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| my favorite captain |
I was excited to fish with some new guys this year. I had met Norm on a professional level and our mutual interest of fishing fostered a friendship. Norm recruited 2 close friends, Robert and Ed, who proved to be most enjoyable gentlemen and a welcome addition. The port side of the boat saw the likes of Richie who has already been on several Yuri trips already. Richie invited another artist, Vic, who was just coming off a long hard show the evening before our departure and was due in Destin Fl the day after the trip (a 14 hr drive and a very unenviable position). And of course yours truly rounded out our group of 6.
Sunday morning the day before our departure found all but Vic at the bridges in the Keys looking for the common Grunt to put to use for mutton bait to help supplement the fresh Goggle Eyes and Speedos we had purchased from a contact (hat tip Dudley). Channel 5 surrendered nothing but small grunts so I decided on a hunch to try Long Key Bridge where I had previous luck. In one small area Ed got on the big grunts and we put a respectable amount of the vocal fish into the bait cooler. Then it was off to the Holiday Inn in Marathon (thanks Norm) to ponder the weather forecast. Yuri called me later that night to give us a heads up on conditions. The plan was to ease out and tuck into the Marquesas (islands) for the evening and then try and work our way westward as the seas hopefully grew less angry. I was still hopeful of our prospects however and pressed Yuri commenting that "we are still going to catch them aren't we"? His reply was about how the full moon can be a tough time to fish but we would see what happens.
DAY 1
Things were looking very dicey indeed with seas to be at 6' to 10' ft and abundant rain called for but seas were to gradually decrease during our 4 day foray into the Dry Tortugas. It was hard to not get down and our faces had that resigned look of men heading to the gallows. We had waited for almost a year for the trip and had spent quite a tidy sum of money in preparation. Our visions of dancing dolphins and flipping flying fish being highlighted against calm seas on a full moon night was being dashed against the rocks in crashing waves of foam. Nothing to do about it but grin and trudge on. The morning found us down at the new berth of Yuris catamaran. Stevie "Wonder" was just finishing the cleaning of the vessel from the last trip and we were soon loaded and ready to go. Stevie would prove beneficial upon our return as we shall see.
The skies looked threatening and the wind had not stopped now for 36 hours. We were in no particular hurry to get out of the harbor and our departure from the dock was not until later in the afternoon. Our assumed prospects of playing cards and sleeping the night away soon changed upon Yuris arrival when the best captain in the Keys calmly stated that our intentions were to fish some rocks not so far offshore and try to get on some muttons. Things were looking up!
Ed had asked me earlier about the seas and my reply was that we were probably going to take a beating getting out but I couldn't have been more wrong. Yuri's boat, the Lauren Jean, met the seas with little more than a shrug and we eased out into 6' seas with comfort I had not expected. An hour or so later we were dropping anchor in the evening to what would be a memorable evening but not all the reasons would be welcome.
We had dropped anchor with a couple of hours before dark and we soon went to work. The seas were bordering on big but still fishable. The muttons were right where Yuri parked the boat and we started working on them. They seemed unusually cooperative and bites were not long in coming. Only one glaring problem interrupted our unexpected prospects and it came with big teeth and long fins.......sharks! We would get the muttons 1/2 way up and suddenly the line would start peeling out and the break off was inevitable. These were very respectable mutton snapper we were hooking in the 10 to 17b class and they were little more than an easy meal for what must surely be some very big sharks. We probably landed only about 50% of what we hooked and as a result went through quite a bit of expensive tackle in the form of high end circle hooks and lead. I did not fish especially well that first night and felt like I didn't have my mojo working. Still plenty of fish were caught and boxed and what was supposed to be an uneventful first night was anything but. The moon came up all big and bright and the fish stopped chewing sometime around midnight and we called it a day being wore out from the one two punch of big Muttons and sharks!
DAY 2
The bite had fired up a bit in the morning but overall things were a bit slow. I made use of the waffle-maker I had brought and after filling up our bellies with some coffee we pulled anchor and were on our way west toward the famous fishing grounds of the Dry Tortugas. We asked Yuri about trolling some Hi-speed offerings and out went the wahoo lures. An hour later the cry of "fish on" rang loud and true but the hooks soon pulled and the fish was just as quickly off again.
We had a steady pick of fish throughout the day but the late afternoon and night bite was truly memorable as a steady stream of nice muttons made there way to the gaff. The bite lasted at least 3 hours probably more. I had finally felt strong again and with the seas subsiding I was able to employ a bit more skill than I had during the rough weather of the previous night. It was a very magical evening to say the least. Again the moon came up and the fish all but shut down and that was it. Time for some shut eye.
DAY 3
I awoke bright and early and even though I felt like I had been the loser in a UFC fight I had to heed the little voice in my head which urged me to get out on deck. I hit the topside as the only one up on deck and started fishing. Nary a nibble was the result and as per my custom I started thinking about what I could do different to get some fish interested in eating. It was then I remembered that I had brought a "Chum King". Basically it was a gadget which allowed its user to drop cut up pieces of bait fish (chum) to the bottom of the ocean floor. A good hard yank caused the contents to spill out. Might as well give it a go I thought and down it went to deploy the various morsels which I hoped the fish would find inviting.
Mere minutes later I was hooked up to the fish I always seek out on these multi day trips, a grouper of the larger variety. I am mostly a somewhat silent fisherman. Not prone to talk much and usually concentrating on what my bait is doing or out manuvering a fish that is on my line. For some reason I can't quite explain I get extraordinarily vocal when fighting a large grouper. Maybe because I know he is almost in the refuge of the rocks and coral and the dance between stopping his forward progress to sanctuary and my line breaking is very thin indeed. Whatever the reason it took every bit of controlled aggressiveness to get the best of my adversary. When it was all said and done a beautiful black grouper of 30lbs lay on the deck.
Yuri whipped us up some breakfast and we were soon lifting anchor and on our way. The day bite was a good one and lots of fire truck red grouper came aboard. Norm did exceptionally well with a jig and trailer combination putting several dandies on the deck.
Richie and Vic were quite steady with both muttons and primarily red groupers coming aboard. Ed tangled with a good Amberjack and I am hoping he heeds my advice about their eating qualities. If cared for properly and cleaned correctly they make good table fare despite their maligned reputation.
Yuri moved the boat whenever the fish looked to slow down and each new spot held new promise. Ed did well on the trip which can be unusual for first timers. Good job Ed!
One of the fish I am most pleased with was my largest mutton of the trip which tipped the scales at 17lbs which came on a whole squid with a sinker tucked up inside its cavity and the fish was bested with 20lb line.
Not long after that Rich hooked a very nice King Mackerel which is always a fun fish to tangle with and provided the boat with exceptional bait (Kingfish being one of my favorite baits).
The day had grown fine indeed and the sunscreen was liberally applied. The seas had quieted down and with it the bite had also tapered off to something resembling ordinary. We had already filled 2 of Yuris 3 large fish boxes however and our trips success was already insured. Yuri cooked us up some fish for our 3rd nights dinner and it was excellent. I would be remiss, however, if I didn't mention our previous dinners. Norm had taken charge of dinners and our first night we had a wonderful lasagna from a restaurant which he knew about........it was fabulous! Our second night we had bar-b-que chicken and it to was very good as well. The night bite seen a few quality fish come aboard but nothing like the previous evenings and when the moon peeked up I decided to call it a night. This was the first trip ever in which I didn't pull an all nighter........
DAY 4
I was up at 3 a.m. and on deck fishing. The place where Yuri had parked the boat was a tricky spot indeed. There seemed to be a fine network of coral all along the bottom and anyplace I threw out a line to the bottom I was hung up in short order. I had chunked up all sorts of bait fish and had hoped to get the fish fired up. But I certainly wasn't going to catch anything if I was constantly re-rigging. What to do? The moon was up all big and bright but the current was running light so I decided on a knocker rig which has the sinker directly on top of the hook. I figured I could slowly drift a bait down and hopefully the fish would see it coming and rise to eat it. Rich had brought some large shiny thread fins which I thought might look good down there in the moonlight so on it went and I sent it slowly on its way into the inky depths to await its fate.
What happened next will be imprinted on my memory banks for the foreseeable future. I had let out quite a bit of line and was figuring I must be near the top of the coral when the hit came. I set up hard and got several turns of my reel before the fish turned and headed down. I could feel the powerful tail thrusts and knew instantly I was hooked up with another large black grouper although this time he had the upper hand with all the abundant coral. It was down and dirty for about 20 seconds with me sounding like I must be getting murdered as I knew I was mere feet or inches away from losing the game I am so passionate about. I finally got the upper hand and had several cranks of the handle on the big fish and started feeling good about my prospects when the line gave way. I let out a cry of agony and anguish which I am sure woke the whole boat and then I placed my head on the gunnel with absolute heartbreak. Eventually Ed, who had come up top and was fishing with me, asked if I was alright. Looking back I had rigged wrong and went with straight 50lb mono and instead should have put on a 5' pice of 60 floro leader. That probably would have given me the upper hand. Alas, live and learn.
We started out rather slow our last morning but true to form Yuri put us on some very nice fish indeed with Vic scoring on another fine black grouper in the 20's and that gave him a twin pair of the highly sought sport and table fish.
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| Vics twin blacks |
Several other quality fish came aboard including a dandy black Norm put on the deck.
I focused on catching Yellowtail snapper since our limit had been reached on Groupers. I was fairly steady on good sized tails along with a pair of trigger fish which are fine fighters on light tackle. We wrapped things up around noon having filled our last fish box almost to its capacity. All in all it was nothing short of an amazing trip and I was glad to be a part of it.
We ended our trip with beautiful weather and a few hours later found ourselves back at the dock unloading our gear and our catch. Stevie Wonder met us at the dock for fish cleaning services and I'm sure he felt the job ahead was going to be somewhat challenging. I decided to offload my fish and take them home and clean them myself.....My tally on Muttons was 26, a personal best...Stevie's parting comment to me caused a wry smile and at the risk of boasting I have to record it for personal memories sake.........."I don't say it very often but I'm glad to see you go".
Thus ends the 2015 Yuri Tortugas trip.
