Wednesday, September 1, 2010

September is a great time to come to Florida & avoid the long lines!!!














This is a great time of the year to sneak down and get in some great fishing & diving if you can. The water temps are still in the high 80's, vis last Sunday was about 50ft. and did some spearfishing with yields of snapper, grouper, hogfish and if you can get out a little further a monster amberjack will always be a great catch for the dinner table. This is also a great time to get some beautiful pictures of the awesome soft corals, with excellent colors and such a vast array of marine life. There is no need to travel abroad when we have it all.

The fishing has also been what i would say to be one of the best summers considering the cold winter kill of fish and all the talk about the OIL, which never showed up thank God. We have been landing goliath Groupers upwards of 500lbs on a regular basis. Note our last face book postings courtesy of one of our regulars "Paul B." which helped land a goliath upwards of 300lbs., a Bull shark 10-12ft long that must of went close to 500lbs and many other species that made a great fish fry that night. Clients like Paul know the trick, they call before they come down & let the Capt. pick the best time of the day to go out based on tides as well as getting out the early part of the stay incase of weather then we always have a few days to work with.

My suggestion is to check our calendar and see what upcoming dive trips we are putting together and once in a while we will have spots open for split fishing trips which we will have open Sept. 7-10 if any of you would like to split the cost call us up so we can let the other fishermen know and set a date.

Remember another thing, some guides will try and sell you on these all day trips that take 2-3hours of run time out 30-40 miles then you only fish 2-3 hrs and another 2-3 hours drive back. Its not how far you go, ITS WHERE you go and fish the tides. We catch just as much fish in a 4hr trip than most do all day which when you think about it, our 4hr trip fishes 3 hrs average and our 6hr trip you fish 5 hours average. So when you are comparing apples to oranges remember what you are paying for, the bigger boat, the extra fuel, and maybe some air conditioning. If you are like most my clients, they rather take a 15-25 minute boat ride @ 30MPH and get to fish a lot more. I think the pics speak for itself, we go catching...not fishing....

One more thing, not to knock going out 30 plus miles. There are advantages and a few species you normally won't catch in closer like Amberjack and tons of "silver snapper" better known as grunts.. By the way that's what we use for bait which allot of the big boats send you home for dinner. But if you are interested in BIG Sharks, Barracudas, Grouper, Snapper, Cobia, Snook, Tarpon, Permit and many more than I can list then there is no need to run so far. Spend the time fishing unless you like the boat ride.

Well I hope to see many of you here this month, normally this is a bad time for the fishing industry because people think its to hot and or the kids are in school, but its a great way to help boost our economy when you great fisherman & divers decide to come down for a quick visit you will never forget.
See you soon, Time to hit the hay and run 2 trips tomorrow.

Big Fish Is What We DO!
World Class Diving in the Gulf.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

August Fishing & Diving







Sorry the posts aren’t coming out everyday, but if you follow us on facebook you will see our daily catches. The fishing has been very good considering the winter kill off we had. We have caught trophy snook in excess of 25lbs., barracuda like its going out of style with the trophy cuda of 54" & 20" girth, tons of goliaths and plenty of action to keep your party’s arms tired.

The diving has been some of the best we had in years with average vis in 25ft. of water 20-30 foot. Out 20 miles the vis has been 50 plus foot. We are running scheduled trips now and have a fish & dive calendar on our site that list dates and details of upcoming events & trips. Please email us if you have any questions, stories or comments you would like to share. Thank you and keep fishing & diving. And by the way, NO OIL even close so don't spoil your plans if that is any factor.>

Friday, July 23, 2010

Bonnie Gone, But the Fishing is Hot! Not!!!!





Today tropical storm Bonnie came across Florida with very little consequences. Being the only boat out of Wiggins Pass Marina, I knew it would be like fishing off a silver plate. My party of four wanted to do a combo fish & dive trip, so we started off by diving a spot in 23ft. of water off the Clam Pass area. Even though it was a little overcast the vis was great and sea conditions were not bad with less than 2 foot chop. After a 45 minute dive which they saw tons of Marine life they couldn't wait to get the rods in the water. With a steady north wind it made it easy to set anchor over a rock pile that was holding all kinds of big boys waiting to explode. From the first drop to the last which was @ 12:15, it was non stop action. We landed everything from grouper, barracudas, macs, snapper and more. I knew if someone could trust the Captain & let his years of experience guide the trip instead of the TV it would be great. Which it was. This entire weekend should be great fishing, if you don't mind a little wind & possibly a shower, it will be worth the sky rocketing cudas & hard pulling grouper. We are fueled and ready, so call now and lets go fishing! And Diving TOO!

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Offshore Fishing still HOT!!!!






The rainy days we had didn't stop the fish from biting or good visibility offshore. The sun is back now and the rain is on its regular schedule to the late afternoon. We have been consistently catching big Cudas, nice Reds & Gags, Big Mangs at the right time of day, Huge Goliaths, nice Tarpon off the beaches and Marco, a few Kings, Bonitas, AJ's, and much more. The diving recently has been awesome with large schools of many types of Marine life, with a lot of the time a school of Spotted Eagle Rays have been staying around for weeks in one location. Don't miss out on the fun, we have something for everyone. Make sure to check out our You Tube. See you soon and please call for reservations early.
Capt. Mark

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Fishing & Scuba Diving the Gulf, Southwest Fl

For all of you thinking about coming to Southwest Florida, (Ft. Myers Beach, Bonita Springs, Naples, Marco Island) and are wondering if the oil is here or what options you have, that is where we come in to help. I am Capt. Mark Garcy with Reel 1 Up Fish & Dive Charters and am on the water 7 days a week. Currently our coast has NOT been affected by the oil and is not expected to be any time in the near future, knock on wood! The sea state conditions have been excellent which has been providing us with excellent fishing and spectacular Scuba diving. The visibility on our trips this weekend (5/29/10) was around 50 ft. horizontal and 70ft. vertical offshore in the 25 mile range and 20ft of vis in the 9 mile range. We saw a wide variety of species from nurse sharks, permit, queen angels, amber jack, goliath grouper, snapper, BATFISH, cobia, mackeral, and many others. Other things you will see when diving with us is some of the most beautiful sponges with amazing colors, fire scallops, arrow crabs, anemones, christmas tree worms, soft corals, and many other exciting species.

1. For all of you thinking about coming to Southwest Florida, (Ft. Myers Beach, Bonita Springs, Naples, Marco Island) and are wondering if the oil is here or what options you have, that is where we come in to help. I am Capt. Mark Garcy with Reel 1 Up Fish & Dive Charters and am on the water 7 days a week. Currently our coast has NOT been affected by the oil and is not expected to be any time in the near future, knock on wood! The sea state conditions have been excellent which has been providing us with excellent fishing and spectacular Scuba diving. The visibility on our trips this weekend (5/29/10) was around 50 ft. horizontal and 70ft. vertical offshore in the 25 mile range and 20ft of vis in the 9 mile range. We saw a wide variety of species from nurse sharks, permit, queen angels, amber jack, goliath grouper, snapper, BATFISH, cobia, mackerel, and many others. Other things you will see when diving with us is some of the most beautiful sponges with amazing colors, fire scallops, arrow crabs, anemones, christmas tree worms, soft corals, and many other exciting species.

For you fishermen, we have been running trips nonstop day & night from the backwaters of Marco Island (10,000 islands) to the Offshore waters off Ft. Myers Beach. We have been catching tarpon, grouper, snapper, permit, jacks, cobia, sharks, snook, trout, barracuda, kings, spanish, and surely I'm missing a few. With some of the big catches being our trip on 5/23/10 for Chris Bloomfield fishing with Red Sox Pitcher Madison Younginer, was a goliath grouper weighing in @ 484lbs, a second grouper 125lbs, and a barracuda close to 50lbs. You can you tube to see clips of these catches and some exciting action. Just click here http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=reel1up&aq=f . We also have had tarpon weighing in over 175lbs, so choose what your fancy is and get down to Southwest Florida where not only the weather is hot but the fishing is HOT, and diving is some of the best kept secrets in the world. For diving footage of the sites we visit, go to http://www.reel1up.com/photos.html