ISLAMORADA FISHING REPORT
Early this week, That’s Right ran a half day Islamorada Fishing Trip with a great group from Cheeca Lodge. Getting a real early start with anticipation of lots of action, it didn’t take long, starting with bait. We came tight on the anchor and I turned around to see the cigar minnows and sardines eating out of the chum bag. It took three throws of the 14′ cast net and we were done, lots of fresh live baits! We took a ride down the reef edge, passing by Alligator Light, right off of Bud n Mary’s Marina in Islamorada. Seas were 2 to 3′ with a light breeze out of the northeast and plenty of current. Unfortunately, the current was running the wrong way. It was south by southeast, so this made the conditions for the sailfish poor. Fortunately, even with conditions not what they had been the previous couple of days, we managed to hook a double header of Keys Sailfish right off the bat. Then, the Big Smoker Mackerel took over. We had a blast on 12lb and 20lb Penn Spinning tackle. The bigger Kingfish can dump half a spool of line on you, cool stuff! I don’t think we had a fish under 15 pounds, and several between 25 and 35 pounds. Anthony was jumping around like a grasshopper, belly hooking the bait, flipping them out, counting to 10 and then; “got em on”! It didn’t take long for the customers to get in the game and catch on to the whole Mackerel Drill. After we limited out on Kings, we slid inside the reef to 35 feet of water, and anchored up. We caught Yellowtail and Mangrove Snappers. We caught enough, so that everyone had what they needed for dinner that night at Cheeca Lodge, and we called it a great morning and ran back into Bud n Mary’s!
Tight Lines, Captain John Oughton – THAT’S RIGHT