5-23-13 Mahi Mahi and more Mahi!

Well it's been a great season so far for Mahi in Islamorada. Last year was definitely a tough one overall, but this season has been really good! There's been a handful of monster Bulls caught, some medium size "gaffer" fish, and plenty of schoolies. The last few days the offshore charter boats reported big schools of fish. Typically when you find big schools of mahi here it's a chatioc few minutes, as you hook and bail in "schoolies" (mahi in the 3-5 lb range), and then re bait your hook and throw it back out to try to catch another one while the school of fish is still with you. The big "Slammers" (20+ lb fish that slam the deck and coolers with the tails), can be mixed in with the smaller fish sometimes, but very often they will be in pairs of packs of 3 or 4 fish. Today there was a lot of schoolies on the dock, but a few boats got into the slammers, and the Cloud Nine had a handful of big fish, inlcuding a moster 48 lb Bull Mahi. A few days ago the Relentless found a piece of wood floating, (debris holds baitfish and in turn the mahi stay around it), and they caught a handful of schoolie size mahi and a pair of wahoo, but then all of sudden a pack of 5 big fish swam up. They caught all of them and one was a gigantic Bull (male mahi), weighing in at 54 lbs! Yesterday the Kalex had plenty of schoolies, nice bull around 20 pounds, and a pair of medium size blackfin tuna. The reef fishing has also really good lately for yellowtail snapper and there's still been a few black and gag grouper around. I think we'll keep seeing plenty of mahi the next few days, most likely plenty of schoolie fish and still a handful of "slammers". Today the Fearless had a limit of mahi and also reported hooking a blue marlin, but unfortunately the fish won the battle and got away, but you never know what you will catch while trolling! The Gon Fishin V also caught a bunch of mahi the other day, and to mix things up they did a little "deep dropping" (bottom fishing in 400'-600') and they caught a big 25 lb yellowedge grouper, as well as a smaller one and a couple tile fish. Call the office now at 305-664-2461 to book your fishing Islamorada Fishing Charter!

Capt. Nick Stanczyk