4-29-13 Deep Sea Fishing in Islamorada

The Islamorada offshore charter boats have been hard at it the past few days out of Bud n' Mary's Marina. It's been pretty windy, making for some sporty conditions, but if you can hang in with the high seas you can catch fish out there! About half of the boats have been going "offshore" in search of mahi (dolphinfish) , and the other half have been staying on the reef for some bottom fishing as well as some live baiting. There has been some incredible catches of mahi by a handful of boats the past few days. Not every boat is finding them, so it's not a free for all by any means, but the boats that have been getting in the right area at the right time have been doing great. Here's a couple pictures of some recent catches by the Reel McCoy, which included some "schoolies" (mahi in the 3 - 5 lb range), as well as some "gaffers" and "slammers" up to 38 lbs. The sailfish bite has been slow, but the Strictly Business did manage to release a nice one yesterday. There's been some permit in the 10 - 25 lb range on wrecks lately too., although they haven't been great every day, the Man o War and Relentless both released a couple fish. The yellowtail snapper bite has been the best we have seen all year as well! Most of the boats have been limiting out, including the Miss Islamorada Party boat, which limited out two days in a row with 190 fish and then 240 fish! Most of these fish have been averaging 1 lb, and are good fighters for their size and even better eating! The Kalex had a great catch of "flag" yellowtails yesterday, including fish up to 5 lbs! The amberjack bite is still great with some big fish up to 60 lbs being put on the dock. There's been a straggler cobia here and there as well on the reef as well as a few cero mackerel. This has been the most big "slammer" dolphin (mahi) we have seen in April in a long time, so we are hoping this summer is going to be a good one for them. The Pretty Work had a big 48 lb bull a couple days ago, and the Redfish had a 37 lber yesterday. We managed to find that "magical" piece of debris aboard the Bn'M yesterday, and pretty much made our entire day right there. It's always nice to have a little bit of luck on your side, and on this "lucky log" (debris holds bait which in turn holds fish), we caught over 30 mahi to 25 lbs, and then 7 wahoo up to 18 lbs. The middle of next week looks like the winds are going to drop out some, which will make the seas calmer and more enjoyable, but hopefully it doesn't impact the fishing in a negative way. I imagine the snapper bite will remain the best bet for action the next couple of weeks, and don't forget on May 1st we can keep shallow water grouper! So watch out for some pics! As we approach offshore fishing in Islamorada in May I think we should see more and more mahi, which means more of the boats will find the big schools instead of just some of them.

Capt. Nick Stanczyk