It started special and continued for most of the day for our clients from near  State College Pennsylvania.
At the bait patch, the porpoises showed up as we were anchoring.  As we were leaving the patch a manta ray showed up, circling the boat (in 27 years I've only seen a few and never that shallow ). Next we headed out to look for mahi and after stopping on some birds, Dave ( my mate ) threw a live cigar minnow out on a light rod. It got eaten not by a mahi but a 225 pound blue marlin!!
Over the next 2 hours there were 2 times we had the fish close enough to declare it officially  caught but In the end the  marlin starting jumping again but this time  got his tale on our 20 lb mainline to end the fight.
What a day!  We  also caught 15 nice fat mahi to finish out our special day.

no pictures since I left my phone at home but we had a big night with the sharks. The tarpon won tonight as another big one was unstoppable and went through the bridge.  The small one we hooked, threw the hook on the second jump.
Some days the fish win.

The wind came back to the south for a while today and the mahi fishing improved over what it's been. Caught a dozen fish and pulled the hook on a 30 pounder,  (which hurt ).. There were definitely more fish being caught today overall then there has been. Hope it's a trend.
Melissa and Steve returned for a second go  after catching a large wahoo with me last year . Came dangerously close to catching a big mahi to go with the wahoo.
maybe next year.

We caught 1 out of 3 tarpon again last evening. A big one that we couldn't stop, a small one that jumped off and a 50 pounder that Pascal  (our new friend from Nice France ) caught.
We also caught 3 sharks between the tarpon bits and the rain squalls.

one 4×4 with some decent fish on it and  a few schoolies in the weed were our day today. It's just not easy mahi fishing right now but tomorrow is another day and things change out there overnight.

Found our 2nd refugee boat in as many days today. Fortunately the coast guard had already been there and the only thing we found under it was a legal triple tail.
We also caught a dozen or so mahi on the huge patches of weed that was floating out there today.
Clients were happy.

Up until we found a pack of nice mahi on a turtle the wahoo was the best thing we saw today.
unfortunately the 30 pounder got out raced to the baits by the gaffers and then disappeared before we got another chance at him. We ended up with some nice fish and thoughts of what could have been.
Jake caught the wahoo and did it on  mono.
Great group from Sarasota and we will see them again next year.

A morning half with a good bite of yellowtail made for good time yesterday.  Dennis and Jake were our youngsters and picked up the technique quickly.  We ended up with over 40 tails for our group of 6.and a lot of future meals.
nice going gang see you again soon.

Steve said today that they had fished with me for 10 years.  Fortunately I have had a lot of awesome catches with them over the years. Today wasn't one of those days but we still had more mahi then 90% of the boats out of the marina. Needless to say it was slow for everyone.
Tomorrow's a half and I will be yellowtailing.

Found them 1 and 2 at a time today. Never found a big school of legal fish but ended up with a decent catch and some very happy clients.
Didn't have to go passed 17 miles which was much better than it's been lately.

A yellow day for Phil and his family. Ended the morning with  around 40 yellowtail snapper and a few big bites that got away.  A good time was had by all.

Little slower today then it has been but we still ended up with a decent catch. It's a good thing we had Abby on board to help catch the big ones.
Great time with good people.

Pat said they kept trying for a girl but ended up with all boys.Had a great time with them today and caught some good fish. Had to a ways to find them and a caught 1 of 2 under each set of birds until the last set where we caught 7.
I think the boys will sleep well tonight.

Abby caught 10 fish this evening and she's 10 years old  (or will be soon ).
Her brother did catch 1 out of 3 tarpon and we caught 5 shark during the trip.
Nicely done Abby.

just didn't have enough time on the short day to find the mahi in any numbers but we did stop and catch some nice fat vermillion  snappers on the way home.

Second fish of the day was this 40 pounder. Don did a great job fighting him and 20 minutes later Tony put the gaff in him.
caught another 15 fish including gaffers and heavy lifters.
Great group of folks today from Oklahoma and Indiana.

John,  Linda, Beth and Madeline from Savanna, Georgia caught 40 schoolie and heavy lifters today on the KK.
We had to go 21 miles but it was worth the ride. A few tangles but they got their lines straighten out and we didn't brake a single fish off.
Another group planning their next trip on the K K IV.

This is justin's mom catching a shark on our evening trip. Went 0 for 3 on the tarpon. ..... big fish that went through the bridge.

Didn't find a big schools of decent fish today. Lots of weed and a heavy lifter or gaffer mahi  here and there but we ended up with a nice catch.
Hope they are correct about the wind coming down tomorrow.

Randy and Randy (a father and son) each had their opportunities at a tarpon tonight. Son Randy caught his but dad's went through the leader on the second jump.
They also caught 6 sharks in between tarpon bites so it was a busy night.
Great memories to take back to home.

No slammer today but a nice catch of gaffers and teenagers. Pulled the hooks on some nice ones and so we never got the chance at their companions.
Tony and his crew from Georgia did well even with the rough seas.
Hopefully these bigger fish will stay are for a while.

15 sharks and 0 for 1 on tarpon made for a busy busy evening. Good memories for our folks from Tennessee.

Caught some nice mahi today with Jeff and his daughter Alissa. Found a nice pack at 14 miles and had 10 in the box by 9 o'clock. Took us a while to get the rest, catching 1 of 2 at a time,  weeding through packs of smalls but we ended well.
Tarpon trip tonight

Michael and his two sons on a half day yellowtailing. Not pictured is Anthony,  Wendy  and Michael wife who also contributed. Not a great bite this morning but plenty for tonight's dinner a Lazy Dazes.