Jim Tyznar from Long Island (where they make the tea) was so excited about fishing with the Mr. Z that he and his two friends stayed up all night before they showed up at the dock.  Fortunately, there are alot of entertainment establishments in Key West that allow you to do just that!  Here’s a pic of Jim with his supper…  a Black Grouper!

Kite Fishing…. Yep, we do it.  In fact, there aren’t many fishing styles that we don’t do. 

Simply put, the kite is just a big out rigger.  It allows us to keep the bait (usually a live bait, but not always) out away from the boat and the leader, swivel, and line, up out of the water so the fish sees nothing but the bait struggling on the surface.  A pretty simple concept and usually deadly effective.

We kite fish for Sailfish, which is the common technique but, we also have adapted kite fishing for Sharks.  When fishing for Sharks we usually anchor the boat.  And anytime you anchor, you worry about which way the current is going.  If the current is going against the wind, the chum and baits go up under the boat and that can be a real problem.  With the kite keeping the baits out away from the boat, suddenly the direction of the current isn’t a problem :)  It’s one of those “easier to show you than to tell you” techniques.  But, on the Mr. Z, we got it down!

Never more than now are our repeat clientelle so important.  Fuel is through the roof ($4.60 a gallon first of May) and with the economy down, we need our “repeat” customers to come back.

Jerry Tatton and the boys from Boston are just such a group.  I can count on them each spring to patiently wait for the fish and love every minute of it!  This year we spent the first day offshore trolling and deep dropping for Tile Fish and the second day shark fishing.  We landed several Black Tip Sharks, Sand Sharks, and the ones we just call Yellow Sharks on account of, well, you know…

To Jerry and the boys, Steve and I say, “Thank you.”

Florida resident, Bruce Musselman brought his boys to Key West for some offshore action.  We set up the kite and live baited for Sailfish, but that didn’t work out so awfully good, so off to plan B…   Dropping live bait over a 300 foot deep barge wreck.  I hadn’t fished this wreck for almost three years, so I really didn’t know what to expect.  The boys landed Amberjacks, what we refer to as “Wreck Donkeys” because of the terrific down and dirty fight they give, especially with a 300 foot head start!  On the last drop of the Day, Chris hooked into a True American Red Snapper.  A pretty rare fish for the Keys since they tend to like cooler water and when they are caught here, they are usually found very deep.  Pretty work Chris!

Rachel and Tim Blackmon came for one thing.  A Sailfish.  They brought themselves and about a 50 gallon drum of patience.  And we used most of that drum during our full day of catching bait amongst a dozen other boats, trolling in the rough seas, live-baiting on the color change, and then finally going back to what we do best; slow trolling dead ballyhoo down sea.  That’s when the largest Sailfish of the day popped up behind my bridge rod and I let him eat!  At the same time I wound tight on the Sail, the downrigger rod bent over and we had a 25 plus pound Kingfish on too.  Rachel grabbed the Kingfish rod and Tim went to the chair to fight the Sail.  After about 10 minutes, the Kingfish was resting in the fishbox and we were in full reverse backing down on the Sailfish as he went nuts jumping and peeling line from Tim’s 30 lb. reel.  Capt. Steve billed the big Sail as Tim grabbed his tail.  We took the payoff picture and released the fish to end the day!