Bobby and his guys fish with me fairly regular and although we struggled some today we caught some really nice vermillon snapper and ended the day in good shape. Had one of those days when the hooks just would not stay in the fish, on the bright side the wind is coming down and after days of abuse we are finally getting some decent weather.

We had this little lady, Chloe, out last evening for our shark trip and she caught the biggest, most and most unique. I just love seeing younger folks excited and enthusiastic about fishing and Chloe showed us both.

Started out with a couple smaller sharks but they just kept getting bigger as the evening went on. Ashley's family was kept busy as even Charlie lost the count on the number of sharks caught. We get to take some of these folks off shore on Thursday, it should be fun!

Tim showed up all by himself to enjoy the day and catch some fish, he caught fish and we all enjoyed the beautiful day. We did go out to 400 ft looking for mahi as Tim had never caught one and if there was a chance he wanted to try, unfortunately the only mahi I heard about were 20 miles off shore and with the short day we just weren't going to be able to get there.

My daughter Sarah got married yesterday afternoon near Orlando. The ceremony was an out door event and we could not have ask for a more beautiful setting or weather. Pati and I welcome Sarah new husband Ross Fultz into our family and wish the two of them the very best in new future together.

Craig and Edward picked a good day to catch sailfish with a sharp water color change in 180 ft,  a lot of northeast current and a 20 knot wind coming from the north, ideal conditions to catch sailfish.
Packs of sails were following that color edge, swimming against that strong current and popping up to the surface from time to time. Edward caught the 1st one an hour in, after seeing quite a few that wouldn't eat. A while later a pack came up on our baits and while we had 4 on for a moment we ended up holding on to just one, with Craig caught that one. Edward caught his 2nd an hour or so later on a fish that put on a tremendous show spending more time in the air then in the water. The final fish we hooked got wrapped up in the leader and after a blazing run we pulled the hook on his first jump.
All in all a great day with the sails and some really good anglers.

John T (grumpy) doesn't smile much but that doesn't mean he isn't happy, especially after a 3/4 day catching snapper like these. The vermillons don't get much larger and although we only caught a few yellowtail snapper they were on the large size also. Also caught 3 schoolie muttons to round out our snapper catch.
Go Central Bucks High School East!!

Not a whole lot had changed from this morning except that the current continued to pick up making the bite a little more difficult to see. We caught enough so that Chris and his family had plenty for dinner with their guests and tried sailfishing after that but to no avail.
First time in the keys for these folks and they are loving it!

My cousin Ed and his wife Linda fished with us today on a morning half which was a little chilly but full of sunshine. The extra large yellowtails bit very well this morning and although Ed did pretty well catching them, his wife Linda was high hook, catching the most and the biggest.
It has been many years since I have seen Ed and Linda and it was a real pleasure having them out on the KK. Hopefully we can get them back down in the near future for a day out in the blue water and some mahi mahi fishing.

We started slow this evening but finally got Jack to break a sweat on a big shark an hour into our trip. We ended up catching 8 sharks all together and had another great evening as the wind had died off and the warmth came back.

AJ, Jason, Mike and Carl had some great yellowtail fishing this morning even with a 20 mph cold wind blowing out of the north.
The afternoon trip wasn't as good as the blue water moved in over the reef and shut the bite down for Julie, Chuck, Hunter and Ricardo.

Had a little rain but that didn't stop Chuck, Julie, Ricardo and Hunter from enjoying themselves catching sharks in the channel. Caught 6 and had a big spinner on, no tarpon yet.

The wind came down today and we only had to come back to the dock once to leave a couple folks off that were not feeling well. Everyone else on board did great with Patrick and Jack having a great day with the yellowtails, limiting out after a couple hours while Christina stay up on the bridge and kept everyone in line.
Another great day with these folks and as always they already have dates planned for their next trip on the KK.

Chad was our MVP today as he caught the biggest and most mutton snapper today. It was not a day for weak stomachs as the wind was from the south and the waves were high without a lot of space between them.
It's always a pleasure fishing with the Kalises and although the CP's two girls could not be here due to other obligations, they were here in spirit. CP's wife, Trish was also here in spirit having passed unexpectedly a couple months ago after returning to NJ from Islamorada. Trish loved coming to the keys and we always made sure we caught yellowtail snapper for Trish whenever CP fished on the KK. She will be sorely missed.

We did a little sailfishing this morning and tried yellowtailing but finally ended up at the Islamorada hump where the silk and vermillon snappers were biting. Had a good time with Steve, Joel and Mike and looking forward to the next time we get them on the boat.

Didn't get a picture with Rod, Jane and the sailfish today so I pulled one out of the archives. It was the second day of sailfishing for Jane and Rod but the 1st on the KK so we felt fortunate that only an hour in, we hooked a sail off the kite and got the release a half hour later.
Did not see another sail all day but then there were very few sails seen anywhere today!

Carol and Dave with a very nice red grouper that we caught yesterday. We released the grouper but kept the vermillon and mutton snappers for Larry and his group to have cooked in one of our local restaurants, 

Yellowtail bite is still off, so we dropped for the vermillons and bounced the bottom catching a mutton and a king. Craig and Vickie were real troopers cranking the verms up from 200 ft along with some porgies and cottonwicks. Another pretty day on the water.

Jerry called me last night and wanted to go fishing but he had a list. List fishing usually doesn't work out because fish don't read and therefore don't know that they are on the list.
We were able to cross barracuda off Jerry's list but the north wind meant there were not many mahi mahi around and Jerry had to settle for this big red snapper and a bunch of other species of fish which were not on the list but made him almost as happy.
Jerry told us we would be his "go to" boat  when he comes back down from Minnesota next year so I think he is going to give us a second chance at helping him complete that list.

Spectacular evening out with Tom, Melissa and Conner, the sunset was awesome, the sharks were big and the company was great. Doesn't get any better!

This is the 2nd big black grouper we had to release this week but it does bode well for the start of grouper season in a couple months. Mike wanted to catch something big (which he did) and some thing to eat (which we did) with a few vermillon snapper. Caught other snappers that we released and started enjoying the day as the 20 knot wind subsided to 10 knots by noon and the time we headed back on our short day.

When the day started I wasn't planning on a trip to the Islamorada hump but with a hard current to the west and clean water the reef didn't look good for what I had planned on doing, so off we went. There was no current at the hump and no AJs or tuna but we did a drop to the bottom and found that the vermillon and silk snappers were biting. Caught plenty of them and came back to the reef ,the yellowtail still would not cooperate so we ended up putting out the ballyhoo in 140 ft and caught this 25 lb blackfin to finish out the day.

Kalamazoo Michigan is a good place to be from this time of the year and the keys are a great place escape to if you happen to be from Kalamazoo. That is what Tom, Melissa and son Conner told me this morning as we headed out toward the reef.
The yellowtails bit fairly well once we took care of the barracuda problem and a couple bonitas showed up to give Conner a bit of a workout. Spent some time with the vermillons and yelloweyes as well as releasing a 20 lb black grouper, several red snapper and an AJ. Even had an opportunity at sailfish late in the day in the shallow water but he faded off just as I thought he was going to eat.
All in all a good day with beautiful weather and fun folks that we will see again Sunday evening for a shark trip.