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Weekly catches with photos from our fishing charters out of Key West.

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You know it’s going to be a good day when the first drop of the trip brings in a monster Mutton Snapper. These larger Muttons fight incredibly hard. The first thing this fish did was swim around some structure and got the weight tangled into the bottom. Luckily, we were able to pull it out and land this fish! Not a bad way to start the trip! Not to mention, this was his first Mutton Snapper ever!

#Fishing #Fish #Seafood #Fun #Outdoors #OnTheWater #Boat #Ocean #saltwaterfishing
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One of the coolest fish out there, the African Pompano. These fish have some of the most crazy colors. Not only that, they tend to swim in schools and fight extremely hard. One of the best indicators that you have hooked into one is when they make their initial run, it is extremely long in a horizontal distance. They don’t really care so much as to stay near the bottom as they do to just cover ground. It’s always a treat when we get on these amazing fish

#Fishing #Boats #Wild #Wildlife #WildlifePhotography #Outdoors
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Stuck him in the lip. This black grouper didn’t even see it coming! 50lb flouro babyyyyyy! #fishing #outdoors #grouper #drytortugas ...

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It’s funny, but the areas that have truly big mutton snapper like these, now have an extremely diminished population of the invasive lionfish. Not sure what happened there, but they definitely eat them. You can see the sore spots on their stomach, just like the red grouper. Either lionfish became less toxic with the diet change, and the Atlantic or their predators gained and immunity. Either way it seems like the fears of what lionfish were going to do to the Atlantic once they spread is balancing itself to some degree. They are still out there, but whenever we send cameras to the bottom, you can definitely see much less than there was at the beginning of their invasion. These have been our observations, but Does anybody here have any observations on the topic of lionfish since the population boom from their introduction? Would love to hear from you. ...

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Beast mode activated! Cobia season is finally here, and we couldn’t be more excited. We caught this one on the surface using a popper with our 16lb @blackfin_rods and @finsbraids.

It’s fantastic to see the size of these fish returning after years of smaller fish. We were starting to feel like maybe it was gonna be the sad new normal. Last season, we hooked fish in the 80lb range and spotted even bigger ones that we couldn’t close the deal on. What’s your personal best?

Check out our latest episode where we catch Cobia in the Gulf of Mexico behind the shrimp boats with Josh Jorgensen from BlacktipH 👉🏻 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Zuu50Eq_v-c&pp=ygUXYmxhY2t0aXBoIGNvYmlhIGZpc2hpbmc%3D.
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That @seahunterboats Bow Flare keeping us Dry! 😍

#ocean #boats #sealife #scary #outdoors #satisfying #travel
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Black grouper baby!!! Still one of my favorite eating and best battles on the reef. 25 pounds and under are my favorite. The big boys 50 pounds and up I think I would rather release if it were just me eating them!

Fun facts 👉🏻 Black grouper (Mycteroperca bonaci) exhibit a form of sequential hermaphroditism known as protogynous hermaphroditism. This means that they are born as females and can change into males later in life.

- Age or Size: The transition from female to male typically occurs when they reach a certain size rather than a specific age. When the population of males decreases, larger females can change sex to maintain the social structure. This change is often triggered by social cues rather than strictly by age, though older, larger fish are more likely to transition.

- Size: Generally, black groupers can change sex when they reach around 3 to 4 feet in length, although this can vary.

Therefore, black grouper do not turn into females after a certain age or size; instead, they start as females and can turn into males. So here’s my question for some of you guys that have been fortunate enough to catch big ones. If you checked, on your biggest black grouper, how big and male or female? It would actually be really interesting to hear.
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Now that’s a Yellow Edge Grouper! This stud did everything he could to stay on the bottom, however, he just couldn’t out perform our @daiwausa Seaborg @blackfin_rods combo. Which is tastier, a Snowy Grouper, or Yellow edge Grouper? ...

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When a big wahoo is coming over the rails, you’d better watch your toes! These fish are showing up for the winter season and there’s nothing more exciting than seeing them hit the deck. Are you eating this fish raw or cooked?

#wahoo #sashimi #trolling #lures #bait #fishing #wow
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What a couple of beauties! These Mutton snappers are the kind you’ll find thriving on any healthy reef in the Caribbean. They mainly feed on a mix of crustaceans and fish. One fascinating thing about them is that you can lure a school along with you by keeping small bits of food in the area. I’ve developed some effective techniques for this and have managed to lead schools of Mutton Snapper several miles. They truly are intriguing fish in that regard.

It’s interesting to note that when you dive near a shipwreck or a rocky area, Mutton snappers often patrol the outer edges, blending into the sandy bottom. Their orange hues become nearly indistinguishable at depth, making them look like ghosts as they vanish into the sand. Initially, you might mistake them for smaller fish, only realizing their true shape as they move. I’ve often wondered if this camouflage aids them in hunting.

In places like Fort Jefferson within the national park, where they aren’t subjected to spearfishing, Mutton snappers approach with remarkable curiosity. However, outside park boundaries, they tend to keep their distance.

I’ve never been a supporter of area closures for various reasons. It’s a contentious topic; when the government restricts an area, they rarely reopen it. Some argue that closures allow fish stocks to spawn and recover, while others believe it just shifts pressure to adjacent areas. What are your thoughts on area closures as a fishery management strategy? Do you support them or oppose them? I’d love to hear your perspective!
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When is black grouper woke up, I wonder if he thought his day would end up like this? They really are the kings of the Reef though. When I usually find a brand new spot, it holds several black grouper. Then we catch a giant female and the spot typically goes downhill from there, but the death phase usually looks like the following. Big black grouper- if continued to catch eventually it turns from big black grouper to big mutton snappers. That will last for a while and eventually those big mutton snappers turned into small mutton snappers. If continued to take day after day, in that state, you can kill a spot that won’t come back for a decade or more. Why is this? Because fish draw more fish and as a whole, a migrating school of fish has a collective memory. If you take too many fish out of the school, you wipe out the memory that brings them back. This is why we take one or two and move on. Over the course of a calendar year if the spot begins to show signs of being overfished, we check it off the list and don’t come back to it until the following season. This is one of the biggest reasons we are so protective over our waypoint list. If somebody else is coming back to that spot without my knowing and taking some of those fish, then I lose my ability to effectively manage that crop of fish. I currently rotate well over 10,000 waypoints just in the Waters surrounding Key West and the dry Tortuga‘s. Because we have so many places to fish this allows us to come in with fairly large catches of several hundred pounds of fish per day without damaging the fishery. It’s something that we are mindful of each and every day though. It would be very wise for the folks managing our fisheries to work with Captains like us that have been a part of this fishery for generations. The knowledge and understanding of how it works is Key to responsible management. Do you trust our government to do it better? ...

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There’s no better feeling than throwing the net and feeling it jitter on the way down to the bottom of the ocean, knowing you’re about to have a great day fishing.

#fishing #castnet #bait #wow #satisfying #satisfyingvideos #ocean #fish
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Crushing the red snapper. Big beautiful fish with the biggest at 28lbs on the dot. Plenty of grouper too, more pics coming soon! Hope you guys got a chance to get out here and hit it before red snapper season closes on the first of the year. 🏃🏼‍♂️‍➡️ What would you think would be a good bag and bag limit for red snapper if they opened up the season year round? ...

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What are you doing in this situation?!👇👇👇 Can you believe this amberjack would eat a snapper of this size?!

#fishing #fun #wildlife #nature #bigfish #amazing #surprise #wild #beach
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There is a new Red Snapper season that runs from now all the way until December 31! If you want to get in on this last chance season, COME HOLLA!

DM us or visit www.DelphFishing.com for more information!

#fishing #fun #red #snapper #food #outdoors #paradise
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Don’t fall in!!! 😱😵 When the Sharks won’t allow you to deploy your motors! Have you ever seen them this bad!? What are you doing in this situation?!

#Sharks #Fishing #Boats #Ocean #Wildlife #WildlifePhotography #Outdoors #Travel #Vacation #Scary
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This fish was well over 45-50 lbs—this was one of the largest American red snappers we’ve ever caught, but sadly, we lost it to the tax man in the end. So, where do we go from here with these sharks? What’s the most effective way to tackle this issue? It’s definitely spiraled out of control, don’t you think?

Something I’ve been considering for quite some time is the idea of reclaiming control of our fisheries from the National Marine Fisheries Service and returning management responsibility to the states. The NMFS has a budget of nearly $1 billion, yet they’ve implemented drastic measures under the Magnuson-Stevens Act that shut down large portions of our fisheries, claiming they’re in trouble and on the decline.

But why aren’t we asking the critical question: hasn’t NMFS been managing these fisheries all along? If they truly have all the answers, why are our fisheries in such poor condition, and why should we trust them to fix it? Rather than relying on a single central authority, I believe in the potential of competitive state management. From my experience, state agencies are often more responsive and better attuned to local conditions, as well as more effective at collaborating with local fishermen.

Additionally, it would be beneficial to have a unified set of regulations to follow. Here in Key West, we face at least four different sets of rules—Gulf, Atlantic, State, and Federal—which creates confusion for everyone involved. I’d love to hear your thoughts: do you think our states could manage their respective waters more effectively?
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‼️GRAPHIC WARNING‼️ this big fat black. Grouper decided to take a swipe at my jig, even though he was completely full already! What do you think this fish is?!

#Fishing #grouper #BigFish #Fun #Jigging #SlowPitchJigging #Eat #Bite #wildlifeplanet
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Does anybody know what this fish is? Wrong answers only!

We caught this Alien-like Fish on the bottom of the Ocean and about 800 feet of water. When you pull up something like this, it just makes you wonder what else might be lurking in the depths of the Sea!

#alien #deepsea #diving #discover #wild #scary #creature
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Muttons in Key West

 

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Blackfin Tuna On Fly

 

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Dry Tortugas Fishing: A Drone’s View

 

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Dry Tortugas Underwater Part 1

 

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Dry Tortugas Underwater Part 2

 

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Dry Tortugas Bluefish Bait Ball

 

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Key West: Taking It Easy

 

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