Pretty much the same kind of day as yesterday without the tunas. We tried for them but they were not biting for us  at the hump and so we headed off to find the mahi. I was once again frustrated in the early morning as the fish were moving hard and the birds would not stay on them but as the morning progressed and we got deeper the fish and the birds started to cooperate. We found some good schools late morning and a 20 pounder as the last fish of the day to finish with our mahi limit.
Pam, Mary Sue and Steve  started a little rough but by the time we got to the larger schools  of fish they had it down, avoiding tangles and moving in the pit like a well oiled machine. See you again on Thursday folks, might be a reef day.

Rick, Eric and Mat did an amazing job today as we limited out on the mahi and caught 10 tunas. Went to the hump first, caught the tunas and after they slowed down we headed out to deeper (and rougher) water where we started catching 1's and 2's. We couldn't find any schools with any numbers of fish until late morning when we found THE school. Rick said we caught 16 or 17 mahi , over half of our total catch out of that one school and all were nice fish.,
Rick, we will see you in a week or so and Eric and Mat we will see you next year about this time. Thanks Guys!!

Steve fished us a couple years ago and that story is too long to tell but it involved a plan, lost keys, another boat and waiting on his buddy to be delivered to the KK 20 miles off shore. Fortunately today was not as involved or as long (half day) and I don't think Steve's seasickness was part of his plan but even with a little temporary illness everyone had a good time, which I hope was in the plan. We started with the mangrove snapper and next tried the yellowtail  (shark problem), caught a couple kingfish and missed a few, one legal mutton and a small grouper and the guys had dinner and then some. See you next time Steve... looking forward to the new plan!

Ron, his wife and grandson spent a morning on the KK at the 409 hump today and although the weed was everywhere and a real pain for Dave, we were able to catch a bunch of nice tunas for these folks to take home. The mahi fishing wasn't great today, lots of small fish again but we did catch enough for a couple  fresh mahi dinners.

Yesterday was difficult, today we went to the 409 hump and caught a dozen tunas including a 20 pounder. A few mahi swam up while we were there and we found more as we left the hump and headed west. We picked away and ended up with 17 mahi and 13 tunas making Rick and his group smile and start planning their evening dinner at Chef Michael's even before we reached the dock. We fish a lot of great people and this is  just another of those great groups we look forward to fishing with. We will see you again soon ( some of you on Monday ).

Another busy half day starting with the mangrove snappers and ending with an african pompano, a large mutton snapper and a couple kingfish. This was a large group and there were two boats, the other boat caught plenty of yellowtail snapper and we were fortunate to catch a few other species.

Thought we were going off again today but Gary's one son showed up really sick  and Gary and Ryan didn't want to leave him all day so we decided on a half and stayed on the reef. It worked out great, once again we caught some big mangrove snapper and although conditions for yellowtailing were not good we caught a 20 lb kings and some smaller kings after leaving the reef. Good guys, Gary had spent a lot of time in Antarctica with the arm forces and Ryan engineered ski lifts, very different and interesting.

Thought we were going off today but Bob said they didn't want mahi and preferred  to stay on the reef so that's what we did, catching almost 50 snapper, including mutton, mangrove, yellowtail and vermillons. These folks have been fishing with us for many years and we just have a really good time with them. Looking forward to their next trip.

John and Kim decided to  stay close in on the reef today as they wanted more action and less travel time because the mahi fishing has been slow and many miles out. We caught some really nice mangrove snapper and a bunch of smaller ones, the yellowtail did not bite as well today but the vermillons did, unfortunately we had to leave that spot as a number of small boaters wanted those numbers. John say he and Kim are coming back in February for the wahoos and sail fish. Looking forward to it folks see you then.
It sounds like the mahi bite picked up today and we will be out there Sunday to give a report.

Wow, what a morning on the reef with Melissa, Rich, Noah, Nate and Claire. The mangrove snapper are spawning, the yellowtails cooperated, the kingfish bit (20 pounder on mono) and a couple of bonitas showed up for sport. Great family that left with good memories of a day on the water in Islamorada. See you again soon folks!!

Yesterday we struggled with the mahi, today we started out strong and kept finding them. Elise and Isabel caught some but it was their parents that really came through on a weird north wind that made it a little uncomfortable out at 18 miles. We headed back a little early to calmer water and caught a couple vermillon snappers but that was about all the bottom would give us today.

From a couple difficult days to almost 30 mahi by 11 o'clock was a welcome change for us today. A few of our group had some problems with the rocking boat in the morning so after catching the mahi we went a little shallower and caught a dozen rose porgies in the calmer water. Having some time left we even stopped and yellowtailed on the reef for a bit to show the kids what that was all about and then headed for the marina. Looking forward to fishing with these guys again probably in December when the sailfish show up.

No tarpon this evening but we kept Ashley and her family very busy with sharks and rays. We get to fish a full day with these folks tomorrow and it was good practice for them with all the activity tonight.

Yesterday was a struggle with very few bright spots among the fleet searching for mahi and today was similar with a few more decent catches of mahi but still not what it has been. We were not among the more decent catches but Chris and his crew still had a great time. Chris has taken home bags and bags of fillets over the years when fishing with us and today was the only off year that they could remember. They did get to try deep dropping which they had never done before so it was a total loss and we caught some nice rose porgies for dinner. See you next year gang!!

Over ran them today as did a lot of boats but we recovered somewhat by the end of the day and put together a decent catch even without the birds to show us where the fish were. Tom and his group really enjoyed themselves, 1st time mahi fishing for a couple of them and that is always a little special. Another calm day today but it looks like we may get some wind and rain this weekend and then back to low wind conditions next week.

It took a little more time to put together this catch today but we ended up with a really good grade of fish. Scott, Heather, Will, Colton, and Josh had their hands full with these nicer fish but they got almost all of them to the boat. Just a beautiful calm day on the water for everyone, although it was bit hot in that cockpit by the afternoon.

Once again everything fell into place as we found a couple turtles with fish on them in the morning and so we got that sigh of relief early that you get when you have fish in the box. A lot of heavy lifters and gaffer size fish to start the day lowers the stress levels and we had some really good anglers in William, Nichols, Erica and Rich to get those fish to the boat. Did a little deep dropping at the end of the day and caught some nice porgies to add to the catch.

We caught our 20 mahi for Dr Mike and Brian and after trying a couple unproductive deep drop spots found one with a hungry 10 lb snowy grouper which Dr Mike proceeded to catch. Caught one more smaller snowy which we sent back down and we got back in to the marina a little early so the fish could get packed and the guys could get on the road.

Charlie, Steve, Bobby and Joe fished with us today on their annual mahi fishing trip. Boby caught the big one and caught it on 15 lb test, it wasn't planned that way, but he did and we got him after a 40 minute battle.
Lots of fish out there today but also a lot of boats vying for them, a great way to meet new people and make "friends". Thanks Steve, see you again next year.

Just a really nice day with our good friends from Texas, Dr Mike and his son Brian. They wanted to yellowtail to start and after limiting out with them we decided to see if there were any mahis out in the deep. We didn't have to go too far, found two turtles with fish on them, limited out again and came back a little early so they could get their fish packed up and in the freezer.
Always a pleasure to see this family (not sure we will get to see the kids or the ladies this trip) and we get to fish with these two again on Sunday.

A lemon shark, a bonnethead shark, a ray and a few nurses kept the boys busy this evening while waiting to catch another tarpon. Unfortunately  one was all we got the chance to catch, next time boys!

Yesterday we had a very short day but we still caught enough for Jeff and Heidi to have a dinner or three. Today we had no such problems with seasickness, the 10 year old twins  Charlie and Kaelie took turns cranking in mahi with Dad and Granddad's help and we ended up with 35 or so by the end of the day. There are a lot of small fish out there right now, unlike a week or so ago so it's just a matter of finding a good school.

The 1st set of birds had a large school of mahi under it but we only caught 5 and they got away from us. The next school had smaller fish and after catching 3 or 4 they moved on, by now I figured we would catch our limit but it might take a couple hours at the rate we catching. I  saw another set of birds that I thought might be back on the first school of fish again and it turn out they were, we were better organized and it wasn't long before we had reached our limit of 20 mahi.
After catching 8 or so tunas at the hump we headed back to the reef , bounced  the bottom for a while but no mutton snapper (1 kingfish) and then sat down and caught a hand full of yellowtail.
This is the 3rd year that Bob and Wendy have fish us and they will be back next year.

Everything progressed smoothly today, the bait was cooperative (unlike yesterday), the tuna bit well enough at the hump to get us started and we also caught a couple keeper mahis there to start the day on them. Found a frigate a couple miles from the hump with a hand full of more mahi and it just continued like that throughout the day. This was the 2nd trip for Alex, Ena and Victor and once again they had a great time and booked me for next year same time.

Yesterday is a distant memory as we found a lot of nice fish today for the Southern Freight tournament Guys. We fish them every year, it's always a good time and we won it a couple years ago. Don't know about this year as our big fish wasn't that big coming in at 16 lbs. See you next year guys and gal!!