Dogs

Went out with Danny, Andrew, Lou and Rafi and had a pretty great day on the water. The day stated real slow, a lot of driving around looking for clean water. We found one spot where it was clear and there was a bunch of big grey snapper and Danny shot a big yellow jack but that was really it. Places that were loaded up with a fish a couple weeks ago were empty.

Finally in the afternoon we got into the fish. One drift started out with Danny shooting a huge cero mackerel, then Lou shot a big yellow jack and I shot a medium yellow jack. A big lemon shark charged in but then disappeared. Then a couple minutes later Lou shot another yellow jack but this time the lemon shark grabbed it and got the fish and shaft stuck in its throat. So Rafi actually pulled the shark to the surface before it finally kicked out the shaft and took off. Next Danny shot a dog snapper in a coral head, and Andrew helped him get it out of the head. Dog snappers are not that common to shoot in the Keys. They tend to be spooky and kind of smart, staying hidden in holes.

I swam for a little bit and saw a bunch of big grey snappers, big for the Keys 3-4# fish. I yelled to Lou that the fish were by me. When I looked again out on the sand behind the greys there were 3 or 4 dog snappers all looking close to 10#. I lined up on the closest one and hit him mid body.  As I was getting control of my fish Danny swam up with a small cubera snapper, and then Andrew appeared with another big dog snapper. Once we got all the fish in the boat, we did another drift Lou and I both shot another dog snapper, Danny shot another one too way up in a cave which came out surprisingly easy. The the water got dirty so we headed out to the bar to see if we could get some big jacks.

I shot an AJ and Andrew shot his first AJ and we saw a lot of big grouper. I almost touched one of the grouper with the tip of my shaft.  After that it was late so we headed in.