Jack Hexter
03-02-2009, 07:14 PM
Last Tuesday morning I left the house at 7:30 AM with the truck loaded down for a long awaited Tortuga's trip. The last one I was scheduled to go on was blown out and canceled after I had driven 2 hours. So southbound I went, stopping in Key Largo and Tavernier to pick up some fresh ballyhoo and goggle eyes. Closer to Key West, around Big Pine Key, I pulled up to the base of the "Old Wooden Bridge" (which isn't wooden any more:o ) As I walked up the bridge, I saw a friend from previous trips on the Yankee Capts, catching pinfish. I joined him and quickly put a couple dozen on ice.
We stopped just short of Stock Island for dinner at Babaloo's, (best pizza south of Miami) and then proceeded to the boat. I got a real pleasant surprise this trip when the mates met us in the parking lot and carried my 120 qt cooler, loaded with ice and bait, to the upper deck (Thanks John and Sean). It's usually a tough lug to get it up there.
I proceeded to make up my bunk and rig my quiver of rods and reaquaint myself with Capt's Greg and Matt, the mates Sean, John and Nicole, and the cook, Reinada as the boat pulled away a half hour ahead of schedule at
9:30 PM for the 5-6 hour cruise to the fishing grounds. I prepped some baits and watched as one of my fellow fishermen used a shrimp net to catch over 100 ballyhoo. I could not see them in the water, but he had no problem seeing them. I then hit the rack for some nap time until the anchor chain leaving the bow awoke me, ringing the start of the fishing portion of the trip.
I should point out that this boat usually carries 40-50 people on a trip, but this was booked as a limited load with a maximum of 26 passengers. There was only 17 people booked but three of these bookings canceled that morning and the weather forecast (15-20 mph the entire trip) precluded any walk-on's. We left the dock with 13 fishermen and had virtual run of the boat.:D
Trying to keep a bait on the bottom in 6' seas is not the easiest thing to do and fishing was not exactly hot. This, coupled with some unknown fault in my technique kept me from hooking a lot of the bites I was having. I didn't land a fish until mid day on Wednesday.:confused: The bite was slow for everyone, but eventually the cooler started to fill with muttons, mango's, margates, red grouper and yellowtail with a kingfish or three for those who were fishing for them. In the middle of the trip, nurse sharks became abundant and fighting one of these useless creatures wasted just about everyones time.
Reinada's excellent dinners of chicken with pasta and broccoli, and grilled pork chops with black beans and rice, as well as her excellent breakfast sandwiches kept us all happy and filled. She even heated my left over pizza for lunch one day:D
By Friday morning at 7:30 when Capt Greg announced that we were heading home, I had 5 muttons (4 nice ones plus a muffin), 6 mangos, 2 red grouper, 6 yellowtails, 1 margate 1 lane snapper and a kingfish for the smoker in the box. I also had a mutton eaten by an amberjack or jewfish, just under the surface. I actually saw the fish but could not identify it. The snapper was too chewed up to keep even if it was a little short and it was put back as crab food.:(
We stopped just short of Stock Island for dinner at Babaloo's, (best pizza south of Miami) and then proceeded to the boat. I got a real pleasant surprise this trip when the mates met us in the parking lot and carried my 120 qt cooler, loaded with ice and bait, to the upper deck (Thanks John and Sean). It's usually a tough lug to get it up there.
I proceeded to make up my bunk and rig my quiver of rods and reaquaint myself with Capt's Greg and Matt, the mates Sean, John and Nicole, and the cook, Reinada as the boat pulled away a half hour ahead of schedule at
9:30 PM for the 5-6 hour cruise to the fishing grounds. I prepped some baits and watched as one of my fellow fishermen used a shrimp net to catch over 100 ballyhoo. I could not see them in the water, but he had no problem seeing them. I then hit the rack for some nap time until the anchor chain leaving the bow awoke me, ringing the start of the fishing portion of the trip.
I should point out that this boat usually carries 40-50 people on a trip, but this was booked as a limited load with a maximum of 26 passengers. There was only 17 people booked but three of these bookings canceled that morning and the weather forecast (15-20 mph the entire trip) precluded any walk-on's. We left the dock with 13 fishermen and had virtual run of the boat.:D
Trying to keep a bait on the bottom in 6' seas is not the easiest thing to do and fishing was not exactly hot. This, coupled with some unknown fault in my technique kept me from hooking a lot of the bites I was having. I didn't land a fish until mid day on Wednesday.:confused: The bite was slow for everyone, but eventually the cooler started to fill with muttons, mango's, margates, red grouper and yellowtail with a kingfish or three for those who were fishing for them. In the middle of the trip, nurse sharks became abundant and fighting one of these useless creatures wasted just about everyones time.
Reinada's excellent dinners of chicken with pasta and broccoli, and grilled pork chops with black beans and rice, as well as her excellent breakfast sandwiches kept us all happy and filled. She even heated my left over pizza for lunch one day:D
By Friday morning at 7:30 when Capt Greg announced that we were heading home, I had 5 muttons (4 nice ones plus a muffin), 6 mangos, 2 red grouper, 6 yellowtails, 1 margate 1 lane snapper and a kingfish for the smoker in the box. I also had a mutton eaten by an amberjack or jewfish, just under the surface. I actually saw the fish but could not identify it. The snapper was too chewed up to keep even if it was a little short and it was put back as crab food.:(