I am writing this week's fishing report from the boat "ESME" as we cruise in from an epic two-day fishing adventure to Pulley Ridge. A great friend of mine Capt. Chris Peters invited me to ride along, and man am I sure glad I did! We traveled 120 miles out from Key West into the Gulf of Mexico in pursuit of bottom fish and swords. We accomplished our goal to say the least. All of the bottom fish you see here were caught between 500 and 600 feet of water on three hook deep drop rigs with circle hooks and baited with squid and bonito. It is truly an amazing place to fish as you really never know what you are going to catch. We simply dropped down our rigs and within minutes had the rod bent over with high quality fish. On the way in we stopped at a deep spot (1,600 feet of water) and tried for a swordfish. Within minutes the rod bent over and shortly thereafter we landed my first ever Pulley Ridge swordfish! This was truly a trip of a lifetime. If you are interested in making a trip like this, I would suggest the "Yankee Captains" and Capt Greg Mercurio out of Stock Island. I have fished with Greg many times and have always had spectacular catches.

Locally the meat fishing has been world class with boats putting up big numbers of blackfin tuna, kingfish and wahoo. We should see the fishing stay excellent over the next month so now is the time to go! 
Lastly, the mutton snapper bite should be on fire this weekend as we are right on the full moon. This is the time when the snapper spawn and it is by far the best time to land giant muttons!

For an up to the minute fishing report tune in to the Paul Castronovo Show at 105.9fm for the Papas Pilar fishing report Friday at 6:25am. 

Stay tight!
RJ Boyle