Another group from Minnesota = another limit of tasty snappers

Captain’s Blog – February 9, 2010 – Marathon Florida Keys – Another group of Minnesotans – plus a Wisconsoner – escaped the cold up north with a trip to the Keys and included a day of fishing with me.

One of the great aspects – and there are many – of fishing in the Middle Florida Keys is we have venues to suit just about any and all weather conditions.  On this day we had strong southerly winds and six-foot seas Oceanside, so I took the group to the calm bay side. 

We started around the banks and fished until the tide quit.  We caught large, 16-18 inch, mangrove snapper and threw back many in the 12-14 inch class.  When we lost the tide, I moved further offshore – about seven miles – to get in on the red-hot Spanish mackerel action, and we were not disappointed.  We caught a bunch and kept six.  My anglers also had fun with the bluefish, which always give a good fight, and I kept a few to use as shark bait.  

Once they had their fill of mackerel fishing and I knew the tide would be moving again, we ran back to the starting spot and caught a couple more keeper snapper before calling it a day.  They had plenty of fish to feed their group of eight at Castaway that night.  

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