We made the call a couple weeks ago when they reopened overseas highway. Tom and Glen took the long drive down last Sunday, and we spent a full week on the water. Love these guys, we have been doing this trip for a long time, but fishing together even longer. Foolish Pleasure, BS Minnow, FatCat, Braindead, O-Four, WoodyToo and the Lil’ Woody all boats we have fished together on.
Day 1, we ran to the reef, hoping to get on the yellow tail bite. So being the reef expert I am (one successful trip with Paul) we loaded up on chum (100 pounds) cut bait rods and reels and took off at 0600.
We really didn’t get into a good bite. I found the fish on top of the reef, but we couldn’t get them to the back of the boat. You can see on the screen shot my ladder pattern search, and the fish balled up right on the top of the reef.
Fish were caught .. brought home a red grouper, and a yellowtail. Tom got a big jack, we had shark attacks and all that good stuff. But we just did not get into the groove I was after.
Then we spent the afternoon in the back country in search of ballyhoo and snapper. We chummed in a nice group of corals, and pulled in a couple nice mangrove snapper to round out the day.
Robin did not disappoint, Parmesan crusted grouper … wow!
Day 2 offshore – well, not so good out there. We did not find any structure (weed lines or current rips) or see much bird activity … one measly dolphin came home with us. 😦
But hey – mahi made the dinner table. We had fish and steak tacos … stellar!
And an awesome keys sunset!
Day 3 work day – fuel, maintenance, and sleep recharge. We did take the skiff out for a rumble, and headed out to the backyard. I took the guys to Johnson key area and we drifted jigs for Trout and snapper, and then spent a couple hours drifting baits in corals.
We were going to spend the sunset tarpon fishing, but we got distracted by what we figure were either sharks or Goliath groupers. Ok, truth is we got our butts handed to us. Every time we hooked up we were taken for a ride by something big. We were using 15 pound leaders and absolutely outgunned out there! What a hoot though!
Sunset riding back home was stunning, pizza for dinner!
Day 4, back to the reef. Paul called and joined us. He had a plan for us to try several different things, sandballing chum, yellow tail and mutton, grouper digging, and check out the mangrove snapper spawn. I was pumped!!!! When we got to the reef we were met with thunder lightning and rain. We are the blue dot below … and yes that lighting was banging the water all around us.
Good heavens scared us all. The boat spun on anchor completely 360 degrees several times in the wind! Never, ever have I seen that.
Finally it broke, and we got into the action. Not hot and heavy but we caught … pretty cool double raionbow ..
After the storm it cleared off for a couple hours, but the storms kept popping back up. Paul showed me a couple different areas but the current and sea state pretty much blew us off the water. Ended up with a nice bunch of snapper and a big spade fish … never caught one of those here.
Robin did it again for us … Panko crusted snapper, fresh veggies .. yum
Day 5 – back yard again. This time armed for bear. Glen said if we go back, we have to have a fighting chance. So the big spinning rods, heavy leaders, chum and slabs of meat were the order of the day. Paul had set a pinfish trap and gave us a couple dozen live baits.
We anchored up current of the corals, and when we settled down if you look at the coral head in the picture you can see our nemesis. The Goliath grouper was snoozing underneath it (bottom of the rock in the picture)!
Chum in the water and chunked ballyhoo floated out behind the boat and the area came alive. I pulled this little mutton, we also got a big lemon shark, lots of mangrove snappers, some small cubera snapper, and everyone had their rods doubled up by the Goliath!
There were a couple Goliath ruling the roost in that area. Tom finally got one turned and to the boat for a release. The big one still haunted us the rest of the day, we would make him mad and he would go away for a while, and then boom he would show right back up and tear us up.
We headed home worn out. So much tackle breaking fun! Robin then blew us away with tuna poke, and lazy days yellowtail!
Day 6 mahi mayhem!
Offshore we went, day was beautiful, fishing was slow. We hooked one dolphin early, and then nothing for hours. Finally we found some big weed patches and hooked another. I made the decision to pull in lines and chunk the weed patch for dolphin. That was the call of the trip – Game on a the rest was a very fishy and bloody mess.
We put 20 decent sized schoolies in the box. I was done, wiped and exhausted! Nice pile of them on the table!
The last feast – Caribbean coconut curry mahi and rice. Boom! Mic drop!!
I think I did my job and showed the boys some solid fishing. Robin outdid herself in the kitchen and rolled out dish after wonderful fish! Great week!
Gorham Fishing Team 