Florida Keys Report

[mcquade outdoors]

So i generally keep my Florida fishing reports off SDFish or only post a few in the paddleboard section but since im now on a boat out here and landed a darn bonefish i decided to post it.

Got up at 1am friday morning to leave for the keys, but broke the key off in the lock on the trailer. 1st in line at Home Depot 6am and bought bolt cutters to get it off. Left at 6:15am and was off to the keys. Got to the keys around 1pm with 1 more hiccup, the trailer jumped off the ball after hitting a bump in the road (no idea how, it was locked on?) Launched off big pine area and made my way to the back country. Fished the zman ned rig with a 12lb top shot only looking for bonefish and found a school of 3 pretty quick and got 1 to bite! With the wind chop i couldn't tell if they were mullet or bonefish but glad i tossed the lure at them anyways. Tide was pretty high and didnt have time to stay out so i made my way into another flat and saw a school of 30-50 tarpon in the 10-30lb range. Re-rigged the extra rod with an NLBN Mini Mullet and was able to hook up pretty quickly on a sub 40" fish. Played with the school for a bit after that one for a few more bites before the tide dropped too far and the fished moved off the flat. Had a fun time getting the boat on the trailer due to the low tide, had to walk to the trailer out, hand load the skiff (~400lbs= Skiff, engine, gear) and then get the trailer re hooked up to the car. Luckily the water is super warm and feels good to be in it. Day 2 i spent ~6 hours looking at the grass before i found a school of ~15 bonefish. Snapped 2 off and lost 1 before landing 1. After that, the school disappeared as the tide ripped off the flat and the wind picked up. All in drove for 2 days, fished for 1.5 days and slept in the car for 2 nights and it was all worth it in my opinion.

[camobass]

Awesome!

If your ball was the right size, there is a nut under the coupler that you can adjust. Try a couple turns. If the latch is really easy to push down, it’s too loose, if too hard, it’s too tight. It should take a little effort to push the latch down.. It’s also possible, you had the coupler down on the ball and latched but it actually wasn’t all the way down on the ball and the weight of the tongue kept it “on” until you hit the right bump. That can be a scary situation! Glad it was minimal.

Sounds like you’re living the dream down there

[mcquade outdoors]

Ill check out the screw underneath and see if it can be tightened, at the latch is pretty easy to push down on.

[Midnightpass]

What’s more fun than tarpon and bone fish?..
Nothin’!!!… Very nice fish.. Now I want to go… great report…
Butch

[vdisney]

Making me jealous, very cool indeed

[mcquade outdoors]

What’s more fun than tarpon and bone fish?..
Nothin’!!!… Very nice fish.. Now I want to go… great report…
Butch

Thanks, ya it was a day to remember for sure! now i can go back to sweating my backside off in the backwaters looking for big snook.