Another wonderful week in Islamorada!! The sunny skies, hot temperatures, and best of all…the fish are biting. Sea temps are in the upper 70’s and low 80’s in the stream with the Backcountry waters warming nicely to the mid 70’s. Once again the migration patterns have started… a little late but well on its way.
Capt Jeff and Capt Clyde have been doing more and more trips back to the wilderness and finding plenty of life. Both have reported good catches of Trout up to 8lb’s and plenty of Mack’s and Jacks, along with an assortment of other critters. Capt Jeff has started to find a good bite on some of his wrecks and fades with Groupers and Snappers along with several Cobias. Capt. Clyde has spent some of his time on the flats and producing a quality bite for his folks. Several Bonefish and has also started to get a few more Tarpon bites which by the way, is getting ready to blow wide open. Best bait is Mullet or Crab. Capt Clyde is very good on the fly and has produced most of his Bonefish on the Crab Fly!!
Out front, well I had a great Dry Tortugas trip, which left our group of 9 with full coolers. The first day we spent getting our nice Flag Yellowtail chewing at the back of the boat from 4 to 6 lbs. The Mangrove snapper lingered on the bottom and with 3 of the guys pulling on them almost as fast as they hit the bottom in 75 feet. Had several small schoolie mutton snappers and an assortment of Groupers. That night we stayed on the Gulf side and winded up in the midst of a great Lane Snapper bite, ranging from 4 to 6 pounds, some of the biggest ones I have ever seen. Mixed in we caught a few more Gag Groupers and some more Mangroves.
The Next day we struggled for most of the day as a cold front moved through and the winds switched to the west which hurt us. However, we were persistent and it finally paid off. We had to head over to the ocean side and found some more Large Tails and some nicer King fish. We managed to catch a few more Muttons and let go of two Groupers. Over all it was a good trip. It keeps me looking forward to heading back at the end of May. Then we should have an unbelievable Mutton spawn!! By the way, I lost a group for the dates of May 26, 27, 28, in to the 29th!! If anyone is interested please give me a call. It will be a GREAT trip for sure as we will already be there for the first part of week so we can leave right from Key West!!
Locally this week That’s Right and the Pretty Work both fished some. The report is good as we only had one day that was real tough and that was Saturday as the water was gin clear with no current so needless to say it was like pulling teeth. However the other days we found great Yellowtail and bottom fishing. Capt Clyde did manage to get into the deeper waters and found a super catch of Dolphins, so hopefully when we get on the other side of this moon they will begin to show more on an everyday basis. Remember, it’s May so we can now keep the groupers! Capt Andrew and Capt Jeff did fish on Saturday and managed one real nice Black Grouper and 30 to 40 nice Yellowtail. This week is full so we are going to be offshore a few days so hopefully we will have some great Dolphin fishing… Stand By.
Capt. John Oughton
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