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00:00On this week's World of Saltwater Fishing, we're off Cudjoe in the fabulous Florida Keys.
00:04We're going to use our Simrad radar and some Ross Fishing Forecast Analysis Intel to locate the Mahi.
00:10And I'll tell you what, we crushed them. Stay tuned.
00:42Six back and familiar haunts, Cudjoe in the lower Florida Keys, one of our favorite fishing spots.
00:48Now, what separates Cudjoe in the lower Florida Keys from some of the other major Keys destinations,
00:54it's a little bit more quiet in terms of fishing pressure and people and accommodations,
01:01which means a lot more fish if you know exactly where to go and how to do it.
01:06And in this episode, I'm joined by Leanne Lopez.
01:09Now, Leanne hails from New Jersey. Her father is a charter boat captain.
01:12Ever since I was a little girl, I was on the headboat.
01:17My dad and I had a boat. We were fluking.
01:20And she spent a lot of time with her father.
01:21In fact, Leanne led as captain an all-girls fishing team to win a major white marlin tournament jersey.
01:28And I took my love for the water down to Miami, Florida, where I went to college.
01:33I went to the University of Miami for five years, and I continued fishing down here.
01:39So I had a winning combination in her, and we're going to leave Cudjoe in the lower Florida Keys to
01:44locate fish.
01:56The plan was to run directly off of Cudjoe to a couple of wrecks.
02:01The time frame was October, and we were hoping that the blackfins would arrive on those wrecks,
02:08and we could drop down flutter jigs to catch them.
02:11We were going to run right out to one or two wrecks.
02:13If we didn't find any blackfins, we would continue on running way offshore, 900 to maybe 950 or 1,000
02:20feet of water,
02:21and hook the boat to the west and run down Key Westway with the objective of trying to find anything
02:27floating,
02:28birds working on their radar, weed lines with life under it, and of course, the ultimate goal, mahi.
02:33But once we hit the wrecks, dialed in our Simrad fish finder, and to our sort of expectations,
02:42a little bit early in the year, we didn't see hardly any blackfin tune activity whatsoever.
02:46But you've got to take your shot.
02:47We were on top of the wreck.
02:48I said, let's give this about maybe 20 minutes tops, and we're going to move on.
02:51We drop our flutter jigs down.
02:53I get mine all the way to the bottom.
02:57Take two or three, lifts on that rod, and bam, I'm on.
03:01This was right off the bottom.
03:02Let's see what we have.
03:05And we got ourselves.
03:09It's a rainbow runner?
03:10Yeah.
03:11Oh, get the net.
03:12That is a big rainbow.
03:14That's an amazing fit.
03:17All right, you ready, Lynn?
03:18Hang on.
03:19I'll get you.
03:19I'll turn them for you.
03:20Hang on.
03:25Ready?
03:26One, two, three, up.
03:27Oh, come down the cockpit with me.
03:29Come back here.
03:30Can we get this long on him?
03:31That's a beautiful rainbow runner.
03:33That's a huge rainbow runner.
03:34Oh, man.
03:36Okay, good job on that net.
03:38Good job for you.
03:38I saw that shark coming up.
03:40I don't want to say the S word there because we are in the wreck, and it is a lot
03:46of them
03:46around.
03:46Excellent job on that net.
03:48That's a beauty.
03:49I saw that shark come up here.
03:50Yeah.
03:51And I dropped this.
03:52I was on the back side of the wreck.
03:54It hit bottom, and I took about four workings in the rod, and bam, I got drilled.
03:59And so I went like there's no tomorrow because the wrecks, and I don't want to use the S word,
04:04I didn't say it when I was fighting it.
04:05No.
04:05But we saw one following it up.
04:07Yeah, but you got it.
04:09First fish of the day.
04:10It is.
04:10Do you want to hold it?
04:11I'll even get a picture of you.
04:12Sure.
04:13How about that?
04:13Sure.
04:14As they say, to preserve the moment.
04:31All right, let's get it right on the ice, and I'll put a layer on top.
04:36We boated the Rainbow Runner, and at that point in time, we had excellent sashimi.
04:42The Rainbow Runner is an incredibly delicious fish, and this was a large one by Florida
04:47Key standards.
04:48We had some fish there, and then the bite kind of died off, and then we kept moving offshore.
04:53George Fovaromo's World of Saltwater Fishing is proudly brought to you by Penn.
04:58Let the battle begin.
05:00Mako.
05:00You'll find them where the fish are.
05:02Bass Pro Shops and Cabela's.
05:04Your adventure starts here.
05:06Mercury.
05:07George, we'll be right back.
05:10With sharks and other toothy species cutting us off on nearly every drop, it was time to
05:14put our main plan into action.
05:16That's right.
05:17It's mahi time.
05:18I'm fishing with Captain Leanne Lopez off Cudjoe in the lower Florida Keys.
05:22We gave this place about a half hour.
05:24The black fins aren't around.
05:26We got lucky with the big Rainbow Runner, and rather than sit here and catch whatever,
05:30think barracudas or kings, and feed them to the sharks, let's keep going.
05:35We got to stick with our goal.
05:36We are all rigged to go after mahi.
05:39I had rigged 34 weedless ballyu combinations and probably about maybe eight or so regular
05:49ballyu where the hooks are outward.
05:52There are two things in the back of my mind that I had to sort of justify this run way
05:57down
05:57well beyond Key West was a Ross fishing forecast analysis that showed this huge eddy that was
06:07due south of the Marquesas.
06:09If we got down that far and that eddy didn't produce and mahi were scarce, I wasn't going
06:15to let the day go to total waste because in the back of my mind was point number two, I
06:20would hook a right at that point and run north to the Marquesas and hit the wrecks and the
06:25rock piles there and have fun catching groupers and snappers.
06:28But alas, but alas, the radar picks up some bird activity.
06:34And lo and behold, here it is, the weed lines that any mahi or dolphin angler dreams about.
06:42This is right where the eddy is.
06:44And I said, everything just came alive.
06:47Let's put two flat lines out, weedless ballyu because the weeds were everywhere.
06:51And let's start dragging through these weed lines.
06:54Here we go.
06:55We found the mahi.
06:57I've got to tell you, one of the secrets, not even technical.
07:02Look at that.
07:03Break out a sandwich when it usually happens.
07:06I don't even muster my mouth, do I?
07:08You got many of them.
07:09I got to look good for the audience, man.
07:12What are you laughing at?
07:14All right.
07:19All right, let's see what we got.
07:20So, Liam, it's going to be you.
07:22Yeah, it is.
07:22That was good when we started jumping.
07:24He took a lot off.
07:26Had to get the weedless ballyu to get through all this.
07:28Oh, yeah.
07:29And when you get a clean shot, Liam.
07:31Mm-hmm.
07:32All right, take your time.
07:35Just go right above the dorsal.
07:37Lead you in there.
07:37Right above the dorsal.
07:41There you go.
07:42Swing it in.
07:47Fantastic.
07:49Nice.
07:49Oh, man, we're working it.
07:53Coming to open that box.
07:54Okay.
07:55We got our first mahi in the box, and I'll tell you what, that was just the beginning.
08:01You want to put the fish in the box?
08:03Yeah, we got to do it on film, though.
08:05Okay.
08:05Just the hauling it off.
08:06Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, what?
08:07He's on.
08:08Oh, let me do it.
08:09Let me do it.
08:10Let me.
08:10Oh, okay.
08:11Let's take it.
08:12All right.
08:13Here, Liam.
08:15Dolphin craziness.
08:16Don't touch your step.
08:19Whoa.
08:21I guess I got to trade places to get the gaff on him.
08:24No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
08:25I got to get a...
08:26No, no, just get bait in the water.
08:28I got some bait here, too.
08:30They're going to eat it.
08:30Like, right now.
08:31Here we go.
08:33I think literally in a second.
08:34Okay, he's going to let him swallow it.
08:37Oh, okay.
08:38Whoa, whoa, whoa, I don't want to mess you up.
08:39He's coming off the back.
08:40Excuse me, Rob.
08:40Whatever.
08:41I'll just switch.
08:42Oh, I think I'm going this side of the boat now.
08:45You all right, Liam?
08:46Yeah, yeah, yeah.
08:47I'm just saying.
08:48Yeah.
08:48All right.
08:49You're going to keep him in the water?
08:50No, I'm going to bring this one in, and then yours can be the one in the water.
08:53All right.
08:53Let me send mine out, then I'll help you with the gaff, okay?
08:56Hang on, hang on.
08:56It's okay.
08:58Oh, they're all over the place.
08:59It's okay.
09:04Okay.
09:06This one's just going to...
09:07Hey, grab another bait.
09:07Grab another spinner, put a bait on.
09:09They're all over here.
09:10This one's out already.
09:11You're probably going to get...
09:12Which one?
09:13All right, go.
09:15Okay.
09:16Let's go to wait.
09:16You see that Jersey girl?
09:18Watch the microphone.
09:19Okay.
09:24So, I was like, let's go.
09:26But I hooked another Mach-E.
09:28I put it in the rod holder to keep that fish next to the boat.
09:31I grabbed another live bait.
09:32I went to the bow, threw it out, hooked one, kept it in the water, then went back to my
09:36first
09:36rod and brought that fish in and did that like five times.
09:40I'm seeing these dolphins starting sliding back to me and say, wow, this Jersey girl is
09:43something else.
09:44Frigate birds are a highly prized find among offshore anglers, especially when low to the
09:49water and in full predatory mode.
09:51Having the largest wing area to body weight ratio of any bird, frigates seek out feeding
09:55game fish where they forage upon vulnerable baits the likes of flying fish as well as
10:00scraps from ensuing blitzes.
10:02Frigate birds sleep in flight and, surprisingly, lose their ability to lift off and fly if wet.
10:07Best bet, when low in the water, cast a live bait under them or simply drop a value far
10:12back and troll by them.
10:15In ArtByPasta.com, from Catch the Canvas, rendering.
10:18Catch the Canvas, baby.
10:20George Foveromo's World of Saltwater Fishing is proudly brought to you by
10:41It was a long run, but the Ross report was right on the money.
10:45That Laura Jetty due south of the Marquesas is producing in a big way.
10:49I'm with Captain Leanne Lopez.
10:50Ross has also partnered up with Simrad to offer a subscription-based service called
10:55FishCast, powered by Ross.
10:57Built exclusively for Simrad displays and fully integrated with CMAP charts, FishCast,
11:03developed by Fathom Science, combines AI-enabled technology using over a decade of Ross fishing
11:09forecast analysis hotspot locations with real-time oceanographic data to produce an optimal catch
11:16location map shown where the better fishing conditions are located.
11:19Users can scroll through real-time and forecasted cloud-free sea surface temperatures, ocean colors,
11:26frontal boundaries, and optimal catch location layers for upcoming hours and days.
11:31Users can define a custom search radius of up to 120 miles from their home port.
11:36So here we go.
11:39We found the dolphin.
11:41No need to put the big five lines spread out.
11:43We're just dragging two flat lines, and we start getting doubles on the dolphin.
11:50Singles and doubles.
11:51We're in them solidly.
11:52And we look around.
11:53I hear Leanne, here's the school, here's the school.
11:55I look up.
11:56I think I was down in the cockpit unhooking the dolphin and getting a fish box.
11:59I look up, and I see blue and greens.
12:02And I say, what a beautiful sight in that blue water.
12:04Here comes the school.
12:06Okay, we're tangled now.
12:07Oh, yeah, we're crossed.
12:08All right, we got it.
12:09I got it.
12:09Let's get me get up there.
12:10I'm going to go to rod tip to rod tip.
12:11Let me get up there with you.
12:12Okay, am I under you?
12:13No, we're going to find out.
12:14Rod tip to rod tip.
12:15Let's go.
12:16I am.
12:16Yeah, okay, I got it.
12:17Okay, cool.
12:18We're good.
12:19I learned that in geometry class.
12:21Let me get out of your way.
12:22No, no, no.
12:22I don't have you.
12:23Okay.
12:28Okay.
12:35Oh, that's a big dolphin.
12:37What do you mean?
12:37Oh, look at a shark.
12:38Watch out.
12:39I got to lean this one.
12:40Watch out.
12:45Here we go.
12:46This is, yeah, winging it.
12:47I can't lean this one.
12:48Here we go.
12:49Oh, thank you.
12:52And Chuck saves it.
12:55Look at that.
12:59Oh, old Sergeant Charles Gonzalez.
13:01We're a videographer underwater.
13:03Drone guy extraordinaire.
13:05There's a shark.
13:06There's another McDonough and there's a shark.
13:07And here comes a shark after my hookfish after the other one.
13:10I'm trying to take a note at Leanne's book, trying to flip this thing in with minus the
13:14gaff.
13:15I missed it.
13:16Flipping it first time and tell you what.
13:18Here.
13:18Big one right here, Leanne.
13:19Oh, yeah, right here.
13:21Anyway.
13:22Here we go.
13:23Yep.
13:23Got him.
13:24Money.
13:25No, he didn't.
13:26I'll talk to you when I'm not as nervous.
13:51He's out there looking for dolphin.
13:56Man, my kind of anger.
13:57After a wild mahi blitz, Leanne and I take a breather and regroup.
14:01And this land's a perfect time to tell you all about some of the gems located in the lower
14:06Florida Keys near Kudjo.
14:08The National Key Deer Refuge was established in 1957 to protect the endangered key deer,
14:14which are the smallest subspecies of white-tailed deer found throughout much of North America.
14:19They became isolated from mainland deer when sea levels rose after the last ice age.
14:24Most abundant from Big Pine Key to Sugarloaf Key, pea deer are quite comfortable around
14:29humans.
14:30Again, they're protected, and it's illegal to hunt and even feed them.
14:33Via Honda State Park is known for its sandy beach, camping, and numerous eco-oriented
14:38experiences that include kayaking, bird watching, nature tours, and more.
14:43There's even a boat ramp to support those enjoying the park.
14:46However, come May and June in particular, some of the best tarpon fishing in the Florida Keys
14:51occurs right here.
14:52It's common to have boats positioned by the bridge spans with anglers drifting back live
14:57crabs and fin fish for tarpon.
14:59And for accommodations, I highly recommend Parmer's Resort on Little Torch Key.
15:03Parmer's is long known for its cottages, suites, efficiency studios, and rooms interspersed
15:09amongst a relaxing, low-key island environment.
15:12Situated on Pine Channel, Parmer's offers paddleboard and kayak rentals, dockets for
15:17small to mid-sized boats, and a 90-foot beach for the landlubbers.
15:20There's even a restaurant right down the street, Kiki Sandbar.
15:25Mercury Performance Stats, Lower Florida Keys.
15:28Seas, Calm, Power, Triple Mercury Verado 400-horsepower V10 Outboards.
15:34Props, Mercury Revolution X, 25-inch pitch.
15:38Total miles, 140.
15:40Consistent cruise, 4,500 RPMs.
15:43Speed, 48 miles per hour.
15:45Total fuel burn, 144 gallons.
15:51George Poveromo's World of Saltwater Fishing is proudly brought to you by
15:55The Florida Keys and Key West.
15:57Come as you are.
15:59ACR, the leader in marine safety electronics.
16:02Float on boat trailers.
16:03Make it easy.
16:04Make it dependable.
16:05Make it float on.
16:07VNC, your expert in hooks.
16:10Art by Pasta.
16:12Real life art.
16:13Visit artbypasta.com.
16:16It was an unreal day.
16:18You would just hit fish on one patch and you would continue on to another one.
16:23Again, endless patches.
16:24You pick up fish there.
16:25Move on to the next one.
16:27Pick up fish there.
16:28I don't know if we ever circled back around the patch because we didn't need to.
16:31These patches were everywhere.
16:33So were the dolphins.
16:33Put a pair of weedless valley hooes out, dragging down the weeds again and bam.
16:38This one gets eaten again.
16:41And we'll see if they bring up any more, or this one brings any more fish.
16:55All right.
16:56Can you flip him in for me?
16:57Yeah.
17:03Let's do a measurement on him real quick.
17:10Let's add another mahi to the box.
17:12Oh, it's looking good.
17:14Look how good that box looks.
17:18It was pretty good because we caught singles most of the time and we caught them trolling.
17:23They didn't really want the live baits, but every 20, 30 minutes we catch a single or sometimes a double.
17:30Hooked up.
17:32There it goes.
17:34Put on the boat.
17:37Put on the boat.
17:43All right.
17:44Here comes a little bend right here.
17:47One, two, three.
17:51Got him.
17:53She's better than a gaff.
17:55Come here, baby.
17:58She can fish me anytime she wants.
18:00Boy, he hit like a ton of bricks.
18:02Maybe the dragon's just like, yeah.
18:04Flip it.
18:06Yeah.
18:07Okay, grab it.
18:09Oh.
18:09Oh.
18:15I'll keep going because we've got one in play here.
18:39We ended our day around 2.30.
18:42Less than biting.
18:42We could have been there and kept catching more, but we had to run all the way back to
18:46Cujo and clean the boat, clean the fish.
18:49I cleaned like 15 mahi.
18:50So there was a lot of things to do.
18:52So it was time to go home, but what an amazing day.
18:56After a successful day of mahi fishing, we racked the rods and embarked on the 60 some
19:00odd mile run back to Cujo.
19:02Once the mark six was docked, the chores began.
19:05Leanne took our catches to the fish clean table and I broke out the star bright for the
19:10much needed cleanup work.
19:11Later that evening, it was time to enjoy our bounty.
19:13Leanne grilled the mahi while production team member Charles Gonzalez served up the rainbow
19:19runner sashimi style.
19:21Rob the sweet green poured the pappas and captured the action around the dining table.
19:25What an amazing way to polish off a fantastic day of mahi fishing.
19:29Leanne Lopez, what an experience fishing with her.
19:34All right.
19:34Three of my favorite things from the day.
19:36I got to start the day loading the wells full of pilchard.
19:41Then we loaded up on mahi.
19:44There was a super fun period where we got in a school of mahi.
19:47I was flipping mahi over the bow.
19:49Blood everywhere.
19:50My clothes were covered in blood.
19:52So much fun.
19:53And then we ended the day grilling the mahi, eating together as a crew.
19:57Honestly, what more could you ask for?
19:59Just fast, aggressive and proved herself as an outstanding angler.
20:04This is my first time fishing with George and it definitely won't be the last.
20:08Very impressed.
20:10Is she a better angler than me?
20:14Let's see what happens on our next outing.
20:16How about that?
20:17If you're a fan of our show, keep up with our adventures by following us on social media.
20:22I'm on Instagram at George Poveromo.
20:24And on Facebook, go to facebook.com forward slash George dot Poveromo.
20:29You can also watch our episodes at any time on YouTube at George Poveromo TV.
20:34We'll see you on the water.
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