At the first spot, we dropped down our squid and I immediately felt some nibbles and hooked up on a fish. I reeled it in and caught a Sand Tilefish. A cool and colorful reef species with an elongated body, it was an interesting catch and a good way to start off the trip. However, after about 15-20 minutes, the bite was dead at the spot and we moved to another spot in search of more fish.
Our second spot held more surprises for us. Not long after dropping our lines to the bottom, Andrew had a fish on. After a decent fight, he reeled up a Remora. This is a fish that I had never caught before. It was pretty cool to see such an interesting fish, sporting a suction cup on its head used to latch on to bigger fish like sharks. As if that catch wasn't surprising enough, soon after Andrew once again hooked on to what he originally thought was bottom. However, as he reeled it in, we saw that it was another Remora. The deckhands figured that it probably took the bait while latched on to a shark, hence the initial pull. At the same time, Wenger reeled in a Grunt. Before letting go of the Remora, one of the deckhands placed the suction-cup head of the fish to the boat, at which point the remora stuck to it. It was a cool thing to see in person after reeling this very cool species in. Soon after I caught one too, to make my 127th fish.
The third spot did not have much excitement. We didn't move too far away, but the only fish we brought in was a Tomtate from Wenger. The whole boat wasn't catching much here, so it wasn't long before the captain decided to pick up and go to our next and final spot. It was an unusually cold day for south Florida, which we considered as a possible reason for the relative slowness of the fishing. The deckhands on the boat said that the fishing is normally more active on warmer days than that, which makes sense. That being said, we were still having a great time fishing together on such beautiful water on a pleasant day. And it wasn't finished...
The next spot was promising because it was much shallower, and because of the absolute clarity of the water, you could see down to the reef and sandy patches on the bottom. We could also see schools of Bermuda Chub and other reef fish swimming by under us. As soon as we were anchored, we dropped our lines, eager to see what we could bring up. The colors of the water and the reef were truly stunning. I started off the catching with a Bluestriped Grunt, followed by a Grunt and then a keeper Yellowtail Snapper from Andrew. A deckhand offered me a jig I could use to bounce along the bottom to see what I could catch, and I gladly accepted it to change it up. After a few casts, I ended up with two White Grunts on the jig. I had my fun and Wenger wanted to try it out, so I gave him the rod with the ducktail jig, which he used to catch a grunt. Then the deckhands asked if we wanted to catch a Nurse Shark on the bottom. I had already caught one before but Wenger hadn't, so we gave him a heavier conventional setup with cut bait to drop to the bottom. Soon enough a big Nurse Shark took the bait and Wenger fought it hard to bring it up to the boat. It was huge! A very memorable fish to highlight a great day on the water. After releasing the shark we kept fishing, and Wenger caught two Chubs on the jig. After that, we kept getting nibbles but nothing that we could hook into. But the fight of the Nurse Shark and the many species we caught today supplied more than enough thrill. The boat made its way back at around 1 o'clock, and the deckhands filleted the Yellowtails that we kept. We drove back, very happy about our trip to the keys for this boat and excited to try it again, perhaps on a bit of a hotter day. However, while the cold made the wind when the boat was moving a little rough to deal with (I brought shorts not expecting it to be so cold) and the potential cause of less fish activity (although we were just fine with the amount we caught; it was a great time with some exciting action), it was pleasant to enjoy on the water especially with clear, blue, sunny skies. Considering how hot and humid it normally is around here, I'll always welcome a cold day like today - and if I wasn't fishing, I'd have wished I was. It was all in all a very fun and fulfilling day with good company and many memories made.
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