10/11/15 early October Offshore/Reef Fishing report

We've had some extremely nice weather here so far this year fishing in Islamorada in October. Most of the boats have still been heading offshore, but a handful of boats are staying on the edge of the reef. There's been action both offshore and on the reef, but each day has been a little different. October is a transitional month here where the offshore fishing usually tapers off and the reef fishing really starts turning on. The weather and water temps affect what the most productive fishing will be. Offshore some of the boats have had some great catches of mahi, I mean some of the best catches of the year!! While some of the days some boats haven't found them. Most of the fish have been "gaffers" , which are medium size fish which we need to gaff to bring aboard, anywhere from 5 - 15 lbs. There's still been a few slammers up to 25 lbs as well.

I'm sure we'll see some more good catches of mahi the next couple weeks, but it definitely is getting towards the end of the season, so it may not be consistent too much longer. Last week we saw a lot of blackfin tuna caught, but the last few days it slowed down a little. The sharks have been ferocious on the Islamorada Hump, eating a lot of the tunas the boats have been hooking. The fish have ranged from 3 to 25 lbs. 

 

On the reef we've had a couple sailfish releases already. We're hoping it's going to be a good year for them. There's also a few king mackerel showing up, and there's stil some mutton and yellowtail snappers around. In the fall months we usually catch a few mahi on the edge of the reef as well, so if you are livebaiting there's no telling what you will catch!

 

Further offshore I've swordfished a couple days the past week and we tagged and released two juvenile swordfish the first trip and tagged and released 2 swordfish the second trip and kept a 70 lber for dinner. The Gon Fishin V also got in on the swordfish action and angler Tim caught his first ever swordfish! Congrats! The fall is some of the best swordfishing months around! One of the swordfish we tagged and released was caught by angler Stephanie Choate, which completed her Royal Bill Slam for the 2015 year! Congrats! 

Give the marina office a call and we'll set you up on a great fishing trip for whatever you want to try to catch! 305 664 2461. 

Tight Lines, 

Capt. Nick Stanczyk