5/10/17 Early May Offshore Fishing Report

The weather has been super nice the last few days here in Islamorada. We had some windy weather late last week but by Saturday afternoon conditions got beautiful. A lot of boats are venturing offshore and I would say the mahi bite has been decent overall. There were a few really good days where all the boats had fish as well as a few days where half the boats found them and half did not. Things should only get more and more consistent each week. On the "Broad Minded" we fished the Marathon Bull and Cow dolphin tournament over the weekend and took 3rd place for the 3 fish aggregate with 29, 28, and 24 lb fish, as well as 3rd place largest cow with a 23 lber. Most of the fish have been in the 3 - 10 lb range but if you put the time in you definitely have a shot at some slammers! The football blackfin tuna turned on the last few days and the amberjacks have been pretty happy on the humps too. A lot of boats have been deep dropping for blueline tilefish, snowy grouper, and there's a couple queen snapper still around. 

Back on the reef the yellowtail snapper bite has been pretty good overall. We finally could keep grouper after May 1st and a lot of boats got in on the grouper action. We saw black grouper on the docks pushing 30 lbs and plenty in the 10 - 20 lb range. There was some red grouper caught as well. Unfortunatley the first few days of season is usually the best few days of the year, but without a doubt the next couple months you'll have a shot at getting a grouper or two if you put the effort in. There's some nice mutton snapper and permit around too. The Reel McCoy released a permit pushing 40 lbs!  

Way offshore the Catch 22 made it out on 2 daytime swordfish trips, catching 1 fish one trip and 2 fish the second trip. All the fish were around 60 lbs. The Bn'M also released a juvenile swordfish their last trip, and on the Broad Minded we got one fish about 125 lbs yesterday, but no bites the trip before that. We did get a bigeye thresher shark though, which is a super cool creature. We released him after a couple photos. 

Give the marina office a call to get in on the fishing action in Islamorada! 305 664 2461! May is a great month here to do a little bit of everything! 

Tight Lines

Capt. Nick Stanczyk