| Name of Captain; |
Greg Mercurio |
| Where were you fishing? |
OFFSHORE |
| Is this a tournament entry Fishing Report; |
No |
| The date you went fishing; |
04-22-2025 |
| 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 |
David Diehl and I (jack Hexter) traveled to Key West to fish on the 100′ boat Yankee Capts. We were targeting Mutton Snapper, Red Grouper and Blackfin Tuna..We drove to Marathon on Sunday, April 20, and picked up 4 dozen primo baits (Goggle Eyes) from a supplier at $60.00 a dozen (Who says fishing is cheap.) Saturday we continued our trip to the lower keys arriving at the boat in plenty of time to enjoy a lunch at the Hogfish Grill. The boat was set to depart at 3:00 PM and did so right on time, but with only 9 paying fishermen, we had plenty of room on the rail. Did I mention that it was blowy and seas were lumpy, Minimum 15-20 the whole trip and seas were occasionally 7′. we arrived at our first stop, a place known as half way ledge, 14 1/2 hours after departing. I should mention that fishing was SLOW. We fished for 2 1/2 days. ave ended the trip with 1 Mutton 1 red grouper and1 tuna. I ended up boxing only 1 mutton and 1 red grouper. We also ended up fighting a LOT of BIG sharks, both those that too our baits and those that took our fish. We arrived back at the dock very early on April 27 and drove the 9 1/2 hours home from Key West. I have been going on this boat , usually twice a year for about 35 years and this was one of the slowest I’ve ever seen it. I will say the anglers who were using slow pitch rods and that technique were doing a lot better than we fishermen who were bait fishing. On one occasion, I was fighting a shark and got it about 20′ from the surface when it swam up and bit another anglers mutton snapper in half. Another unusual tidbit on this trip was when another angler and I hooked up on a grouper at the same time, each of us pulling the fish up. Usually in circumstances like this, the deepest hooks wins the fish but in this case, both hooks were in the fishes mouth and no one could tell who had the deepest hook, the were both hooked in opposite corners of the mouth.. My hook was 7/0 circle and the other angler had a long jig. We decided to split the fish at the dock, but after seeing how few fish I had caught (2) and realizing he had he had about 10, he decided to present me with the second half |
