Big Yellowtail and King Cero & Spanish Mackerel - Marathon

[Hunter]

I can not get over our good fortune this winter being in the Keys. Anyone familiar with winter fishing in the Keys knows that it blows like an SOB this time of year. Typically you might get 2-3 days of fishing and then it blows for 3-4 days. We have been able to fish almost every day this winter since mid-January. I changed the oil on my Yamaha engine before I left home figuring there was no way I would log 100 hours, so I left everything needed to do an oil change at home. I just clipped 100 hours and have burned almost 500 gallons of gas since arriving. I had to order an oil change kit I really feel for all of my friends and family back in the Balt-Washington area and hope spring arrives soon. In the mean time I will keep putting up some fishing reports and try not to let the haters (Frosty) get to me. By the way....Skip, your creativity with your well-endowed snowman has had members of my family in stitches.

We have done very well out on the reef but today was one of those exceptional days. We caught Spanish, Cero and King Mackerel, Grouper and , best of all, some "Flag" yellowtail snapper. All of the mackerel were 24-30". There was some decent current so our chum was able to move across the reef and attract fish for us. We were using 12 test line (Vanish), 20# fluorocarbon leaders and specially weighted hooks that are designed to keep your shrimp upright as it floats back in your chum slick. We started out in 105' right at the outer edge of the reef but eventually had to move back into 50' as the Mackerel were constantly cutting off our lines and not giving our bait a chance to get back/down to the other fish.

Today was the first day this winter that we had caught any Kings so I elected to keep a 28" fish for the grill and will marinade it in some Mojo tomorrow night; caught a total of 3 Kings. The tuna from 2 days ago went on the grill tonight and was awesome. Another first was finally getting into some bigger yellowtail snapper (Flags). We had a mess of them over 15" and 4 in the 17-18" range; these are beautiful fish. Could have caught more but had more than enough for a group dinner and felt good to leave them biting.





Below is a very nice Spanish Mackerel that was released....



We are now seeing manatee show up every few days as they are drawn to the fresh water coming off of the boat while we are washing it down after fishing. We never get tired of seeing them...

[Chessie27]

Be careful, eating all that fish might just take your cholesterol down to 0!! Sounds like a great day, congrats!

[mark1234]

Nice yellowtails.
Rig a ballyhoo with a light wire leader for the kings. The bigger 20-30 lb kings are a blast to catch. You can take the kings to Porky's and they will smoke them for you and make them into fish dip. They keep half of the dip for their effort, but very tasty. Any luck locating the stone crabs?

[Hunter]

Originally Posted by mark1234

Any luck locating the stone crabs?

It has been a bad season for stone crabs at least from what I have heard from the neighbors here. We have caught a few in our 'modified' pin fish traps and our neighbor's traps. The neighbor let us work his traps while he was up north for awhile. After fishing each day we would check all of the traps. Good stuff especially when its free

[mark1234]

Fresh fish, stone crabs and sunny weather? Boy are you in for a wake up call if your ever come back. Going to stay another month?

[Skip]

Don , tough to explain but simple to do with Kings / Wahoo.

EDIT: Found video:

http://youtu.be/UG0TNVvoMNA

Steak them about 3/4 to 1 inch thick.

Cut skin straight down / through until you hit backbone. You've cut about 1/4 way through the steak.

Peel steak backwards - it will butterfly out perfectly - sorta inside out. Toss backbone piece away.

Sure a local can show you - it's great way to prepare fish like King Macs.

Not sure if you ever heard legend of Manatees. Supposedly - they are where the tale of mermaids comes from.

Now I drink - sometimes too much - but no way I'd mistake one of those critters for a mermaid. Not even if at sea for a year

They are cool - too friendly for own good sometimes. Far too many get whacked by boats / props.

Keep reports coming - we might get real mess Monday.

[Rivercat09]

Those yellowtails are quite tasty! Kate and I got into a few last year in Nassau, and the locals prepared them for us at a "cook your catch" place.