Big Pine Key 2014
 

Took the family to BPK Fishing Lodge for a week, the first couple days the wind was still, 107 degree heat index, which makes for some miserable hot conditions, but also makes for some great conditions offshore.

There were many reports of Mahi Mahi "eating the transoms off of boats" so my son and I went out about 17 miles in 650 feet of water and caught about 30 Mahi. We ended up keeping 13 which yielded 3 gallons of fillets!

One of the nicer ones.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...ps9xt52kjt.jpg

The phone camera doesn't capture the amazing colors of the fish "all lit up".

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...psdsgw3ilt.jpg

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The first and smallest one we kept.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...psv1sulsg1.jpg

Then the wind picked up so we caught a few grouper around bridges, nothing too big.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...psj6rtcwdm.jpg

We also made it out to Looe Key Coral Reef, which is a protected live coral area, we saw 3 Goliath Grouper among the 1000's of fish on the reef, the largest (in the pics below) was at least 8 feet long. My wife was in the boat when he was under it and could see his head sticking out a foot on one side and tail sticking out a foot on the other side.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...ps5brrjkqq.jpg

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...psebvoncoy.jpg

We also got a video, I will try to get it on here too.

All in all it was a great time, we followed up by spending 5 days at Disney (my girls wanted to go)...now to replenish the vacation fund.

must be nice to be rich. looks like a nice time. those yellowtails in the last shot are some delicious eating. them dolphin aint bad neither.

Yeah...1999 RV (that I had to work on constantly on this trip), 1984 boat, all my fishing gear is from 1993 or so...we are rolling in the cash!

The bigger yellowtails were a good 2 feet long to give you another reference on how big that grouper was.

Of course, no fishing allowed inside the protected area.

Great report Randleman! Love the pictures.

excellent! The Keys never disappoint.

rmb, did you ever get to go to any of the spots i gave you?

Nice! I've only made it to the keys twice and have never fished there. My brother has a place in North Fort Myers, we've fished offshore for grouper, and stayed in skinny water for reds and linesides.

Nice work man! I really hate the fact that Im breaking tradition and not going this year.....

Funny you asked...I found a piece of paper in the RV while I was there with a bunch of coordinates written on it...those are probably the ones you sent me...but no, I havent yet, but I will.

maybe i can meet you there next year. we haven't been in about 5 years, i too am jealous.