“Find a spot and stay put…. running at night can be dangerous.” In this instance, it’s 5:00 AM and we are about to run 65 miles W/NW of Key West on the Compass Rose with our good friend Capt. Mike Weinhofer. This was one of the more interesting fishing trips. We leave at dark and blow out into the Gulf searching for shrimp boats. These folks are out at sea for weeks at a time,working all night, finishing and sorting their catch, then separating out the “trash,”which is our gold. The “trash” represents bait and assorted other items brought up with the shrimp. We race out to sea to get to them before they finish their work and turn in to sleep.
It’s most basic of barters…. we seek baskets of bait and they get beer. You can see the simple transaction in the photos. More importantly, their work through the night has stirred things up. A fish feeding frenzy is common behind the boats… sharks, bonita, porpoise, and, our objective of the day, Black Fin Tuna, are all mixed together feasting on the shrimp boat left-overs and our bait.
The action was non-stop and one heck of a work-out! The adventure netted nine Black Fins running about 20-25 pounds each. We also brought in a bunch of Bonita, and Lemon and Black Tip sharks. Needless to say, with fresh ahi tuna, wasabi and soy, we had our own feast! Ah…just a note, we only keep what we will use or we give it away. As you might expect, coming to the docks with fresh tuna made us lots of friends!
