I posted earlier in the week from Key Largo about our struggles with catching Yellowtails, asked about catching Trigger fish and whether you could eat Rainbow Runners. Well, we got chased off the reef the next day by 6+’ rollers…somewhat eye-opening in an 18’ flats boat. Never made it out the next 2 days as the winds were at 15 knots and gusting. We finally got back out on our last day and it was gorgeous. Less than 5 knot winds and smoooooooth water. We still have not mastered the YT’s though we did catch a few keepers in addition the nice 20+" one my oldest caught earlier in the week. We are improving with each trip down, just have not had that “epic” day. Never saw another Rainbow Runner but caught a bunch of big Chubs. I did not know that they crap all over your boat when you bring them aboard. We did not keep any of them, which I am glad as we found they were edible but knot eatable. My catch of the day was a nice 16+’ Trigger (finally). It was nice to catch at least one as they were all under our boat. This one was caught on squid, free-lining a 2/0 circle hook about 30’ behind the boat. My wife says I have to give her partial credit as the fish bit when she was holding the rod for me. I got it on board so I guess it was a team effort.
The biggest excitement of the day was near the end of the day. My wife pointed off the bow and said, “what are all those birds doing”? I looked and saw birds hitting bait and the water boiling so we took off in that direction. As we got closer we saw a long weed line and bait going crazy. I grabbed a rod with a spoon on it and cast over and over towards the weed line but never could get anything to hit. At one point while I was reeling in, I saw a Dolphin (Mahi) shoot past our boat. I was so frustrated because I knew they were there but have no experience with that kind of fishing. We were only in around 100’ of water and about 8 miles out so I was kind of surprised to see them that close in but then again, I have only been off-shore fishing onc