04.14.23 OFFSHORE

Where were you fishing? OFFSHORE
Is this a tournament entry Fishing Report; No
The date you went fishing; 04-15-2023
Your Name; Jack Hexter
Your Fishing Report: If this is a tournament report do not state the fish’s length in this box. State the length and species in the box below Dave Diehl and I took the long drive to Key West to go on a deep drop on the Yankee Capts.  We arrived in Key West at about noon on 4/13/23 and waited to board the boat till 3:00.  After getting all aboard, we left the dock at 6:00 and settled in for the long run to start fishing.  We actually started fishing 13 hours later in 500″ of water.  The first day was, to say the least, frustrating as I lost several entire rigs of terminal tackle which included 3 pounds of lead and only caught 2 fish.  That evening we moved into shallower water to fish for Mutton Snapper, but that bite was non-existent.  What saved the day was tuna, on slow pitch jigs.  I caught several as did Dave, but the barracuda were also present and bit off several jigs.  One very cool thing was we had a blue marlin swimming around in the light eating the bait fish were also present.The next morning we moved back to 500 – 700′ and were deep dropping again, but with better luck.  We both caught the usual suspects, vermilion snapper, blackfin snapper, snowy grouper, blueline tilefish.  The coolest thing I caught was a Spanish Flag.  We  could not identify this fish until we returned to the dock at 6:00 AM on Sunday morning where were met by a NOAA/National Marine Fisheries scientist who identified it as a Spanish Flag. He said it was very rare and in his over 20 years of examining fish, had only seen 3 or 4 of these fish.  It’s going on my wall!!
Type a question No