3-5-13 Islamorada Deep Sea fishing

The weather finally warmed up for us this afternoon while deep sea fishing in Islamorada. Yesterday quite a few boats fished but it was definitely on the slow side with the cold air and cold water temperatures. Fishing can be slow here for us sometimes with adverse weather conditions, but the Florida Keys offshore fishing charters made the best of it. The sailfish bite was inconsistent but most of the boats who stuck it out for the day had a bite or two. Some fishing days are decided by only a bite or two when it comes to sportfish, and the past couple of days you didn't want to miss your shot! Yesterday the Relentless, Catch 22, Gon Fishin V, Fearless, and Predator all managed 1 sailfish release. The Bn'M, Reel McCoy, and Kalex found other action including lane snapper, yellowtail snapper, a couple mackerel, and some barracuda. The Gold Digger, our new charter edition, caught some nice yellowtails in the morning and then reported a somewhat slow afternoon until patience paid off and they found a big school of cobia. They managed 4 keeper fish to 35 lbs! Today the sailfish bite was definitely a little better for the boats who focused on them. The Catch 22 and Reel McCoy (pictured with 3 release flags) each had 3 sailfish releases, the Relentless released 2, and the Strictly Business released 1. The Gon Fishin V and Redfish went out "deep dropping" , which is pretty much bottom fishing in 400' - 600' of water. The Gon Fishin had a nice catch of blueline tilefish, including one big 10 lber, and also a bunch of rose porgy. The Redfish had a nice yellowedge grouper and a snowy grouper in the 10 - 12 lb range, as well as a couple tilefish. The deep water grouper are the only species we can keep right now, the shallow water grouper season re opens on May 1st. The Bn'M did a 1/2 day islamorada reef fishing trip and had a dozen yellowtail snapper, a yellowjack, 5 cobia (one keeper), and a few barracuda. In the morning the Fearless caught a couple king mackerel as well as a couple "football" blackfin tunas. It looks like another front is coming through tomorrow night, so hopefully we will get some steadier weather and the fishing will be more consistent by the end of the week. There's still fish to catch but we've been working hard at it, and days like this it's best to fish for what's biting when the conditions aren't favorable.