Back from the Keys.

[Got Stripers]

As the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. Hated leaving the warmth and good fishing in the Keys to come back to the frozen north, but it was a very enjoyable 4 days. It was just great spending two days fishing with my brother, who I only get to see every couple years, since he lives out in Maui. Nice visting with the parents and seeing my brothers 13 year old daughter for the first time in about 6 years.

Set up two half day charters with the same guide I used in February. Mark Sosin uses him a lot and has done numerous shows with him, his name is Jack Callion and he's not only a great guide, but one hell of a nice guy to boot. Weather wasn't exactly great on Saturday, blowing about 22mph, but he took us out into Florida bay and we had fun catching snapper, jacks, some lady fish and had a few small black tip sharks to make it interesting. Very interesting location, because we were fishing 20-25 foot deep holes that were maybe 25 feet across and maybe 75 feet long, which were made by bombing runs years ago. Here we are sitting in the middle of a 5 mile wide flat with 1-2 feet of water on it and fishing a series of 3 or 4 deep holes, some with planted old aluminum boats for structure. We filled our livewell with snapper for a fish fry that evening and man was that good eating.

The the combination of tide and wind had just about emptied the water off this flat and man I would never believe you could run a 150 hp, even if it is mounted on a flats boat, over a flat in water, which was by then only some 8 inches deep. He positioned the stern at the end of the hole and hammered the trottle to get up on plane and trim up before reaching the other end of the hole and then we were blasting over that flat about 65 mph. The crap that prop was throwing up in the air was just unreal.

The second day was by far the most fun of all 4 charters this year. He took us some 15 miles out into Florida bay and anchored us up and set a chum bag to work. Then we sat there and caught one fish on every cast for 4 hours, just unbelievable fishing. The best part, was 75% of the fish were jumbo spanish mackerals in the 4-6 lb range and man if you haven't fished for them on light tackle, I would highly recommend it. [img="http://www.rgsiroisco.com/bob15.jpg"]We were using 6-1/2 and 7 foot spinning rods with 8 lb mono and thin diameter wire leaders. On the business end was a 3/8 oz jig head with a piece of live shrimp, which we would cast about 50 feet below the boat and sharply jig off the bottom as we worked it back to the boat. The hits were hard and the first run was a screamer, with lots of hard runs to follow. We caught snapper, jacks, houndfish, lady fish, sharks, perch and probably several other species I can't remember. Running in we ran through a huge school of dolphins having some fun, along with a couple big turtles.

The fishing was just great and to be able to share it for two days with my brother, was just icing on the cake. Now it's back to reality and cold weather, but it looks like we had a big time thaw over the weekend up here. The ice is gone so maybe I can wet a line over the weekend.

Hope all is well with everyone, I've tried to catch up, but you know how it is after a few days. Tight lines.