7/9/18 offshore fishing report

I'm Back!!! I apologize for the lack of reports and not keeping everyone up to date with whats been biting in islamorada! Instant Social Media has become the quickest and easiest way to get out the current fishing report, but since I had a number of people ask about the blog I wanted to get another post up asap! It was a very busy summer on the offshore boats and overall the fishing was good. The next couple weeks aren't slammed so if you want to get out on a fishing trip or need a hotel in Islamorada please give us a call at 305 664 2461 and we'll set you up! All types of fishing go up and down and other weeks are better thans others, the bite can turn on and off overnight! That being said the mahi bite overall was good but we did have some very slow days and some mediocre days in the mix. The last couple weeks we finally started seeing some "slammer" dolphin in the 20 - 40 lb range, and quite a few medium size fish in the 5 - 15 lb range. The last weeks boat have averaged 15 - 30 fish on their full day trips. Mahi will be our main target the next couple months while deep sea fishing in Islamorada. We have seen a handful of billfish caught while trolling too, a few sailfish , blue marlin and white marlin. We're not the best spot by any means to catch a marlin but you never know what you'll catch off Islamorada! 

 

Other fish we have caught have inlcuded blackfin tuna, both "footballs" in the 4 - 8 lb range and a few in the 15 - 30 lb range on live bait. A lot of boats have got in on the deep drop action and we saw more Yellowedge grouper caught this year ( in 400 - 700 of water) , then we've ever seen before! There's also been a few golden tilefish, barrelfish, plenty of blueline tilefish, and even a couple of wreckfish the past week! All of the deep water bottom fish are great eating so no complaints there! 

A few boats have been fishing the reef, especially on half days, and the yellowtail snapper bite has been decent and there's been a handful of mutton snapper. The mangrove snapper are just starting to spawn so we should see plenty of those the next couple weeks! The Miss Islamorada party boat had a keeper black grouper and a suprise cobia on one of their recent trips, so that made for some excitement. If you plan on fishing on the party boat please call ahead of time to make a reservation so we can put your name on the list. Remember we need a minimum of 10 people to fish! 305 664 2461. We also just added an instagram account for the Miss Islamorada so check them out at @missislamorada. 

 

Way offshore we have done a number of swordfish trips and the bite has been decent this summer. We haven't got them every trip but I would say an average of 3 out of 4 trips we get atleast 1 fish. The fish have ranged from 40 - 125 lbs lately but we did battle one over 200 lbs that got away on a recent trip. 

Thanks for reading our blog post and if you've had fun on a recent trip at bud n mary's marina we'd love a review on trip advisor. 

Tight Lines 

Capt. Nick Stanczyk