BACK COUNTRY

Chip Massa and his son-in-law Scott headed to Chokoloskee the other day along with Scot's nephew Anthony and fished with  a fishing guide friend..  Anthony caught this 7 pond Tripletail.  They also caught 4 keeper reds, snook and some big Jewfish.  It was a good day.

REDFISH

Captain Paul Maggi from Key Largo caught this nice 29 inch Redfish on a strip of Ladyfish while fishing back country near Flamingo.  The fish was released unharmed.

Diving

Guy and Sue Leekey's grandson Mason likes to dive with his dad Jerry,  he also likes photograhy like his dad and took this picture of his dad while they were diving the USGCG 'Duane".

27 INCH WALLEYE

Josh, nephew of Sally and Nancy caught this walleye while on a family trip to the MI upper peninsula with the Riggs, Belman and Randall families.

Giany Trevally

This giant trevally weighed about 50 pounds.

I think I had the longest commute this morning in the history of commutting. I woke up at about 3 AM, yesterday to make the truck drive to the airport on Xmas Island. A 3 hr. flight to Hawaii, than a 5 hr. flight to LA, and then another 5 hr. flight to Newark, then a bus ride to NYC to be at work at 8 AM. I covered about 8000 miles in 20 hrs. from waking up!

WOW, what a trip !!!! The fishing was insane with about 20 different species caught. Joey and I tried for tuna and had them busting around us for a couple hrs. one morning, but we just could not get one to take anything. The GT's were our main target and we each landed a bunch of nice ones over 50 lbs.

The weather was great but windy most of the time which made for some rough water and fast drifts while jigging. There was only a few hundred yards from 100 feet deep to 300 feet deep and then it went to 1000 feet on the next drift.

We mainly jigged with 4-7 oz. jigs to the bottom and then speed jig up. It was rare if we went 5 drops without a fish from 5 lbs to 65 lbs.

I think the most exciting part of the trip was on one of my last drops on the last day using a 7 oz. jig. My line was heading down to about 200 feet, when all of a sudden, I thought I lost my jig. I started to see my line heading for the surface when I looked up to the direction of my line, only to see about a 7 foot sailfish jump out of the water with my jig in it's mouth!!!

It dove down as I set the hook and about 15 seconds later the line was heading back to the top. Another huge jump and a few second tail walk about 75 feet away from me. When he landed, I saw the line just snap and it was off. I can't explain how my heart was racing with the sailfish tail walking so close.

I have a bunch of pictures and tried picking out the better ones. I will post more during the week with a few videos as well. The week went fast, but I am not sure how much more my hands and arms could take of that type of fishing. I have more cuts on my hand from fighting and landing and releasing fish then I have ever had.
Dan
I wish I had the time to explain each picture, but ask away and I will try to best answer them.
From the Kayak Fishing Stuff forum

NEW JERSEY PIKE

Pikezilla !!!!

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"After a few crazy work days in a row, I had plans of hitting the salt last night, but when the alarm went off at 2 AM, I shut it off and slept until 7. I hit the Passaic and was not expecting much with the stained water and water levels higher than I prefer.

WOW, was I wrong! I landed at least 6 pike with a few drops at the kayak and a few strikes and misses, with a few bass just to keep things active.

Then I hit an area that usually produces a fish or two. On my first cast I had a solid follow to the kayak with a smaller fish, but he never committed on the spinner bait. After getting pushed around by the current and trying to stay in the zone, I circled around and made a cast and got slammed by a huge pike!

It was a solid hookup and this fish towed me around in circles for what seemed like 10 minutes. At least 5 great runs across the river, and he was heading straight for some logs sticking up in the river. Of course, my line gets tangled around one and I thought for sure the fish would get off or the line would break. I managed to free the line and the fish was off again.

After thinking that he was "almost done", I started to paddle to shore with one hand and try to stay out of the current for a few pictures.

I may have caught one or two longer pike in the river, but this one was by far the heaviest pike that I have landed. I measured the fish against my paddle and it was just at 44 inches. It was a two hand job just to lift it out of the water.

Here are a few pictures before the fish drenched me after the release."

Danny

My friend Danny does a lot of kayak fishing all over the world.  He just retured from a fiahing trip to Christmas Island in the South Pacific.  I will try to get some of those pictures on the blog.

These photos are of a fishing trip that my cousin Ray's friend and fishing buddy Ed Pinera took to the Dry Tortugas last week. They caught a lot of snapper, grouper and amber jack.

MIXED BAG

Boy's Fishing Trip

Don and Jean's son-in-law Scott holds up a dolphin he caught while on a boy's fishing trip in the Keys.

NICE REDFISH

My cousin Kevin's son Kyle fished with his uncle, Captain Ray Leahy yesterday at Matalacha and caught two nice 21 inch keeper reds.  They also caught a variety of other fish.

35 Pound Almaco Jack

Gus also caught this almaco jack

TWO DAY LIMIT

Gerry Leekey and his son Mason show off their two day catch of lobster that they and a group of fighter pilots caught.  All of these lobster were caught on on the ocean side.

Amber Jack

Captain Gus and Captain Carlos caught a lot of fish yesterday including this 45 pound amber jack.

"HI DAVE, THIS IS A 45 POUND GREAT AMBERJACK, WE RELEASED, BECAUSE IT COULD HAVE CIGUATERA POISON.

WOW

Chip Massa and his son Danny took some friends out and caught their limit of lobster on the first day of mini season.

BUGS

Don and Jean from Aberdeen Court did some lobster hunting yesterday with friends Ray, Rick and Diane.  They got 5 very nice bugs.

New Snapper Hole

The first time we experimented with our prototype UFL, ( Underwater Fish Locator ) we found a nice snapper hangout.  Big snapper they were.

Grouper

We went out again today and caught this small grouper on a live pin fish.  We also caught a shark.

GROUPER TIME

My FISH TIME PRO app said the fish will be biting today between noon and 2 pm, so the Keyswoomon and I went back country to see if the bite was on.  It was.  The top and middle picture is a 22 1/4 inch red grouper that I caught on the first cast.  Red grouper have to be 22 inches in Monroe County and 20 inches in the Gulf.  The bottom picture is of a gag grouper that was 23 1/2 inches, a half inch too short.
We left that area and went searching for some new spots and I finally found an island with a moat around it and was able to get the boat right up to it.  I know this island moat will produce in the future.
Sometimes I use very big pin fish for bait if that is what I have, and I am always asked if they are too big to catch a grouper?  Well, take a look at that mouth in the second picture.

Cobia

My cousin Ray from Cape Coral fished for grouper yesterday in the Gulf of Mexico on his friend Mike's new Everglades. Doug caught this 55 pound cobia.  Left to right, Doug, Ray Mike and Ed.

20 POUND DOLPHIN

Captain Gus Ramirez is holding a 20 pound dolphin he caught this morning.

20 Pound Grouper

Captain Gus Ramirez of Bristol Court caught this 22 pound grouper deep dropping in 700 feet of water.

Paulie

My cousin Ray took out his friend 8 year old Paulie who is quite a fisherman.

Sea Trout

My cousin Judy loves to fish for them trout.

Grouper

Guy and Sue Leekey's grandson Mason caught this red grouper but started to filet it before Sue could get a picture of it.

Snappers

Captain Jerry Leekey did some fishing the other day and caught a few nice snappers.

22 POUND DOLPHIN

Captain Gus Ramirez caught this Dolphin a few weeks ago but I was not able to get the pictures on the blog while I was away.

HAWAIIAN BONE FISH

I hired a guide in Hawaii to take me fishing for bone fish. All the bone fishing in Hawaii is done with a fly rod, and since I have never fly fished before the guide brought me a spinning rod.  He could not get any live bait so he stopped in China Town and bought some dead shrimp.  I was surprised to see that he used the same setup that I use for bone fish, a kale hook with a sliding weight. On the first cast I caught this small bone fish but that was it, not another fish all morning. The Hawaiian bone fish are supposed to be bigger then the Keys bone fish.  They average 6 to 7 pounds in the area we were at.
That is Diamond Head in the background.

Grouper

Ray getting ready to net a grouper for his brother, my cousin Tommy.

Backwater Fishing

Captain Bob Randall has a new show called "Fishing The Backwaters With Bob."

Tommy Catches a Grouper

Yesterday my cousin Ray and I fished the back country.  We caught a few gag grouper but they were all an inch or so short.  We saw a lot of feeding redfish but could not get close to them because of the shallow water.
This photo is of Ray's brother Tommy holding a gag.  He is in the witness protection program.

Red Fish

Dan Hosler from Homestead Airforce Base fished with Dave Perkins today and caught this 27 inch red fish.

They caught and released 5 red fish.

Blake's 1st Red Fish

Captain Dave Perkins holds Blake's first red fish.  Dave has been using gulp shrimp to catch these fish.

My cousin Tommy from New Jersey fished with his brother Captain Ray Leahy in the Cape Coral area catching this19 inch redfish.

Manatee

Pat Catches a Grouper

Big Big Fish

Jerry and Bert did some spearfishing yesterday and caught a few hogs and a grouper.

It took Pat and I a week to get out for some grouper because of the weather and doctor's appointments but we finally got out today.  Pat caught the top grouper and I caught the bottom one.  They were both gags and they were both a few inches too short to keep.  I also caught a huge sting ray that took 20 minutes to get to the boat.

Captain Bob Randall caught this 15 pound king salmon in Lake Michigan yesterday.

Grouper Time

Glenn gave me a bunch of pin fish today so my friend Dave and I decided to go and see if the grouper population is doing good in my grouper hole.  Yes they are.  They will be waiting for us on May 1, 2012.
These two gags were 20 and 24 inches.

Captain Dave Perkins decided to go back country yesterday afternoon when the winds died down.  He wrote, "Poling in a foot of water in Flamingo. She spotted, cast, hooked and fought it on her own. 30 inches. Got a red and trout as well for her first back country slam!"