We had family visit here for the last few days and they wanted to catch some fish.  The plan for Monday was the go to the faithful shallow reef edge spot that so many people have discovered and try for the hot mangrove bite that has been present there.  Sadly, over time the fish there have become fewer and smaller as anglers have picked away at the once bountiful harvest.  Time has taken a toll at the main hot spot.  Some 20 boats were anchored over a realatively small pice of bottom.  Its a long run from KCB and this time it was not worth the effort.  We caught a few fish but only one of the mangroves which were our target species.  The flat line yellowtail bite there did not happen.

So we pulled anchor and moved back up the reef to our regular shallow edge spot in 37' or water.  Here too my spot was taken by another boat so we anchored nearby but didn't have the good bottom that I wanted.  We fished 15# & 20# spinners on the bottom with 1/2 weights or 3/8 oz jigheads.  Baits were live pilchards and large shrimp.  Over the next few hours we put together a good mix of snappers, hogfish and two kinds of mackerel.  A large bonito even smoked the 15# rig and gave us a great fight, but we landed it.  We only took one yellowtail.  The reef temp is still cold running from 67-69 degrees.  Hopefully, winter is over and the cold,cold fronts are gone.  I'm ready for spring and the tarpon, dolphin and a stong yellowtail reef bite.

Cory and Laura with kingfish taken on 15# spin gear

Cousin Billy with his first hogfish.  I'm telling him to hold it closer to the camera to make it look bigger.

Cory with mangrove

Paivi & Cory with some of the muttons taken