3-7-13 Cold weather for March but still some fish

Well the last couple of days were similar to the past week in the you need to make the most of your quality fish bites in order to turn your good day into a great day. Islamorada Fishing in March is a transitional period typically as our winter time fish start thinning out, but with the coldest weather of the year the past week it feels more like the dead of winter. On the Bn'M today we had Cathy out in search of her first sailfish. I told her we had a shot but we needed to catch it if we got an opportunity because there may not be another. As luck would have it, after fishing for about 30 minutes she was hooked up. The fish put on a great show, jumping around, and then we got the leader, I got a little underwater video, and the fish was on his way to fight again another day. We also caught some lane snappers for dinner late in the day as well as some barracudas for some action. The Kalex for focused on sailfishing as well. They caught a nice 20 lb king early but then it was quite until about 2 p.m. when they caught and released a nice sailfish to end the day. The Relentless also reported a slow morning with a little bit of action on the patch reefs, but on his way back up the reef they found a ray with a nice school of cobia, catching 4 keepers to 25 lbs. It wasn't over yet though, at about 2:30 they came across a sailfish swimming up shallow and after a little bit of trickery they hooked the sail and released it a short while later. The Reel McCoy hit a handful of Mahi early in the day, and then a king mackerel. They also found a big school of cobia but most of the fish were undersize, although still fun to catch. They also caught some barracudas for action. The Fearless anchored down outside the reef on their morning 1/2 day trip and put together a nice catch of king mackerel to 20 lbs, a mutton snapper for dinner, and some bonitos for some fun. The Redfish went out on an Islamorada Shark Fishing Charter , and had great success. They were on the hunt for a tiger shark, and by mid day they hooked one, and an hour later released an estimated 400 lber! The Gon Fishin went "deep dropping" (which is bottom fishing in 400 - 600' of water) , and caught a handful of tile fish, some rose porgy, and a decent snowy grouper. (The deep water grouper like snowy and yellowedge are open now. Our more common reef grouper aka shallow water grouper are closed until May 1st though!) Yesterday the Kalex had a great catch, including a couple slammer dolphin to 20 lbs, 3 cobia to 45 lbs, and a few king mackerel. The Relentless focused on sailfish and first thing in the morning they caught a double header, and then mid day added one more release for a total of 3 sailfish. The Bn'M caught a handful of dolphin (mahi) , including a nice 15 lb bull, as well as releasing 6 grouper and some barracudas and small king mackerel. The Catch 22 had a couple dozen yellowtail snapper and then caught a pair of cobia on the weigh home, including a nice 40 lber. The yellowtail bite was fair a couple days ago, but got tough today with the cold air. The Fearless also released a sailfish right at the end of their Islamorada offshore fishing charter yesterday! Overall the fish is decent, but this is the time of year when you should fish for what you can, and don't spend all day chasing something if it's not happening.