong so I started catching yellowtail snapper flat lining on my 12 lb spinner using a split shot ,a small 2/0 hook and live shrimp for bait.Once Ray saw me catching nice fish on the flat line he also set up a flat line rod and we were both into the fish BIGTIME.Meanwhille Joe was glued to the middle of the boat and was using some old stanky frozen ballyhoo and he is banging up the grouper ,,,,,,,,4 in total while Ray and I caught only a few tiny strawberry groupers Joe was in the grouper hole all day .I lost a nice mutton on my 12 lb spinner -it rubbed me off on bottom but Ray managed to catch two nice ones .I lost another nice fish on a whole live ballyhoo.The yellow tail action was good for about two hours with muttons and mackeral mixed in.No big kingfish in the mix but maybe next weekend we'll anchor on the deeper side of this reef if the current is right we'll try 100 feet of water and see what monster Muttons and grouper lurk there,,,,,,can't wait.
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
Looks like every one had a great day
Once I get my boat down here u gotta show me some of ur spots ur always killing the fish