Florida Keys Channel 5

[SFL BassHunter]

Went down to the Florida Keys this morning. Left the house at 5:15 and drove down to Channel 5 just before Fiesta Key.
I took 2 rods and reels with me, and gave the new gear a shot from the start. I really liked the baitcaster for the bridge, it was not in the way like a spinning reel is. I was also very impressed with the Ugly Stick Big Water as far as sensitivity. I thought for sure I was going to have a harder time feeling smaller bites but it transmitted up well. Caught several small mangrove snappers and they seemed to be getting bigger. Soon I caught 2 keepers in the 11 1/2- 12 inchs area. A few 14" mutton snappers which I ended up tossing back because the legal size 18"
The muttons pulled harder but none of these fish were any match for the ugly stick. Caught another 12ish inch mangrove and as I was about to pull it out of the water a monster cuda came out full speed, lunged at my snapper. I reacted and pulled the snapper up just as it struck. The snapper was instantly slain with huge gashes in it's body.
The bite died after that for several hours. The tide also seems to have changed. Current picked up big time and nothing was going on. When the current started the other way we started catching a small fish again. Baby yellow tail, grunts, mangrove snappers. But no keepers. Called it at 4:00pm.
Exhausted from the sun beating us down and nothing to show for it for hours.

Had I hooked that barracuda, it would have been a good test of the rod, but chances are the size hook I was using that thing would have just slicked through my line before even getting a fight.

A few guys not far from us were catching some nice size jack early on, those would have been a blast!

We also caught a bunch of these guys on shrimp. They loved the shrimp!

[Pferox]

Sounds like a good day, wish it was more productive for you.  Cudas are a trip, although I've only had one on the end of the line once and it didn't last long.

It also sounds like your new rig is right for the job, congratulations. 

[SFL BassHunter]

Yeah, I've caught a few smaller barracudas, I'm talking 15-20". Not a monster like this one that had to be at least 4 foot long.

I do like my other rig more for snapper and smaller fish of course. But like I said you never know what you might hook into. Saw a few people with those pier nets y'all where talking about. I'll look into getting one before I go out there again.

[Capt. BassinLou]

Thanks for the Saltwater report Rick. Benefits of living in South FL, change of fishing venue is available at any time.

[the_huber_show]

That first fish is beautiful!  Saltwaters have some really neat fish that's forsure

[Lipripper]

Thanks for the report Rick and that big cuda would of been a good fight for sure. I've watch some fishing shows where they were fishing for them thing out in the gluf.