1-25-13 Offshore Islamorada fishing in the Winter

The weather cooled down here for us a little the past few days, with low's in the mid 60's. The Islamorada fishing has still been successful, but it hasn't been easy. The captains have been working extremely hard but have been putting the days together. On Tuesday the Catch 22 took 1st place with 5 sailfish releases in the Al Flutie "Over the Hill Sailfish Tournament", and the Fearless took 3rd place with 3 releases! Great Job Guys! The Bn'M went out deep dropping for bottom fish in 500' that day as well and had a few yellowedge grouper, a nice snowy grouper, and a limit of blueline tilefish. The sailfish bite has been on the difficult side the past few days, with quite a few fish being seen, but very few bites out of the fish. A lot of times when sailfishing in the Florida Keys, one or two boats will do well, but the rest of the boats will struggle. A good consistent bite will be displayed when all of the boats have a few release flags flying. On Wednesday the Relentless had 4 sailfish releases, the Kalex had 3, and the Reel McCoy had 1. The Catch 22 went out on a daytime swordfish charter and lost 2 fish, but did catch a large big-scale pomfret. On Thursday the Islamorada Fishing Club had there one day, winner take all sailfish tournament. The Kalex took an early lead with 4 fish, and held it the first half the day, but eventually slid to 2nd place, but not a bad finish! Great Job Capt. Alex Adler and the Kalex! Today on Friday the sailfish were more difficult than the past few days, but the Relentless, Cloud Nine, Reel McCoy and Gon Fishin V all released 1. Between the Bn'M, Catch 22, Kalex, Predator, Fearless, Pretty Work, and That's Right there was still plenty of other action to be had. There was a handful of king mackerel, amberjack, yellowtail snapper, a few mutton snapper, a giant red snapper (had to be released after a picture), lane snapper, barracuda, cero mackerel, and crevalle jacks. January Fishing in Islamorada is always a good time, and when certain fish don't cooperate, it's a good idea to target some fish that do!