4-6-13 Early April Offshore Fishing Report in Islamorada

It's been an unusual year here in Islamorada with our recent weather patterns. We just had another cold front pass through yesterday, which is very unusual for the Spring Time. Besides a somewhat crummy day with wind and scattered thunderstorms with rain yesterday, today was a great day to go Fishing in Islamorada. It started out with overcast skies and winds from the North at about 18 knots, but by Noon it was sunny and the wind had dropped to less than 10 knots! The fishing the past few days has been the typical Islamorada Fishing in April Mix. The majority of boats have been staying near the edge of the reef, and with the north wind the past two days the shot at mahi here was very slim, I didn't see any hanging up. Today though there was a handful of cobias caught, which we usually catch inside the reef when we search for schools of them following stingrays. It's a hunting game and there's no guarantee you will find them, but the Reel McCoy, Predator, and Relentless each had a couple keepers, the fish were from 20 - 35 lbs. The king mackerel bite slowed down some the past few days but there was still a few hanging up. The bottom fishing for snapper was decent, the Bn'M had a bucket full of lane snappers and the Kalex had some yellowtails for dinner. The Strictly business also had a mix of rose porgy and vermillion snapper, which are both great eating. There's been some big sharks still around and the Bn'M released a nice 7' , 200 lb hammerhead today. The Shark fishing charters are exciting and if you want to catch something that pulls hard you should give it a shot this April! The Kalex also released a permit and kept a nice yellow jack for dinner. The could nine had a couple big ambjerjack over 40 lbs. Yesterday about 1/2 of the boats cancelled because of the unstable weather, but a few boats still went out and a couple did well. It was definitely a little slower overall with the front passing through and swirling winds, but a mediocre day fishing is still better than a day at the office! The Catch 22 had a nice catch with 3 cobias up to 30 lbs and some other odds and ends. The Day before that the Fearless had quite a few king mackerel and this tasty mutton snapper for dinner. A lot of the boats have been releasing barracuda the past few days and today there was also more bonito (little tunny), then we could count! There was a couple sailfish releases on the 4th, but none the past two days. Hopefully there will be a few more around this week. Here's a pic of a sailfish the Gon Fishin V released after a quick picture! The wind looks like its going to swing around to the east the next couple of days so I wouldn't be suprised to see some great catches the next few days! Book your Islamorada Fishing Charter today! Give us a call at 1 800 742 7945 and let us set you up!

Comments

[Scott Wheeler]

Nice Bluefish Catch 22! Waiting for them to make their way to CT as I type this.