With a northeast current over three knots and a twenty knot wind trying to push that current back, it promised to be a "HANG ON" kind of day. Dr Mike was the only one of his group that was brave(?) enough to desire going out with captain Dave to see what fish were out there to be caught.
What they found was a color change in 160 ft with lots of hungry sailfish tailing down sea along side it. Dr Mike let Joe (our FWC scientist on board) catch his first sail and second sail ever! As Mike told me at the dock "I've caught a thousand of them, it was fun watch someone catch one that had never caught a sail before".
They finish up the day  by catching a pile of snapper and then headed home a little early, tired but happy.

Well, I got called out of retirement today, Dave had to go out of town for the day and I filled in ii his absence. Bill, Tom and Scott have fished with us a number of times before and we always have a great time fishing with them.
I felt like I got really lucky on getting this day to fish on because the current was perfect  the water was dirty and the wind was light. We caught over 20 yellowtails (most of the over 20 inches), one nice mutton, a smaller mutton and one kingfish. Overall, great fishing with good people on a picture perfect day.

Dave fished with uncle Jim the other day, Jim is 89 years young and a very good angler. He has obviously spent a bunch of those years with a rod and reel in his hands. Bob and Glen were also along to help with the catching and they did a lot of that, catching over 20 yellowtails in a couple hours. They looked hard for a sailfish after catching snapper but did not find a hungry one.

Not a huge sail but a sailfish none the less.

Talked to Cp today and he told me they tried the wahoo thing early with no takers so captain Dave took them out to some of the deep drop spots where they found the silk snapper biting.  Dave put together a beautiful catch of silks and even found a few vermillon snapper to add to the pot. The boys have one more day (Thursday) before they have to return to the cold north till next year this time.

Year after year these same four guys show up on MLK weekend to harass the captain and mate, drink some beers and just forget about the world for a few days.
We have seen some changes over the years with the guys, had some very sad times with lost love ones, fed off Pat's strength as he fought to recover from his stoke, saw a marriage lost but a stronger one built, and through all those events (and more) the laughter, the support and the true friendship continued. Pat, Dick CP and Ed you guys are the "bomb", true friends that I have enjoyed fishing with over all these past 15 years and I look forward to riding along occasionally on your future trips so I can hassle you for a change.
Captain Dave and Mitch had a great day Thursday with the guys, power trolling for the yellowtails and caught a few of the great eating yellow jacks as icing on that stack of fine snapper fillets.

A sailfish, some other hard fighters and a bunch of snapper made for great day for Young Song and his family. The Song family is more of our repeat folks that come down from Chicago to escape the cold.

CP got to be our first guest of 2023 as he put together another great catch of snapper to start the year out.  CP spent a lot of time putting his new year resolutions together so he needed some help in the fish catching department  but he was able to get that from the crew so it all worked out.
Looking forward to a great year and seeing the Jersey boys (with CP) back here in mid January.

CP, his daughter Kelly and her friend Pat fished a morning half today, getting in their last possible fishing day of 2022. Caught more than enough for dinner on another gorgeous  day here in Islamorada. CP will be back on Monday for a longer day, to start the year off right with a fishing trip on the KK.

Good day with the yellowtail snapper, Dave struggled a bit early but moved around and found the hungry ones. Suzanne and her family had dinner and fish to take back to South Carolina.

There have been some nice blackfin tuna coming down the reef. Here is Chris with one he caught the other day with Dave

Hank, Rosalyn and Patrick had a great day with captain Dave a few days ago while we were out of town. They caught a lot of yellowtail snapper, some of which they took to a local restaurant and the rest they had shipped back home to enjoy over the Christmas holidays. 
The KK is out of the boatyard, polished, painted and all ready for another great season.

Christmas day temperatures here in the keys were not what we normally expect to see this time of the year. They started dropping on Saturday and by Sunday were hovering around 50 degrees, not and ideal fishing day but Jake and his boys Grant and Charlie were game so off they went with captain Dave. They were able to catch a dozen or so snapper for their evening dinner and one sailfish for the show. Nice work Dave on a rough cold day.

 Monday I rode along with CP and Joe on a difficult fishing day where we caught plenty of fish for the dinner planned that night, but struggled to do so.
Tuesday Dave took CP, Joe, John and Carley (no review Carley) out and they put a great catch of yellowtail and silk snapper on the dock. This was the second day in a row that CP was able to stay in the boat. We all hope this is a trend and we don't ever have to use the "man over board" button again. Nice job CP!

Frank, Rob, and Rick got to catch a mixed bag of porgies, snapper and kingfish on their full day out with captain Dave. A good time was had by all and they will be back again next year.

Ryan and Conner caught their first big bull shark on spinning gear the other evening while out with Captain Dave and Mitch. The bull was the highlight of the evening but their was plenty of action with other sharks before and after the bull.

Our good friends and their family came down from central Florida to meet up with our family that is visiting from Louisiana  and today we were going to take them all out for a half day of fishing but only Tiff and Niko were able to get up this morning to make the departure time.
Oh well, we had a great time with Tiff and Niko catching close to are limit of snapper along with some exciting moments with the big sharks that seem to be everywhere now.

After a couple days of torrential rain the sun is back and the fish are biting. Captain Dave took Bill out for some great yellowtail snapper fishing. Really nice size fish with not too much of a shark problem. Very nice!

Claudia called yesterday asking if we could take her granddaughters (Trinity and Giselle) out for a three quarter day this morning. With light winds and low chance of rain predicted, I passed them on to Dave and off they went this morning. The winds turned out to be a little more than was predicted and Dave had to shorten the day but not before putting a good bunch of snapper in the box.

John Slifer brought his guys down from Jersey  to fish this past weekend. John is the owner of Landover Cooling Towers Inc that installs and services cooling towers for HVAC systems along with other applications that require towers. John has fished with us on numerous occasions in the past but this was the first time he brought his guys along to fish also.
Captain Dave tried fishing for a number of different species, that day, yellowtail snapper and mackerel  being the most productive. Half the guys were on another boat that also did well on the snapper.
John will be back onboard the beginning of December (as lookout once again) just in case CP  decides to go overboard for another swim.

Mike and his family got up close and personal with a big bull shark Friday evening out in Whale Harbor channel. We had put the evening off for a couple days as hurricane Nicole's winds were pretty strong before finally abating as Nicole moved farther north. They caught other sharks that evening  but the highlight of the evening was this big bull.

A couple days ago it was sailfish and then yesterday Dave found mahi. It is that time of the year where there is a transition from summer to winter fishing so the mates don't know which season they will be in on any give day and have to be prepared both.
A bunch of nice fish for Mike and his guys.  More of our folks which have returned year after year to fish with us. Thanks Mike.

Sailfish season has started.  Dave tells me they were anchored down catching snapper while the sails were coming into the shallow water and pushing baits (showering) all around them. He decided he had to get off the anchor to see if they couldn't catch one and they did!
It looked like an absolutely gorgeous day out there and Dave said it doesn't get much pretter. This was Mitch's first sailfish but there will be many more for him this winter season.

Don has fished with us on a number of occasions but although I don't remember fishing with Brittany before but I'm sure she will be back to fish with us again also. Today Dave put them on some nice yellowtail snapper and mixed in a few good eating cero mackeral to go with them. Don showed up yesterday on a whim and wanted to fish, we just happened to have today open. Dave is fishing tomorrow and this week looks like perfect fishing weather.

Mike and Paul returned to fish with again, looking to catch some good eating fish and maybe catch a sailfish. The eating fish came fairly easy but although Dave put in quite a bit of time looking for that sail it didn't happen for them on Sunday.