I spent last week in Vail Colorado at 8 to 14000 ft in elevation. The purpose of being there was to do some skiing and take in the majestic mountains that surround the Town of Vail. What I can tell you as a Charter Boat Captain at Sea level in the Keys is that 14000 ft is no fun until you adjust to the Altitude which took me almost 3 days. I am very happy to be back in FLA and looking at the Ocean at 0 altitude. The fishing in the keys right now is slow for Sailfish but very good for King Mackerel, Cerro and Spanish Mackerel. Personally I love to eat all three and the pull on the line from Kings is very exciting. Some of these fish can be over 40 lbs. The trick to eating them is to skin them and try and eat them the same or next day after they are caught. As soon as the wind starts to shift out of the SE for a couple of days we should start to see Dolphin Fish start to show up in size and numbers. The first month or so that they arrive in the Keys we will see the larger fish – 40lbs and bigger. As the season develop es we will catch more and more but they tend to be 7 to 25lbs with the larger fish hanging back in the schools or deeper in the water calm. The disappearance of the Sails occurs about this time every year. A month from now and we will start to catch them again on the reef after a good blow for a couple of days. It could be that this is the start of the migration of these fish back up the Eastern Seaboard as the waters warm up in the spring. There are resident Sails on the reef here all year long but not as many as in the fall and winter. Blackfin Tuna are available but they seem to arrive in large numbers with the Dolphin. We catch them from the outer reef to the Humps offshore. It will be all about the birds! Where the birds are the fish will be!

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