Captain's Blog: Key West Fishing Reports

What In The Weather!

CaptainMrZ — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 13:37:11 +0000

By Captain Jay Miller
This is February. Key West in February at that. and I can honestly tell you that I have never seen the weather so warm. Crazy as that may sound, it is true. You say “isn’t it always warm in Key West?”. Surprisingly enough, No it is not. February is usually one of the coldest months for the Florida Keys. Consistent cold fronts in January and February bring brisk and very breezy dry air across the Gulf of Mexico and into the Straits of Florida. Thus cooling down the waters into the average 60s and sometimes even into the 50s. These cold fronts are also responsible for the migration cycles of all the fish that congregate the Florida Keys in the winter. Cold air will gradually cool down the waters north of the Keys pushing bait and its predators to warmer waters. Most importantly the Ballyhoo. These 6 to 10 inch long baitfish are the life line of Keys fishing in The fall and winter months. Every fall and winter, millions of these small fish flock to Keys waters. From Sailfish and Tunas to Snapper and Grouper every fish larger than a Ballyhoo eats these tasty morsels. Without this abundance of bait, the migration of predatory species is significantly shortened. Think about it, no bait, no fish. Same as any animal, you go where the food source is, or you keep moving to find it. Thus bringing us to February 2012. The weather has been so warm that we havent seen nearly the push of bait we are use to. Water temperatures are in the mid 70s and daytime highs are in the 80s. Beautiful days if you are looking to come dome and have a gorgeous day on the water. The migrations of many of the fish we are generally accustomed to have either bypassed the area all together or are very slow in coming down this direction. We are already starting to see some great catches of Mahi-Mahi and even Blue Marlin. This is very uncommon now as these fish are primarily a spring and summer variety. If this is any inclination of what is to come, we are going to have an awesome spring and summer fishing offshore for Dolphin, Sailfish, Marlin, Blackfin Tuna and Wahoo. This surge of warmth might also push other species our way that we haven’t had in abundance over the years such as Yellowfin Tunas. As waters warm up also begins the awesome season for Sailfish fishing in March, April, and May. These fish migrate through the Straits of Florida by the Thousands on their way to western waters off Mexico and Central America. As they move through Keys waters they are very active to feed, and when hooked, these 7 to 8 foot long gymnasts can put on one of the most amazing displays of acrobatics you have ever seen. This truely is one of our absolute favorite times of the year. We are very excited to see what we have in store for the upcoming Spring. Well if you ask me Spring is already here!

The MrZ Gets A Facelift

CaptainMrZ — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:04:32 +0000

Hello from beautiful Key West, Florida. As some of you may or may not know, the MrZ has taken on a somewhat new indemnity. The name is still the same; the location is still the same, as is the mate Captain Steve Liberatore. The business was sold by the old owner to me, Captain Jay Miller of Outer Limits LLC. We’ve owned the boat for just over a year now. When we, I say we, I mean my family and I, bought the boat it was in very bad shape. With a charter boat such as the MrZ or with any boat for that matter there are always things to maintain, especially the mechanics. Also the boat hadn’t been in dry dock for a number of years. Thus the drive train system, i.e. shafts, propellers, bearings, and bottom paint had been ignored for years. If you’ve ever been out on the boat you would have noticed a very bad vibration. And I don’t even want to tell you how bad the hull looked, paint was falling off everywhere. When you boast to people you have one of the nicest charter vessels in town, it should at least show it. Now I have been a full time professional fisherman for well over a decade and have worked on many boats since I built my first boat as a kid. So I have a bit of experience in what it takes to keep a boat running optimally. We recently put the MrZ in the boatyard for a facelift. We have done most of the work ourselves rather than paying mangrove people to waste time and do a half hearted job. The saying goes you want it done right, then you do it yourself. We have replaced all the drive train hardware, bearings and propellers. One of the struts pads had to be replaced, which was where a lot of vibration was coming from. We shimmed the engines to get an exact shaft angle which improves fuel consumption and bearing wear. Engine aftercoolers were cleaned and rebuilt. The boat now runs like a dream. It is one of the smoothest rides I have been on, and when she turns up to 25+ knots, the 46.6ft Bertram just cuts through the water with ease. The salon has a new A/C system which will keep everybody cool and refreshed on those hot tropical days. The deck and gunwales were given all new gelcoat. The rotten kick panels under the gunwales were replaced with starboard to add strength and appearance. The Murray fighting chair was painted and refitted and looks brand new. Then to the hull. We spent many days sanding and repairing spots in the hull and taking off years of neglect. We gave the bottom a brand new paint job with a tough antifouling paint. We sprayed the hull with AWL-Grip, one of the best marine paints on the planet. The boat is ABSOLUTELY gorgeous. The mirrored reflection finish shines from a mile away. We are very proud of how far the MrZ has come. In the next few months it will almost looks as if it was new, which says a lot had you seen it before.
Now with all this work done, we are back to doing what we love to do most, giving clients the trip of a lifetime. The main reason for being in this industry of charter boat sport fishing is you, the client. Catching fish is important, but being comfortable is also. Which we provide both. As with some people, the idea of a large enclosed salon with A/C may not be important, but to most who are not used to the heat of the tropics it is very important. How nice is it to be able to get out of the sun for a few minutes and cool off in comfort.
We are also very excited about our crew. Captain Steve Liberatore, who has been with the boat since it was brought to its home here in Key West, prolifically works the cockpit. While Captain Daryl Weede meticulously operates the helm. Collectively they have over 30 years experience fishing the waters off Key West and Cuba, with many accomplishments in tournaments as well as personal bests. Both men are very personal, courteous, and polite. They give clients 100% effort every time the MrZ leaves the dock, unlike with other charters you may have gone with in years past. We cannot tell you how many compliments have been sent to us about our crew.
Many changes will soon be taking place for the MrZ’s website also. A lot of new pictures, videos, and stories will be added very soon. The blog will be updated every few days so check back often. Many of the old credentials, pictures, and inserts will be removed and will exemplify our newer views and ideas. Some of the content will stay because it was well written, but quite a bit needs a manicure.
Once again, we are very excited to turn over a new leaf with the MrZ. We already have many advance bookings for 2012, along with upcoming tournaments; this will be an awesome year. So inquire early, and try to get the days you would like to go fishing or sunset cruising in advance as our calendar will fill up soon.
Thanks,
The MrZ family

Commodore Escrich Sends His Regards…

CaptainCraig — Wed, 11 May 2011 15:38:33 +0000

by Captain Craig Eubank
May always brings on the busiest time of year for fishing/diving guides, hoteliers and pretty much everyone in the entire Florida Keys. We’re finished with Spring Break, starting to slow down for graduation and the end of school, and then crashing head long into Summer Break and all the business that goes with that time of year.
Throw in Mothers’ Day and the assorted Birthdays and things get complicated, but we try to keep things on a roll as long as possible. As much as you want a break, you need to stay on that roll ‘cause you know as soon as the business slows down, that’s it for a while… ? you don’t even mention the “H” word around here!
Emails come by the bucketful. Typical emails read: tell me about your business, how much, how long, how big, and then there are the emails about the charter business too ?…
However, the other day I got an email that really brought back memories from several years ago and I figured the statute of limitations had surely come and gone by now.
“Dear Captain Craig Eubank,
As Commodore of Hemingway International Yacht Club of Cuba and Representative of the International Game Fish Association in Habana, I am very pleased to greet you as well as to invite you as member of Hemingway International Yacht Club of Cuba, to join us in the celebration of the 61st “Ernest Hemingway International Billfish Tournament” to be held on June 6th through 11th, 2011…”
The Cubans are very big on all the fancy pomp and circumstance, but to spare you the complete wordy invite – including all the misspellings – it boils down to being invited to the world’s longest running Marlin Tournament named for arguably one of the most famous big game fisherman in sport fishing history. Since 1994, I have gotten one of these invitations to the Tournament, along with birthday wishes, Mothers’ Day wishes, and Holiday wishes. Marina Hemingway represents Cuba at its most gracious. They certainly do want us to come back. Even if it is just business, shouldn’t we give them the benefit of the doubt? There’s talk in our current administration of change in our current travel restrictions. Will this affect travel by boat? Who knows?
Many private as well as Keys charter boat Captains spent the early nineties through about 2005 fishing this tournament and its sister tournaments, the Blue Marlin Tournament (usually in August or September) and the Wahoo Tournament held in November. The Cuban Tournaments differed in a couple of key ways. They would actually have a Captains’ meeting the night before and let the Captains decide the scoring system. They would in fact let us VOTE on whether it was a kill tournament (based on points per pound), or a tag and release system such as we have here for our billfish tournaments. Every morning was a shotgun start and you had to be inside the marina sea buoy by a certain time in order to qualify any of your catches for that day – no specific lines in or out time. For several years, they put “observers” onboard your vessel and kept an eye out so there wasn’t anything untoward going on. I have real video proof that that didn’t work so awfully well. And sometimes the observers themselves came under fire ?
Nothing’s perfect. However, keep in mind that if it was voted to be a kill tournament, nothing went to waste. The Cubans ate/used every part of every fish brought to the dock. The fish went directly from the weigh-in station (which made for some memorable pictures) to the cleaning table. I heard a lot of “all release” and “no kill” rhetoric while I was there, but it was always from the Captain of a U.S. flagged multi-million dollar sportfish with a freezer full of steaks and not once from a Cuban Captain with five hungry kids at home. And yes, I have eaten both blue and white marlin while in Cuba. In fact, if fixed right, it tastes very much like swordfish… Swordfish just doesn’t jump and put on a show when trolled up during a tournament… and that I unfortunately have never seen before.
For you to place in this tournament, you needed to have enough points to put you in the top three teams. One thing I greatly respect them for is that no money was offered to any of the winning teams. Only hand-carved trophies were given. It wasn’t a payout tournament (imagine that!). These tournaments are about bragging rights only. No gambling. The only time you heard of dailies or Calcuttas was between non-Cuban boats. There were always arguments about the tournaments being about killing or getting paid. They all had their point of view, but again, it was an invitational. I always figured that you either follow the rules of the host (host country), or stay home and complain. In 1999, it even went as far as a local semi-charter boat out of Key West that was holding the daily money, actually refusing to hand over the money because the winning boat killed the points fish rather than releasing it, and the sour grapes Captain decided that it shouldn’t be counted. That eventually got straightened out and a good lesson learned. Never come between a Ruskin fisherman and his winnings…
There were other times when the majority of Captains felt as if the outcome had been unduly influenced by any one of the vague methods of keeping points, time, allowing extra time for mechanical problems, sometimes the Calcutta was even given to the wrong boat, but those rumors only seemed to fuel the mantra of “wait ‘til next year!” And whatever pitiful amount of trade or pay you would receive for risking your boat (I should know!) just to make the crossing of 100 miles, to fish a loosely-run, however infamous, Billfish tournament where the best outcome might be a hand-carved trophy, bragging rights, and a bad case of “Guevara’s Revenge,” we all couldn’t wait for next year. So, as each email from Marina Hemingway finds its way into my inbox, I’ll say a silent prayer that maybe this year, things will change... and hopefully, I can once again be a part of the festivities!

How Would Houdini Have Done It?

CaptainCraig — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 00:53:55 +0000

Growing up, I wasn’t quite the athletic type. Sure, I played High School basketball, ran some track, and now with years of therapy behind, me I can finally admit it, I was a band fag. Although the coolest type of band fag, since it was technically called “percussion.” I played the snare drum in the marching band, hung out with the color guard (all girls), and got to wear a different uniform. If it is possible, a much cooler type uniform. Luckily in later years, I turned that skill into playing the guitar all around the U.S. including the Woodstock Reunion of 1999 and did a 9-year stint at the Bull and Whistle with the “Jack Nasty Band.” Significance? Well, besides lots of… shall we call them”dates,” I got used to being on stage and entertaining people. Anyway, this is how that leads to 25 years of being a fishing guide after a bit of explaining…
I apologize that this article was not really written for everyone just looking for a fishing report this month. I tend to aim my articles toward the few professionals left out there still grinding out a living in the charter business. Therefore, it is not just your run of the mill fishing report. No secrets about those nine, 50-pound Kings I live baited off the Cosgrove Hump last week. It’s not for those of you that are interested in what I caught dropping on the sub or what I snagged in 800 feet of water, what kind of fish, how big, how deep, where, when, what color drawers I was wearing when I did it, etc. This article is really aimed at those of us that have or will have spent the majority of our adult lives working at our main passion: being a for-hire fishing guide. Actually making a living going fishing. Sounds fantastic, doesn’t it? Like playing guitar for the Rolling Stones – simple. Lean against an amp, bang out a few chords on a guitar that was made before my grandfather was born and butt light cigarettes for an hour and a half. At least that’s what I see happening when I go see Mic and the boys play. Although, like fishing, I bet there is a bit more to it than what meets my eye; just as in being a fishing guide. Like… never being more than one step away from your cell phone ( they won’t leave a message and they will book with your friend), actually booking the trips (“Sure we catch Marlin all the time”), getting the deposit (“It’s just business, you know how it is”), determining the style of fishing we might be doing even though the trip you just booked is three months away (“There will be plenty of wreck action that day.”) and fixing an engine by a warm trouble light at 2 a.m. just to run a trip at 7:30 the next morning. However, that’s not part of the “act.” The charter does not see that part of the job because he does not want to see that part of the job! That’s not what he is paying for. If you want to spoil the experience for the charter and tell/show him that you are a working stiff just like he is, make sure you spend the entire trip complaining about all the crap that goes with the business that makes it a lot like…. well, his business. He wants to hear about the big one, and not just the big one that got away! “What’s the biggest fish you ever caught?” You had better have a good story at ready ‘cause he’ll ask. He will definitely ask where you are from and how long you have been doing this. He does want to hear about the four twins in bikinis you had jumping off the bow while anchored at the reef last week… even if it didn’t happen. And generally never does. Tell him how the 10-year-old kid whipped the 200-pound Lemon Shark in the channel and almost fell over the side just the other day. What I’m saying is that he is fishing with you for the experience of your job that is the fun part. If he wanted to hear you complain, he would just be there at your house making supper when you walked in the door that evening!
Too many guides think being a fishing guide is about catching fish. Seems obvious, but in my opinion it is shortsighted. Being a fishing guide is about entertaining the client. He’ll come back next year/month if he had a good time. It is an expensive hobby and usually they go with what they know. If they had fun last time, they don’t want to risk it on an unknown. Whether that was releasing 10 Barracudas or 10 Sailfish. You will generally know if they are having fun by the look on their face, they will be smiling. Also, give them a chance to talk. A lot of fishing trips are just therapy sessions with rods. Almost everyone likes to talk about themself, so let them; you are on their time.
Over the years, I have boiled the fishing guide “game” down to four basic factors. If you make all four factors come together, you will have a good trip and a repeat charter. In addition, with charters being rare nowadays, you cannot afford to run a crummy trip.
Four factors: Weather, Boat, Charter, and Fish.
None of these factors is directly under your control. But, if you bring them all together successfully, it’s smiles all around and fat propinos.
The boat you do have a certain amount of control over. Make sure that everything works, and that you have everything (how many times have you heard on the radio of a charter boat wanting to “borrow” a downrigger or bag of bait?) Keep it clean and it should smell clean too. Men care about the fishing; women want a clean toilet. Don’t wait until the motor won’t start until you change the batteries. The only thing that sucks more than getting towed in is not getting paid! Remember, the charter usually spends more time with the mate than with you. Blowing cigarette smoke has become a big issue with charters in the past few years, especially if they are on the verge of blowing chunks anyway. Needing a shave is macho for a mate. Needing a shave and a bottle opener isn’t macho and is a liability in this new age of charter fishing. Your tackle should be presentable. Rods are not one of the things to brag about how long they have been in the family.
The Charter you have generally never met. Find out what they want to fish for or at least what they will be happy with. Fishing, as we all know, is a game of odds. Don’t make it too hard on everyone involved. If it’s a half day with six anglers and they all want to be sure and bend a rod, suggest something appropriate. Be honest with them about the odds of catching what they want, I like to call it hopefully optimistic. Everyone wants to catch a Marlin, but usually when you tell them the odds, they will listen to you and your suggestions. That’s why they hired you as a guide in the first place! Also, let them be the one to break the “F” word barrier. You never know what is offensive to people. Let them set the standard before you chime in with your best Presidential joke. You would be amazed how many charters I have gotten over the years because of the previous Captain’s “bias.”
Weather. Well, not much you can do about that. However, if you know it is blowing a gale, drop a few hints to let them know what they are in for. Suggest some alternatives just in case they don’t feel so awful good heading East. “Hey, shark fishing can be really good this time of year,” or “It might get a little bumpy when we cross the reef.” Never use words like rough or terrible or wear your life-jacket while leaving the dock. Words like “Sporty” or “Challenging” soften the effect. Make it more of an adventure or challenge than a death-defying thrill ride. Always have a weather back-up plan A, B, C, etc. Ending with the question, “So, what are you guys doing tomorrow?” Once they are on the boat, you try your dandiest not to let them off just for the plain fact that they may not come back if things don’t improve or you are already booked. As Joe Mac says, “That’s a day you will never get back.” On the other hand, if you beat them up and make them slide around in each other’s vomit for a couple hours before hollering uncle, you definitely won’t ever get them back… so, no discounts!
Finally, that leaves us with the Fish part of our 4-part magic trick. This sort of goes along with the other three variables. Make sure your mate is on the same page as you. Do not assume he was listening during your briefing when you said you were going to stay in close to the islands and Shark fish so no one got sick in the 30-knot winds. You’ll definitely feel a bit overwhelmed as the anchor line comes tight and you look out past the stern and notice five nicely rigged rods with beautiful store bought Sailfish baits on them! Which brings us to DON’T PANIC! Even when there is a reason for panic. It sort of goes along with never let ‘em see you sweat. A lot can happen on a fishing charter (believe me, I know) but getting everyone stirred up will only make things more difficult. There’s no substitute for experience, but most problems can be prevented before the charter.
The fish don’t read the calendar so don’t assume that “Sailfish Season” really means Sailfish Season. Again, have a back-up plan, and a backup for that plan, etc. In addition, make sure that you and your mate both know that there is no such thing as a bad fish. There are good fish and nice fish. Your opinion doesn’t count here. If they are happy with the fish, so are you!
So folks, what all did we learn today? You’re not so much a fishing guide as you are an entertainer (but continue to write “fishing guide” on you IRS 1040 or it just makes them crazy!)
And by bringing together the four key elements of a fishing charter – Boat, Weather, Fish, and Anglers (somebody please figure out an anagram for this!) – make them all work together seamlessly, will make you feel not so much a Top Fishing Guide but more like Houdini himself!

This is a picture from a few years ago of Capt. Craig Eubank with Jacques Cousteau and Sylvia Earle (environmentalist and holder of World Deep Dive Record) in Orlando DEMA Conference. Not sure why they invited me, but the food was excellent!

A Whole New Ball Game…

CaptainCraig — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 16:41:00 +0000

New Age Fishing…

I suffer from a terrible affliction. It has haunted me since about the age of 27 when I was invited to play basketball with some friends over at Gerald Adams Grade School and after about 20 jump shots (no points scored) and 20 minutes of hard running, I realized my body was experiencing what is known to most laymen as “aging.” Shortness of breath, profuse sweating, rapid heart rate, and chronic general fatigue; my odometer was about to roll over! Now, I live with a 21-year-old mind trapped in a 50-year-old body. Radical change is not in my vocabulary.
I guess everyone that gets the experience of living beyond the physical age of 30 will experience these symptoms; not much way around them and it was not the actual pain that worried me that night after a stinging loss of a simple game of basketball to those half my age. Things were changing and I would just have to get used to it. There cannot be another single subject with as many cute anecdotes, creative viewpoints designed to initiate laughter, introspection, and to just over-all lessen the blow of getting older. Thank God. This would be my first step in getting to know him. ?
Now to bring this experience more into focus and to make my point for the fishing story at hand. Since 1985, I have been trained that there are certainly a lot of different types of fish in the Florida Keys, but that there are only two categories that mean anything: Keepers and Not. (Not keepers) We learned to be somewhat more sophisticated while making these differentiations, but they all still basically fell into two uses of the fish. There is a third category if you are in the charter business called, “Trophy” but we can cover that in a future article.
Throughout the years, we have begun to make our own (Commercial, Sport, Recreational, etc.) changes to the two basic categories with a lot of “help” from our friends at the Florida Marine Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries, Fish and Wildlife, Sanctuary Patrol, Coast Guard, etc. There are far more to name, but I am limited to one thousand words. ? Mostly it comes down to this: edible and non-edible. If it isn’t good to eat, might make you ill, or just plain makes you sick to look at, throw it back; it is not a keeper. This also helps the feeling of you being a “Sportsman.” Later at the bar, you can brag about how your crew didn’t kill everything. “Yeah, we might have had a basket full of eleven and a half inch Yellowtail Snappers, but look how many Bermuda Chubs we tossed back!” Surely, there must be some sort of cosmic credit given out for just such a selfless act! The other category is “KEEPERS.” The greatest form of sea-life a fish can achieve is to be a “Keeper.” They just cannot be praised enough. The difference between keeping a fish to later be displayed on the dock, dressed for dinner, paraded to the weigh station, held up for pictures, taken numerous times in and out of the cooler, or be laid on the dock and later scooped up with a spatula just to show potential clients what a day of fishing can produce is sometimes priceless. Most fishermen would trade a halyard full of flying fish flags for one good Grouper simply because a Grouper on the fillet table needs no explanation… at least by the crew. It is an ultimate Keeper. There is always a “trying-to-be-helpful” angler standing there behind you to explain the virtue and value of that fish as you take your time cleaning it to perfection and putting it ever so gently in a plastic Winn-Dixie tomato bag for the trek to one of the many “cook your catch” restaurants that line the boardwalks of coastal America. The Keeper is what drives the continued quest for fishing the next day and the next… The “released” fish (the non-Keeper) can only be talked about ad nauseum unless someone in the crew was sharp enough to have gotten a picture of the “released” fish before it was, well, released. We just didn’t need cameras in the past since we brought pretty much everything back to the dock for that “money” shot where the entire day’s catch was hung up on fish racks and shown off in order to book the next day’s charter. Once the charter was booked, we removed the Keepers and proceeded to process them and as far as the non-keepers, well we just did away with them. Either in the dumpster or back to the ocean from whence they came. After all, they weren’t Keepers!
Nowadays, things have really changed. I am not sure if it is because I am getting older so that things seem to change at light speed, or if things are changing at light speed and no one seems to be able to moderate the changes. We have our meetings and I try to attend them even though they are held during the hours most people are working and cannot attend. The powers-that-be seem intent on listening to our plight and shake their heads accordingly; I always feel that when I leave the courthouse or the Holiday Inn that there was some sort of progress made and that they certainly understood that taking our Keepers away will pretty much kill our business, but then I find in a very few months that that is exactly what they did.