I thought I was going to have to take a day off today but a call from another captain put me in touch with Mike who was in touch with Chris and his son and then we were booked. Conditions were not great for yellowtailing but we were able to catch over a dozen of them along with some kingfish, bonitas, a yellow jack and 3 legal muttons. Chris was the blue runner king but he did manage to catch a couple of the yellowtail. Fun day with this group and Mike is going out with us again tomorrow.

Yesterday was Preston's birthday and all he wanted for it was a fishing trip, We took him, his two brothers, dad and mom out for a half day on the reef and kept him busy with yellowtail, mackerel, bonita and one big bullshark to top it off. We had one very satisfied birthday boy at the end of our trip for sure!

Started a little tough with the sharks making up for yesterday and not letting us get hardly any yellowtail snapper to the boat. I finally had enough and went out to 200 ft where we started catching a few bottom fish and then mahi showed up along with that nice kingfish. At that point everything starting working out well, as  the  jacks and fat vermillon snapper were biting and we ended up with a really nice catch of fish by the end of the day.

It didn't take long for these guys to put together a great catch of yellowtails this morning. but then Cave is a bit of a ringer since he spent several years in the cockpit of the KKIV. Caveman and his lady are in the keys visiting their old pals and doing a little fishing while here.

Almost perfect conditions today for our half day of snapper fishing. Once again the ladies caught most of the fish as we put 20 tails in the boat along with a few kingfish and one legal mutton out of several that we got to the boat.

The kingfish bit well unlike the yellowtail  but there was plenty of action for these guys from Atlanta. Mike and Jon were hoping for a sail, but though we put in our time  we didn't see one.

Our guys yesterday were from various parts of the country but all were involved with the chemical industry. i didn't pretend to understand all they do but we had a good time talking about it. The bite was ok with plenty of action and an opportunity at a sailfish that we jumped off.

Really short half day today as we had 3 out of 4 not feeling well and after catching more than enough for dinner the vote was to head home. Chris and his crew are from Washington and Oregon, have done some fishing, but that wind was a bit too much for them today.

We tried the tuna early and although we caught a bunch, none were big enough that we wanted to keep them. Tried a few deep spots as we worked back toward the reef but it wasn't till we got back to some of my shallower spots that we started catching some nice fish. Beautiful vermillon snapper, kingfish and almaco  jacks went in the fish box and released a couple small cobia and assorted other species. Andy is taking his fillets back to Missouri minus a few fillets they are having for dinner tonight.

Dean and Diane walked up to me yesterday and said they were interested in going fishing on the KK today, it seems the boat they rented had engine problems (for the second time) and they were looking for a good day on the water. I would say they got their wish, as we found a weed line in 500 ft and followed it up to the east, catching ones and twos until we found a school with 15 or so mahi and limited out. We headed back toward the reef, stopping along the way to catch our limit of vermillon snapper and finally anchoring down for the yellowtail but did not have much success with them.

All we needed was a little current to get the yellowtail really biting and although we did not get the current we still caught plenty of fish for Craig and his crew and had a great time doing it. Caught a number of AJ's and muttons after leaving the yellowtail spot and just enjoyed my first day back on the water after our Colorado break.

Pati and I were on a much needed vacation to Colorado and New Mexico the last ten days or so with our good friends Randy and Jan. We just had a wonderful time, the weather was great and the scenery was spectacular. Unfortunately all good thing must come to an end and we flew back yesterday doing the red eye out of Denver and  I'm looking forward to getting back to some good off shore fishing again.

With Captain Dave at the wheel we took Pati, Dave's wife Lisa and Dr John out for a little snapper catching. The yellowtails did not bite very well and when they did the sharks were there to eat most of them, fortunately we did not have the same problem with the vermillon snapper. Captain Dave kept us on the spot and we are all eating well tonight. Thanks Captain Dave.

Chris's group got in on some great mahi fishing today along with some beautiful weather. Seemed from what I heard on the radio pretty much everyone had plenty of opportunities to put good catches of mahi together today with nice size fish and we didn't have to go very far to find them. I found some of these fish at 14 miles although the majority were caught at 17 to 18 miles.