5/5/11 Offshore 5/6/11 Reef Fishing Report!

We fished offshore yesterday and put together a decent catch of 20 dolphin (mahi mahi), in the 3 to 10 lb range. We also had a couple small blackfin tuna before heading back towards the reef. The plan was to try to catch a permit, but before we got there, a sailfish got in the way. After a 10 minute fight we released an acrobatic sailfish. Ten minutes later we were hooked into a big permit. After a 15 minute fight we released a 30 lb permit! Today we reef fished on two seperate half day fishing trips. In the morning we caught about 15 yellowtail snapper for dinner, as well as a couple big nurse sharks, and some other small reef dwellers. In the afternoon we went for quality fish, and thats just what we did. On the first cast we caught and released a big permit! The 35 lb fish fought extremely hard and we managed to tag and release the fish for a new study being conducted on permit. We also caught a nice amberjack about 30 lbs, a small tuna, and then came back and caught one more permit, about 25 lbs! It was an exciting day Fishing in Islamorada.