Florida Keys - Islamorada Fishing

[Pike Hunter]

During the holidays, we took our family to Islamorada for fishing with Captain Roy Lindenback of Tiki Charter. Captain Roy grew up fishing with his father and his grandfather. A true 3rd generation captain.

We started out in the morning facing 3 to 5 footer swells however the large size of the boat made the trip comfortable for us. We began fishing by the reef and caught over 30 yellow tail snappers and couple barracudas. This got the kids excited which is just half of the battle.

We started trolling with live bait - ballyhoo on a large circle hooks with four lines out - 2 off the outriggers. Spinner rods were set with 20# lines! Within minutes, the sailfish got hooked and started dancing on top of the water. Took good 15 minutes before we brought the fish close to the boat. The 1st mate was unable to bring the sailfish to my lap for photo as the fish broke away. "Happy Birthday" was what the captain said to me. It is certainly a great birthday present from Neptune!

We managed to hook up several king mackerals throughout the day.

The smile on my childrens face is something I will always remember.

On the way back to the shore, the captain stopped and turned around the boat once he saw school of Cobia. We immediately hooked up Cobias and each one of us took fish. I was amazed at Cobia's fighting prowness.

We brought some yellow tails to the local restaurant and they cooked up a great meal for us.

All in all, we were blessed to be fishing out in Florida.

Happy New Year!

[Big Dave]

looks like fun and warm too!!! The smiles tell the tale.

[Deaf Fisherman]

Pike Hunter!

Congrats on that catch!

That was wicked sailfish picture, I really like it. Maybe we should do that during salmon run in lake O.

[momay4000]

Anthony,

Way to go! Awesome pics of you and your family! What a perfect way to spend a birthday......

Later bud,

- Chris

[Just Fishin']

Anthony, congrats on a great looking trip. Nice way to start the year.

[Yankee Troller]

One of these days! Nice job buddy! The kids will remember that for a while!

[Pike Hunter]

Thanks guys!

After the trip, I became more appreciative about our wonderful fishing in our backyard. Pound for pound, most of the saltwater fish pales in comparison to our superior salmon's fighting strength. I have to admit fighting the cobia was the most impressive experience in my recent fishing trip.

[tonyb]

Very cool report, the kids will remember that trip for a while, smiles tell it all

Nice Birthday Sail for you as well and some beauty Cobias. I recall reading that the Cobia will often hang around with larger Stingrays and Manta Rays. The reason is because the rays root up clams, molluscs and they LOVE crabs. So a large portion of the Rays diet is crabs, and subsequently the Cobias will feed opportunitically on crabs that are trying to escape from the ray. So much so, that the meat of Cobia is often said to taste a lot like crab.

Did you try any of the Cobia and did it taste like Crab?

I love eating blue crabs, but they're such a pain to clean. It would be awesome to eat a fillet of crab (Cobia) so to speak

Thanks for sharing.

Tony

[Pike Hunter]

Tony - had I known the cobia would taste like a crab meat, I would ve brought them to the restaurant right away for them to cook and serve us for dinner!

The captain told me that hes gonna feed cobia to his family on New Years day.

I was thinking about the halibut and how it tasted so good. Halibut has its share of eating king crabs in the Bering sea.

Thanks for the tip.

[Fishtails]

That's awesome Anthony! What a birthday, thanks for sharing. It looks like ya had a GREAT time with the family!! Islamorada is my second favorite area along the keys, behind Key West. I head down to Key West Feb 12 - 19. Hope to get plenty of fishing time in.

[Pike Hunter]

Ahoy Rod, best of luck on your fishing trip in the keys. Please do share about your trip once you get back up north. Tight lines.

[ray koziatek]

ima here and waiting rod the pond has been flat this year only made it out 7 days this year so far..oh wait today is the 7th ,guess 100% ant to bad of a record...saved a few lobsters for ya too but my tanks should be back from hydro and filled tomorrow,then its spearing time.

[Fishtails]

Sweet, I should be driving right past you at about noon on the 12th Ray, and I'll be really thirsty!!

[ray koziatek]

ya got my number call

[FLXTroutman]

I love how you can bring your catch to a restaurant and they will cook it up for you. The spread of salad and fried filets looks delicious. I was in Mexico with family once and did the same thing with a mahi mahi.