gulf of mexico action fishing

today I had Bill Blakey and his brother Jack and Bill's son Casey who is 10 years old. We fished some spots early on near Sandy Key. The Spanish mackerel went wild. We caught spanish 3 to 7 lbs till the outgoing tide stopped at 11am. Also released some gag grouper to 22". Then we ran out to the west to a small wreck in 15' of water and Casey with just a little help from dad released a goliath grouper of 100lbs. Then Bill caught a cobia that was 40" and a great dinner was in the box. another fun day backcountry fishing.

house mud Bones

yesterday afternoon I fished a fellow from Wisconsin. We found a bonefish mud the size of a house. We poled around it and using a jighead tipped with shrimp managed to pick off 4 fat bones! Good going Rick.

After that we fished some patch reefs and kept mangrove snapper and yellowtail for dinner. Rick released 5 grouper as well. Then we headed out to the reef as it was almost slick calm. Saw some sailfish showering bait but no luck, just a nice king mackerel. great afternoon.

In the backcountry lots of spanish mackerel and bluefish. near Flamingo the snook and reds are biting.

happy thanksgiving.

to fish with me either contact BudnMarys or email me at skipcyd@bellsouth.net

fishing is really good now and not crowded.

Sailfishing HOT

Lots of boats have been catching sailfish lately, including the Sachem which caught 13 today!  Pictures to come soon!  Some tournaments are coming up soon and everyone has been bait fishing getting ready...

sailfishing on a backcountry skiff

Dr. Hugh Dennis of North Carolina and Islamorada suggested to me ."Since it is so calm is there a chance we could try for sailfish." I put on 3 heavier spinning rods and off we went. Found a school of big razorbelly pilchards and filled the livewell and then we headed for the outer reefs 5 miles offshore. The wind was 10mph out of the north. Perfect conditions. We ended up catching and releasing 2 sailfish. one was 40lbs and the other about 15lbs. we also caught 4 king mackerel,3 cero mackerel, yellow jack, mutton snapper,yellowtail snapper and red grouper. on the way home in 20' of water we found a stingray with a school of cobia following. Hugh finished the day with a 27lb cobia which we had for dinner at Lazy Days restaurant. Thanks Hugh for getting me offshore for my bluewater fix. Lots of fun from an eighteen foot skiff.

Five days of fishing the Keys

Wendy and Tom Sims of Miami Shores spent 5 days fishing with Capt. Skip Nielsen last week. Every day we fished different areas and fished different species. Day 1 we fished the cape sable area catching snook,redfish,tarpon. Big sharks were a problem. They ate a couple redfish and a snook. We kept a redfish that was sharkbit and a nice snook for dinner. Day 2 we fished the Flamingo area catching lots of trout,jack crevalle, and 12 snook including some keepers up to 31". Day 3 we travelled to northeast Floriday Bay and fished Terrapin Bay,Crocodile Dragover and McCormick Creek. Lots of juvy snook and big crevalle jacks and mangrove snapper. also a redfish and jumped a tarpon.Day 4 we netted live pilchards and headed out to Oxfoot Bank on the western edge of Fl. Bay. Chumming and freelining pilchards the spanish mackerel found us. This is an early run but we caught big ones for 3 hours on the incoming tide. Also in the same spot released 12 trout, 20 ladyfish, 5 cero mackerel, kept 10 fat mangrove snapper for dinner as well. As the tide slacked so did the bite so we cruised over by Sandy Key and chummed up a bunch of pinfish and headed for a secret spot. There Tom fought a huge sawfish for over an hour. Also Wendy caught a 200 lb bullshark and a goliath grouper. Wendy also caught a big snook and a cobia. Tom ended the day with a 50 tarpon on 12lb spin tackle. Day 5 dawned slick calm so we decided to fish the gulf wrecks. By 12 noon we had released 7 goliath grouper with Tom bringing a 300 pounder boatside. The crevalle jacks were swarming. It was hard work and as it was slick calm hot! We finished the day by running from the gulf in to the cape sable beaches. Bait was everywhere so with a quick cast of the net we reloaded the livewell with pilchards and released some snook,spanish macks and more jacks. Wendy and Tom had a blast and a great 5 days of fishing. Thanks guys!