John wanted a sailfish today but the sailfishing has gone from really good to "where did they go" over the last 3 days. We flew the kites all morning and when my patience finally wore out we caught yellowtail and mutton snappers to give these folks some good eats for a couple evenings. John and his gang will be back in June  to catch the summer mahi run.

After doing the red eye in from Vegas Friday night, yesterday was  definitely a recovery day and today with light winds, perfect temperature and great guests I had just the right atmosphere to get back into the fishing thing.
We were visiting family out there and I once again I put Dave in charge while we were gone and once again he did a wonderful job of taking care of everything.
Today we had Eric and Kristen on board and we started out strong, catching a couple nice mutton snappers, quite a few kings, sharks, bonitos and this 20 lb yellowjack. Even without the quality fish it would have been a good day to be on the water.

Steve helping his daughter Lorilie catch  a big shark.

They stuck it out today even with the high wind. Rosemary’s family did extremely well catching over 20 snapper this morning and various other species. 

Captain Dave mixed it up today, catching yellowtail snapper to start, a wayward mahi and bonitos. . Ulysses, Fredrick and their sons were out on the father son trip enjoying the keys and the fishing off Islamorada.

Captain Dave went out this morning expecting to do a full day with his group but the stronger than predicted wind shortened the day to a half. They did catch fish, had enough for a few meals and Dave thought that was it for the day, it wasn’t’. 
Shortly after getting back another group contacted Dave, wanted to go fishing and Dave headed back out to try it again. They were catching snapper  while anchored when a sailfish ate the kite bait and after getting the anchor up they were able to catch the fish and get some pictures. Nice job today Dave.

We tried very hard to find a sailfish today but the closest we got was when one came up killed the ballyhoo and then swam away. The yellowtail snappers did bite though and Duncan and his cohorts caught their limit of them and 5 or 6 hard fighting bonitos. Duncan brings some different folks each time he comes down and we always enjoy his visits.

My wife and I met Mark and his wife while waiting at the airport to return to south Florida from Atlantic City. Pati and I were bringing home as many of those delicious NJ tomatoes as we could comfortably carry and ended up gave one to Mark and his wife to enjoy as they returned to Florida also, it turned out that that tomato  returned in the form of an additional fishing charter for us.
Mark brought his son Dillon, his brother Paul, Paul's wife Mary and their mom, all of which had a great time learning the yellowtail technique. We also caught a mahi off the kite and a few verms at other spot.
Mark and his brother are both talking about future trips on the KK and we were are looking forward to it, it was a really good time.

Charles and Pat have fished with us a couple times before and they really enjoy the deep dropping. Having not done a lot of it in the deep water lately, I wasn't sure want to expect, obviously it worked out well.
It started right as we had just crossed the reef and caught anice  mahi on the wahoo lure and not long after that we caught an 18 lb blackfin tuna which took a lot of the pressure off right at the start. Caught a few silk snapper, small verms and assorted other small species until we found the spot where the big silk and big vermillon snappers were living. Caught our limit of vermillons, some big rose porgies and a bunch of small snowy groupers. Lots of good eating for Pat and Charles and their families.

Much more wind than was predicted yesterday, the weathermen just can't get it right but our guys hung in there as we caught mixed sizes of yellowtail snapper. There were jacks, spadefish and bonitos in addition to the snapper which made for a busy morning half for our guys on there final day on the KK.

Spent quite a bit of our day looking for that sailfish but it did not happen. We have another opportunity tomorrow as Bill and and buds are fishing a half day in the morning with us. Caught some tails , verms and silk snapper for their dinner tonight and tomorrow night and a few other species while waiting on that sail.

With the front arriving yesterday  and Ian not know for his seaworthiness, I suggested that we stay home yesterday and try again today. Still a lot of wind today but a north wind is not a bad direction for us as it comes off the islands.  We went and Ian got  to catch his first sailfish, it was another great trip with this father and son team.

And the rains came and came till these three were soaked through their bvd's but it did stop them from catch yellowtails. We had one that was feeling really bad from the time we anchored down till the time he stepped unto the dock and because of that, the full day turned into a rather short day.

As you can tell, Christine and Mike are fun to be with and we had a really great day of snapper fishing with them. Caught our limit of yellowtail and vermillon snappers and while we had the kites up for a sailfish we caught a large mutton snapper.  These kids have fished with us a couple times already this year and are planning a return once again next summer.

Two nice families today, one from California and the other from Arkansas caught almost the same number of snapper in the morning and afternoon. The unusually strong current to the west helped us in the morning with the yellowtails but not with the vemillon snapper. The current changed it the afternoon so it was more difficult to catch the tails but easier to catch the vermillon snapper. I keep telling people that the changes keep it interesting, sometimes frustrating but almost always interesting.

Fished with Karla Klay today, someone I haven't see in thirty years and so we had a lot of catching up to do. Karla brought along her husband Chris and a couple other of her friends from Texas to fish with us.
Caught enough snapper to feed this group for several days and then we sailfished for a good part of the rest of the day. Good times, lots of laughs and fish for the fryer, doesn't get much better.