Welcome home Ian Burrett

[Snatcher]

Nice to have you back home Ian. Hope you had a good holiday in Florida.

Once you have recovered from your jet lag all of us would love to have a detailed fishing report of your exploits and hopefully a few photographs. May bump into you next weekend,will also put your lures behind the bar at the Clash.

[Ian Burrett]

Hi Snatcher and thanks for the welcome.

We had a great time in the Keys, but the weather spoiled a lot of the fishing. Yes it happens out there too. Most of the days we were on restricted fishing due to high winds and only had one night trip. That was a marvellous couple of hours with plenty of Bluefish, Spanish and King Mackerel. We ended up with a total of 31 Species, all with either teeth and spines and most with both. Even the small fish go like a goodun.

 

We had the Editor of the Florida Keys fishing magazine come and interview us, for catching 10 Ribband fish (scabbard) in one night. Apparently to catch one is rare, to get 10 is unheard off. No words can describe these fish as they look like a small eel approximatley 2-3 foot long but are like a highely polished Chrome all over. We were told off for not using them as bait, but they were just to pretty to kill.

 

We had a good first day with plenty of small reef shark and lost four serious shark. One of the lads had a spinner shark on for ten minutes, It completely left the water on numerous occasions and eventually threw the hook. I had a large Bull shark on for 20 minutes and it threw the hook after taking 400-500 metres of line. I also lost a big nurse shark that just gobbed the bait just like Bull Huss do.

 

A deliberatley sunken wreck provided some off the better fish with Amberjack to 27 pounds and Barracuda to the high teens

 

 

Les McBride with his first Barracuda off the wreck

 

 

And how's this for a toothy crittur

 

We also had two mornings on Sailfish and raised two on both occasions but failed to get the hook to stick.

 

The last day we fished for 2 hours and the it blew up to a force 6-7 with driving rain. We had to come in because we were to cold. It just doesn't happen in Florida, Well untill we got there.

 

All in all, it was a very enjoyable trip with plenty of fish, plenty of good banter, but the bigger fish definatley eluded us, but we are all going to have another go, I am setting up a trip to fish for the Tarpon in May 2006

 

edit note: 2 pics didn't display due to spaces in the filenames. Fixed those. Newt

 

[ 13. March 2005, 05:47 PM: Message edited by: Ian Burrett ]

[Ian Burrett]

[ 13. March 2005, 05:48 PM: Message edited by: Ian Burrett ]

[n4lly]

Nice trip & report Ian.

March is a bad month for the wind in the Keys.

I have been the last 5 years and found that

May/June to be the best months. So your planed trip

May 2006 is perfect for the weather and the Tarpon.

As the Tarpon will be moving in traveling up the

gulf coast.

Where were you based? and where is next years trip

planed?

Sorry to be nosey, but Florida has me hooked and has become an obsession.

 

Again nice report thanks for sharing.

 

Cheers

 

PS did you keep the cuda for shark bait, as it is the best!!!

 

[ 13. March 2005, 05:29 PM: Message edited by: n4lly ]

[Yakity - Yak - u.k.]

Hi Ian,

 

Nice pics and report.

What a smashing trip mate.

Roll on 2006 a?

 

Thanks for posting it.

 

YY

[Ian Burrett]

n4lly:

Nice trip & report Ian.

March is a bad month for the wind in the Keys.

I have been the last 5 years and found that

May/June to be the best months. So your planed trip

May 2006 is perfect for the weather and the Tarpon.

As the Tarpon will be moving in traveling up the

gulf coast.

Where were you based? and where is next years trip

planed?

Sorry to be nosey, but Florida has me hooked and has become an obsession.

 

Again nice report thanks for sharing.

 

Cheers

 

PS did you keep the cuda for shark bait, as it is the best!!!

Hi n4lly

 

We were based at Marathon fishing a brand new 22 ft cat called Jasmine, details can be found at www.fishthedream.co.uk

 

We tried the Cuda as bait but had more success on Spanish Mackerel. In fact the Spanish mackerel proved the best bait for most things, including Spanish Mackerel. We started using shrimp in last few sessions and this was good for most species. The live baited pinfish proved very dissapointing apart from on the Wreck for Cuda and Ambers.

 

I am open to suggestion about where to fish May 2006 but certainly want a few days at the bridge at Islamorado I have forgotten the name but its where they hand feed the 150 lb wild Tarpon.

 

I have already got 7-8 commited for the trip but the more the merrier. I quite fancy having a few days on Skippered boats and the rest on Self drives, but if enough go, then we can pick and choose.

 

We will probably hire a luxury self catering villa, but again am open to suggestions.

[Newt]

Nice page Here and toward the bottom, it seems the author totally agrees about fishing around Key Largo and the Islamorado Bridge in particular.

[Happy Dude]

ian.....

 

you forgot to menton that the happy dude was a decidedly "unhappy dude" for missing the best days fishing because he was under 6" of snow on the morning of leaving, missed the original flight and arrived 24 hours late

 

made up for it on MY first day with the 3 'cudas though

 

when we went into the tackle shop no-one believed us about the ribbonfish until they saw the pics, then we were told they are the best bait bar none for big kingfish, dude in the shop says, "rare or not they would've had a treble right up thier asses"......lol

 

like ian said, great trip, even saw the village people in the "hurricane hole bar" but they weren't singing....all biker gear and leather chaps....an ex-friend of mind would have loved it.....lol

[alistair]

welcome back Ian, looked like a brilliant trip, those ribbon fish look beautiful! Shame about the wind sounds a bit like Drummore! Regards Alistair and Nicole xx Ps see you sometime in the summer if not before.

[Snatcher]

Well done mate on a brilliant trip. Those ribbon fish? Seen Rexy do a very similar shoot and they looked the same?

Maybe "sway" into you next weekend!