Marathon and Islamorada in the Florida Keys make the claim they are the apex of sportfishing on earth. After ten years of annual 1-2 week trips there, ....... well I think I have to agree. This is a place so loaded with fish, and great condidtions that it's amazing if you don't catch trememdous fish there.

Here is a little photo post with just some of the fish we caught in a week. I spent quite a lot of time diving at the reefs for. However I spent many full days fishing and several partial days fishing when the tides were right.

I primarily target inshore sharks and use my own light to medium weight spinning gear. Each one hooked requires a fight that is in the area of an hour or more to get to the boat. From there we unhook them and release them. I do keep one or two in the 30-40" range as they are so good to eat. One day I caught 9 sharks and a sawfish, I also lost three when the hooks straightened out. I fixed that the next time out with a bit bigger hooks and never lost another one. One 170lb (est) Blacktip (7ft)came out of the water 8 times, once was within 10 feet of the boat!


I also caught Cobia, grouper, tarpon(80 and one just about 100lbs) Jacks, Mackeral, bull sharks, Lemon sharks, Dusky sharks, Hammerhead sharks, Blacktip shark and spinner sharks ( the ultimate jumping sportfish) Probably more species but that is what comes to mind.

Cobia and Jack cravale are argueably the most powerful fish for their size I have ever had on my line. A 20lb Cobia will rip drag endlessly and dive for many minutes even with medium weigh gear. With my light 12lb spinning rod they are a battle for 15-25 minutes of constant drag screaming runs each time they get within 20 feet of the boat they rip loose 40 yards of drag.










Gotta love Circle hooks, every single fish hooked was exactly the same, it's like driving an Automatic Transmission. Just let him take the bait and hang on, perfect hookups every time, and never in the mouth were they can bite the leader while fighting!


[img]http://www.jesseshunting.com/photopost/data/500/medium/1jessenurse07.jpg[/img]

Cool pics, Jim....looks like a great time.

I'm dying to find a place to catch salmon sharks up off the coast of AK. I know your not there right now, but we gotta sort this out.

My situation here is all good when I'm away now with the "grandparents" here looking over the place too, makes time away relaxing knowing everything is being watched over for me!

...That sawfish is a really rare trophy catch! Great photos of a great fishing area!

Glad all is well on the homefront...even the water situation is fixed?

Haven't found any salmon sharks to speak of locally, but Bill and I used to have them dialed in out of Seward. Doubles, triples...calling all our friends who wanted one and telling 'em to come on down...they're easy when you can find them.

Your pics remind me I need a beach break. Plenty of sun here, but not the right atmosphere...

Your folks water is perfect, their new barn is going up as I type this

Yeah, they've been pretty excited. Good to see...

Very cool pics indeed....looks like the little guy had a blast!

Dang!!!!!

You might want to come down to the Redneck Riviera one spring for the cobia (ling) migration. Sight casting to migrating fish just off the beach from a sportfishing boat's tower.

Very cool fun!

mid march thru mid may.....prime time 2nd & 3rd week of April.

Florida Big Fish:

I'd like to hear more about your area. y family just purchased a home on St Georges Island and I would ove to find the key times to come down and fish off shore for cobia, off teh beach for pompano, specks, reds, in the bay and any other key times of the year.

Out of Valdez or Cordova they can hook you up on salmon sharks.

Yea: We were down there in October and caught a few specks in the bay just wading. No Reds, but will keep trying. Also caught a few croakers(?), pin fish, way too many catfish and some other types of fish primarily using shrimp. Also caught a few whiting in teh surf. I was hoping for more surf action, but may have been there the wrong time of year. My parents are there for the winter, but the house will be vacant all summer. My father is starting to be invited off shore and loving it. I am pushing for him to get an in-shore/bay boat so that we can better fish the area. It is an absolutely great place to fish and vacation, but I will not tell anyone.

How have you liked the new artifical shrimplike Gulp baits?

Too expensive for salt water fish. Salt water fish have way too manny teeth which rip them to bits and after 2 mackeral they are done. Real shrimp are less expensive and work 100%

Love the Gulp but NOT for mackerl fishing....lol

Really, they catch specks & reds better than live bait. A favorite rig is one of the Redfish Spinner Baits (single spinner with leadhead jig) with a glup 4" pogy or swimming mullet. Keep the bait off the bottom and you won't catch as many trash fish.

My secret weapon around oyster bars: Tennessee Shad SwimingImage crank bait. Reds EAT EM.

Good Luck.

Don't be tellin all the secrets!!!!!


George

Thanks Jim! Great pics! I've only seen one live sawfish in my life. Is the boy holding a small nurse? I like that pic best of all.

Yep, it's a little nurse shark, he caught several bigger, maybe close to 4 foot. I did not take those out of the water. This one or maybe one of the other small ones he carried to the room to show his mom. She was......... as you might guess thrilled with him packing around a live "shark" to show her.

Here is another photo, maybe the same shark? Maybe a different one. On 8lb line with a 6 ft ultra light and a deliberately light drag he had a ball catching these from that pier at night.

That's awesome Jim! We don't catch nurse's until we go way offshoe, then not often. I've got some pic's of my lttle boy (now a teen mutant) sitting on some bulls at the beach, so I know just what ya'meen about Mom. God, I love kids with fish!!!

Awesome pics dude!

I agree with BD, if your looking for big salmon sharks Seward is hard to beat. I'm going to do one of those charters myself one day and see what the hub bub is all about. Excellent pics JJ!!

AkMtnHunter, I'll split the charter with you. Figure out the details and I'll come up and fish with you.

Jim, your on buddy, I know the charter runs around $300-$400 per person out of Seward, i'll see what I can do about booking a charter and will get back with you.

Islaoramada was a winter haven for us for many years. We would spend a week there in one of the resorts. At that time the Coral Grill was open with an all you could eat buffet.

The weather was great there most of the time but once in a while a cold front would extend all the way down the East Coast.

A sailing buddy and his wife sailed their sister ship to ours all the way down to Marathon and later Key West. They lived on the boat in the winter.

We like the Keys a lot.

Details on this photo. Where, how, and what direction faced, north or south. Nice one!

As I recall all the old bridges are on the West side of the new highway. That makes this a northern View, considering the width of the islands in the photo, I would guess this is just south of Deer Key, and north of Key west? Kinda a guess from the contour of the photo though.

Now that looks like WAY too much fun. I would LOVE to do that someday!

JJHack

Who did you fish with? I have agreed to take my wife to the Keys in May, since I have used my last 15 vacations for hunting trips to Africa, Alaska, BC, etc. I did inform her that I would like to catch a tarpon or two and maybe try the flats for some bonefish.

Great pics, but I never have figured out that whole Florida-spinning reel thing.

I'm leading a Boy Scout Crew down to Islamorada & Summerland Key in June of 2008. We're supposed to sail, snorkel, kayak, and fish offshore and backcountry.
It's still three months away and I can't wait, so I'm reading everything I can find.
I understand we should have great dolphin fishing at that time of year. I've done that before off Palm Beach and it was a HOOT! We could do that all week as far as I'm concerned. I just hope the scouts have as much fun as the leaders...

It's one of the most spendy locations I know of for a trip like this, have you guys actually researched the expenses involved with this regarding fishing and other recreation? Things must have changed a whole lot since I was in the scouts a very long time ago. No way we would have been taken on a trip of this magnitude and expense!

Um, yes.
Under $1,300 per person door to door, including air, food, lodging, fishing, etc. All thanks to the fact that the Boy Scouts of America have thier own facilities in the keys just for "High Adventure" trips like ours.
Check it out: www.bsaseabase.org

That's gotta be the single best scouting location in North America!

We've come a long way from sitting in someone's basement working on the Basketry Merit Badge, haven't we.

I'll ask for advice here right before we leave, and report on it when we get home.