Key west / stock island 7/13 to 8/18
Aug 18, 2024 20:44:45 GMT -5
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klinger, drgibby, and 3 more like this
Post by Laxcoach on Aug 18, 2024 20:44:45 GMT -5
Hey everyone,
Last year I spent half the summer in Lighthouse Point. We were there from mid June to mid July and every day was flat except two days. I posted more than a few times last summer. I knew it was an outlier for weather last year, but it set me still gave me high expectations for this year.
As a piece of info, I was born and raised in Ft. Lauderdale with a dad that fished, lobstered and SCUBAed. I live in Atlanta but crave my time on the ocean every year.
This year we went back to Sunset Marina in Stock Island. We were there in summer 2020 and 2021. I love that part of the Keys, but I’ve become my dad. GPS has destroyed “secret” lobster spots. The info sharing and ease of re-finding spots has ruined the sport.
There is a spot near snipe point that we would hit for lobster mini season and opening day from 1985-1995 where no one else would ever be within site and we could pull out 60 lobsters by 9am if we brought enough people. Those days are long gone.
We did get surprised by the super secret mini season day. I woke up that Sunday morning and saw people cracking lobsters and thought they were poaching. I’m not a narc, but I believe in following the wildlife rules. I was pissed. I started a thing and found out about the extra day. The guys thought it was funny and were good sports. They believe in following the rules too. As a GA resident, the whole day was like watching a party I couldn’t join 😀
Anyway, this summer was windy down there. I think I only got into the Gulf Stream 8-10 times in 5 weeks. Some of those off days, I could have gone with a partner but it was too rough to feel safe alone. Family and friends moved in and out through the weeks, like the KCB guys. A cousin, my best friend from HS, my wife+daughter and my son all cycled through.
In terms of the blue water fishing, which I love, it was frustrating after the tropical storm. My experience down there forever is that you are almost guaranteed good weeds within 5 miles of woods wall. Before the storm that was true. And we were picking up decent sized mahi (27-30”). Once that storm went through, I didn’t see a single weed patch. All of our catches after that were singles going by flotsam or birds. The one exception was I found what I call a “proto weedline” last Wednesday. It had limited scattered weeds and a lot of flotsam just before the wall - maybe 18 miles out. It was a rip of some kind. That held schools even without a lot of actual top structure. We got a 25-30 lb skipjack on that rip to end the day. It made for a delicious pepper crusted seared steak with wasabi cream sauce.
I did get to come home with a bunch of lobster, a decent about of mahi and one big fat skip Jack tuna. About halfway through the stay, I texted my son that I thought we would end up with more lobster than mahi because of the wind and I was right.
All of our lobster spots between Calda and Jewfish got fished out pretty fast. (We did see some finally migrate back in Friday.) But there are some nice deeper holes and ledges outside of Cudjoe channel that treated us really nice.
As a side note, usually when I hunt lobsters I carry my speargun and a weight with a floating marker tied to it. that way, I can mark lobsters if I find some but shoot a hogfish if I see one. I got lazy last Thursday outside of Cudjoe and was just carrying the marker. And wouldn’t you know, two very large Cobia came by to check me out so close I could have touched them! The only solace is that we found a hole with 3 big (1.5” over minimum) lobsters a minute later.
So my son and I made our way back to atlanta yesterday. Love being home, but wish home was near the ocean. I already can’t wait until next year.
Last year I spent half the summer in Lighthouse Point. We were there from mid June to mid July and every day was flat except two days. I posted more than a few times last summer. I knew it was an outlier for weather last year, but it set me still gave me high expectations for this year.
As a piece of info, I was born and raised in Ft. Lauderdale with a dad that fished, lobstered and SCUBAed. I live in Atlanta but crave my time on the ocean every year.
This year we went back to Sunset Marina in Stock Island. We were there in summer 2020 and 2021. I love that part of the Keys, but I’ve become my dad. GPS has destroyed “secret” lobster spots. The info sharing and ease of re-finding spots has ruined the sport.
There is a spot near snipe point that we would hit for lobster mini season and opening day from 1985-1995 where no one else would ever be within site and we could pull out 60 lobsters by 9am if we brought enough people. Those days are long gone.
We did get surprised by the super secret mini season day. I woke up that Sunday morning and saw people cracking lobsters and thought they were poaching. I’m not a narc, but I believe in following the wildlife rules. I was pissed. I started a thing and found out about the extra day. The guys thought it was funny and were good sports. They believe in following the rules too. As a GA resident, the whole day was like watching a party I couldn’t join 😀
Anyway, this summer was windy down there. I think I only got into the Gulf Stream 8-10 times in 5 weeks. Some of those off days, I could have gone with a partner but it was too rough to feel safe alone. Family and friends moved in and out through the weeks, like the KCB guys. A cousin, my best friend from HS, my wife+daughter and my son all cycled through.
In terms of the blue water fishing, which I love, it was frustrating after the tropical storm. My experience down there forever is that you are almost guaranteed good weeds within 5 miles of woods wall. Before the storm that was true. And we were picking up decent sized mahi (27-30”). Once that storm went through, I didn’t see a single weed patch. All of our catches after that were singles going by flotsam or birds. The one exception was I found what I call a “proto weedline” last Wednesday. It had limited scattered weeds and a lot of flotsam just before the wall - maybe 18 miles out. It was a rip of some kind. That held schools even without a lot of actual top structure. We got a 25-30 lb skipjack on that rip to end the day. It made for a delicious pepper crusted seared steak with wasabi cream sauce.
I did get to come home with a bunch of lobster, a decent about of mahi and one big fat skip Jack tuna. About halfway through the stay, I texted my son that I thought we would end up with more lobster than mahi because of the wind and I was right.
All of our lobster spots between Calda and Jewfish got fished out pretty fast. (We did see some finally migrate back in Friday.) But there are some nice deeper holes and ledges outside of Cudjoe channel that treated us really nice.
As a side note, usually when I hunt lobsters I carry my speargun and a weight with a floating marker tied to it. that way, I can mark lobsters if I find some but shoot a hogfish if I see one. I got lazy last Thursday outside of Cudjoe and was just carrying the marker. And wouldn’t you know, two very large Cobia came by to check me out so close I could have touched them! The only solace is that we found a hole with 3 big (1.5” over minimum) lobsters a minute later.
So my son and I made our way back to atlanta yesterday. Love being home, but wish home was near the ocean. I already can’t wait until next year.