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Dry Tortugas Feb 22-24 Lots of Presidentes......

Key Largo to Key West - including Florida Bay, the Marquesas and the Dry Tortugas.

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Dry Tortugas Feb 22-24 Lots of Presidentes......

Postby Fish-N-Platano » Fri Mar 07, 2008 11:43 am

A buddy of mine once said that the best Fishing trips are the ones that you do not plan; such was the case as this past weekend. I get a call on Friday morning from my friend Armando telling me that we should hit the Tortugas this weekend since the weekend weather looked awesome.

After getting my Visa (Wife) squared away I patiently waited until 4:30 PM. We pickup Ice and Bait at Jack’s and start the trip down US 1. I start checking the Trip’s Check List…. Beer “Check”, Beer “Check”, Rods/Tackle ETC “Check” Food “Check”, Bait and Ice “Check” Life vest “No Answer” I say again Life Vest again “No Answer” I go holy cow nobody grabbed the Life Vests, We ended up stopping in Key West and purchasing new Life Vest.

We make it down to City Marina and proceed to Launch the boat and start our trip. The first half of our trip the ocean was really sloppy but it settled very nicely by Rebbecca Shoal. We make it to Pulaski Light around 10:30 AM. We start picking at the Red Groupers right away, along comes a hefty 27” Mutton and he’s welcomed aboard, The Yellowtails are not meeting the 22” minimum that we had placed on ourselves, The Presidente Beers are very cold and are flowing at a very rapid rate.

Around noon we decide to move South, As soon as we get there the Groupers and Muttons start chewing, The Yellowtails begin to measure and for the next 4 hours we were pulling on fish and drinking more Presidentes.

Our original plans called for us to head back to Key West late Saturday Afternoon but the weather was so awesome and we in fact were tired we decided to stay at the anchorage in front of the Fort. We proceed to Fillet a grouper and some Yellowtails for Ceviche. While at the Anchorage we saw and tried to call Capt Hammer on the radio but he in fact had stated to me that his VHF was on the Fritz.

After cleaning the boat we turn on the generator and everyone took nice Hot Showers. I notice that the amount of boats at the Anchorage were minimal; I only saw a Nice Venture 34 as well as a Contender at the beach next to Hammer. After eating the Ceviche and some great Churrascos and Steaks on the BBQ we decided to call it a night. I was tempted to sleep under the stars but I’m sure glad I didn't. At around 2:00 AM we had some heavy rain fell by us. I felt bad for the guys on the Venture as I did not see that they had a cover on their boat.

As the sun came up we left the anchorage area and proceeded to anchor east of the Fort to see if we could catch a couple of Muttons, As soon as we Anchor I hear a yell from my buddies wife telling us to “come and see the size of this shark” when I look down I saw the biggest kingfish that I’ve ever seen. I right away get my “Blue Sea II” special “A three hook Kingfish rig” with just Mono…… As soon as the Ballyhoo hits the water it gets hit and I get cut off right away….. Well I retrieved my line and then I put another rig this time with Wire. The same scenario happen as soon as the Ballyhoo hits the water it gets hit but this time there’s no Mono……This beast proceed to dump over 300 yards of PowerPro I then see the mono backing start going out, He finally stops and I slowly begin to put line back in the reel. At one point I couldn’t retrieve any line I though that he had snagged a Lobster pod that was near by. What the fish was done was to go around the pod around the anchor line and around the engines. My friend Armando puts on gloves reaches out and grabs the line and starts to hand line the fish in, As soon as the fish sees the boat it takes off again. He starts hand lining the fish in and begins to bring the fish back after a short battle he calls for a Gaft. I Gaft this fish and bring him on board.

Total Tally 4 Red Groupers 15-19 Lbs, 1 Black 18 Lbs, 4 Muttons to 15 Lbs, Limited out on 22” and above Yellowtails and of course the Smoker King. I would like to express my gratitude to Capt. Hammer for all the advise and tips.

Thank you.

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Fish-N-Platano
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Postby Bossman » Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:19 pm

Looks like you had a good day on the water :D
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