3-20-13 Deep Sea Fishing in Islamorada

Today was the nicest weather day we've had in weeks down here. There was 5 knots of wind most of the day, with plenty of sunshine, and air temperatures in the high 70's. Islamorada Fishing still continues to produce a mixed bag of fish for the offshore charter boats. The fishing has been most consistent on the reef still, although a few boats have been venturing further offshore in search of mahi and deep water bottom fish. There was a handful of sailfish around today which made some people really happy. The Reel McCoy managed to catch and release 3 sails, Catch 22 released 2 sails, and a few boats released 1 including the Kalex, Predator, and Strictly Business. The Reel McCoy also caught a pair of wahoo on light tackle, about 15 and 25 lbs. The yellowtail snapper bite was good for about 1/2 the boats today. The boats that found a little dirtier water and the right current did well, including the Gold Digger who had 40 yellowtails this morning and then 20 in the afternoon. The Bn'M limited out on lane snapper on both 1/2 day fishing trips today and had a few yellowtails and porgys mixed in. We also released a few barracuda in the morning and had a decent snowy grouper in the afternoon. The Gon Fishin V caught a few yellowtails early but then the bite died off so they went out for some "deep dropping", where they bottom fished in 500' of water. They caught a couple nice blueline tilefish, plenty of rose porgy, and then a nice 18 lb snowy grouper! (Snowy grouper and yellowedge grouper are the only ones we can harvest right now, they are in the deep water complex, which you should not confuse with our shallow water groupers which are closed until May 1st!). The Redfish had a wahoo this morning and a few schoolie dolphin. It's still a little early to count on Mahi, so I wouldn't make them your priority yet. There's a few here and there. Yesterday, while Fishing Islamorada in March, the Relentless, Catch 22, and Kalex each released a sailfish in the afternoon, and they all had plenty of yellowtail snapper for dinner. The Finnster had some nice big "flag" yellowtail snappers in the 2 - 3 lb range as well. The Bn'M had a 35 lb amberjack, a few snappers for dinner, a yellowedge grouper and tilefish, as well as a few barracuda. The That's right has been doing really good on the yellowtail snappers lately too. A lot of the boats have been releasing black and gag grouper too, they are still fun to catch even though we can't keep them right now. The Pretty Work had a bucket full of yellowtail snapper this morning and then had a blast catching a bunch of big crevalle jacks up to 15 lbs. Book your Florida Keys Fishing Trip with us today! Call us at 1 800 742 7945 and we'll set you up!