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The Fishing, Diving and Boating Magazine of the Florida Keys

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JuLY 2014 Vo lume 4 Issue 7

KEY WEST

DIVING WITH

TARPONRECORD BONEFISH

IN ISLAMORADA

CATCH & RELEASE

DOLPHINLITTLE TORCH KEY

TIPS FOR SUMMERTIME

RIGGINGThe Marathon

Sizzle

Summertime

Tails

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by Capt. Kevin (MaC) MCKenna

Captain Kevin McKenna served more than 20 years with the US Coast Guard. After working up and down the coasts of North, Central, and South America he selected Key West as his final duty station prior to retirement. He opened and operated his own yacht delivery business for a few years then made a choice to take a job as a dive boat captain.

Divers on the large dish with Southpoint Diver ’s M/V Phoenix100’ overhead

Dive Instructor Kevin aka. Bing guiding his group around the ship.

Shark Encounters at the Top of Everyone’s Wish List This Summer

Did you see any SHARKS? That seems to be the biggest question go-ing around in the world of diving in

the Keys these days. Since the arrival of Kat, the OCEARCH tagged great white shark, many people in the middle and lower Keys have been fixated on the waters around the boat the entire time they’re out with us. I’ve never had so many look-outs on the boat at one time. We have been lucky enough to have the Gulf Stream currents up close for several weeks early this spring. This warm current has brought in many deep water predators, some of which include a large white shark and several sand bar sharks on the artificial reef, USNS Vandenberg; a blue shark sighting in shallow waters; as well as daily sightings of several reef sharks on our barrier reef.

Our local dive shops are very familiar with a few resident sharks that live on our reefs, the most diver-friendly shark in the

area, known affectionately as Roxy, is a ju-venile blacktip reef shark that visits us on practically every dive on one dive site. Re-cently we counted three new, larger blacktip sharks swimming on the same reef. There is much speculation as to their arrival but there is just so much we don’t know about the apex predators of the oceans.

After many years of reef decline and shark population demise I would like to hope that we are in the beginning stages of reef and shark population recovery. It could be that they are following the food sources and with the large pelagic species migrating north we are seeing more activity on both ends of the scale. More bait equals more fish that feed all the way up the chain. Ei-ther way, this will take years to see if a good change is happening but it’s really cool to watch it all unfold before us.

As of May 27th, the USNS Vandenberg has rested on the ocean floor for 5 years

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by RANDy MORROW

Randy Morrow, Kayak Fishing Guide 305.923.4643randrums@me.comFacebook - “Lower Keys Kayak Fishing”Member - Jackson Kayak Fishing Teamjacksonkayak.com

To the uninitiated, the speed of a bonefish’s first run is hard to believe. Line leaves the reel at an alarming rate,

and many anglers wonder if the fish might take it all and keep right on going. That first amazing run is, for most flats stalkers like myself, the true payoff of a lot of study and effort pursuing the gray ghost of the flats - the wily bonefish. And that first run is even more exciting from the cockpit of a kayak.

If you intend to have consistent success with bonefish from a kayak, I believe you have to be able to paddle and pole the yak from a standing position. This necessitates a stable kayak, and time spent practic-ing. Standing and silently moving the yak through shallow water needs to become second nature so you can focus on look-ing for fish. Hunting bones from a seated po-

sition is

difficult because you just can’t see them soon enough to make a presentation. You will occasionally find tailing fish, or fish making wakes in very shallow water, and these can be fished while seated. But 90 percent of the bones I catch are spotted while standing and poling the kayak.

Many good books and articles have been written about bonefishing - I’ve learned from all of them - and I suggest you do some reading on this fascinating fish before

heading out. Tides, type of tackle, lures and baits, water depth, pre-

sentation, etc., are covered in the bonefish literature so

I won’t repeat it here. But

compared to the typical scenario of hunt-ing bones from a flats skiff (or alternately, wading), stalking these wary, hard-to-see fish from a kayak presents some unique challenges, which I’ll touch on below.

Perched high on the bow of a skiff ’s casting platform, you can see fish at quite a distance - often 100 feet or more. Add the trained eyes of a veteran guide on the pol-ing platform, and generally you’ll have 6, 8, maybe even 10 seconds to track the incom-ing fish and make your presentation. If it’s off target, you may have time to make a sec-ond cast. But from the lower vantage point of a kayak, you typically won’t see bones until they’re within 60 feet of you - many times less than that. This cuts your lead time

down drastically - to about 3 sec-onds on average - leaving

very little room for er-

Bonefishing from a Kayak

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Hadley Julian and Her HogfisHout of summerland Key

Key Wester NiKo Gazzale WithhoGfish aNd muttoN sNapper

Jim Tran ouT of Duck key wiTh a muTTon snapper anD gag grouper

Tommy Fricke wiTh a 19” hogFishcaughT ouT oF summerland key

Mandy Ibsen and bob the dolphIn play In the saltat dolphIns plus In Key largo.

Diving

Black grouper for Into the Blue SpearfIShIng charterS

out of lIttle torch key

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Another tarpon season is behind us and a tough season it was this year.  Maybe the toughest spring I’ve

been a part of.  May was just windy, no flat calm mornings and a late season cold front made it a mostly miserable affair.  Hope-fully next year we can have some decent weather.

It’s summer now and thank good-ness.  Time to look forward to some days off and plenty of time in the water and on the bow of my skiff.

Summer in the Florida Keys is my favor-ite time of the year.  Fishing on the flats for permit and bonefish is at its best especially during periods with negative tides early in the morning and in the evening.  Bonefish will move onto the flats with the low in-coming tide, shallow enough we can watch them tail as they feed along the bottom. On some of the flats where these bonefish will frequent, it’s too shallow for the skiff to get to them, making it a great opportunity to get out of the boat and wade.

Casting flies to tailing bonefish is by far the most productive approach as a lightly weighted fly will land softly next to these very wary fish. We can use bait, but the shrimp this time of year are tiny, living up to their name.  So a weight attached to the line is necessary to be able to get the bait to

the fish.  However, this weight often makes too much noise entering the water and will spook the feeding bonefish.  A very small crab will work as well, but again we run into the same issue as using a weight.

As the tide pushes in and the water level rises, we will start to see permit tail on those same flats as the bonefish. If you think bonefish are wary under tailing con-ditions, permit are even worse.   I love to throw flies at tailing permit, but the skinny water and calm setting doesn’t always allow us to get close enough to cast.

If you’re ever going to wade for a fish on the flats, this is the time. Wading will allow the angler to get close enough to present a fly. You will get one chance at it so make it count. If you’re good and lucky, your fly will get eaten, but odds are the fish will blow out as fast as it can to the safety of deep water.  Leaving the angler ‘knocky-kneed’ and sweating bullets. It’s an awesome heart pounding experience no matter the out-come. 

Tailing conditions are typically short lived as the water level quickly rises to a point where we can’t see their tails out of the water. But no worries, we get back in the skiff and sightfish the flats in the deeper water. By this time these fish will be a little more comfortable with some water over

their heads and we have a little more mar-gin for error when presenting flies and bait. 

Unfortunately we don’t have negative tides in the morning everyday.   The tides occur at a different time each day so there are days we have high tide early in the morning. Throughout the summer when we have flat calm mornings and lots of water, we can find baby tarpon way up on the flats and around some the mangrove islands of the backcountry. 

Baby tarpon are a ton of fun no matter the technique used, but fly fishing for them is by far the most entertaining.  Baby tar-pon are not shy and will eagerly eat a well placed fly.  This is even more fun if you find them busting baitfish. Top water baits and flies get blasted with such ferocity the small ‘poons will clear the water attempting to eat them.  Good times for sure!

Summer here in the Keys can be pretty hot.  Not quite as bad as the majority of our country, but by about lunch time on a flat calm day everyone is ready to get off the water and cool down.  If I’m on a charter, that means it’s time to head in, clean up and grab some lunch in the A/C.  Otherwise I will bring my snorkeling gear and spear gun and spend a couple hours in the water hunting for hogfish and snappers.

Summer Time Tailsby Capt. Mike bartlett

Capt. Mike Bartlett runs shallow water sight fishing

charters for tarpon, bonefish, permit, barracudas and sharks in Key West. Reach him at 305-

797-2452 or on the web atwww.keywestflats.net.

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Florida Keys Artificial Wreck & Reef Coordinates

Where locals & travelers hang out together.....

serving Fresh locally caught seafoodor bring your own and we’ll cook it up for you!

Beach • tiki boat rides • Fun • good food

SIMonton beach • key west • 305-587-1188

Reef Name Longitude Latitude Description Relief Depth MaterialUSS S-16SUB(SS-121) 80 02.393 24 25.207 231ft. S-3 Class Coastal

Defense Submarine260 Ship Steel 231’

Alva Chapman Reef 80 09.1 25 17.667 Two Concrete Boat Hulls & Dredge Pipe

220 Ship Concrete

Spiegel Grove 80 18.65 25 04 510 ft. Lsd, USS Spiegel Grove,Pushed On Side On 6/10/02

84 135 Ship Steel 510’

Bibb 80 22.77 24 59.71 327 Foot “USCG Cutter Bibb”, Laying On Starboard Side, 95’ To Rail

35 130 Ship Steel 327’

(BIBB)Duane 80 22.92 24 59.38 327 Foot “USCG Cutter

Duane”, Upright Deck Is 90 ft Deep

50 118 Ship Steel 327’

(DUANE)Wolf Reef 80 23.783 25 01.316 3 Reefballs As Part OF A

School Project Modules Concrete Reefballs (3)

Davis Reef 80 30.532 24 55.395 6 Reefballs as part of a school project, 1st Deployment

Modules Concrete Reefballs (6)

Davis Reef 80 30.532 24 55.397 4 Reefbalss as part of a school project, 2nd Deployment

Modules Concrete Reefballs (4)

Islamorada Reef 80 33.069 24 50.517 1986 Indian Cut Bridge Spans 115 Bridge Spans Concrete

Islamorada Reef 80 33.084 24 50.472 1986 Old Tea Table Bridge Spans

115 Bridge Spans Concrete

Islamorada Reef 80 33.084 24 50.475 1987 Lignum Vitae Bridge Spans

115 Bridge Spans Concrete

Islamorada Reef 80 33.421 24 50.307 1981 Concrete Bridge Spans 110 Bridge Spans Concrete

Islamorada Reef 80 33.575 24 50.332 1984 120 Foot Barge And Bridge Spans

110 Bridge Spans Concrete

Alexander Barge 80 34.1 24 51.7 120 Foot By 40 Foot Steel Barge, The “Alexander”, Also Bridge Rubble

15 95 Barge Steel 120’

Eagle 80 34.21 24 52.18 287 Foot Freighter The “Eagle” , Originally The “Aaron K”, On Side

40 110 Ship Steel 287’

Long Key Viaduct 80 49.11 24 55.41 106 Reefballs To Date, Boy Scout Reef, Sea Base

5 20 Modules Concrete Reefballs (106)

Long Key Reef #6 80 49.585 24 44.19 1987 Long Key Bridge, 4 Patch Reefs

26 Bridge Spans Concrete

Long Key Reef #5 80 49.589 24 44.012 1986 Long Key Bridge 5 Patch Reefs

26 Bridge Spans Concrete

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The rules and regulations contained in FishMonster Magazine have been taken directly from the printed pub-

lications provided by the State of Florida FWC, Gulf of Mexico Fishery Manage-ment Council and the South Atlantic Fish-ery Management Council. It is an effort to incorporate all recreational rules and regu-lations from all three agencies into a format easily read and understood by the recre-

ational angler. Every effort has been made to provide you with accurate and timely information. Fishing regulations can and do change quite frequently. Therefore, to quote the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Manage-ment’s disclaimer on the back of their Rec-reational Fishing Regulations for Gulf of Mexico Federal Waters publication, “This publication was prepared for general infor-mational purposes.....and has no legal force

or effect. Fishing regulations are subject to change.” This is FishMonster Magazine’s position as well. Please use at your own risk. These regulations have been prepared with the Florida Keys angler in mind and may not include every species. If you do not see a species listed it does not mean that there is not a rule. When in doubt please check with the appropriate agency listed below:

Fishing Regulations for the Florida Keys

Florida Fish and WildlifeConservation Commission www.MyFWC.com 850-488-6058 2590 Executive Center CircleEast/Berkeley Building Tallahassee, FL 32301

Gulf of Mexico FisheryManagement Council www.GulfCouncil.org 813-348-1630 2203 N. Lois Ave Suite 1100 Tampa, FL 33607

South Atlantic FisheryManagement Council www.safmc.net 843-571-4366 or toll free 866-SAFMC-10 4055 Faber Place Drive Suit 201 N. Charleston, SC 29405

S GOM SA

Species Minimum Size Limit

ClosedSeason

Daily Recreational Bag Limit

Remarks

Amberjack, Greater

S 28”F Atlantic 30” fork Gulf GOM 30” forkSA 28” fork, no coring

S June 1 - July 31 Gulf GOM June 1 - July 31

1 per person per day GOM Captain and crew may not retain bag limit. SA In April, for-hire vessels limited to 1 per person per day.

Amberjack, Lesser & Banded Rudderfish

Slot size 14”-22” fork

None S 5 fish aggregate of lesser amberjack and banded rudderfish GOM 5 fish aggregate (excluded from the 20 reef fish aggregate).

Black Drum Between 14” - 24” None 5 per person per day S May possess one over 24”. Snatching prohibited. No harvesting using multiple hook with llive or dead natural bait.

Bonefish No Harvest None Harvesting is prohibited There is an allowance for temporary possession of one bonefish at a time, at the site of capture for photos, measuring and weighing. Multiple hooks in conjunction with live or dead natural bait cannot be used

Cobia (Ling) 33” fork None S 1 per person or 6 per vessel whichever is less GOM 2 per person per day SA 2 per person per day

GOM The 2-day bag limit allowance for charter vessels and headboats does not apply to cobia. SA One day possession limit. Must be landed with heads and fins intact. Charter/headboats require a permit for Coastal Migratory Pelagics.