More Big Pine Key July fun 7-17/18

Sorry for the late post, finally getting around to it.

I attended the SEDAR Gulf of Mexico red grouper workshop in Miami the previous week, and then came back for another weekend on Big Pine. The weather was hot but perfect with light winds and scattered showers. With the forecast looking good we opted to fish offshore on Saturday, and then goof off in the back country on Sunday. So we prepped for offshore, I rigged ballyhoo, and we caught about 3 dozen pinfish for the pen. Baits ready to go …

We left early and headed straight out. I was looking to hit the humps right at 650ish early and see if we could get a tuna bite. Just as we hoped, we ran into scattered birds and bait getting crashed and before long hooked a couple football blackfins on feathers. About mid morning we pulled up in front of a group of birds, shut down , and soaked live baits while I chunked for an hour or so. No more tuna, but we did double up on a couple gaffer mahi’s.
It was hot out there, so we carry along a solar shower to help cool down. Pretty awesome to get a fresh water rinse after sweating like stuck pigs!

We decided to run on offshore further for the afternoon and look for some bigger weedlines and mats. We found them at around 850, and spent the afternoon trolling and steadily picking up fish along that line and a big current rip that came through. The current rip was impressive, standing 3 and 4 foot waves rolled through and it sounded like a waterfall!

We ended up bringing home a half dozen nice dolphin, mostly gaffers, and 2 blackfin after releasing many more schoolies. No monsters spotted out there. Robin and my photobombing dog rebel …

Sunday we continued our scouting in the back country. We wanted to hit new territory for us so we decided to strike off for the backside of Sawyer Key. Water was flat and beautiful, perfect skiff running day!

We never actually threw a line in the water, had too much fine scouting, snorkeling and swimming. I sure love those remote keys, really something!

We ended up scouting Cudjoe Channel., Crane Key, Racoon Key, and Little Crane Key. All of the likely rocky and coral spots were stacked with lobster, along with the man-made “hidey holes” we ran across. Going to be a great lobster season looks like to me!

Once again came home and enjoyed the keys bounty! Sashimi anyone?

Have fun out there for mini season, save a few for us!

Bo