8/11/16 Islamorada Offshore Fishing Report

We're approaching Mid August fishing in Islamorada and quite a few boats have still been getting out on a daily basis. As we enter the Fall months not as many boats will be fishing because school starts for the kids and summer trave; is coming to an end for many. That being said there isn't as many boats to compete with out there and there's still fish to be caught! The Blackfin Tuna bite has been the best bet the past week. Most of the boats have been catching a livewell full of pilchards and chumming the tuna up, pitching out light spinning outfits. Most of the tuna are 5 - 18 lbs, but there has been a few in the 20 - 30 lb range too. There's also been plenty of skipjack tuna mixed in, which are great to eat if you have them fresh that night, or if you freeze them they make a nice tuna salad. The sharks have been thick on the humps and some boats have struggled getting the tunas past them, but hopefully the sharks thin out and the tunas keep showing up in bigger numbers. If you want to catch a big shark just tell the crew as we've have hammerhead, dusky, and bull sharks all caught and released the past few days. 

 

The mahi bite has been tough the past week. A couple boats caught some nice fish, but the keepers have been few and far between for most of the boats. There's been quite a few "shakers", which are undersize fish we shake off the hook by the boat. However, we are approaching the full moon this next week and with the wind predicted in the forecast I think we are giong to see another nice push of quality size fish. You could still get lucky any day and find the right pack of fish, or the "magical" piece of debris and put a great catch together. Some of the debris has been holding some tripletail too. Quite a few boats have been doing some "deep dropping" in 400 - 1000' of water as well, and we've seen a little bit of everthing the past week including blueline tilefish, rose porgy, snowy grouper, queen snapper, barrelfish, and even a wreckfish! 

 

The boats on the reef have been catching yellowtail and mangrove snapper, as well as a few king mackerel. Staying on the reef is what most half day trips will do because it doesn't always give you ample time to run 20 miles out to look for tuna and dolphin. 

Way offshore I've made it out on a few daytime swordfish trips and we caught 2 fish our last trip, 1 fish the trip before, and 0 the trip before that. The Fall months are prime time for swords if the weather cooperates, so give that some consideration if swordfishing is on your bucket list. 

Give the office a call at 305 664 2461 to book your next fishing trip! 

Capt. Nick Stanczyk