Over and over we hear about there are no fish to be caught in Key West in September. Well check out these beauties that the McGlynn's and Butler's of Colorado caught today.

 

 

 Adam Byerly, of Florida Web Center, fished with us this spring and produced this video.I like it a lot so if you are having a problem getting through it's me running it on three computers.

Here is the High bandwith streaming video (broadband users high speed required) www.floridawebcenter.com/pelagichunter/Seaclusion/seaclusion_high.wmv

Here is the low bandwidth version for dialup users www.floridawebcenter.com/pelagichunter/Seaclusion/seaclusion_low.wmv

 

 

The season has slowed and kids are back in school. This time of year should cool off a little and all the work being done on boats would  be so much more pleasant. Sometimes it is hard to be poitve when it's too hot and can't get away to fish enough. We did have some good fishing thru the month down here in Key West with Dolphin coming and going in not very predictable ways .

 However when you did find a nice weedline with a couple of birds flying up and down Dolphin were there.

 

 

 Then there were times of birds and no weed lines and Blackfin Tuna took the bait.

 

And when you just gotta have a fish go to the bottom and dig Grouper. The fun part of this one was the lady was "just watching" good thing she wasn't really fishing the boys might have been embarassed.

 

When is The Best Time To Fish In Key West ? This might be the third most popular question on the boat. I sometimes think it might be a particular month or time of year and this can definitely be true when Sailfish is best or when Dolphin is best. Other times I think it is a time of Day . Right now in Key West the fishing in the middle of the day could be great and no one cares because it is so Hot. I have really been enjoying fishing late in the evening and at night lately.The snapper bite on the reef has been good into the evening and the Swordfishing has been steady offshore,that coupled with the pleasant temperature and beautiful evening skies may answer the question for me this summer. So don't forget the Fishing is best in Key West all the time!

Steve to those of you that fish with us runs the deck most of the time , However in a cruel reversal he got to be the angler Saturday night in the Southernmost Swordfish Tournament. Since nobody else on the team had fought a big fish we decided that Steve would go first to show how it is done . Well about 15 minutes after the baits were in the water Steve hooks up the largest Swordfish we have ever seen. The fish jumped immediately and showed her size , definitely not a quick match. We both felt that the fish was 250 to 300 pounds and when it got close it measured  from the tip of its bill to the tip of its tail was the better part of the 15 feet across the back of the boat. I often tease Steve about using light tackle and once again it seems he was fighting a bear with a flyswater. Using a 50# wide body Penn International with a 50-80# standup rod the fish smoked half the reel before it slowed down on the first of many runs. We leadered the fish after an hour and called in the catch, we then continued to fight the fish another two hours trying to bring it to the gaff. The fish was not ready on our last push, or breath, to be brought  in and broke off at the double line on the trim tab. Our technical catch did allow us to win as we were the first boat to catch a Swordfish and no one caught more than one.

Bill and the gang from St Pete came down for some action with Yellowtail and Mutton Snapper. The Key West reefs have not seen the Mangrove Snappers yet but it can't be long as everything is about a month later this year.

Our friend Even from Norway caught this nice Bull Dolphin while Fishing offshore Key West this weekend. With calm seas and lots of blue Gulfstream water we searched many miles to find this beauty. Most fish were small  but the keepers were nice

After what has seemed like months of blowing and rough weather in Key West the summer has arrived . Everybody from New York thinks it is Hot. All I  can think is the weather is beautiful. Air Conditioning in the stateroom helps customers from the far north ,but on the bridge in the shade and trolling along looking for the next Dolphin or Wahoo it is very pleasant. Fishing is good and as usual the big fish you had yesterday that todays customer was dreaming about all nite becomes a bunch of small fish under a mass of weeds caught on spinners. True bloodsport, don't wear your best white shorts. The summer is the best time for families and the kids love the calm seas and catching fish they can eat.

Fishing for Snapper last week in 25 knot winds we hooked this guy twice . The first time he came close but he over powered the spinning rod about 20 feet from the boat . Actually we thought it was a Jewfish at the time. About 20 minutes later he ate a Yellowtail that had just eaten cut bait on a grouper rod and we were able to get him close , actually to the back of the boat and then argue over who cuts the line.

The yellowtail were plentiful and large with the smallest at 2 lbs and largest at 6 lbs. most were in the 4-5 lb. range. I guess the commercial guys just did not come out for so long that the fish were starving.

Harlo, Mike (mouthful), Steve and gang caught these very nice Yellowtail up to six pounds this week . Wind was a bit much and some of the gang vowed to never look at a picture of a boat again , but the fishing was great .

Unknown to many (and I mean many) The Fab Four of Sunday Fishing took to the Gulfstream off Key West Today in search of Dolphin. Mike, Steve, Joe and Jay of near Tampa caught several in the 20# range and Steve brought in a 44.5000000 # Bull Dolphin. Darlene and Janine who made it all possible for the Fab Four to get this far also had nice fish but declined to be photographed for unspecified reasons. Congratulations Fab Four and try to remember me when you get to the red carpet.

What a great weekend of Sailfishing in Key West. The last three days have been why a lot of us fish. Beautiful color changes lots of Sailfish and really nice weather. Friday and Saturday were probably better because the wind and Gulfstream current held the color change outside the reef in about 120', today the change was inside and the fish raised on baits instead of swimming along and having a bait fall down from heaven in there face. I wondered about that with the Saturday crew and they all were sure if a pizza fell out of the sky onto the deck they would eat it, even if there was mono attached. I try to tell these guys to bring lunch.

This might be the hardest thing to do. My charter today was all excited about Sailfishing because of all the publicity for the World Sailfish Championship going on in Key West. So we took off on a half day of Sailfishing around a Billion dollars worth of boats all live baiting. We would have used live bait, but a Billion dollars worth of boats catches a lot of baits in the area and I really did not think we could catch enough quick enough to do the trip. So here we are trolling around all these guys , after about an hour and a half of listening to a lot of fish being caught and released we get a bite, not just a bite, but a double on dead ballyhoo. Well the excitement carried over to the anglers who insantly lost both fish . I switched channels on the radio changed gear and trolled Grouper on the reef.

This is a fish caught on the boat in the last year. A lot of people think it is one thing quite a few think it is another. Any authorities out there?