3-24-13 Offshore fishing Islamorada in Late March

Here's the latest Islamorada offshore fishing report. The wind was strong out of the south-southwest today, making for some rough conditions for the deep sea fishing boats. The prior couple days were decent weather days, but it looks like we have another late season cold front coming through tomorrow at some point. There was a handful of sailfish around each of the past few days, I didn't see any release flags flying today but last Thursday, Friday, and Saturday most of the boats saw sailfish, a couple boats released 3 one day, and some of the other boats released 1's and 2's. It was a good sign to see since the sailfish bite had been very slow the prior couple weeks. The bottom fishing has been the most consistent lately though. The yellowtail snapper bite has been very good, a lot of just keeper fish up to some nice 3 lb flags. The guys fishing a bigger bottom bait as well have been doing good catching grouper, but we still have to release the blacks, gags, reds, etc. until May 1st. On the 21st the Stricly Business had a beatiful pair of BIG african pompano, weighing in at 40 and 42 lbs! The Gon Fishing went on a shark fishing charter today and released an estimated 400 lb hammerhead after a hard two hour fight! The king mackerel bite has been pretty good lately too, not a lot of "smoker" kings, but quite a few medium sized ones in the 5 to 15 lb range. There was a handful of mahi around the past couple of days, but nothing consistent or great to speak of. We should start seeing a few more though, especially when we get east winds again. The daytime swordfishing has still been a little tough, but the Bn'M did fish last Thursday, and after an uneventful morning they stuck it out and finally got 1 bite around 2 p.m. and fortunately landed the 115 lb sword after a 40 minute fight and a couple great jumps! The swordfish bite should pick up as we get later into the spring, and I wouldn't be suprised to see some big boys in the near future if the weather cooperates! Anyhow the next couple of days look like they will be chilly and a little rough, but we'll see how the guys do!