Lots of kings in Tortugas

[Captain Juan]

Got back from the Tortugas Sunday night. On the first two days, Thursday and Friday, the weather was beautiful. Saturday and Sunday, it blew at near 30 knots from the NE which made crossing Rebecca back toward Key West an extremely sloppy ride with ten footers stacked back to back. One of our buddies on the trip renamed Rebecca Channel something I can't repeat on this Forum. We were on a Dusky 33 and I was quite impressed with the ride (even though I know my Contender sure's a lot purdier).

Anyway, unlike Gen. Turtle who slayed the muttons the weekend before, it was the kings that were thick. We never got a chance to fish at night. We fished between the Tail End Bouy and the closed area at Riley's. We caught at least a dozen smokers and released all but three (it's dip time!!). The smallest was 35 lbs. They were hitting white bucktails, metal jigs, freelined hoos and sardines. We also caught some almaco jacks, a scamp, some big jolthead progies and margates, a blackfin tuna and some tails. However, no muttons, big reds and blacks, or wahoo, which we were really targetting. Also, the weather prevented us from fishing an area where I have numbers for wrecks and hard bottom some 35 miles west of Loggerhead Key on Saturday which is when the winds kicked up.

I attached a photo of one of the Kings. You will notice it was completely calm. This was Friday afternoon. It went from this to close to ten feet in less than 12 hours. Our tents and gear were getting blown around on Saturday morning as we packed up to start heading back. We made the round trip entirely by boat leaving from Miami.

Juan

[DIRTYFOOT2]

Sorry to hear about the snotty conditions Juan. Nice work on the smokerz. Any size to the scamp? What chart/charts do you recommend for the tortugas? Have always gone charter style to the tortugas, but will be trying it on our own this spring.

[Captain Juan]

The scamp was a nice one at 20''. Caught it deep jigging at Vestal.

Any chart that also has an enlargement of the Fort area and approach works well. It's not a hard run at all. The trick is getting a weather window. I have fished those areas on my boat for many years. You just have to figure out what you want to do and accomplish. You can't fish the Towers and wrecks well north of the Fort and also fish off Rileys or the tail end bouy. On some trips we've fished areas south of the Marquesas and the Tortugas. On other trips, we've gone out the Northwest Channel and hit Smith Shoal, the wrecks, then the Towers - all while staying well North of the Marquesas and then overnighted at the Fort. We've also run straight to the Fort, overnighted there and then ran well west.

There are several party boats that go there, you have guides like Hammer who specializes there, and you have lots of folks like me who make the run on their boats. In the attached pic, you can see the campground at the Fort and my friend's Dusky moored just off the Dinghy beach.

Good luck Cap.

Juan

[Disco Lady]

COÑO!!!!! I LIKE DUSKY BOATS.