Yuri Trip 2012

The weather was looking promising. That was a huge relief after getting blown off my last 2 trips this year aboard the Yankee. Everybody seemed pumped or at least the emails gave the impression.

The players were as follows......Glenn, retired Air Force who now works for verizon doing techno stuff.......Jerry, also retired Air Force and was Glenns C.O.. Jerry is very good humored and I am kicking myself as I did not get any pics of Jerry (he did very nicely adding to our catch). Nick, who Glenn had met previously aboard the Yankee, works on planes for Fed Ex and was a welcome addition. Nick had several contacts for bait which helped us the first 1/2 of the trip have something to interest the often finicky muttons. I recruited 2 artist pals. Rich (who has been on 3 other overnight trips with me) and Mike who loves to fish but this was new territory for him. This is a little different ball game. Mike was a good guy to fish with........it will be interesting to see if he signs up for next years trip (already booked guys).

I left early and after taking care of a little business found myself at Jacks bait shop in the keys securing ballyhoo. Someone behind me asked what the holdup was and I mumbled I had ordered 8 dozen 'Hoo. Surprise, surprise......it was Glenn and Jerry. What is the chances of meeting up at the same place leaving from opposite sides of the state at no set time?

I made my way to channel 5 to try and lay in a store of grunts for the entire boat. THAT would be an all day job. Glenn felt he had to opt out of bait catching after getting a bit to much sun the day before during a golf outing. I had just gotten started when disaster struck. I had gotten a call from Jerry that Glenns vehicle had been struck in Marathon and was no longer drivable. The good news was everyone was alright. I of course scrapped the bait catching and went to pick those guys up with their gear. Fortunately I had my work van, a Sprinter, and we fit just fine. We proceeded to the Air Force base on key west where Glenn had a "villa" secured. Nice!

After the customary morning breakfast at IHOP we found ourselves at Yuris boat getting squared away. True to form Yuri was late and we pulled out at 2 PM. We ran until we found some birds and dropped back the trolling gear. I had a rigged 'hoo on a lure that had always produced in the past and this time was no different. Ker-Pow.........5 minutes later I had the largest Blackfin I had ever caught and had ever seen in the boat. Even our hired fish cleaner (Stevie Wonder) commented that it was one of the largest specimens he had ever seen. At 26lbs on the boga it was truly a prized fish.

We had a few more strikes while trolling but basically we made the run to the bottom fishing grounds that the Dry Tortugas are so noted for. It was an absolutely gorgeous evening and the fish fired up about an hour before dark. The bite was very steady and we filled one box that evening until it became completely dark and then contrary to their normal nature the bite shut off. Dinner consisted of my first attempt ever at Lasagna. We were all fairly famished so not much survived. It was just OK but still hit the spot......But back to the fishin. I stayed with it all night hoping that when that big moon came up they would fire but not to much happened. One very notable fish came aboard that night however and that was the only Black Grouper of the trip......Good job Mike, nice fish.

We stayed fairly shallow the next day fishing about 90 ft. The water was off color which was good for fishing shallow and we plugged away fairly steady adding to our catch. The evening bite was awesome and we cranked big time and filled another box. Mike and I cleaned up a bunch of yellowtails and Yuri cooked them up. Just as Yuri  was finishing cooking I got rocked by what I suspected was a Black Grouper. I was absolutely famished and decided it was as good a time as any to set my rod down and go and gulp down some dinner. Maybe, just maybe the fish would swim back out if I eased off the pressure. I slapped some fish between a few pieces of bread and ate like a caveman, washing everything down with some gatorade. I was back at it in about 5 minutes and sure enough that rascal had swam back out........big mistake on his part! The big surprise is that it was a nice mutton! The fish bit better that night and we filled another box. Good Job.

Of course we had our usual smattering of junk fish that would add to our demise, our decay as it were. The big nurse sharks can really take it out of you. It is so odd......they all seem to average about 10ft long. While they make no long powerful runs they still kick your tail as you wrestle with them for at least 5 minutes giving it all you have to at least get your line back. I was concerned about our bait situation and had hoped to get some Kingfish in the boat. I ended up putting 3 very nice ones in the boat and they went a long way to helping us feed our targeted bottom fish. I was very lucky on 2 of them as I had no wire........

  As we went quietly about our business a rather humorous development occurred. Yuri was on deck watching and I asked him where we were going to put more fish as we had already filled 2 fish boxes. He looked askance at me and looked perplexed. "You guys haven't filled these boxes" he said. "Um yep we sure have" I replied. As if to prove it to himself he checked and sure enough all was as I had stated. I couldn't help but smirk inside..........Yuri organized our catch and moved our catch to the forward boxes. That afternoon found us on the move toward the deep drop grounds. On the way we ran across some birds and some weeds........the dolphin were thick but we only could manage a few. I would of like to have had concentrated on the area further with trolling lures. I feel confident we could of done some real damage. As it was we got to the deep drop grounds a bit later than I would of preferred. We only managed a few hours and the bite was very mediocre. I think we only put about 4 or 5 nice sized golden tile fish into the boxes. That was a bit disappointing to me as they are extremely tasty.

The deep drop (850ft) fish quit biting at dark so we mad our way to the mutton grounds for one last go around. On the way we indulged ourselves with Glenns wife's legendary (already legendary!!) barbecued pulled pork. We set up later in the evening and the previous evenings awesome early bites failed to materialize. But all was not lost as Glenn caught his largest mutton coming in at 17 lbs. Rich spanked a nice one as well that night.

It is with some disdain that I have no pictures of Jerry. He certainly put the hurtin on the fish. My apologies Jerry. Bear in mind that I stayed up 2 nights and hung in there until about 5 AM the third night. I probably got about 6 hours sleep the whole 3 days..........so I was not as sharp as I should of been. We normally fish about 1/2 day the last day but Glenn wanted to get to the dealership that was going to work on his car. Perfectly understandable.........I think everyone had about enough and as for me my hands were pretty much toast.

A good trip overall. I had made a good call picking up a 250 qt additional fish box to add to Yuris 3 boxes. We filled 3 boxes completely but ice was the major concern as we had about 1/4 ice left in the last box. We continue to get better as we experience more situations that require that one be prepared to take advantage of. This is an addictive game for me. I like it physical and wrestling with these bottom fish certainly provide that! As always this years crew gets first choice if they want to go again next year. Let me or Glenn know and your space is secure. I enjoyed fishing with all of you and hope to do it in the future.
Al