Key West, Memorial Day Weekend

[surfdog]

nice wanye, that pier is pretty cool, anything you want there. snook tarpon, sharks. my wife hooked a tarpon there but the hook pulled out as i was pulling it up, man was she pissed i didnt know i married a sailor heading back in Nov. cant wait

did you find the hobie dealer on stock isl.?

[chimo]

Surf, saw a snook swimming around and a small shark come over the rail. Didn't look the hobie dealer up but rented a cobra explorer today. One nice grouper, a 12" cuda and one other tiny grouper. Missed a bunch of bites :/ and had what I think was a big cuda slice a bait up right next to the yak. Getting some sleep and an early start in the morning

[chimo]

Caught a couple Spanish Mac's, another small cuda and what might have been a small rudder fish this morning! Had to get off the water to get ready for a wedding but I'm going to hit it hard the next couple days missing all kinds of bites on fluke style baits on jig heads..... Think I need a stinger hook

[surfdog]

nice, a 1/8 to 1/4 jig head and a piece of meat will catch almost anything there. yellow tail and jacks will hit the pier in the mornings and tear up the thread fins

[chimo]

So it was quite the trip Din't catch anything huge but got a few new species and had alot of fun figuring it out on my own. New species for me while I was there Tarpon, spanish mackerel, red and goliath grouper, mangrove snapper (I think), barracuda, and something I haven't identified. Also caught a bunch of baby hogfish and some pinfish. Missed or lost a couple big hits One broke the bill off my xrap! Another popped 20lb braid on the hookset. Looking forward to the next time whenever that happens! And staying away from the cobra explorer kayak

Spanish Mac trolling x-raps


Baby Goliath Grouper


Red Grouper ( I think )


My biggest Barracuda


Not sure what this is


one of the sunsets

[surfdog]

looks like a real good trip!! the one looks more like a snowy grouper than a goliath. heading back in november cant wait. might take a 2 day tortuga fishing trip this time

[Shield]

Thanks for the pictures Wayne.

[Shady]

Nice picture awesome job on the new species! I think the mystery fish might be some kind of a wrasse?

[chimo]

looks like a real good trip!! the one looks more like a snowy grouper than a goliath. heading back in november cant wait. might take a 2 day tortuga fishing trip this time

Never even heard of a snowy grouper... Googled it a second ago and it looks like snowy's usually have just spots instead of the blotches All I know is it was fun to catch on my 6'6" spinning rod Between him, the tarpon and the salt I now have one jacked up spinning reel though!

Shady, Just googled wrasse. Some of them look similar, others don't. I really don't have a clue.

[surfdog]

yeah after looking at the grouper logs its more like a gag grouper. they all make a good sandwich

[J.A. Veil]

I am no expert on grouper speciation. I caught several small (~12") gag groupers from a pier in Sarasota in April 2011. Here are the photos. Maybe they will help your ID.