Dry Tortugas

Leadslinger · Post by **Leadslinger** » Thu May 01, 2014 7:35 pm

She's a beaut bro!! Get it dialed in I'll keep scoping the place out.

Leadslinger · Post by **Leadslinger** » Thu May 22, 2014 1:41 pm

Went and caught some of these after work yesterday

And these

Ended up with this

Freelined cut pilchard and ballyhoo on a 2/0 Demon Wire in shallow water at first then it got busy with the homemade chum bringing them in hungry...couldn't even sit the rod down til it was going off again. Lot of the tails we caught last night flew in the face of current logic of leader shy etc etc. Wire, heavy mono, 7/0, hell I reckon if you could get a log chain back there they'd eat it too.

swordfish · Post by **swordfish** » Thu May 22, 2014 1:52 pm

Only in the Tugas son.... Hellacious night! This is a good measure of the fish starting to eat by the way... I may head out tonite for a couple hours!

-swordfish

Leadslinger · Post by **Leadslinger** » Thu May 22, 2014 2:17 pm

We're heading over to a very promising looking area off the beaten path tonight, should be a grouper bonanza if we're lucky.

gruntking · Post by **gruntking** » Fri May 30, 2014 10:01 am

i'll see you in a couple of weeks

is the bird island closed ?

Rare · Post by **Rare** » Fri May 30, 2014 10:05 am

Yes its closed...isn't always?. 2 weeks ago 4 to 5 Cubanos made it there and started a fire...lol

Rare · Post by **Rare** » Fri May 30, 2014 4:46 pm

Fort Jefferson 5/24/14

fishnfool73 · Post by **fishnfool73** » Fri May 30, 2014 4:58 pm

How far away do you have to be to fish from a boat ? I was under the impression that thhe surronding area was all marine sanctuary.

Rare · Post by **Rare** » Fri May 30, 2014 5:03 pm

Chris, we were setting up the grill before sundown and we slept on the boat till morning. All the boat you see there are just folks sleeping in or eating.

Rare · Post by **Rare** » Fri May 30, 2014 5:09 pm

When anchor there I saw what looked to be a caterpillar/slug in the water swimming on top. (should have taken pics) A few muttons we caught after that morning were spitting them out.... It looked to be like good bait.

Also found big eels and plenty of crabs in red grouper & muttons.

fishnfool73 · Post by **fishnfool73** » Fri May 30, 2014 6:19 pm

Sorry RARE was asking LEADSLINGER how far he is going away .

Leadslinger · Post by **Leadslinger** » Sat May 31, 2014 9:23 am

gruntking wrote:i'll see you in a couple of weeks

is the bird island closed ?

Bring a pizza! It's still closed, bunch of turtle nest over there now. You couldn't pay me to go over there. Cackling birds...I can hear them in my apartment at night.

Rare, you should have come and said hi. It was 31 cubans...31!

Fishn, there's a one mile historical use area around Garden Key, otherwise you have to head outside the park on this side, which isn't a far run but we don't go that far due to time and fuel. Later in the summer we will slip out a little farther when it's flat calm.

Rare · Post by **Rare** » Sat May 31, 2014 10:30 am

31! Were they the same one who made the Bonfire?I saw the rock pile rocks the made to sit down on when we were catching bait.

Them birds are something else.....I thought when night fell that they will stop but all night they were chirping, gurgling croak & high pitch all night till the morning & still going. It was white noise to me so i fall asleep fast. lol

Leadslinger · Post by **Leadslinger** » Mon Jun 16, 2014 10:27 am

Been a little slack on posting here lately, so here's a catch up post.

The mutton bite around the fort has been slow, but out away, especially around Pulaski it's been killer. Had some guys out recently that killed them. Topping out at 18-19lbs...that ain't mutton to complain about. The grouper bite has been decent, except for the last time out. Got a 26 inch red on the first drop and then nothing. Fished in about 35' of water using cut ballyhoo. Saturday evening we went out and with 3 on board we limited out in short order, 21-25" reds and multiple strawberry. Sharks have really moved in lately which is a bit of a pain. The porgie bite has also picked up, if you like porgie then the time is now. Yellowtailing has been good, flat lining or dropping, doesn't matter. Several days ago you couldn't get a bait to the bottom without picking off a tail. A pretty good thing to complain about, but I don't care for tails too much unless I'm on light tackle. Haven't been out in two/three days with some weather and guest that don't do well on small boats in a chop

Grovers and Jacks are hot around the dock, pitch a few small pieces out, or some silversides, then drop in behind it and catch all you want. Size has been a little short, 12-14" being the most common.

Leadslinger · Post by **Leadslinger** » Fri Jun 20, 2014 10:46 am

Took advantage of the flat calm conditions yesterday and ran a little south of the park for some scouting. Ran a string of numbers going east west looking for muttons and grouper. Found em! Using whole dead dines, the grouper below was a bit annoying as he broke us off twice, and judging from the plethora of tackle in his mouth we weren't the first victims. Reds, few blacks that were a little undersized and some muttons, not a bad haul, 3 grouper and a mutton to introduce to some hot oil

Kingofthesea · Post by **Kingofthesea** » Fri Jun 20, 2014 12:23 pm

"Plethora of tackle"!!!!!!!! Wow. Definitely a welcome and grammatical upgrade for our simple forum. Great fish bud. Keep the reports coming 'slinger' I'm living vicariously through you.

Leadslinger · Post by **Leadslinger** » Wed Jul 16, 2014 9:49 am

Went out last night to a spot in about 90' that holds some AJ's to do a little vertical jigging, mother nature had other plans as the current was screaming. On to plan B. Tied on some lead about the size of a Buick, and dropped down for some bottom fishing. Even with 7-9 oz it was strung out behind the boat like a flatline...next stop Cuba lol.

Brought in a few short gags and blacks, and a few keeper red grouper, but I've got 3 bags of red grouper in the freezer at home so those went back to grow some more. Switched over and did some tailing, in quick order I had a limit of 16-20" tails. Water has been flat calm lately, the mangrove bite around the dock has been insane since the moon got almost full, some bigger fellas have moved in. Caught a mess of them three nights ago on 1/8th oz jigs tipped with FishBites shrimp. Snook and Tarpon are thick around there as well, live bait being about the only thing they're interested in. They put on quite a show around the docks when they go to busting bait. Had some good size threadfin herring around the dock recently, netted up a big bag of those.

swordfish · Post by **swordfish** » Wed Jul 16, 2014 10:42 am

Awesome! There are still some people who believe you cannot catch snook out there. Catch a little grunt, pitch it in there and send us a pic of a snookum! I should have given you a hawk! I BETCHA they will work over there at night! Remind me next time! I would LOVE to see the hawk catch fish out there!

-Swordfish

cudaman · Post by **cudaman** » Wed Jul 16, 2014 11:38 am

Staying there you will not run out of fish in the freezer. Nice catching man

Leadslinger · Post by **Leadslinger** » Wed Jul 16, 2014 12:11 pm

Lol I've got a Hawk, just hesitant to throw it. Snook are under the dock and I know as soon as I drag past a piling it'll get nailed and taken to watery grave. Of course I do have a fleet of kayaks to paddle out and change my angle...hmm

You still wanna head over to Everglades in a few days?

Cuda it's not a bad spot to keep the supply stocked. Debating a Yuri trip with a coworker, but our days off island are limited.

swordfish · Post by **swordfish** » Wed Jul 16, 2014 1:03 pm

Yeah bud. I am thinking like an evening of bug bites and FISH! Hopefully right after a nasty storm! Ill head over straight from work. I hear they are on the chew BIG time! Well talk as we get closer. Up your tackle... I fish hawks on 65 lb power pro JUST cuz of that, I fish VERY close to the bridge and have to rip the fish out or get rocked. I have had to "walk" a few round a pylon or two.

-Swordfish

cudaman · Post by **cudaman** » Wed Jul 16, 2014 4:19 pm

Well, if you get a chance go with Yuri. At times you'll find he is not that far from where you are. I wonder if you could see their lights and the Yankee Capts lights from the Fort at night.

gruntking · Post by **gruntking** » Wed Jul 16, 2014 6:05 pm

i canceled my last trip last minute but i have another trip to the island in oct cant wait bro

cudaman · Post by **cudaman** » Thu Jul 17, 2014 9:43 am

Joe, are you going on the Ferry? Do you know if they let you transport a kayak on it?

Leadslinger · Post by **Leadslinger** » Thu Jul 17, 2014 10:11 am

cudaman wrote:Joe, are you going on the Ferry? Do you know if they let you transport a kayak on it?

They do and yes, think it's 20-40 for a yak.

Every now and then you can see some very bright lights off in the distance, mainly to the South and Southeast. I'll be sending you a message once we decide on when we want to go on the Capts.

cudaman · Post by **cudaman** » Thu Jul 17, 2014 11:04 am

Sounds good man and thanks for the info

BEOWULF · Post by **BEOWULF** » Thu Jul 17, 2014 1:58 pm

Hey Leadslinger, what kind of job do you have, that you get to be stationed in the Dry Tortugas? Sounds like an awesome gig! Btw, thanks for referring to it properly as "Dry Tortugas" instead of "tugas".

BEOWULF · Post by **BEOWULF** » Thu Jul 17, 2014 2:28 pm

Wow, the Google Maps crew has really done a great job of photographing Dry Tortugas National Park. I was able to "virtually" walk around the entire perimeter of the fort. Looks like the fishing there, even from shore, must be awesome, (although no doubt prohibited). I feel like one day, when I finally get to go there, I'll totally know the place already!

SaltyDog · Post by **SaltyDog** » Thu Jul 17, 2014 7:38 pm

They re used to be some cool underwater streaming webcams from there i dont know if they are still running or not. So many fish right there....

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