2/17/15 Deep Sea fishing report for Mid February

It was a cold week for us here in Islamorada. We had temperatures in the low 50's a couple days, but it finally started to warm up yesterday. Most of our deep sea fishing boats have been out on charters the last few days fishing here in Islamorada. Not everyday has been easy fishing, but there's been a handful of real quality fish caught, and still enough fish for some action as well as for dinner! Cobia have been the prized target the last week here. The boats haven't found them every day, but the boats that are patient and put their time in looking for them have had some real nice fish. Some have been "pups" which we release, and some have been big 30 - 50 lbers! It can be hours or boredom looking, but if you find the right school it can get crazy!

Cloud nine with some whopper cobias

A lot of boats have hit the reef lately with both live and dead bait. The boats bottom fishing have had yellowtail snapper, mutton snapper, a couple amberjack, hogfish, plenty of grouper to catch and release (shallow water grouper season is closed till May 1st). On the surface with live bait there's been a good amount of king mackerel, some cero mackerel, barracuda, the occasional sailfish, a couple stray mahi, and the occasional blackfin tuna. A lot of boats have also been going out a little deep for deep dropp bottom fishing too.

Catch 22 with some beautiful mutton snapper and a rack of kingfish

A beautiful Juvenile african pompano caught and released on the patch reefs

Big barracuda caught and released

Reel McCoy with kingfish on the reef and then offshore they found vermillion snapper and a snowy grouper

The boats that have hit the depths of 300 - 600' of water lately have had lots of vermillion snapper, snowy and yellowedge grouper (which are both open to harvest, unlike the reef species of grouper), tilefish, rose porgy, and some jacks. We caught a monter 28.5 lb yellowdge grouper the other day which was a great suprise.

Giant 28.5 lb yellowedge grouper on the Bn'M II

Great day of deep dropping with tilefish, porgy, yellowedge grouper, and then a pair of big cobia on the way in

Big delicious blueline tilefish on the Man O War

Bunch of vermillion snapper on the Fearless

I made it out on a daytime swordfish trip yesterday. It was a rough ride out 25 miles with 17 - 20 knots winds in our face. We fished for a few hours with no luck, and I was losing confidence. But sure enough around 1 pm we hooked up and after 25 minutes Zach had a 103 lb broadbill swordfish boatside. It made the ride out there worth it! It's not prime time for swords, but there's still a couple around.

Capt. Nick Stanczyk and young Zach pose with Zach's first swordfish

Give the marina a call when you've seen enough fishing pictures and decide you want to be the person in the picture next to the fish! We'll set you up with a great charter boat! 305 664 2461.

Capt. Nick Stanczyk