3-18-13 Fishing Report for Islamorada Florida

The weather man lied to us today! We were expecting calm conditions but had a south east breeze at 15 - 20 knots instead! A fair amount of islamorada offshore boats got out today, but a few did come in early with the choppy swell that we get with the wind hits the southernly direction. The majority of the boats stayed in on the reef and had pretty good bottom fishing. The Kalex had a couple bucket fulls of yellowtail snapper, with a nice average and a few big flags (2 + lb yellowtails), even one 6 lber! They also had a few cero mackerel mixed in. The Relentless also had plenty of yellowtail snapper for dinner, which provided consistent action for the guys onboard. There was quite a few dolphin (mahi) around yesterday, but the boats that went out looking for them today only found a couple. The Catch 22 went to the Hump and caught about 15 blackfin tuna, all footballs ( 2 - 5 lbs), and then one lone schoolie size mahi on the way home. The Bn'M caught one mahi, but it was a nice one weighing 27 lbs, and then came back to the reef after not seeing any other life further offshore. On the Reef they had a couple king mackerel, released a black and red grouper, kept a mutton snapper, and a handful of porgy. The Gon Fishin went out "deep dropping" again the past two days and has been doing very well. They have been fishing the 500' zone with manual high speed reels and have put together some great catches of rose porgy, blue line tilefish, a few yellowedge grouper, and a couple snowy grouper over the past two days. (These are some of the only grouper we can keep right now, they are in the deep water complex unlike our more common reef grouper). They also caught a pair of nice mahi at the end of the day in the 20 - 25 lb range, what a way to end their deep sea fishing trip! Now yesterday a couple of boats did decent on the dolphin. Both the Reel McCoy and Redfish had about 10 fish apiece, and there was a few gaffers up to 10 lbs mixed in. The Reel McCoy also had a limit of king mackerel up to 15 lbs and the redfish had a nice 10 lb mutton snapper. The Bn'M did two half days and in the morning caught a bucket full of yellowtail snapper and released 4 nice grouper, including a big black and gag grouper. We are hoping they are still around when May 1st arrives! Overall the sailfish bite has really dried up, not to say there's none out there but there's definitely not many because our guys would find them! It's still early to count on the mahi/dolphin, but there's definitely a few around and hopefully we will see some more this week. The Reef has still been the most consistent bet and when this winds lets up some the next few days we may see some cobias... Give us a call to book your Florida Keys Fishing Trip! 1-800-742-7945