Big Pine Key Christmas fishing

[randlemanboater]

Took the family and the V to Big Pine Key over my wife and kids Christmas break. The weather was warm but the wind blew a lot. We caught at least 30 groupers over the week, Red and Black, all but one were short by an inch or 2.

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Its hard to let a 23 inch black grouper go, but we did...the one 24 inch keeper was delicious! The reds had to be 20 inches, they were all 18 to 19 inches.

We caught some really nice spanish macks.

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Caught about 20 of these Jack Crevalle. They pulled good and were biting in a no windy area on a very windy day. Kept a few for bait/chum and cooked one, not bad.

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Also snagged some tropical fish around some bridges.

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My wife and middle girl did boatride with us, but didn't fish any.

Temps were in the high 70 to low 80s most of the week with a couple cooler days mixed in...I think I could stay a while.

[randlemanboater]

Sorry for the out of focus pics...thats all I have.

[willy]

That's beautiful Brother, thanks for sharing

[ssiredfish]

Nice!!! Those Lookdowns are pretty cool..... Yall make it to the dropoff at all??

[macojoe]

I was there about 4 years ago, would love to go again one day!! Heck I would not mind moving south in my old age, its getting hell in the winter here.

Nice Job on the fish!! Looks like all had a great time, congrats!!

[THEFERMANATOR]

Truly ENVIOUS of you. I'm only 6 hours away, but with the little one can't break away to go fishing. Hopefully in the future I can do the same with my boy.

[randlemanboater]

Ferm it will come faster than you will ever imagine.

MJ...you got a camper...head on down.

SSI...they were the size of pie pans but only about a half inch thick

[Blue_Runner]

Awesome report man....those are some pretty fish. Pretty long tow?!?

[randlemanboater]

It is a long tow, when you put it in the GPS it says that its 905 miles and 14 hours from my house...of course thats if you dont stop or have any slow traffic or have any mechanical glitches.

We always just plan on 2 full days of travel each way and we can usually make it in a day and a half. It would be a really long trip in a car or truck but in the RV its not bad at all.

It is well worth it to spend a week in paradise.

[spareparts]

I'm curious, what kind of Rv are you towing with and what kind of mileage are you getting when towing?

[Giorgio]

Great pictures and you must have had a beautiful day on the water with the family with all those smiles!!!!!

[phatdaddy]

looks like a great time, did ya get the grouper in hawks channel or on the back side?

[randlemanboater]

SP...32 foot Winnie 1999 model with Chevy 454 drivetrain...I get around 7 mpg with or without pulling the V.

It seams that head wind or tail wind are the deciding factor on mpg...have gotten as bad as 6 mpg and as good as 9 mpg with head or tail winds.

Giorgio...we smiled all week.

Phat...all the grouper were in 13 to 17 feet of water on patch reefs about a mile or so out toward the reef.

We never made it out to the reef because of the wind.