5-8-13 Offshore fishing in Islamorada in May

Well it was an exciting day here in Islamorada yesterday. The new reality show "Reel Rivals" premiered on the weather channel, and is going to air on Tuesdays at 9 p.m. So tune in to watch some of our captains doing what they love to do, FISH! There's been some great deep sea fishing stories here the past few days as well. The dolphin (mahi) bite has been decent. Some boats are finding some nice fish, but quite a few boats are finding some, but they are finicky and haven't been eating all that great. Today was the toughest day on the dolphin, although the Catch 22 had a great day catching 9 nice sized fish up to 25 lbs. Six of the fish were all together, so if it wasn't for that pack it would have been a different story. Most of the other boats had a handful of dolphin, including schoolies and a few other nice ones here and there. The Kalex had an incredible catch today releasing a sailfish, keeping 5 cobia, a couple blackfin tuna, and a few mahi. The Man O War also had a great catch while reef fishing in the afternoon, including 3 cobia, a sailfish (released), a permit release, and some vermillion snapper. The past five days has been really good overall for yellowtailing. The slick calm conditions today made it a little tougher, but the snapper spawn this time of year on the reef, so if you want lots of action and some great eating fish, this might be right up your alley. The grouper bite remains to be decent as well the last few days, The strictly business has had some real nice gag groupers up to 18 lbs. The Redfish also had a great catch a couple days ago with a few mutton snapper, a gag grouper, lots of yellowtail snapper, and a surprise blackfin tuna. I think when the wind picks back up a little the mahi bite should get better for all the boats, (not sporadic). When all the boats do well we wil consider it great fishing! The daytime swordfish bite has finally picked up here as well. The Catch 22 caught about an 80 lber a few days ago as well as a handful of mahi. Yesterday the Bn'M tag and released a broadbill swordfish, and today the Bn'M ll caught about a 50 lb swordfish and unfortunatly lost a giant one after two hours estimated at 500 lbs! The next few days I think the mahi bite will get back to where it was since there should be some easterly wind, and the snapper and grouper fishing should also remain decent.

Capt. Nick Stanczyk