9/21/16 Mid September Deep Sea Fishing Report

We've had some super calm weather the past week here fishing in Islamorada in September. The week before was rough with strong winds, but it looks like it's going to be super nice the rest of this week. The strongest bite of fish we have had has been the Blackfin tuna bite on the humps. The sharks were thick some of the days and ate a lot of the tunas, but the past week they have been much more "catchable". We have trolled for them as well as "live chummed" with pilchards. The blackfins have averaged 5- 10 lbs with a handful of 10 - 20 lbers in the mix. There's also been plenty of skipjack tunas in the mix. 

 

The mahi bite has been hit and miss the last week, but the week before there was a big push of fish. Floating debris has been the ticket the last couple days, so if you come across that one piece of debris you could make your entire day in one stop. I think the next couple weeks we will some some fish as well, but you'll have to put your time in and it won't be every day. Last weekend Andrew took home "Top Junior Angler" in the Mako "Funament" tournament while fishing aboard the Indigenous, Congrats! 

 

Other fish caught offshore recently have included big dusky sharks on the humps, a couple amberjacks, a wahoo, and tripletail. Deep Dropping has produced some barrelfish, blackbelly rosefish, and we should see a few more queen snapper each week too.

 

Back on the reef the yellowtail snapper bite has been very steady and there's still a couple mutton and mangrove snapper mixed in. The king mackerel have been showing up on the reef and wrecks as well, and there's a few grouper around, most have been undersize but still fun to catch. There's also some barracuda around and we saw some really nice cero mackerel moving in on the patch reefs. 

 

Way offshore the swordfish bite picked up the past few days. We caught one fish on each of our last 3 trips and the Catch 22 caught one his last trip. It was slow the week before with no fish on a few trips, but I think the Fall push of fish is here, so if swordfish is on your bucket list take advantage of this nice weather and give it a shot! 

 

Give the marina office a call at 305 664 2461 when you're ready to book you're next fishing trip and don't forget we have discounted rates for our hotel rooms and houseboats this time of year! 

Tight Lines, 

Capt. Nick Stanczyk