Beautiful day out there but the calmness slowed the bite down. Manged a couple of Kingfish.

wanted to try the camera in my new smartphone, still can't figure out why I bought one. Having fits trying to use the google maps voice.

Nice hefty king Sir Snook.

I am going out on the Helen S this weekend. Hopefully I will slay a king or two.

I like eating kingfish deep fried. Do you eat them?

Hope that the water is rough, better for the king bite, I'll be going out again this morning. If you don't mind I'll give you a few tips.

Better off using a kin rigs ( 3 trailer hooks chained together, supplied on the boat)circle hooks are not the best, more cutoffs. I often use a spinning outfit putting my sardine on a bucktail, weight can vary. Watch the Captain on the back of the boat, he will always move the bait by gentle jigging or slow reeling in and letting line out, kings are more apt hit on the movement of the bait. DO NOT USE A WIRE LEADER.......they seldom hit.

I may take a dolphin home once in a while, I don't too much fish. My dad was in the fish biz so I had my fill of eating them and cleaning them, guys I fish with take almost everything home. BTW if you catch a triggerfish, people seem to rave on how good they taste.

Hope that the water is rough, better for the king bite, I'll be going out again this morning. If you don't mind I'll give you a few tips.

Better off using a kin rigs ( 3 trailer hooks chained together, supplied on the boat)circle hooks are not the best, more cutoffs. I often use a spinning outfit putting my sardine on a bucktail, weight can vary. Watch the Captain on the back of the boat, he will always move the bait by gentle jigging or slow reeling in and letting line out, kings are more apt hit on the movement of the bait. DO NOT USE A WIRE LEADER.......they seldom hit.

I may take a dolphin home once in a while, I don't too much fish. My dad was in the fish biz so I had my fill of eating them and cleaning them, guys I fish with take almost everything home. BTW if you catch a triggerfish, people seem to rave on how good they taste.

Thanks for the tips. I will give them a try.

Those trigger fish are nasty looking. I will fry one up if I can catch one. Ever caught those strawberry snappers? I think they are called greysbeys(sp). They are usually small but the have the taste and texture of grouper. Mild flavor.

Better hope the weather gets rough, too calm today only 2' waves and no kings boated, 1 cutoff. As I mentioned the hit came from " moving the bait". WE had several commercial guys around us today, they caught nothing, but each and every one hand jigs the line kind of fast.

Heading out in the morning with my father and two of my uncles. Hoping to find some fish while trolling offshore. Would love to get into a couple of kings, but the weather doesn't look too great for that. Going to be fairly calm. Might kill the sailfish bite also. I sure wouldn't mind finding a school of dolphin though. Haven't brought fresh fish home for a while. Would love for a nice sized billfish to show up in the spread. That'd make for a nice day. If the offshore bite is dead, I plan on dropping the hook near the drop offs on a few of the reefs and setting out a big chumslick. Going to get out early enough to toss the cast net around for a few to try and get some live bait in the well also. Heres to hoping for a productive day!

Heading out in the morning with my father and two of my uncles. Hoping to find some fish while trolling offshore. Would love to get into a couple of kings, but the weather doesn't look too great for that. Going to be fairly calm. Might kill the sailfish bite also. I sure wouldn't mind finding a school of dolphin though. Haven't brought fresh fish home for a while. Would love for a nice sized billfish to show up in the spread. That'd make for a nice day. If the offshore bite is dead, I plan on dropping the hook near the drop offs on a few of the reefs and setting out a big chumslick. Going to get out early enough to toss the cast net around for a few to try and get some live bait in the well also. Heres to hoping for a productive day!

Good luck on you trip Eric.

What is the deal with all this calm weather we have been having?

Hope that the water is rough, better for the king bite, I'll be going out again this morning. If you don't mind I'll give you a few tips.

Better off using a kin rigs ( 3 trailer hooks chained together, supplied on the boat)circle hooks are not the best, more cutoffs. I often use a spinning outfit putting my sardine on a bucktail, weight can vary. Watch the Captain on the back of the boat, he will always move the bait by gentle jigging or slow reeling in and letting line out, kings are more apt hit on the movement of the bait. DO NOT USE A WIRE LEADER.......they seldom hit.

I may take a dolphin home once in a while, I don't too much fish. My dad was in the fish biz so I had my fill of eating them and cleaning them, guys I fish with take almost everything home. BTW if you catch a triggerfish, people seem to rave on how good they taste.

What kind or color buck tail? I have limited saltwater tackle. Just hooks, leaders and sinkers.

I will have to buy some stuff.

Good luck on you trip Eric.

What is the deal with all this calm weather we have been having?

Thanks.

Couldn't tell you. It's nasty looking outside right now, but no wind at all. NOAA is calling for 8 to 11 knot winds and 2 foot seas. Light chop in the intracoastal. If anything, it'll be an enjoyable day off. I had to kill myself to figure out why my fuel primer pump didn't want to work earlier today. Of course it was the simplest thing in the boat. The switch went bad. I figured that out by jumping the two wires on the back of it together. VOILA pump started working without a problem. I hate when that happens.

Thanks.

Couldn't tell you. It's nasty looking outside right now, but no wind at all. NOAA is calling for 8 to 11 knot winds and 2 foot seas. Light chop in the intracoastal. If anything, it'll be an enjoyable day off. I had to kill myself to figure out why my fuel primer pump didn't want to work earlier today. Of course it was the simplest thing in the boat. The switch went bad. I figured that out by jumping the two wires on the back of it together. VOILA pump started working without a problem. I hate when that happens.

Be safe and good luck. Hopefully the seas will be 2-4 and you will be in business.

Nice King Snook. The only ones I ever caught were off of the Outer Banks. They were around 12" to 14" long. I'm not sure of their patterns, maybe it's because they are hatched in the Mid Atlantic and grow as they travel down the coast ?

What kind or color buck tail? I have limited saltwater tackle. Just hooks, leaders and sinkers.

I will have to buy some stuff.

The Helen K will supply all the basic terminal tackle, conventional rods & reels too. I like white with red bucktails but I don't think color is that critical, it's bait scent more than anything.

I've seen this happen and you really don't want to do this, LEAVE YOUR BASS ROD AND REEL AT HOME !

The Helen K will supply all the basic terminal tackle, conventional rods & reels too. I like white with red bucktails but I don't think color is that critical, it's bait scent more than anything.

I've seen this happen and you really don't want to do this, LEAVE YOUR BASS ROD AND REEL AT HOME !

Come on man...I am not a rookie at salt water fishing, just not equipped very well currently. Someone needed by saltwater gear more than I did. They helped themselves to it when I left my garage door opened 2 years ago. Those dam swedes! My Penn deep water rods and reels..gone.Haven't been saltwater fishing much so I have replaced them yet.

I do have a Penn 850 spinning reel with a surf rod. Luckily it was on the patio. I usually take that one on the boat. I caught a 30# black fin tuna on it. It can handle the Kings.

What do you recommend for scent? A spritz of Budweiser?

Sorry just trying to help.

Sorry just trying to help.

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thanks for the tips. I hope the kings will cooperate.

Went out early this morning. Weather was nice. Caught a few Dolphin in the 15-20 pound range, and several smaller ones. A decent Sailfish darted through a school of fish when we were tossing cut bait out. Landed him on a small spinning rod which was pretty fun. Had a very large Blue Marlin show up while we were trolling on the Gulfstream side of a weedline. If I had to take a guess, probably 400 to 500 pounds. He smashed a teaser twice and then nailed a rigged ballyhoo a few times without getting hooked. Just one of those deals where you do everything right but the fish just doesn't cooperate. Dropped out some high speed trolling plugs and ran them back in towards the reefs. Picked up a small Wahoo and a King that went about 20 pounds. Spent the next two hours or so sitting over the reefs dropping for grouper and whatever else wanted to come up. Put a few very nice Yellowtail into the box along with a decent Mutton which was an unexpected bonus.

All in all not a bad day. Nothing to complain about. Didn't absolutely load the boat, we did catch a decent amount, and a very nice variety. With the Gulfstream in so close, the fishing was pretty darn good today.

Too bad you guys didn't get to hook the blue marlin, wow, that would have really capped off the day. Sounds like you guys had some good action anyways, and brought home some fish.

Where were you fishing?

WTG........that's a lot of fish in an outing. Deep water fish, reef fish, you covered a lot of water. It was a comfortable day too, fairly calm and little wind.

Yeah it was a fun day. I wouldn't have minded the weather to be a little bit rougher. Fishing usually is drastically better with a bit more chop. No reason to complain though. Stopping to make a couple tosses with the cast net made the difference on the reef. Ended up with a bunch of Pilchards and some Ballyhoo. Just having them in the chumline makes the entire world show up. We lost a bunch of fish to toothy critters. It happens. Just part of the game.

We were fishing east/southeast of Pacific Reef Light, Kevin. Cross Biscayne Bay from Homestead Bayfront, run through Caesar Creek where you cut through Adams Key. Follow the channel out into the reefs and then to open water once you pass the Light.