I headed down to Key West last weekend for a little R&R with my wife and had to take in a charter fishing wrecks. I was suppose to head out on a boat which ended up having to cancel but Capt Paul Tyron took care of things and set me up with Captain Ryan Muntin of Piscivorous Charters. Capt Ryan runs a nice Whitewater 28’ with two big Yamahas to get you out to the reefs quickly. When we arrived at Hurricane Hole Marina which has an outside bar, restaurant and plenty of center console charter boats the weather was perfect with no wind and clear skies. When we met Ryan he was just finishing up filleting the catch from his morning trip.

After introductions, boarding and getting underway we steamed out to jig up some live bait and caught plenty of blue runners on Sabiki rigs. Once Ryan thought we had enough we steamed out to a wreck another 6 or 7 miles offshore. Ryan had us using custom made rods matched to Penn International 20’s and filled with braid. A fluorocarbon leader was attached to a 5/0 live bait hook and we used an egg sinker of about 8 oz. Once the baits were lowered they got whacked immediately and the rods doubled over. Over the course of the next three hours we landed African Pompanos, Snapper, Amberjack and Yellowtail Snapper. I had no idea how hard amberjack fight and was very impressed.

By the end of the trip, we had plenty of fish in the fish box and returned to the marina. When we arrived back to Hurricane Hole Marina, Ryan filleted up the snapper and we took just enough for us and the two friends who were joining us. They cooked the fish right there at the restaurant and it was excellent as they prepared it four ways, blackened, grilled, baked and fried, serving it with four sides also.

I highly recommend anyone going to KW for a fishing trip look Ryan up as he also does other types of fishing such as tarpon, offshore and reef fishing. I know I am looking forward to the next trip.