I'm sure that Clive caught plenty of fish bigger than this Snapper but this is the only picture that Roy sent me of him.

This is the Sailfish that was landed by Harry The Rat. A great picture.

Robin and Geoff both had Tarpon over 100lbs and due to tiredness I do not know how everyone else went on. Apologies for this report being a little disjointed, I think it is just lack of sleep and not what Harry is saying about me. He is talking about wheel chairs for Keith and myself next year.

We finished our trip off with our usual banquet cooked by Keith and others, the Captains joined us and it was a fitting end to our shortened Big Adventure.

I hope you have enjoyed our Big Adventure, all I can say is if you are thinking about doing something like this, then do not leave it too long as you will not have the strength to do it.

Signing off from Paradise.

Roy and fellow shipmates.

It was a 5am start and we made our way up the main highway to Islamorada, some quick introductions and we were on our way with the wind howling, it was borderline as to even going out with a 35 mph wind howling.

This was to be brutal fishing, we spent a short while fishing at the Sea Mount and caught some bait in the form of Albacore, we hooked a couple of Tuna only to have them eaten by monster toothy critters. It was a job to stand up let alone fish even though we were on a 52’ Carolina Custom Sport Fish Boat.
Photographs at this stage were out of the question.

We ploughed on to the target area some 48 miles out in the Gulf Stream known as the canyons. It is an incredible 1800ft deep. Richard our expert day time Sword fish Captain had already told us that this would not be fun and the odds with the weather were stacked against us. He had developed some amazing rigs for these monsters and it was down to us to try and land one.

We had our trusty cameraman Radomir with us (lucky you), who was already looking a little pale due to the conditions (ah...shame). 1800 ft is a long way down, to give you an idea of how deep it can take as long as 15 minutes just to get the bait to the bottom.

We put Keith in the fighting chair and just hoped. The miracle happened we had a bite and Keith was in to a Sword Fish. Keith cranked away on the heavy outfit putting every ounce of effort into it. You can see by his face that this was hard work and far from fun.

According to the article that Roy sent the link for "As of Oct. 7, Stanczyk's streak stands at 53 consecutive daytime swordfishing trips with at least one catch" - That's another unbeaten run down the drain !

After what seemed like an age the leader was visible and we could see our Swordfish lighting up, it was all excitement. Only 20 ft from the gaff and it just came off, words could not explain our feelings. But Keith’s face could.
We had one more bite when I was in the chair and to be honest I was a bit frightened having seen the state of Keith after his battle. Words like hospital job were on the cards and possibly the best thing under the conditions that I did not hook one.

After 12 hours on the water we were back at the dock, conditions had been so bad that the Massive Party boat had returned early. It had 26 anglers on board and 17 were seasick. An incredible experience but not for the faint hearted.

Meanwhile back in calmer waters at Key West our fellow teammates had seen some great action.
Robin and Lemon Geoff had been Sail Fish fishing and landed 7.

Robin Morley took this stunning photo of a leaping Sailfish. I guess that Lemon Geoff was on the other end of the line.

Robins picture of a leaping sail must be one of the best pictures of the trip.

Terry and Joan caught some great Amberjacks and were made badly by some nasty sharks.

Stewart posing with an Amberjack

Terry with an Amberjack - Nice Shorts !

I have not mentioned Harry The Rat, he was somewhere but no one had any pictures of him. He has been forgiven and is no longer a scum as Roy is after some sponsorship.

Sorry for the delay of reports for Day 5,6, & 7. Your aging scribe has been exhausted along with his fellow shipmates. Due to this being a short trip owing to the volcanic ash cloud, we have had to cram much more into our fishing schedule.

Day 5 from what I can recall was a Tarpon Day with Captain Jack Kelly aboard Windy Day with Shipmate Robin Morley.

Roy playing a hard fighting Tarpon

Keith was with Lemon Geoff with a new captain Scotty aboard Too Lethal. "Harry the Rat" was with Terry and Joan Captained by Captain Birds Eye Bill.
Terry and Joan are really Terry and Stewart and now we have a good picture of them.

Terry and Joan - Inseparable throughout the weeks fishing

There is an interesting story that Harry told me in secret so I said I would not tell anyone, however I think I can write it down. We had unbelievable problems in rearranging flights and at one time the crew looked like it would not all get here on the same day. Terry and Joan were booked on a different flight. To join us on the same flight they told American Airlines a little white lie, they said that they had to get to Key West with the rest of us because they were getting married in a civil partnership and the rest of us were bridesmaids. Obviously some nice American Airlines booking person believed this and squeezed them onto our flights. Now this story is obviously "alleged" due to possible legal actions, however Harry the Scab did supply the earlier photograph under protest, which does seem to confirm the story.

Day 5 turned out to be a great Day for everyone, Robin and Myself had I think 8 Tarpon landed out of 11 hooked, Keith and Lemon Geoff had 9 from 12 and Harry Terry and Joan had loads of sharks and some Amberjacks.

Terry admires an Amberjack held aloft by Captain Bill

Terry doing battle with a monster of the deep. I don't think that you're really supposed to use the boat as a rod rest but some of these fish really do pull

Robin was awarded cameraman of the day for taking this exceptional picture of a 100lbs plus Tarpon in the air.

Another great leaping Tarpon picture. This 100 lb beauty was eventually released at the side of the cruise ship in the distance.

This was the last fish of the day and was finally landed alongside the liner in the background.

There's another little problem. The way this is set up is that Roy emails me a story and pictures from Key West back here to the UK. I translate his disjointed ramblings into English and resize the pictures, then post it onto the blog. So when Roy sent last night's epic tale it occurred to me that he hasn't mentioned the names of some of the anglers in the party. I fired off an email asking if he'd actually said hello to the rest of the party and how about some names and photos. Here's his reply :

Hi Gus,

Sorry but I haven't seen them fishing.
Harry's mates are Terry and Stewart, nicknamed Terry and June.
I have only a picture of Terry, he is very funny.

Steve is another crew member who joins us every day but he is not stopping with us.

Clive is from Birmingham but he also has not been out with me.

I will send some more pictures.

Harry has asked that it be mentioned he caught a Bone Fish yesterday fishing for bottom fish. Actually very rare where he caught it.

Harry "The Scab"s mate Terry. Roy describes him as "very funny" but he looks reasonably normal to me. Maybe he has an extra nose growing from the back of his head ?? - Who knows ??

Harry's other mate, Stewart. Not only do we know absolutely nothing about him, but he's also out of focus !. Sorry Stewart, I can only work with what is supplied by the lanky one.

Anyhow, the confusion hasn't lifted. In Roy's story of the day there are two boats mentioned, holding a total of 6 anglers. Roy, Robin & Geoff are with Captain Birds Eye. Keith and his "shipmates" are on Damon's boat. We know from the story that Clive was battered on Damon's boat, so there was one other mystery angler on Damon's boat. Roy's email mentions that Harry The Rat caught a Bonefish bottom fishing. Was he the third mystery angler ?. It's like a game of Cluedo - Was it Captain Purple with the hammer in the study ?. Anyhow, a BIG CONGRATULATIONS  to Harry The Rat on the Bonefish. I've been out to Key West with that gang three times and I've NEVER even seen a Bonefish.

Whilst I'm in a congratulating mood, congratulations also to Steve on this fine Dolphin fish. In the three years that I joined those guys we NEVER had a Dolphin caught on my boat.

A fine Dolphin fish for Steve. The picture only arrived last night but looking at the flat calm sea I'd guess it was caught on Day 3.

Right, back to the story. Over to Roy :

Welcome to day 4 of our Big Adventure.

It was a 6 am start as we had planned to go way out into the Gulf  to fish for blackfin tuna, in fact our destination was 48 miles from Key West where we knew some shrimp boats were located. The weather forecast was light and variable winds so everything was looking good.

We loaded our two boats, Keith’s shipmates on Captain Damons boat and Robin and Geoff were with me with Captain Birds Eye Bill.  We left the harbour on time and headed into the Gulf guided by moonlight. That all sounds very nice and well organised, if you were not exhausted it would be.

A couple of miles out and I commented that the weathermen tell lies. We were ploughing our way through a heavy swell and were getting battered by the waves.

20 miles out we met a shrimp boat heading for Key West, we did a deal and loaded both boats with fresh chum. It was just getting light and a you can see from the picture it was a magnificent sunrise.

Another 28 miles and we could see 4 shrimp boats anchored and cleaning their catch. We were looking good except that we already had two wounded crew mates, knockeded into submission by the pounding of the boat on the relentless waves. Clive on Damon's boat and Geoff on our boat had both been severely battered, we now had walking wounded.

Our two boats split up and after checking out our first shrimp boat with no fish around it we moved on to boat two. A scoop of chum next to the boat erupted with the splashing of both Bonito and  Tunas...Bingo !!.

I reckon the mix of Bonito vs Tuna was about 50/50 which is a brilliant result, you often find just a few Tuna mixed in with the Bonito which are really a nuisance fish. The trick is to draw the fish away from the shrimp boat by steady feeding, this worked a treat and by employing one of my old Indian tricks that I cannot tell you about, we soon had mainly tuna boiling along side our boat.

Roy with a "tiddler" Tuna

After that is just became brutal, we quickly landed 9 Tuna and several big bonitos breaking two rods and spilling  more blood from my crewmen. These fish really can pull, it is not a place for the faint hearted, even Captain Bill joined us in the excitement, we had a ball.

Captain Birds Eye attached to an angry Tuna

A brilliant Blackfin Tuna safely aboard after a long battle

We only needed 8 tuna so we released several after that.

Robin with another Tuna. Sushi for dinner ?

We were about to move to a wreck for a bit of bottom fishing when bad news came over the radio; Captain Damon had lost a prop. With no spares on board and only one working engine it was going to be a long journey back at 10 miles an hour.  Like good crewmen we offloaded most of the crew of Damon's boat leaving Keith and Damon to limp back to Key West.

We were now like a band of pirates and headed to our wreck where we were soon catching an assortment of fish in 90ft of water. Lemon Geoff had a snapper grabbed by a Jew Fish and thought he could land it on his relatively light tackle. The Jew fish had other ideas and promptly smashed his rod at the butt. I think this could be Geoff’s 3rd rod of the trip.

We caught some big Grey Snappers and then got plagued by small sharks. One of our new crewmates (I'm sure that Roy doesn't know their names !) was playing a 4ft Lemon shark when below it appeared a monster Hammerhead Shark and  I mean a MONSTER. This was the biggest hammerhead I had ever seen and I have seen some big ones.

Captain Bill also commented that this was a true beast in fact he too had not seen one bigger. Like a proper angler I was ready with the ultimate heavy gear, like lightning out went a bait fit for a monster, as you can see from the picture the bait was a whole 14lb Bonito.

Roy is ready to do battle with the monster shark, how's this for a bait ?

What I did not tell my shipmates was that I was a little concerned that either we would need a bigger boat or an ambulance for me if this was going to be a long fight. The drag was set at 30lbs on a rod that will easily pull you overboard without a fighting chair. I wanted to make sure that the fish could run without dragging me overboard.

We estimated Harry the Hammerhead at 12ft long and it looked like a small submarine with evil eyes. The good news was it did not come back for the bait so we made it back to Key West on time for one of Keith’s banquets.

Everyone was "feeling badly" having travelled over 100 miles on a not too calm sea. The moral of the story is never trust the weatherman.

That is also the reason for the delay with this report, I fell sleep writing it !!.

OK, back to the main agenda. The weather today was brilliant, not a cloud in the sky and 84 degrees with only a light wind.

Today we were with Captain Manny on another Grouper with teammates Keith and Geoff.  Our other two boats were with Captain Damon and Captain Birds Eye Bill.

Captain "Birds Eye" Bill

"Billy No Mates" Harry the scab was with his only two friends and opted for a bit of everything, but ended the day having battled with a few sharks and not much else. It seems that even TWO Ferrari's doesn't guarantee that you'll actually catch any fish.

Robin's team decided for some unknown reason to go and catch some Amberjack. I'm never totally sure why people are willing to pay serious money to go offshore and have serious pain inflicted upon them. Any how Robin & Co retired hurt but unbeaten and they'll be back tomorrow after  a session with the team physio tonight.

Geoff, Keith, Captain Manny and Roy

The crew aboard Another Grouper had opted for some Sailfish fishing first thing then Permit fishing later in the day. First job was to catch bait and our team effort soon gave us 100 threadfin herrings in the bait well.

We quickly motored out and over the reef and started our first drift in 130 ft of water in an area where the Vandenberg, a 520 ft military transport ship and missile tracking vessel  was sunk last year as part of the Key West artificial reef.

This 13-year project to create a new artificial reef in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary finally ended May 27, 2009, with the intentional sinking of the former missile-tracking ship the Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg. The 523-foot-long ship is situated about seven miles south of Key West. The bottom of the ship’s hull rests on sand at depths between 140 and 150 feet. But the ship is so massive that the superstructure extends to about 45 feet below the surface. Even though the process to acquire, fund, permit, rid the Vandenberg of potential environmental contaminants and tow her to Key West took 13 years, only a minute and fifty four seconds were needed to sink her after a demolition team ignited forty four explosives’ cutting charges.

Second drop with a free lined threadfin and I had a take, the mandatory count to five and wham, a Sail Fish headed off to Cuba.  Chief Purser Keith made no mistake with the leader and we released our first sail of the trip. Minutes later Geoff was also into his first ever sail fish, plenty of good coaching was available and soon Chief Purser Keith skilfully released Sail number two. It was only 10 o’clock and already we were having a great day.

It was a little slow for the next two hours with only a nice bonito to show falling to Keith’s rod.

We still had plan "B" and as you know any plan is better than no plan, so we raced off to our secret Permit patch that few other white men know about. Within minutes we were hooking some magnificent Permit with several triple hook ups.

Geoff got out the fly rod and caught three on small crab patterns.

Permit are often fishd for on the shallow flats with the fly rod but it's unusual to catch them in 50 ft of water...Well Done Geoff !!

The previous night Geoff was telling us how hard salmon fought, now he agrees with Keith and myself that compared to Permit they are like playing skimmer bream.

The Permit fishing was awesome and brutal, what made it especially good was the fact that the Gulf stream had moved close inshore and was now flowing over the Permit Patch. We could clearly see the bottom in 50 feet of water and watch the fish take our free lined crabs.

Keith and I both said that it had been several years since we had seen so many Permit.

Keith didn't look too happy when he didn't catch a Sailfish but the bottom lip has perked up now that the Permit are biting.

We had a last cast with our last crabs and called it a day. We started with 20 crabs and had a fish on almost everyone, plus Geoff’s three on the fly.

What a day, unbelievable.

Tomorrow is another day, the weather forecast is good and hopefully we are going out to the shrimp boats in the Gulf.

Watch this space.