5-3-13 Offshore fishing in Islamorada in early May

There's been some great catches the past few days here fishing in the Florida Keys. On May 1st the shallow water grouper season finally opened and a handful of the boats got in on the action! The Kalex limited out the first two days on black grouper, the Strictly Business and Fearless also had a couple black and gag grouper. These groupers have been caught while islamorada reef fishing on our private offshore charters. There has also been quite a few of yellowtail snapper and the permit have been a little on the difficult side the Reel McCoy and Man O War have both released a couple over the last few days. The amberjack continue to be thick on the "humps", and if you want a back breaking fight and are up for a challenge, you might want to consider messing with one of them. Most of the boats the past few days however have been focusing on dolphin (mahi) fishing in Islamorada. The mahi bite has been fair overall, the majority of boats are putting some good catches together by the end of the day if they are patient and dedicate the day to it, but they aren't swarming by any means. Some of the boats have been catching a handful of bigger fish in the 15 - 25 lb range, and then some smaller schoolies. Most of the boats have been averaging 5 - 20 fish lately through out the day. Today the Predator reported a very quite morning, but then within an hour caught 6 nice dolphin (mahi) from 12 - 20 lbs and saw a few more, before calling it a day. The Pretty Work caught another monster bull yesterday, weighing a 45.6 lber! They didn't see a ton of fish, but the few they caugth were all nice size. The Bn'M has had a group from South Carolina the past two days, and they have caught over 30 mahi combined in two days, including 11 decent fish from 14 - 20 lbs. The Relentless has had similar catches of mahi as well. The wind direction looks a little funny tomorrow being from the North west, but hopefully it won't have to much of an adverse affect on our fishing. The daytime swordfishing bite seems to be picking up a little too on the back side of this moon. We caught two fish our last trip, including tackle shop Sara's personal best with a 176 lber! The Gon Fishin has had some mahi as well the past couple days and managed a sailfish release yesterday. The Kalex had handful of "football" blackfin tuna today as well as some mahi. The sailfish have been sparce but there's always a shot at one. Don't forget to tune into the new tv show - Reel Rivals that airs on May 7th at 9 p.m. on the weather channel, it's shot right out of Bud n' Mary's Marina.

Capt. Nick Stanczyk

Comments

[Deborah]

I cannot help but hope that majestic swordfish was released but it's an awesome catch and am sure he put up the fight of his life for the fishermen