5/27/15 Islamorada Deep Sea Fishing Report and Memorial Day Classic Results

We had a couple calm days at the end of last week, but since Saturday it was pretty windy here fishing in Islamorada. All the boats still fished, some stayed on the reef and some headed offshore. The mahi bite was very consistent for all the boats that put in a full day trip offshore. The boats have averaged 15 - 30 fish, most in the 3 - 12 lb range, but we saw some nice bulls up to 38 lbs as well. Fishing for mahi is like hunting, you troll around and look for birds working and floating debris, and you have to be ready at all times. It might be slow for hours, with no action, but then all of a sudden you find the right school and for 30 minutes it's non stop action. The tuna bite on the hump slowed down a little, but we still saw a handful caught each day. There was a few wahoo caught the past week while trolling, including one really nice one that weighed 44 lbs on the Redfish. Down deep there was a few amberjacks and sharks around too.

38 lb Bull Dolphin (mahi) on the Gon Fishin V

Predator with a rack full of mahi including a nice 30 lb bull

Man O War with some "gaffer" mahi and a few wahoo

Gimme Jimmy with a 35 lb Bull

44 lb wahoo on the Redfish

WAHOOOOO on the Catch 22

Back on the reef the boats have been doing very well on yellowtail snapper. There's also been quite a few mutton snapper, with some real nice fish over 10 lbs, and a handful of black groupers caught. We should start seeing more and more mangrove (gray) snappers the next few weeks as well. The Fearless did a trip out to the Gulf of Mexico and he reports sharks, goliath grouper, and a pair of cobia.

I made it out on one daytime swordfishing trip last week while it was still calm, we hooked two fish, and managed to tag and release one of them. The summer is some of the most consistent fishing for broadbills, both because of the weather and the fish migrations.

And now for our Memorial Day Classic Fishing Tournament presented by Pelagic. Every team signed up for the Bluewater Division, which consisted of Mahi, Tuna, Amberjack, and Wahoo. You were allowed to weigh in your biggest fish of each species, and the combined point totals determined the winners. If you weighed in 3 species you got the "Pelagic Triple Crown" bonus of 10 points, and if you weighed in all 4 you got a bonus of 15 points. It was a rough day off Islamorada, with 18 - 20 knot winds, but we had boats from 24' - 54' participate. The key to winning is to target multiple speices, and make the bites count. The Buzz On finished in 3rd place with 32 points, they weighed in mahi, tuna, and amberjack. The Cloud Nine finished in 2nd place with 65 points, they weighed in a 17 lb tuna (biggest tuna in the tournament), a mahi and an amberjack. Luck was on our side as we pulled off a 1st place finish on the Catch 22 with 93 points. We were the only boat to catch all 4 species, inlcuding biggest wahoo with a 17 lber, and biggest amberjack with a 44 lber. Biggest mahi went to the Miller Time with a 26 lber. It was a fun event and we look forward to hosting it again next year. The tournament is just for fun so bring your family and have a good time!

Team Catch 22 with the First Place catch in the Memorial Day Classic

Cloud Nine with their 2nd place catch in the tournament

Buzz On with the 3rd place catch, they also released a sailfish

Tight Lines,

Capt. Nick Stanczyk