I get a lot of emails everyday.  Mostly for fishing charter info or to sell me Viagra.  But, it’s the occasional email from a satisfied customer that makes it all worthwhile.  Here’s an example…

Hey, Craig.  Just wanted to send a line and let you
know how much fun and relaxation I have on your trips.
Capt. Steve is awesome and I love watching him “almost”
spray the tourists.  Never gets old for me.  If you
guys do a multi-day/ overnight kinda thing……..i’d
like to be a part of that.  Just wanna put that out
there.  I wanna go.  (To the Tortugas……)  Let me
know.  See you in March.P.S.  Chicks really dig the “Mr. Z” shirt!!  Regards, Dave Anthony 

This is a quote from an email I got the other day.  Well, to answer that question…

We all love the big bargain stores where you can find something for nothing or not much.  It’s all good when you are buying marbles or cans of soup.  But, when you need a professional; a mechanic or plumber for example, you want someone skilled, with the proper experience and tools, and hopefully someone who gives a shit.  You look for an Owner/Operator.  You want service, not product.

I think this is especially true when looking for a charterboat/guide.  Most charterboats are owned and run by the Captain.  Sometimes the mate owns the boat and hires a Captain to drive, this works well as long as they get along.  And, sometimes the owner used to be the Captain, but has lost interest or burned themselves out so that they hire both a Captain and a mate and just stay home that day. 

It is my opinion that when looking for a charterboat, look for an Owner/Operator.  Make sure that the person you are talking to on the phone/dock is the person that will be taking you fishing.  Don’t be afraid to ask, “Will you be taking me fishing?”  If the answer is no, ask why, or ask to talk to that person.  This is where you get the inside info.  Are you talking to the wife of the Captain?  Is it the mate that answered the phone?  The hired Captain?  Do you smell a booking agent on the other end that will ultimately earn 20 to 30% commission for booking this charter?  These are all important questions to ask when choosing a charterboat.  Remember, concierge services in major hotels in Key West will recommend charterboats that pay them.  Not necessarily the best charterboat. 

On the Mr. Z, I own the boat, and I run every charter… pretty much.  I missed out on running three trips last year out of about 230 trips.  The only valid excuses for not running the charters are; traffic court, immigration hearings, and the hospital.  When you call me to book a trip and I promise you the world, I’ll be there.

I just re-read my last post about this past Saturday and the strong East wind.  The very next day, Sunday, a cold front passed through the Florida Keys and the wind clocked around as usual from East, to South, to West.  We fished with the Byrd family from Orlando in the blue water with the wind just as strong only out of the West!  180 degrees different in just 12 hours.  Guess what?  We caught Dolphin, Grouper, and Macheral.  The seas were big and the water was blue, but we made it work.  God bless Richard Bertram!

This is the most frequently asked question and I always answer the same…  “Whenever you can go is the best time, we always catch something,” and usually I follow this reply up with, “It’s always better to be lucky than good.”  These replies may seem trite and a bit unhelpful, but they are exactly true.  Key West is the tropics, you can catch any fish at any time of the year, we fish year around, and you never know what each charter will bring. 

Today was the perfect example.  Yesterday, we had one Hell of a cold front blow through.  A few boats made it out with the wind blowing upwards of 30 miles an hour out of the North.  We put our trip off until today.  Still pretty windy, about 15 miles an hour, but out of the East.  We ran to 300 feet of water only to find a thick lined-up weedline!  Exactly the type you would expect in June, not January.  We trolled it for a few hours and it produced Dolphin to 12 lbs., Barracuda, and a nice Silky Shark.  If you had asked me at the dock this morning I would have said to expect Kingfish, maybe a Wahoo or a Sailfish…  You just never know!  Even the guy doing it for a living for 21 years.  Again, it’s better to be lucky than good!

Key West fishing in the Winter/Spring months. I love this time of year. I know everyone gets excited about the big Sailfish run every spring, but what I love is the variety and unpredictability. This time of year you never know what your gonna catch!  For example. Last week the wind was blowing out of the south about 15 knots. It made for some bumpy seas, but we found weed lines in 500-650 feet of water loaded with Mahi-Mahi or as we Key Westers call ‘em, Dolphin. And not just chicken size, these were 10 to 15 pounders and some “slammer” 20-40 pounders too. Throw in a Wahoo or two and you have world class eats. This pattern continued for almost a week and just as we were thinking it was June forever, a cold front came down the state, the wind went north, and we were suddenly hip-deep in Sailfish! Kingfish like a colder wind also and the reef became active again producing big Groupers and Mutton Snappers. A 180 degree change in just one day. Add in wreck fishing, deep dropping, back country Shark and Tarpon, not to mention the flats, and you’ve got the best argument for guaranteed catching right here in the only Caribbean island you can drive to!

This is a repeat, but seemed especially appropriate this past weekend…

Green water got you down? This time of year in Key West it’s not uncommon to leave the dock with high hopes of blue water Sailfish, Dolphin, and Wahoo only to run to 500 feet of water and still find green, green, green. Don’t worry; there are other fish to fry! If all you are looking for is good action and a good meal, go no further than the shallow reefs off Key West. Cero Mackerel are the mainstay of the half-day charter boats in the winter months. No, they aren’t as big as the mighty Kingfish, but are usually more plentiful and closer in the shallow water. Scale down your tackle to 8-12 pound spin or a light 20-pound conventional reel. Clip on a spoon (drone) and drop it back about 100 feet behind the boat. Troll the same speed you would for schoolie Dolphin, a brisk walking pace, to give the spoon a little “action.” Don’t worry about adding wire to the spoon, Mackerel are usually short strikers and seldom cut off the spoon from the mono line. It does happen, so have several spoons in your tackle box, but the increased strikes will make up for the occasional lost rig. Don’t run the spoon in the rigger, just straight out the back with no drop back. If you have kids on board, have them hold the rod. Great fun for them to be there for the strike. Mackerel do need to be 12 inches long, but why keep one that small anyway? The spoon makes for an easy “shake off” release. Ice the fish as soon as you land it, this will make the meat firmer and easier to fillet at the dock. Many anglers will steak a Cero Mackerel and leave the backbone in while grilling the fish. Only a minute or two will sufficiently cook this delicate fish. Think of it as a snapper fillet. It can be filleted and sautéed, don’t overdo the seasoning… it’s fresh as it gets!   

The past few days have been very slow in the blue water.  Blame it on westerly current, calm winds, green/blue water, full moon, incoming tide, El nino, global warming, whatever.  The offshore fish just ain’t biting!  Well, a few Wahoo and Dolphin, but not like usual.  We have spent alot of time on the reef and have done well on Groupers, Snappers, Macheral, and Barracudas.  Most of our anglers are savvy and have fished many locations.  We often hear about Cabo, Costa Rica, Mexico, Cuba and all the billfish and grand Dorados you could imagine.  But, they all also have a few stories of going to the same locations and getting “Skunked.”  For those of you not familiar with the term, “Skunked,” it means you didn’t catch squat.  Not a single fish.  Most of the exotic locations are on deep water drop offs that don’t offer any alternatives to blue water fishing.  We are lucky here in the Florida Keys to have fabulous blue water AND hundreds of miles of reefline, numerous deep and shallow wrecks, inshore fishing, backcountry fishing as well as miles of flats to fish.  We just plain don’t get “Skunked.”  If you can’t get a guide to guarantee to catch something, move on…

The past couple of days have been a bit “bumpy.”  That’s the word we use when it’s windy and the seas are rough.  “Bumpy” or “Sporty” are great adjectives when you don’t want to scare the hell out of the charter even before you leave the dock!  We never try to talk anyone into going out in crappy conditions, but you do want to go fishing, and you never know what kind of tolerance the people may have.  The nice family of four from Kentucky may spend the trip hanging over the side blowing chunks where the New Jersey drinking team may be just fine…  Sometimes it’s the other way around! 

 So, the past few days the winds have been out of the Northeast about 25 miles an hour.  Definitely bumpy.  The blue water has been pushed out to about 200 feet deep and the grass has been a problem.  But, the Kings (King Macheral) have been biting and reef action is good.  A few blue water fish have been caught by some of the more patient boats and it is a perfect example of what a friend of mine used to call, “turning chicken shit into chicken salad.”  In other words, don’t cancel your trip at the dock just because conditions are not ideal, give it a try, this might be the only day your charter can go and they have been looking forward to it.  You can always turn around if you get to the harbor and it looks too bad.  Think/ask about options.  Is there a lee side to the wind?  A calm channel to shark fish in?  Troll the rock piles in the Gulf?  Far too many charterboats miss out on good fishing because the conditions are less than ideal.  Anyone can catch a fish in perfect conditions, catching fish in tough water is what being a guide is all about…

OK, today I replaced two hydraulic hoses on the starboard engine.  One of them had a tiny pin hole in it that was leaking oil down the side of the engine.  But, since they are both old, I decided to replace them both.  They cost about $130 apiece, are full of hot dirty oil, are very hard to bend and always make a shit mess no matter how many oil sorbs and rags you put down.  I also sold about 26 Spanish Macheral.  That should make me about $12, but I don’t want them to go to waste.  I did have two phone calls (one I booked a half day) and had one walk up charter that was referred by one of the local catamaran captains.  They told them the “Mr. Z” was the boat to fish with…  THAT made my whole freakin’ day!

My New Year’s resolution was to write this blog each day to keep everyone updated on the fishing/life in Key West…  as I see it anyway.  Well, I’m a week late.  But, I will do my best to stick with it and keep my blog up to date.  Funny, a few weeks ago I didn’t even know what the hell a blog was and now I am writing one!

The Wahoos showed up these past couple of weeks as strong as ever.  We had a couple of days with 4 and 5 caught on the Mr. Z, but a couple of the charterboats hit double digits.  Wahoos have probably the lowest hookup to catch ratio of any species.  It seems that they will do anything to get away.  They hit at 100 miles an hour, rip off line at lightning speed (and will destroy a cheap reel) then turn and run back at the boat shaking their heads trying to throw the hook.  Without a good angler winding furiously to keep the line tight, they will shake the hook and be gone.  Of course, there is always a chance at line/wire failure too since they spin and wrap themselves up in such a way to kink or bite thru the wire or tailcut the line.  We run all wire and troll at about 7 to 9 knots for Wahoos.  One little secret is to keep the boat in gear and actually speed up when you get a hit.  It gives you a better shot at multiple hookups and helps keep the first fish on.