9/27/18 Islamorada Offshore Fishing Report

It's hard to believe September has almost come to an end! It's been over a year since Hurricane Irma wrecked Havoc on the Keys and fortunately we are almost re built bigger and better than before here at Bud n' Mary's Marina! It's "off-season" for tourists this time of year in South Florida, but don't think for a second that we still don't have some incredible fishing this time of year! Yes the mahi get a little more hit and miss as we hit September and October, but we have seen some incredbile catches the past few weeks! A few trips have been some of the best catches we have seen this entire year! Not everyday is a home run, (yes it's always fishing), but we saw a lot of "gaffer" size fish in the 10 - 20 lb range , with a few bigger bulls, and still plenty of schoolie size fish in the 3 - 7 lb range. The Blackfin tuna bite has been decent overall, with tuna on most of the trips. A couple weeks ago was very good, and the past week has been good for a few boats but not every day. The sharks have been fericous as well, making it tough on some tirps to get a tuna in the boat. We saw a couple stud blackfin tuna in the 28 - 30 lb range and the rest have been "football" size to 20 lbs. The fall is typically some of the best blackfin tuna fishing we see, with a lot of medium size fish in the 7 - 15 lb range, so hopefully the full on action starts back up soon! 

Back on the reef there has been a mix of yellowtail, mangrove, and mutton snapper on the reef and wrecks. A few king mackerel have been showing up, a fair amount of yellowjacks, and the Buzz On even had a suprise cobia yesterday. The dauntless released a sailfish a few days back as well. We should start seeing more and more sailfish as it gets later into the fall, and hopefully it will be a good winter on them. 

Way offshore we have been doing our fair share of swordfishing. The bite really turned on for a couple weeks averaging 3 - 4 bites per trip, but the last few trips has been slower. Our best trip we went 4 for 4,  a few other trips we had 1 fish, one trip we had three fish, and we have missed our bite on two of the last four trips which means we came home empty handed. The fish have average 40 - 140 lbs and we had one real nice one at 248 lbs last weekend. When swordfishing you are fishing for 1 - 2 bites on most of the trips, so if you make that bite count you will have a successful day. 

We still have disocunted rooms at the Marina the next couple months so give us a call in the marina office at 305 664 2461 if you're ready to come down and go fishing for a couple days! Avoid the crowds and cash in on some good fishing! 

Tight Lines

Capt. Nick Stanczyk