Key Largo Fathers Day

SFL BassHunter · June 18, 2017, 10:32:06 PM

The day started out with bad weather as soon as I was getting off on Florida City to the point where cars had to slow down to a crawl unable to see from the intense rain.
Got down to my sisters house and the rain didn't stop for another few hours. Once it quit my pops went to his mini van gathered his fishing gear and I went to my car and got mine.
Between my dads 3 rods, mine and my brother in laws 2 rods we had a bunch of family fishing off the dock.
My dad started off with 2 nice sized cudas and I followed it up with another. The young nephews were starting to get excited and wanted a go at it.
My dad and I caught a few mangrove snappers after that. I then started taking turns with my little nephew. I told him you catch a fish then its my turn and when I catch one then it's your turn. Frankly we were getting such constant bites and hookups on these snappers of good size that it was just a minute or two before switching rods.
One of my older nephews grabbed a rod and started catching snapper as well. Then my other older nephew and his girlfriend grabbed rods and fished off the neighbors dock and started catching.
When the bite started dying down we called it quits. But it was a good 2 hours of non stop catching.

Too bad I didn't have a lighter rod. Those snapper would have been a blast and the cuda too.

My 7' Shimano Soujorn H is great for bigger fish but leaves a little to be desired when catching mangrove snapper in the 12-15" category.

Used 20lb big game for main line
3 way swivel
15lb red label for hook leader
20lb big game for weight leader.

Fun day, and I really enjoyed getting my little nephew involved. Watching a 10 year old with a 7 foot rod and a 4000 series reel bringing in several fish was a hoot!
I even taught him how to dock flip em.
Couldn't get him to unhook em though. He wasn't a fan of those snapper chomps and the teeth.

Lipripper · June 19, 2017, 07:59:27 AM

Thanks for the report Rick and looks like y'all had a great family day together and had fun catching fish. It would bee cool to have a place like that where you could go out and catch fish like that off your dock.

Did you keep some of them mangrove snappers for the table.

SFL BassHunter · June 19, 2017, 12:23:23 PM

Quote from: Lipripper on June 19, 2017, 07:59:27 AM
Thanks for the report Rick and looks like y'all had a great family day together and had fun catching fish. It would bee cool to have a place like that where you could go out and catch fish like that off your dock. Did you keep some of them mangrove snappers for the table.

We sure did!

Mike Cork · June 19, 2017, 01:21:53 PM

Sounds like a great time! I always enjoyed mixing it up with some salt! When I was a kid we would go catch a bunch of shrimp faily often too. Only cuda's I've caught were trolling the Indian Ocean when on deployment and they were giants. Teeth on them is amazing!!

SFL BassHunter · June 19, 2017, 02:15:39 PM

Quote from: Mike Cork on June 19, 2017, 01:21:53 PM
Sounds like a great time! I always enjoyed mixing it up with some salt! When I was a kid we would go catch a bunch of shrimp faily often too. Only cuda's I've caught were trolling the Indian Ocean when on deployment and they were giants. Teeth on them is amazing!!

I like saltwater fishing, but with the Florida Bragging rights and now the IBass, taking a day to go fishing for anything other than bass is not easy.

As a kid my parents would take me to Key Biscayne on the bridge with a really long pole net. We would get the drifting shrimp in the net then bring it up, put them in the bucket. Pretty cool, but I rather go fishing than shrimping these days.

Yeah barracudas teeth are no joke! Even the smaller ones have some mean teeth. I treat them like the toothy critters in freshwater like mudfish, gar, and chain pickerels. At a distance with a fish gripper and a pair of pliers to get the hook out lol.

Smallie_Stalker · June 19, 2017, 03:04:35 PM

That was a productive outing Rick. Glad you all caught 'em like that. I literally live a 7 minute walk from the Atlantic ocean and a few supposedly great fishing spots. I have saltwater gear, and yet I almost never go fishing for the salty ones.

j102 · June 19, 2017, 05:33:12 PM

Rick,

Thank you for the report. Glad you guys have fun.
I use one tool similar to this one when dealing with Barracudas or fish I don't intend to keep.
I use circle hooks for Saltwater so it is easy to unhook them in any case.

j102 · June 19, 2017, 05:35:10 PM

Smallie,
What are you waiting for?

You have to hit the ocean and do some Saltwater fishing.

Smallie_Stalker · June 20, 2017, 03:23:35 PM

Quote from: j102 on June 19, 2017, 05:35:10 PM
Smallie,
What are you waiting for?
You have to hit the ocean and do some Saltwater fishing.

I'm not sure. $:-\$ I haven't been fishing at all yet this year. My truck is off the road for now but that doesn't give me any excuse for the saltwater side because I can walk there in minutes.

Lipripper · June 20, 2017, 03:31:50 PM

Quote from: Smallie_Stalker on June 20, 2017, 03:23:35 PM
I'm not sure. $:-\$ I haven't been fishing at all yet this year. My truck is off the road for now but that doesn't give me any excuse for the saltwater side because I can walk there in minutes.

Well what are you waiting for

I know it's not Bass fishing but it is still fishing.