2-24-13 Islamorada Offshore Fishing in Late February

Today was the nicest day we have seen in months down here while Islamorada Fishing. The winds were variable and the temperature was about 80 degrees. The Offshore Fishing Charters have been focusing on the reef and wrecks lately. Today both the Bn'M and Fearless did 1/2 day fishing trips. The Fearless anchored down early and put a nice catch of tasty yellowtail snapper together, including 1/2 a dozen big "flags", that were 3 - 4 lbs! They also had a king mackerel and lost a couple others. The Bn'M had a big 13 lb mutton snapper, a handful of lane snapper and porgies, as well as a limit of king mackerel. The That's Right and Pretty Work each had a limit of king mackerel too, mostly in the 5 - 10 lb range but there's still a few 15 - 20 lbers mixed in. The two days before that there was a handful of sailfish around each day and a few of the boats that were patient and dedicated the day to it had some shots. The Catch 22 released 3 sailfish yesterday, the Relentless released 1, the Pretty Work released 1 and the Reel McCoy released 1. The day before while Florida Keys Fishing both the Relentless and Reel McCoy each released 3 sails and the Pretty Work released 1 as well. The Redfish had a niced mixed bag too, including a dozen mahi (which is a nice suprise this time of year since it's still a little early), as well as some mackerel and snapper. The Kalex has been limiting out on Kingfish on his last coupld of trips and also had a couple nice mutton snapper. The Gon Fishing V also had a nice mixed bag of fish a few days ago including porgy, blackfin tuna, mahi, a few snapper, and a 25 lb african pompano! There's definitely a lit bit of everything right now and it should probably remain that way the next few weeks I imagine, including a few sailfish (when you put your time in), king mackerel, snapper, a few tuna, and there should be some more cobia pushing through too while offshore fishing in Islamorada. 

In the backcountry, Capt. Rick Stanczyk had Bob and William down visiting from the east coast.  We fished a half day locally around Islamorada.  The snapper fishing around the islands was pretty good, had to look around a bit but got into a nice school of them.  We also caught 3 lunker sea trout which is unusual in the clear water which were all 24-25 inches!  The islamorada trout fishing should be getting better and better in the spring, with bigger spawning fish moving in.  Also caught 1 redfish there too.  Later that morning we hit some muds on the way home and caught some more decent size trout, great fun on a half day backcountry fishing charter.  Had so much fun we'regoing to do it again on tuesday afternoon.  Also Capt. Jim Willcox got a nice tarpon in the backcountry today.  Islamorada tarpon fishing in march will be something to look forward to!